The 2011 Pride Parade in Toronto.Mark Blinch
Pride Toronto has rejected the application of a men's rights group to participate in this year's Pride Parade, and in all future parades, because the Canadian Association for Equality's (CAFE) "does not adhere to Pride Toronto's mission, vision and values" according to a statement released Wednesday.
Unlike last year, when Pride Toronto revoked CAFE's permit to march a few days before the event, the decision Wednesday was made on the recommendation of an arbitrator.
Pride Toronto executive director Mathieu Chantelois says a list of all the groups planning to march is posted online once registration is complete so the community can help comb through the 175 registered participants and ensure their missions and values align with those of Pride Toronto.
Mr. Chantelois said Pride Toronto received 14 formal complaints as well as hundreds of calls and e-mails regarding CAFE's participation in the march.
The group says it is "committed to achieving equality for all Canadians, regardless of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, family status, race, ethnicity, creed, age or disability" and currently focuses on "the status, health and well-being of boys and men, where attention, investment and support for educational and social programs stands at a level that is far from equal to the seriousness of the problem."
"Our values are Pride values – inclusion, diversity, equality [and] acceptance," said Justin Trottier, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Men and Families, as well as CEO of CAFE. "There may be a few people within the Toronto Pride bureaucracy who don't appreciate that but I refuse to believe they speak for the hundreds of thousands of LGBT people that make up the gay and lesbian community in Toronto."
However, arbitrator Paul Bent said in a statement he "must give the complaints of members of the LGBTTIQQ2SA community precedence when they indicate the participation of CAFE could directly undermine the participation of queer, lesbian and trans women in the Pride Parade."
Mr. Bent wrote that his decision was "based on [a] balancing of interests" as CAFE shares many of the same values as Pride Toronto, such as inclusion, diversity and equality.
Pride Toronto "is a celebration of all genders and all sexual orientations … and anybody that doesn't share the same core values should not be welcome," said Mr. Chantelois. "We are not doing this parade to offer a voice to people that are misogynistic or who don't share our values at all."
Mr. Trottier complained that the arbitrator did not offer an analysis of the substance of the complaints or say whether they have any validity.
"[Mr. Bent] doesn't say that their complaints have merit, just that they filed complaints," said Mr. Trottier. "Somehow they speak for the LGBT community, whereas our LGBT members don't."
"There's a flaw in the process – they turned this over to Mr. Bent, who is supposed to be an arms-length third party to do an analysis," he said. "He did not do an analysis, he simply said there were complaints [and] therefore CAFE is banned. Now they're using that as justification to ban us forever without any opportunity to appeal [or] to respond to the substance of the complaints."
CAFE last successfully marched in the parade in 2013.
A year ago, CAFE responded to Pride Toronto in its blog after last year's revocation of their permit.
"[The withdrawal] was sent to us 4 days before the parade, even though we had paid for our registration months ago and had walked without incident last year (2013) … Now Pride is telling us we are not welcome, violating these values we thought we shared," the blog stated.
Mr. Chantelois is hoping to move past the barring and focus on the over 175 organizations that are marching in the Pride Parade this summer.
"I really don't want CAFE to rain on our parade," said Mr. Chantelois.