UPDATE - JAN 6: Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto pastor Brent Hawkes told Xtra the names of the Toronto city staff members at the Community Advisory Panel targetted consultation on Jan 5.

The staff members include Mike Williams, general manager of economic development; Chris Brillinger, director of social policy analysis and research; Lori Martin, senior affairs officer; Rita Davies, executive director of culture and Ceta Ramkhalawansingh, the former manager of diversity and community engagement, who has since left the city for a new post but asked to attend the meeting, Hawkes says.

 

JAN 5: The list of groups and individuals requesting targeted consultations with the Pride Toronto (PT) Community Advisory Panel (CAP) has been posted publicly.

The release of the list on Jan 5 comes after vocal demands at the five consultation sessions in December as well as on the CAP Facebook page.

There are 36 groups and organizations on the list. Some come as no surprise: Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA), Pride Toronto staff, Church Wellesley Business Improvement Area (BIA) and Ward 27 Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam.

Then there are unnamed members of Toronto city staff.

Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto pastor Brent Hawkes didn’t have his notes from the panel's meetings with the city in front of him, so he could not provide Xtra with the names of the city staff members that attended, nor could he provide their departments.

There were two meetings between the panel and city staff, he says. One meeting was held about a month ago, and the most recent meeting, with five city staff members, was on Jan 5.

“From the city’s perspective, we heard what some of the key issues are, what the city feels Pride needs to work on,” he said. “For the city there are two issues: policy issues and political issues.

“But at the policy level, the city has requirements of all grant recipients. And finding out what Pride needs to do to ensure the funding is not in jeopardy because of a policy issue.”

Hawkes said the panel came away from its meeting with the city with much more clarity on policy issues.

This is a developing story.

Kelly & The Kellygirls have just released a video for their track "Better Times," and the queer Canadian indie group connects the dots between past and present activism.

The video features protest footage from the Pride Toronto censorship controversy, the Toronto G20 and the 1981 Toronto bathhouses raids. It ends with Trudeau's famous line, "There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation." You might also recognize a number of queer community activists, including El-Farouk Khaki, Ryan G Hinds, Elle Flanders, Jane Farrow, Troy Jackson, Tim McCaskell, Kristyn Wong-Tam, Anna Willats and Jeremy Dias.  

Watch:

 

 

Speaking of Pride Toronto, the organization is looking for three new board members. The deadline for applications is Wednesday, Aug 25.

Find out more about Kelly & The Kellygirls at kellyclipperton.com. 

Read more:

• Gaily gallivanting with Kelly & the Kellygirls
• Kelly & the Kellygirls rock rural Canada
• Kelly & The Kellygirls win acclaim for their new album
  

Pride Toronto is looking for three new board members. The process is a bit convoluted — there’s a form, three letters of reference and an interview involved. As well, to be eligible, you must be a member of Pride Toronto (either through sitting on a committee or by volunteering). The deadline for applications is Wednesday, Aug 25.

As well, a chunk of new documents have been uploaded to Pride Toronto’s website, including the organization’s bylaws, financial statements and more.

Pride Toronto’s board of directors faces a difficult year ahead, with a big deficit and a city council motion about Queers Against Israeli Apartheid still hanging in the air.

Read about Pride Toronto’s censorship controversy here.

Toronto City councillor Giorgio Mammoliti's motion to defund Pride Toronto (PT) as punishment for its decision to rescind its ban on the words "Israeli apartheid" in Toronto's Pride parade passed at city council today after a vote of 36-1. But the motion was changed significantly before it came to a vote.  

It reads: 

1. City Council direct that funding for Pride Toronto be paid after the parade and be conditional upon Pride Toronto requiring all registered participants to comply with the City of Toronto's Anti-Discrimination Policy (read the policy here - PDF).

2. City Council request the City Manager to advise Pride Toronto on what is required of them to meet the Policy.

3. City Council request the City Manager to advise Pride Toronto whether the participation of QAIA and the signs or banners they carry contravenes the City's Anti-Discrimination Policy.

(Full text of the motion and the votes can be viewed here)

That means that funding for PT's 2010 celebration won't be clawed back and that the matter is closed at least for this year. For next year, the onus for interpreting the city's antidiscrimination policy, for making the determination whether or not the presence of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid in Toronto's Pride parade violates that policy, will fall to the city manager's office. Also, PT will get its city money after future Pride celebrations rather than before, as is the case now.

 

Xtra talked with PT executive director Tracey Sandilands after the vote. She said she is relieved by the outcome. She said that getting city funding after the parade in the future is a bit of an inconvenience, but that she's happy PT isn't on the hook for interpreting the city's antidiscrimination policy. She said she believes PT was always in compliance with city policy.

Although a significant victory for Toronto's gay communities, the move does come with some risks. For example, those opposed to QuAIA's presence in the Pride parade now know precisely where to target their lobbying efforts: the city manager's office. If those lobbyists are successful over the course of the next few months, gay people may have to deal with QuAIA censorship issues again next year. But there's nothing in Canadian jurisprudence to suggest that criticism of the Israeli government is discriminatory. So it seems implausible that city managers could reasonably make that determination. At any rate, for now the ball rests firmly in the courts of the anti-QuAIA lobby and the city manager's office.

QuAIA has always maintained that the presence of its contingent does not breach the city’s policy. After announcing it would ban the term "Israeli apartheid" on May 25, Pride Toronto rescinded the ban on June 23, less than two weeks before the parade on July 4.

Mammoliti's original motion demanded retroactive repayment of city grants to Pride Toronto for the 2010 celebration as punishment for Pride Toronto's decision to rescind its ban on the term "Israeli apartheid."

Sandilands also told Xtra that despite a relatively successful Pride celebration this year, she anticipates that PT will have a deficit of at least $100,000. 

We'll have more later.

>> Free speech at Pride: Read all of Xtra's coverage in one place

 

As I write, I can hear Toronto's Church St rocking like it does only on Pride Day – umph, umph, umph. The 2010 Pride parade, though, is done.

 

It was a long, hot march and the crowd was huge but the energy was high. We'll have scads of pictures and video in the coming hours and days. But for now a brief update...

The chief controversy this year, about the presence of Queers Against Israeli Aparthied (QuAIA) in the parade and Pride Toronto's initial effort to ban the group, did not go entirely unnoticed. The Kulanu (Jewish gay group) contingent and the QuAIA contingent were staged only about 75 metres apart on Bloor St. Each group was much larger than last year. There was some shouting and posturing back and forth and police stepped in briefly. They asked a small group of people wearing Jewish Defence League T-shirts to get back to their group. We'll have a detailed account soon.

But in the end everything worked out fine. 

 

There was also a huge contingent (about 300 strong) for the Pride Coalition for Free Speech.

   

That's John Caffery urging you to bring back gay. 

We'll have more (pictures, videos, written accounts) in the coming hours and days. Check out Xtra videographer Michael Pihach's report from Bloor and Yonge:

For now, you can check out Xtra's Twitter account for photos that we took on-the-fly at various Pride events this weekend. 

Read more:

• Gallery: Toronto Pride 2010 in pictures
• First-person: Big love for free speech at Toronto Pride