Pride Toronto must return to its political roots, advocates say as sponsors leave

Ahead of last month's Pride parade, organizers sounded the alarm over Pride Toronto's $900,000 shortfall after sponsors such as Google, Nissan and Home Depot pulled their support. 

As a major funding shortfall looms over Pride Toronto, some prominent LGBTQ+ advocates say it’s high time to rethink the organization’s corporate partnerships and return to its political grassroots.

Ahead of last month’s Pride parade, organizers sounded the alarm over Pride Toronto’s $900,000 shortfall after sponsors such as Google, Nissan, Home Depot and Clorox pulled their support.

Pride Toronto executive director Kojo Modeste attributed the corporate withdrawals to backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States, though some of the companies said their decisions were made solely because of budgetary considerations.

Although this year’s festivities went ahead as planned, Modeste warned that next year’s Pride festival may have to be scaled back.

Fatima Amarshi, a former executive director of Pride Toronto, says this is the right moment for a reset.

Amarshi led the organization for three years starting in 2005, right after Canada legalized same-sex marriage, and helped lay the foundation of its current funding model.

At that time, she said Pride Toronto vetted corporate sponsors only to ensure their internal policies were supportive of LGBTQ+ employees and the broader community.

“We weren’t looking at how corporate sponsors were funding arms manufacturers or fossil fuels or efforts to suppress Indigenous land claims. We were linking queer rights to human rights at the level of state repression and legislative oppression, but not via those who fund those efforts,” she said.