Foes blast Ford over decision to skip Pride parade

He’s marched with the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and St. Patrick’s Day revellers, but Toronto’s mayor won’t be joining the city’s annual Pride Parade.

Rob Ford is skipping the celebration that draws roughly half a million people to Toronto’s streets to spend the Canada Day weekend in cottage country with his family. That decision – which breaks a tradition of mayors marching that spans more than a decade – is a reminder, say leaders of the gay community, of how fragile the gains are that they have made. Showing up for Pride, they say, would be an easy way for the mayor to show support for an important part of the Toronto community. Taking a pass, they say, sends the wrong message.

The mayor and his city councillor brother Doug say they are just maintaining another tradition – spending the national holiday with family.

“As long as I can remember, since I was a little boy, we always used to go up north to our cottage and I am carrying on the tradition that my father had,” the mayor said Wednesday when asked about his plans for the Pride weekend. “We are there every year and we are going to continue there.”

For those looking for signs of support from the city’s new conservative mayor, his absence from the Sunday long-weekend event reinforces fears that they are in danger of losing important ground.

“There have been a lot of hard-won and incremental gains over the years, for lesbians and gays in this country but they are all easily reversible,” said Francisco Alvarez, the co-chair of Pride Toronto. “It may seem to someone who grew up watching Will and Grace that this is the normal state of affairs, but it’s not and it is fragile.

Toronto Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, a veteran activist in the gay community, characterized the mayor’s decision as a missed opportunity.

“I think given the past historical remarks that he has made, for him to step forward and to march during this Pride weekend would have made a difference and would have gone a long way in making amends with the community,” she said.

During his decade as a councillor for Etobicoke, Mr. Ford made comments considered by many as homophobic, including the suggestion that “if you’re not doing needles and you’re not gay, you won’t get AIDS, probably.” As mayor, his was the only vote against restoring provincial funds for syphilis and HIV screening programs.