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Globe and Mail
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
Toronto Pride likely smaller in 2026 because of lack of funding, executive director says
The streets of Toronto will be filled with rainbows as the annual Pride parade winds through the city, but there's a cloud hanging over future festivities. Today's event will see more than 25,000 marchers from some 250 groups make their way from the Rosedale neighbourhood through the downtown core to Nathan Phillips Square. The parade will serve as Canada's biggest show of solidarity with the LGBTQ community this year. It's been an annual, summer fixture in Toronto since 1981, when the first Pride parade was born out of protests linked to the city's bathhouse raids. LGBTQ refugee group says number of requests for help has spiked since 2020 Opinion: Queer folks can find common ground across generations Since then it's grown steadily in scope and prominence, blossoming into a full month of activities that draw people to the Church-Wellesley area, which is known as the gay village. However, the parade remains the buzziest and most vibrant of the Pride month spectacles thanks to the colourful outfits, pulsing beats, fierce dance moves and sense of community it delivers. But that status has come under threat. In the lead up to this year's parade, Pride Toronto executive director Kojo Modeste warned next year's Pride will likely be scaled down if organizers can't drum up more financial support. 'One hundred per cent, Pride will look a lot smaller,' Modeste said in mid-June. 'We would not have the same impact, both financially and culturally, that we normally do.' Earlier this year, Modeste revealed organizers were facing a $900,000 funding gap. The loss of cash was blamed on rising costs and the departure of sponsors Google, Nissan, Home Depot and Clorox. Modeste attributed the pullback to backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that materialized in the U.S. and beyond under President Donald Trump. In the wake of the pullback, others stepped up. Some 175 people have donated close to $10,000, Pride Toronto has said. The city also named the organization a multi-year recipient of cash through a festival funding program, which hands out $350,000. Modeste has said this funding is 'going to go a long way,' but doesn't eliminate the need for other levels of government to pitch in. 'What we need to see is the province and the federal government taking lead from the city and following up and also providing some support,' said Modeste. With files from Vanessa Tiberio
Global News
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Global News
Rainbows to deck Toronto streets for Pride parade amid fears for 2026 cash crunch
See more sharing options Send this page to someone via email Share this item on Twitter Share this item via WhatsApp Share this item on Facebook The streets of Toronto will be filled with rainbows Sunday afternoon when the annual Pride parade takes place, but there's a cloud hanging over future festivities. Today's event will see more than 25,000 marchers from some 250 groups wind through the downtown core in Canada's biggest show of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. In the lead up to the parade, Pride Toronto executive director Kojo Modeste warned next year's Pride will likely be scaled down if organizers can't drum up more financial support. 4:16 Pride Toronto Returns, Marking 44 Years Earlier this year, Modeste revealed organizers were facing a $900,000 funding gap. Story continues below advertisement The loss of cash was blamed on rising costs and the departure of sponsors Google, Nissan, Home Depot and Clorox. Modeste says the pullback came as backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts materialized in the U.S. and beyond under President Donald Trump.
Winnipeg Free Press
7 hours ago
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Rainbows to deck Toronto streets for Pride parade amid fears for 2026 cash crunch
TORONTO – The streets of Toronto will be filled with rainbows this afternoon when the annual Pride parade takes place, but there's a cloud hanging over future festivities. Today's event will see more than 25,000 marchers from some 250 groups wind through the downtown core in Canada's biggest show of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. In the lead up to the parade, Pride Toronto executive director Kojo Modeste warned next year's Pride will likely be scaled down if organizers can't drum up more financial support. Earlier this year, Modeste revealed organizers were facing a $900,000 funding gap. The loss of cash was blamed on rising costs and the departure of sponsors Google, Nissan, Home Depot and Clorox. Modeste says the pullback came as backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts materialized in the U.S. and beyond under President Donald Trump. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2025.
CBC
22-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
As corporate sponsors walk away from Pride, some call for a return to its activist roots
Despite major sponsors pulling their support from this year's Toronto Pride festivities, one advocate says that it might actually be a chance to put a new focus on Pride's raison d'etre. "The focus of Pride as an overall event must be ... the people," Nicki Ward, an advocate who's worked on 2SLGBTQ+ housing and disability issues in Canada for over 25 years, told CBC Radio's Day 6. "Maybe it's time for a little more authenticity. And if company XYZ doesn't want to get involved, well then, too bad." Earlier this month, Pride Toronto said it's facing a $900,000 funding gap due to sponsors — including Google, Nissan, Home Depot and Clorox — pulling support, and the rising costs of running the festival. Executive director Kojo Modeste linked the corporate withdrawals to backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States under President Donald Trump's administration. Toronto isn't the only city with Pride festivals facing similar challenges. Organizations across Canada are grappling with a chilled enthusiasm among sponsors and donors this year, even as a new poll suggests Canadian support for 2SLGBTQ+ rights hasn't waned. Now, organizers are forced to search for the delicate balance between growing Pride's audience and staying true to its activist roots fighting for 2SLGBTQ+ rights Zac Rempel, managing director of the Vancouver Pride Society, says their sponsorships this year are down about 50 per cent compared to last year. Their programming has been cut from a 10-day festival last year to a three-day weekend because of the lack of funds. "We are running on a skeleton crew right now," said Rempel. In a statement posted online, Halifax Pride says it chose to part ways with some longtime sponsors and parade participants, while others stepped back "for reasons we weren't told, but we can read the room." In the U.S., major corporations like MasterCard, Pepsi and Deloitte pulled out of Pride events in New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. According to research cited by Axios, a majority of the corporations surveyed about their reasons for pulling out cited the Trump administration, and conservative activists and policymakers. Corporate pinkwashing According to Ward, the transformation of many Pride festivals from a protest march to a major parade with corporate sponsors, including some flying their company logos at a parade, didn't happen overnight. Some of the earliest companies to sponsor Pride events were local breweries or other alcohol businesses, simply because the marches and parades were also big parties. "Later on, some of the banks got involved, which I actually think they came with good hearts, to try to make sure that their employees felt that they could bring their whole selves to work," she said. Later, however, corporate motives became more capitalistic as Pride's audience and the amount of money involved increased. "People would pay, basically, to pinkwash their companies and be gay for a day. [As if to say], 'Yeah, sure, we tolerate them,'" she said. Pinkwashing is a term used to describe corporations appealing to 2SLGBTQ+ communities, despite engaging in activities or practices that might harm those communities. That's led to tensions between multiple camps who disagree about what Pride should look like. In Montreal, for example, several 2SLGBTQ+ groups cut ties with Fierté Montréal, accusing it of prioritizing image over activism. Tom Hooper, an assistant professor in the department of human rights and equity studies at York University, said he thinks major corporations sponsoring or marching in Pride events gave many people in the 2SLGBTQ+ community a sense of acceptance and even safety, especially for people who worked at those corporations. But when they pull out en masse, it puts doubt on why they joined in the first place. "Did they just see us as this market to feed their bottom line? Was this just an opportunity to advertise?" he said. 'Pride is not just a party' Fiona Kerr, executive director of Halifax Pride, thinks so — especially when it comes to the bigger, multinational corporations who aren't as vulnerable to financial constraints as smaller sponsors with ties to their local communities. "I think a lot of larger sponsors are reckoning with the fact that Pride is not just a party and are choosing to walk away because of it. It's not the happy, fun dance party they originally signed up for," Kerr said in an email. "A lot of Pride organizations are taking stronger political stances and active steps to protect our community, and those are things these companies don't want to truly align themselves with." WATCH: Is Trump's anti-DEI agenda hurting Pride funding in Canada? Pride Toronto links funding woes to Trump's anti-DEI agenda 10 days ago Duration 2:01 Pride Toronto says the festival faces a major financial shortfall after multiple corporate sponsors pulled their support, which the festival's executive director links to American companies moving away from DEI efforts under the Trump administration. Hooper said that while the Trump factor looms large on the situation, it shouldn't be seen as the only factor. "We have our own Canadian versions of attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion," he said, noting that some political candidates in the spring's election took aim at so-called "woke" policies. "Canada's not immune from a lot of these policies that are aimed at gender-affirming care, that are aimed at school curriculum. We're having these same debates," he said. Meanwhile, an Ipsos poll released Friday suggests that a majority of Canadians support 2SLGBT+ visibility, rights and protections, at rates "far higher" than the average of 26 countries covered in the poll. Seventy-eight per cent of Canadians surveyed said that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry legally, and 79 per cent supported protections for 2SLGBT+ against discrimination in employment, housing and access to businesses. The poll, conducted online with about 1,000 participants in each country from April 25 to May 9, did find support for specific transgender protections, such as for health insurance coverage of gender transition, was divided. It also found that women were largely more supportive of 2SLGBT+ rights than men, and that difference was greatest among respondents under 35 years old. A parade? A march? Both? Ward and others told CBC that while the latest challenges have forced a rethink about what partnerships Pride festivals take on in the future, they're not ruling them out entirely. Kerr says Halifax Pride held community consultations on how to fill funding gaps that, while they "wouldn't totally fill the gap" left by sponsors who have withdrawn their support or might do so in the future, will help them be less dependent on corporate sponsors. "Money and spirituality can mix, but boy, it's awfully tricky," said Ward. She believes "a less commercial, more people-based Pride" could work, and even attract audiences who yearn for "a more authentic, less gaudy but more fabulous" festival compared to recent years. She said Toronto's Trans March has managed to keep its "spiritual centre" because it's still a walking march and not a parade with floats or other accoutrements. But that doesn't mean wiping away the parades, parties and fun of Pride entirely — in fact, it's a deeply important part of its DNA. "They want that celebration. They want that joy, which is completely valid," said Rempel. "Joy is radical in and of itself."
CTV News
18-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Pride Toronto's $900K shortfall sparks NDP call for ‘stable' and ‘predictable' funding
With Pride Toronto facing a $900,000 deficit and warning next year's event could look drastically different, Ontario's New Democrats are urging the province to step up their financial commitment. 'The provincial government has largely left arts and culture funding the same since 2009,' Toronto Centre MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam, told CTV News Toronto. 'It hasn't kept up with the rate of inflation and any funding that the government says that they have infused is largely related to COVID activity, which was one-time funding.' The Ontario NDP says it has introduced a motion in legislature that calls for 'stable' and 'predictable' funding for major cultural events such as Pride Toronto, which they say generates enormous economic returns. While Pride Toronto has dominated headlines in recent weeks, Wong-Tam says it's part of a wider crisis stemming from over a decade of flat funding for Ontario's $26-billion arts and culture sector, which employs 270,000 people. 'Organizations like Pride Toronto, plus all the other major festivals in Ontario, have been struggling to gain access to provincial funding,' they said. 'What that means is that they are so much more reliant on corporate partnerships and what we've seen is that corporate partnerships can be fickle.' 'Not asking for a handout' In a press conference held last week, Pride Toronto Executive Director Kojo Modeste confirmed losses from organizations such as Google, Home Depot, Nissan and Clorox — some of whom, he says, already committed to participate in this year's events. He says the loss, combined with soaring costs and security expenses, pushed the festival's projected shortfall to nearly $1 million, straining their $5-million budget. 'We are not asking for a handout; we are asking for our fair share of the pie,' Modeste said, noting that Pride generates $200 million in taxable revenue. 'As we face our current challenge, we're not asking for much, we're asking for less than one per cent of the taxable revenue we bring in annually.' Some governments have already answered the call. The City of Toronto increased its annual funding by 35 per cent to $350,000 this year. However, Modeste said there's been little movement from Queen's Park or Ottawa. Insurance costs alone have jumped nearly 200 per cent since 2022, and Modeste told CTV that they now spend over $425,000 on security annually. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming wrote to CTV News Toronto suggesting that they have already provided funding to Pride Toronto this year. 'This year our government is providing Pride Toronto with over $450,000 including advertising space and sponsorships, which includes $335,000 in direct grant funding from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming – part of the over $1.9 million we have provided directly to the organization since 2018," they wrote in an email. 'In addition to funding for Pride Toronto, our government provides support to eight other 2SLGBTQIA+ events across the province.' More than just emergency relief The motion introduced by the NDP is about more than just emergency relief, Wong-Tam explains — it's about rethinking how Ontario supports a major employer and economic driver. 'Whether it's through the collection of tax revenues or the employment of people, arts and culture does a lot to hit above its weight, to foster tourism and to promote social cohesion and the economy.' Wong-Tam added that festivals like Pride not only activate public space but also contribute to Ontario's brand as a vibrant, inclusive destination — something that both the Conservative and previous Liberal governments haven't made a priority. 'I would say that the Government of Ontario has very little relationship with a juggernaut like Pride Toronto,' they said. According to Ontario Art Council, their share of government's budget stands at just $60 million, adding that 'OAC's base budget has been mostly at this level since 2009.' 'Perfect time for Canadian corporations' Without stable government backing, Wong-Tam warns Ontario risks undermining years of both cultural and economic progress. 'Would you rather reduce the GDP by $26 billion annually? Would you rather see the unemployment lines go up?' they said. 'If their answer is yes, then they're not civic-minded people.' Wong-Tam points to Quebec as a model, where provincial funding is more robust and integrated into long-term cultural planning. 'Can you imagine what we would have in Toronto and Ontario if governments stepped up with a strategic plan to infuse money into these festivals that hire hundreds of thousands of people in Ontario?' For now, the motion has not been scheduled for debate. But Wong-Tam said the urgency is growing. 'This is the perfect time for Canadian corporations to step up if they can,' they said.
