Seventeen minutes of amateur video shot by one of the mayor’s closest allies during Pride festivities has set the stage for an intense battle over publically funded events in Toronto.In the short-term, Councillor Doug Ford suggested the city may withhold hundreds of thousands of dollars in Pride funding already promised to organizers.
In the long-term, the footage, which shows dyke parade participants carrying anti-Israeli apartheid signage, could have drastic implications for every entity that receives city grants, from Caribana to the Toronto International Film Festival.
“We shouldn’t be funding any political messaging at all,” said Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti. “I think that we have to re-evaluate and reconsider everything we do with taxpayer’s dollars, which yes,” also applies to the arts community.
Mammoliti has the support of Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday, who wants the city to create a policy that will prevent public dollars being spent on a political message.
Holyday said art grant recipients — which are paid out of the same city fund as Pride — will also need to be scrutinized, but he isn’t sure the same rule should apply to them.
“I do think it extends to all communities, but I’d need to think a little bit more about that,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to say just because a movie is controversial or delivers a political message that it doesn’t deserve our funding.”
On Saturday, Mammoliti — who describes himself as the mayor’s quarterback and is a member of the powerful executive committee — stood on the sidelines of the Dyke Parade documenting what he says are violations of the agreement between Pride organizers and the city.
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Source: Toronto Star
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