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Sunday’s Pride parade was no place to hold the pro-Palestinian protest, which forced organizers to cut short the well-attended and popular event, said Pride Toronto Executive Director Kojo Modeste.
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“It was very unfortunate that the group decided to take away the opportunity from the queer community the one time of the year folks come from all over the world, all over Canada, all over Ontario to celebrate themselves, to be themselves,” Modeste told The Toronto Sun Monday.
“I was not surprised. I was disappointed. It was just not the place for this.”
The Coalition Against Pinkwashing — a coalition of queer and trans activists from Palestine solidarity groups — interrupted the Pride parade with a protest around 6 p.m.
Modeste said it was safety concerns following the 20-minute protest that led to him to cancel the remainder of the parade, which began at 2 p.m.
“Protestors were starting to yell at individuals that were there to celebrate — whether they were members of the community or allies,” he said.
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“And once they start engaging verbally, you know that that was not going to end nice.”
The coalition countered demonstrators were justified in protesting at Toronto’s Pride parade, the largest of its kind in Canada and the second largest in the world, next to one held in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Spokesperson Layla Salman accused Pride Toronto of ignoring a call to divest itself of corporations which the group claims are funding the genocide of Palestinians. Salman said that Pride officials ignored six of the group’s demands.
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“The time for Pride Toronto to consider (the demands) was months and months ago,” said Salman, on Monday, in front of a Yonge and Wellesley Sts. branch of Scotiabank, one of the parade’s sponsors and participants.
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“We find it disingenuous then that Pride Toronto tries to paint us as unreasonable when we were forced to take action because of its repeated refusal to engage on the matter of its complicity in Israeli genocide of Palestinian people.”
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Former Pride Toronto board member Gary Kinsman told the same press conference that he stepped down from the board April 30 — after holding the position since 1981 — and supported the parade protest.
Kinsman called the current Pride Toronto board “an anti-democratic and non-responsible” organization.
In Toronto’s Gay Village on Monday, reactions were mixed.
“It was disappointing, of course, because we wanted to see the entire parade,” said Jesse Thompson, who was visiting from Fredriction, N.B.
“Of course, we want to respect everybody’s right to a peaceful protest, but it just felt like maybe this event was not really about that. There may have been a better time and place for that protest.”
Parade spectator Jon Cohen, however, said the protestors were justified in their actions.
“I think stopping a parade to protest a genocide that’s happening across the world, that’s killing tons of people, especially children, that’s a good reason to stop a parade,” said Cohen.
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