Thousands of people danced, sang and celebrated at Toronto’s Pride Parade on Sunday until the procession was suddenly stopped mid-route, and then cancelled, by a protest.
About 30 demonstrators, calling themselves the Coalition Against Pinkwashing, held banners and chanted on Yonge Street, just south of Wellesley Street, three and a half hours after the parade’s 2 p.m. start. Floats and marchers making their way south toward the parade’s finish at Nathan Phillips Square were stranded behind the protesters, who chanted “Free Palestine” and “Pride is a protest.”
The pro-Palestinian protestors that brought the Toronto Pride Parade to a stop chant the genocidal “From the river to the sea” slogan as they continue to block the parade’s path.
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 30, 2024
“We made the decision to cancel the remainder of the parade out of our commitment to ensuring public safety,” Pride Toronto spokesperson Anna Lee said in a statement. “While we deeply respect and uphold everyone’s right to peacefully protest, our foremost priority is the well-being of all participants and spectators.”
According to a pamphlet handed out by the group, the protesters had six demands, chief among them the divestment from all corporations “actively involved in violently exploiting native people” on Turtle Island and in Sudan, Palestine and the Congo.
“We’re here for Palestine,” protester Layla Salman said. “We’re here to draw attention to the cause.”
The question is, will LGBTQ folk get the message that they are in bed with those whose idea of foreplay is to give beheading – or the like?
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.
“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.”
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“Protestors were starting to yell at individuals that were there to celebrate — whether they were members of the community or allies,” he said.
“And once they start engaging verbally, you know that that was not going to end nice.”
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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.
“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.
“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.”
Yes, he really did say “shrinkage” and make a gesture.
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
