The participation of a group protesting Israeli policies in the Middle East offers no legal pretext for pulling funding from the Pride Parade, according to city staff.
But next week, Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti and Mayor Rob Ford intend to press for the removal of city funding from the parade celebrating the gay and lesbian community in spite of the report on Wednesday, April 13's executive committee agenda."We anticipated a report coming out and this one's coming out and will be brought to the executive committee in April and the language of the report will be challenged by myself in the sense that there is a large group of people in the city that do not want the group to participate in the parade," Mammoliti said.The report from city manager Jo Pennachetti rules on whether Pride Toronto has complied with the city's anti-discrimination policy in allowing Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) to participate in the Pride Parade.Both Mammoliti and Ford have spoken out against Pride organizers for allowing the group to participate in 2010, and during their mayoralty campaigns last year suggested the city's $128,000 a year in funding to the parade wouldn't happen if the group were permitted to take part.Mammoliti suggested the group's message constituted hate speech and gives offense to Toronto's Jewish community.But staff determined that offensive as it may be to some, the words "Israeli Apartheid" doesn't violate either city policy, the criminal code of Canada or the Human Rights Code of Ontario."City staff has therefore concluded that the use of the term on signs or banners to identify QuAIA constitutes the promotion of hatred or seeks to incite discrimination contrary to the code," the report reads.But that's not good enough, according to Mammoliti. He said he'll move to remove both direct funding and in-kind support from the parade.Francesco Alvarez, co-chair of Pride Toronto, said the organization has a complaint process in place to deal with any issues anyone might have. He said withdrawing funding from the parade would have a ripple effect that could, among other things, jeopardize Toronto's ability to host World Pride in 2014, an international political and cultural event that promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues."In the immediate term, if we didn't get the city's funding this year we'd definitely have a pretty significant deficit and it would result in the down-scaling of the festival this year," Alvarez said. "If we lose the cultural grant and in-kind services, it may mean an even bigger impact on the festival, but almost certainly we would lose the license for World Pride. So that little $128,000 today doesn't seem like a big pot of money, but it has huge resonance over many years."The Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) issued a news release decrying the city manager's conclusion."We respectfully disagree with the conclusion of the city manager on this matter," said CJC CEO Bernie M. Farber. "The comparison paints anyone who supports the Jewish State of Israel, namely Jews, as supporters of racist regimes, and thus as racists themselves. Using the Criminal Code of Canada and the Ontario Human Rights Code as the basis for this decision is employing too narrow a standard."With that said, the congress supported using the new dispute resolution policy."We believe Pride Toronto has its own values and standards regarding this hateful comparison," said CJC Ontario Region Director Len Rudner. "We hope this dispute resolution process will clarify and uphold those values, and that Pride Toronto will not abandon its core values, which include honouring the past, protecting the future, valuing diversity and respect."