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CTV News
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Vancouver Pride parade returning with new route
Vancouver Pride parade returning with new route Vancouver's Pride parade will go ahead as planned over the August long weekend – with a new and slightly shorter route.
CTV News
11-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Vancouver Pride Society says parade will happen next month, despite financial challenges
A giant rainbow flag is carried on Robson Street during the Vancouver Pride Parade on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press) Vancouver's Pride parade will go ahead as planned next month despite significant financial challenges. Organizers argue the city could be doing more to support what is one of its biggest annual events, often attracting crowds in the range of 100,000. 'The City of Vancouver gives a permit and the permit fee includes policing – and that number is going up,' Vancouver Pride Society secretary Morgane Oger told CTV News on Thursday. 'It's very expensive to be able to be allowed to run a Pride event. Security and co-ordination is hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's really getting expensive.' Oger says corporate sponsorship has dropped, resulting in a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial support to help the event go ahead. 'We've seen a drop of roughly 50 per cent of corporate sponsorship. It's been related to the increasing of polarization in politics, I think,' Oger said, referencing events in the U.S. and other provinces, while also acknowledging the economic challenges many businesses are facing right now. 'We are entering a phase that's a little harder, right? Businesses are not thinking about largesse right now. They're thinking about just getting through the year.' Oger wants the city to do more to support the event, saying Vancouver Pride has been denied some City of Vancouver grants. Vancouver city Coun. Peter Meiszner disputes that there's been a drop off of city funding, but says he is working with event organizers to help them apply for a cultural grant. 'I'm part of the (2SLGBTQ+) community,' Meiszner told CTV News in an interview on Thursday. 'It's really important to me and also what the parade and festival stand for in terms of equity and diversity in our city.' This year, the parade will travel east to west, finishing near Davie village. It comes after criticism over the previous west to east route, which meant the party wasn't as close to the West End. 'There was feedback in the community that it was moving too far away from places that were core to our identities,' Oger said, referencing the West End's history at the city's first large-scale LGBTQ+ neighbourhood. Given Pride's challenges, the society plans to hold a series of roundtables and town halls in the fall, with the goal of creating a sustainable future for the organization.
Vancouver Sun
11-07-2025
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
Vancouver Pride in peril? Parade will proceed despite losing nearly half its sponsors
Ron Dutton will never forget stepping into Vancouver's first unsanctioned Pride Parade in 1978 — not with floats or cheering crowds, but with fear in his chest as about 50 people, mostly from the Gay Liberation Front, quietly marched on West End sidewalks wearing paper bags over their heads to avoid being identified. 'We were all criminals,' Dutton said, now in his late 70s, recalling how the law treated him before homosexuality was decriminalized in Canada. 'If you were found out, you could lose your job, your family, your safety. You lived in hiding.' Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. More than four decades later, Dutton still goes to Vancouver's official Pride Parade each year with his husband — but this year, he has a new worry. Close to half of the corporate sponsors have pulled out of funding the 2025 Vancouver Pride Parade, according to the Vancouver Pride Society, citing a chilling political climate across North America. The parade is going ahead on Aug. 3, but just barely. For Dutton, the waning support is a sobering reminder that progress must be actively defended. 'Rights that can be given, can also be taken away,' he said. Morgane Oger, board chair of the Vancouver Pride Society, says the parade's funding challenges mirror those of Pride Toronto, which recently reported a $900,000 shortfall tied to rising costs and sponsor withdrawals. The organization attributed the pullouts to political backlash against diversity and inclusion efforts in the U.S. under President Donald Trump. 'We're seeing corporate sponsors with ties to the U.S. distance themselves from Vancouver Pride this year,' said Oger. Six major sponsors, including Walmart, withdrew their support for this year's Vancouver Pride Parade, resulting in a loss of about $400,000 from the event's usual $900,000 in annual commercial sponsorship revenue. In a statement Wednesday, Vancouver Pride confirmed that the full summer festival is still moving ahead with more than 150 parade entries in place. But behind the scenes, Oger says the organization faces significant financial strain from the lost sponsorships, rising costs, and what it describes as a lack of material support from the City of Vancouver. 'The board remains concerned by (the) small amount of material support provided by the city to date — particularly given the Pride Festival's cultural, economic, and civic value to Vancouver and its residents,' it said in a statement. The society says it is still covering a shortfall from last year's event, partly due to the city's event licensing fee, which includes policing costs and totals around $150,000. Oger also noted that while Vancouver Pride Society received $115,000 from the city's B.C. Fairs, Festivals and Events Fund in 2024, that amount was cut to $45,000 this year under a new program. Additionally, a city grant that previously funded four summer student positions was denied this year. Vancouver Coun. Peter Meiszner says the city has provided the Vancouver Pride Society with nearly $100,000 annually in cultural project grants since 2020. Additionally, the city allocates $75,000 each year to cover services such as traffic control and policing, and funds any extra public safety measures required by police. 'The mayor and city council are doing everything they can to help support Pride,' Meiszner said Thursday. Even if corporate sponsorship and municipal funding further decline, the Vancouver Pride Society says it won't back down in the years ahead. 'Pride celebrations can take many forms,' Oger said. 'If it becomes too costly to run a parade through the Vancouver Pride Society, we will explore other ways to hold a non-permitted march.' For Dutton, joining thousands annually parading each year in Vancouver's closed-off streets is a celebration of what was once unthinkable. 'To see the kind of ease with which the next generations have been able to live their lives gives me immense pleasure,' he said Thursday, referring to young people he has witnessed dance openly in the middle of city streets during the march. 'I can't tell you how thrilled I am just to be there.' But Dutton believes that the struggle is far from over. 'Look at what's happening in the United States. Laws are being overturned, and support is fading. Our rights exist only as long as we are willing to defend them.' This year's Pride Parade takes place Aug. 3, beginning at 1 p.m. on Pacific Boulevard just past Griffiths Way. The route heads west along Pacific and flows into the Davie Village Pride Festival, which starts at 2 p.m. in the West End. sgrochowski@
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."
