Mayor Tory has announced that all City-led events and permits for all public events will be cancelled until June 30th – this includes the Toronto Pride Parade.

“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the City of Toronto is cancelling all City-led major events, festivals, conferences, and cultural programs. And is also cancelling all city permits for major events organized by external groups at civic centres, squares, parks, public spaces, including road closures, City-operated museums and cultural centres, and all of those permits will be cancelled through June 30th.”

“One of the biggest events of all, one of our signature celebrations, is of course, Pride. I spoke with representatives from Pride Toronto today and thanked them for their understanding of this decision and expressed my own enthusiasm for Pride month which will still proceed in June, so stay tuned,” Tory said.

Pride Toronto has already tweeted out their alignment with the City:

In alignment with the City of Toronto’s statement, Pride Toronto will no longer host the Festival Weekend on June 26-28th, 2020. Our full statement is available online https://t.co/KSXeLOs9E3 Stay proud and stay safe, Toronto. #PrideToronto #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/T7ANaknTpJ — Pride Toronto (@PrideToronto) March 31, 2020

This comes on the heels of both the City and the province shutting down all playgrounds and sports fields as well as the continued closure of public schools until May 4th at the earliest.

“This is not an easy decision to make but it is necessary to protect the public and to save lives,” said Tory.

The Toronto Pride Parade is one of the largest Pride celebrations in the world, with Tourism Toronto estimating an annual attendance that tops one million. The Parade has been held every year since 1981.