Mayor John Tory has put his support behind providing Pride Toronto with its annual $260,000 in city funding despite the group’s decision to exclude uniformed Toronto Police officers at this year’s parade.

Tory’s comments come on the heels of a motion proposed by Coun. John Campbell which asks his fellow councillors to consider withholding the grant the city usually gives to the organization until it can reaffirm “their value of inclusivity.”

Pride Toronto’s executive director, Olivia Nuamah, asked members of the city’s Economic Development Committee Monday to reject the call to cut city funding and instead allow the organization a “grace period” to sort out how to move forward with police participation in the future.

“We say we have a fairly decent amount of support on council too. We say we also have the support of the community,” she said ahead of the meeting.

“We say we are going to try incredibly hard to dampen down the vitriolic nature of this conversation, to be honest with you, to make it more about the cohesion for which we all seek. I think, to that point, Councillor Campbell and Pride Toronto want absolutely the same thing.”

The calls to cut funding follow a controversial decision by Toronto Police to withdraw from participating in the parade after the majority of members who attended Pride Toronto’s Annual General Meeting voted in favour of excluding uniformed officers.

At last year’s parade, Black Lives Matter- Toronto halted the procession with a sit-in protest and handed then-director Mathieu Chantelois a list of demands – one of which included the banning of police floats and booths from future parades.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said in February that the service would step away from this year’s parade in an effort to allow the LGBTQ communities address their differences.

However, uncertainty has lingered as to whether or not officers would be able to participate in other ways.

Nuamah explained in the statement Sunday, saying officers and “their allies” will be able to march in the parade so long as they do so without weapons, uniforms and vehicles.

“We are about LGBTQ+ individuals and celebrating that within all of our communities. As it comes to the representation of services and organizations, yes these are complicated conversations, but they are ones that Pride Toronto is utterly willing and able to have,” Nuamah told the city’s Economic Development Committee in a deputation Monday.

“What we’re asking those officers is to give us time, given that we have not had this conversation before, to figure out what we need to do, so that everyone can come back to the table feeling appropriately heard and feeling like they’ve been a part of the process of planning this festival.”

Nuamah said the decision to allow officers to march in the parade without uniforms exemplifies the organization’s value of participants as “individuals” and not as members of a service.

“What we’re saying to them is that we value you as LGBTQ+ police officers, we value you as individuals. What we are also saying to them though is that as a service, between the Toronto Police Service and Pride Toronto, we have chosen to take a step back to better understand exactly what some of the feedback was we received from our Pride Toronto community members,” she said. “We are going to work together to try and figure a way through this as organizations but that does not preclude individuals from marching in our parade.”

Tory hopes Pride Toronto, police can reconcile

In a statement Monday morning, Toronto Mayor John Tory said he would not support a motion to axe city funding for the Pride parade.

“From day one, I have been consistent in saying that I considered Pride a celebration all about inclusion and that as such, police should be welcomed in the parade. I continue to hold this view,” Tory said.

Tory said that Nuamah and Chief Saunders have both told him that they’ve held “constructive discussions” to address “underlying issues” that brought this situation to a head.

He said both Nuamah and Saunders agree that withdrawing city funding for the 2017 event “wouldn’t be helpful in finding a resolution.”

“Both have asked for time to conduct those discussions and both have indicated that their goal is to work towards inclusion of the police at Pride next year. Accordingly, I will support maintaining our full funding for Pride 2017,” he said.

“Pride is an important city event, and one that must reflect the diversity and vibrancy of our city. But allinclusive organizations must in fact be inclusive and be seen to be inclusive, and I believe the Chief and Ms. Nuamah are trying to achieve that."

Pride director says funding not taken for granted

Nuamah called the mayor’s support “huge” for the group.

“We appreciate the support of the city and we appreciate the support of the mayor,” she told reporters ahead of the meeting. “He has been emphatic to us behind closed doors that he supports us and we’re very pleased that he said so publicly.”

Nuamah said Toronto police’s decision to step away from this year’s parade opens doors for both parties to reconcile in time for future parades.

“We are going to spend a year trying to get to a place where we figure out how the police participate next year. We absolutely hope to see their participation, but it can’t happen before an ongoing dialogue with our community,” she said.

“This is not the first de-funding conversation the city has had about Pride Toronto positions we’ve taken on social issues,” she continued. “We don’t believe this is going to be the last.”

TPS union head says Pride should ‘do the right thing’

Meanwhile, Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack says his members are “being shamed” for being police officers by only allowing them to participate without uniforms.

“If you want to do something on a private basis and be exclusive, then do that, but don’t ask for public funding. We should continue the dialogue but we should not be shamed for being police officers doing policing in that community,” he said.

“Give us one more year to do the right thing? Is that what I’m being told? What’s wrong with doing the right thing today? That’s my question. Why do you need another year to work it out?”

Nuamah said the group intends to heal the relationship between police and Pride Toronto in way adversaries – including Coun. Campbell – can get behind.

To get there, Nuamah insists the organization needs the time to address the concerns of its members and the community before coming back to the table with a proposal “that works for everybody.”

Campbell’s motion is expected to be tabled at a future Economic Development Committee meeting on May 24.