Ottawa to provide $1.5M in emergency funding to ensure Pride festivals stay safe across Canada

The federal government will provide $1.5 million in emergency funding to ensure Pride festivals across the country remain safe, a cabinet minister said on Monday.

Marci Ien, minister for women and gender equality and youth, said in Ottawa that the money will be provided to Fierté Canada Pride, a national association that represents Pride organizations in Canada. Fierté Canada Pride will distribute the funds to organizers of Pride events.

Ien, MP for Toronto Centre, which includes the city's gay village, told reporters at a news conference that the money will help Pride organizations with rising security and insurance costs and is expected to support about 65 Pride festivals in Canada. The fund will increase safety and community security at those events, she said.

"Now more than ever, as allies, as leaders, as parents, as friends, and as Canadians, we need to wake up and understand. We need to wake up to the reality that 2SLGBTQI+ people are facing today. And that includes meaningfully engaging with queer and trans Canadians," Ien said.

Ien said organizers of Pride festivals have told her that their main concern this year is safety.

"Small but increasingly organized hate-fuelled groups have started targeting places that are intended to be safe spaces," Ien said.

'We've never seen this amount of rage'

She said a constituent told her the other day that Pride this year is different: "We've never seen this amount of rage. We've never seen this amount of hate directed toward us. It's terrifying."

Ien said data shows there has been a rise in hate. In 2021, Statistics Canada found there was a 64 per cent rise in crimes against members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community, she said.

"Our government will not stand by while hate and violence seek to reverse decades of progress," she added.

Julie Nobert-DeMarchi, president of Fierté Canada Pride, said at the news conference that the funding will make a difference. The community faces an "unprecedented wave of hate that knows no boundaries," Nobert-DeMarchi said.

"It means the government recognizes the urgency and the difficulties that our community faces," Nobert-DeMarchi said.

In a news release, Nobert-DeMarchi said: "While this support is a crucial step as prides across the country prepare for upcoming events in our collective fight against anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate, we acknowledge the need for ongoing efforts." 

Fierté Canada Pride will administer the funding and manage the costs for intake, review, processing and disbursement to pride festival and event organizers and will support training and programs for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. 

The announcement comes after Pride Toronto said in May it may have to cut programming at this year's festival because of major cost increases for policing and insurance.

Pride Toronto Executive Director Sherwin Modeste said at the news conference that the emergency funding will help cover security costs for this year's festival. He said the money is welcome because this year has been challenging for the organization.

Modeste said the organization has seen a 300 per cent increase in its insurance premiums and 150 per cent increase in the cost of paid duty police officers. The cost of paid private security has gone up by more than 25 per cent, he said. 

"This year for the first time in Pride Toronto history, we have to explore additional security measures for our trans and dyke rallies. These are rallies. This is not where we should be investing, in security, but this year, we have to," Modeste said.

In an earlier interview, Modeste said insurance cost $60,000 in 2022, but it will cost up to $278,000 this year. The Toronto Police Service (TPS), for its part, said it cost an estimated $62,000 for paid duty officers at last year's Pride festival. This year, TPS estimates the cost will up to $186,000.

TPS says in an invoice it needs 90 officers — up from 78 the year before — for a total number of 1,400 working hours, up from 500 the year before.

According to the Toronto Police Association (TPA), which negotiates a paid duty rate for its members, the association agreed along with the TPS and Toronto Police Services Board to boost paid duty rates to $90 an hour "as an incentive" in 2023.

'People deserve to be safe when they come to Pride'

Toby Whitfield, executive director of Capital Pride in Ottawa, thanked the government for the money.

"People deserve to be safe when they come to Pride celebrations. People deserve to be safe when they celebrate Pride loudly and proudly," Whitfield said.

"But this will require increased community resources, training for volunteers, safety and infrastructure expenses, and these increased costs and the work associated with training our volunteers and preparing to host our events this year is not something that Pride festivals can handle on their own."

However, not everyone is pleased with the announcement.

Tom Hooper, a professor in the department of equity studies at York University in Toronto, said the funding is rewarding "bad behaviour" by Pride Toronto. He said the organization hasn't been accountable to the community. Hooper is a historian of LGBTQ+ issues.

"I'm completely opposed to this funding," Hopper said.

Last year, Hooper published a report about Pride Toronto's mishandling of funds. The claims were investigated independently and the organization later apologized.

But Hooper said his claims of fraud and forgery were never addressed.

"There's been no transparency and accountability for this, so they shouldn't receive another penny of government funds," he said.

Hooper said the threats against the community are serious but the threats are not new. But he said the threats should not be used as a "pawn" to gain more funding. 

The funding can be used for expenses such as vehicle and crowd control, barricades, fees for paid-duty police or private security.

Organizations supporting gender and sexual minorities across Canada have ramped up their security after a documented rise in hate crimes targeting LGBTQ people, and physical confrontations between protesters at drag-queen events.