Even before all the glitter from Sunday’s Pride parade had been swept up, Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti put a damper on what was an otherwise successful festival by threatening to bankrupt Pride Toronto.
Before Pride took place this year, the city decided that funding would be delivered to Pride Toronto only after the parade took place on the condition that the controversial Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) organization didn’t participate in any official events. QuAIA voluntarily withdrew from Pride, but Mammoliti got wind that a similar group would be taking part in the Dyke March on Saturday and took it upon himself to film the event with his camcorder.
Mammoliti, who declined our request for an interview, now says he has video evidence Pride Toronto failed to live up to its promise to keep Israeli apartheid groups out of the festivities and may deserve to have its funding pulled.
Pride Toronto co-chair Francisco Alvarez says losing city funding would be devastating.
“Pride Toronto would go bankrupt. This organization would cease to exist,” he said.
But if Mammoliti is going go ahead with his effort to defund Pride, he may find he has few allies at City Hall. Councillor James Pasternak has been one the most vocal critics of QuAIA on council and recently moved a motion to revise Toronto’s anti-discrimination policy with the aim of declaring “Israeli apartheid” hate speech. Although Pasternak hasn’t yet seen the footage Mammoliti shot, he appears to have little appetite to go after Pride’s funding at this point.
“There’s a sense that we’re moving in the right direction. There was a real reduction in the exhibiting of the phrase ‘Israeli apartheid’ (at this year’s event) and QuAIA didn’t march,” Pasternak said. “It’s only the day after, but from what I’ve seen I don’t think there’s grounds to pull funding.”
At least one prominent Jewish organization also appears satisfied that Pride Toronto took appropriate steps to ensure the parade was not discriminatory.
“We appreciate Councillor Mammolitti’s sensitivity to the Jewish community,” said Len Rudner, director of community relations and outreach for the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (formerly the Canadian Jewish Congress). “Our concern has been primarily focused on the participation of QuAIA at the Pride parade itself, which, for us has been the key consideration regarding city funding for the event. QuAIA’s absence from the Pride parade has removed a stain from this event.”
Each year the city provides Pride with about $400,000 in cultural grants in in-kind services, which represents roughly a quarter of the organization’s operating budget. The Pride festival could conceivably go on without Pride Toronto, but it’s unclear on what scale.
This year the parade brought in over 1 million people, and according to an audit commissioned by Pride Toronto in 2009, each year the festival generates $16 million in municipal tax revenue.
Alvarez is frustrated that Mammoliti is threatening his organization’s funding again. Many thought the protracted fight over QuAIA had come to an end when Mammoliti and the other members of Rob Ford’s executive committee unanimously endorsed a report declaring the term “Israeli apartheid” did not violate Toronto’s anti-discrimination policy.
While Mammoliti endorsed the report, he has repeatedly said “Israeli apartheid” is a hateful phrase. Alvarez believes Pride is now caught in the crossfire of a vendetta against Palestinian activists who use the term.
“Mammoliti is trying to use Pride to do something the city can’t do, which is censor an idea he doesn’t like. He can’t do that. He doesn’t have the legal tools,” Alvarez said. “By the city’s own rules we meet all the criteria for funding.”
Rob Ford, who was Pride’s public enemy number one before Mammoliti broke out the camcorder on Saturday, has yet to weigh in publicly on the councillor’s crusade against QuAIA. Ford’s spokesperson Adrienne Batra said at this point the mayor has no position on whether or not Pride funds should be withheld.
Given the heat the mayor took for his decision to skip out on Pride in favour of a weekend at the cottage, Ford may be happy to let someone else become the target of Pride supporters’ outrage for a while.
