Pride Toronto which has decided to ban any official police presence at  its parade in June, receives more than $1 million annually in funding from the City of Toronto.

Should Toronto City Council continue to provide funding for this organization?

Howard McKitty

Chef,  Dfinestcatering

That’s a lot of money. I don’t think they should be funded. They should put that money into other resources like the police, who can use that money to deal with issues like crime in Toronto. The Caribbean festival doesn’t get funded like that. Caribana doesn’t get that kind of funding, but Toronto Pride can pull resources from private funders, I’m sure. Toronto can do a lot of things with one million dollars. It’s a double standard that Pride gets that much but Caribana doesn’t.

Tricia Grant

Program Coordinator,  Social Services

I think they should. If the police want to be a part of the parade, that should be an option because Pride should get the freedom to choose Police can’t come in and say ” if the City funds you, we should be given a presence.” It takes away from Pride’s control. Private funders have no presence. So I don’t think they should take it personally if the police are not allowed to be involved. Pride should be free to make their own choice.

Danielle Morris

Social Services Student, George Brown College

I think so. I feel like it is not as if Pride Toronto is a different community. So we should be respectful of any community in Toronto and if it’s just another community in Toronto, then it’s taking away from another part of Toronto. Not funding Pride wouldn’t actually stop it from going on, but it wouldn’t really help the situation either. The Black community is also a part of Pride as well. They celebrate it as well, So Pride should receive  funding.

Lasheika Gray

Manicurist, Self-employed

To be honest, yeah. That’s the only public expression for the gay community to have, that is actually allowed. They still have a pretty big chance of being attacked and face discrimination and all of that. The city should still support them, even if the police are not involved because they need their support, and I don’t think a million is too much for them to have. I think they need that safe space.

Nicole Marshall

Law Clerk Student, Ryerson University/Seneca College

That’s a loaded question. Everyone knows what’s going on with police and their alleged misconduct toward the Black community. We need the police to feel safe but then again are we endorsing the wrong people by putting their presence at Pride? I don’t know if the question of funding should be the place to start. We should ask why communities push back and take matters into their own hands by demanding police are taken out of the equation. There’s a lot of dialogue that has to take place to see what we are going to do about the situation.

Cherrelle Ashmeade

Nurse, Toronto, Ontario

Yeah, why not? Definitely, they should still receive funding. Even though the city of Toronto gave that money probably to pay for the police that would have been at Pride on duty, they’ve been funding them for years. So why take that away now? Caribana doesn’t even get that funding, but Pride does, even though both have had police presence. Why should the funding stop now just because the police are no longer present. That’s not fair. The police aren’t even relevant to Pride. They city should just continue to fund them.