Pride Toronto Facing Down City On Funding Threat Over Anti-Israel Group

Pride Toronto is standing firm in the face of threats of losing their city funding over the inclusion of an anti-Israel group in this year's parade.

It’s Zero Hour for Pride Toronto — at least according to Toronto city councillor and mayoral candidate Giorgio Mammoliti, who tried to reignite the debate over the parade’s inclusion of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) by issuing the Palestinian rights protest group an ultimatum that both QuAIA and Pride have now ignored. “I’m giving them 24 hours,” Mammoliti told Xtra yesterday, “I’ll give ‘em till midnight tonight. If they [QuAIA] don’t withdraw from the parade, I’ll be drafting up a motion at the next city council meeting asking to get rid of the funding this year completely and any resources that are associated with it. If we’ve already given any money to the parade, we’ll be asking for it back.”

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid plan to repeat their 2009 demonstration against the treatment of Palestinians in Israel. The pro-Israel group, Friends of the Simon Weisenthal Center, has commended the city for standing up to Pride Toronto, saying that denying them funding is consistent with the city's anti-discrimination policies.