Pride co-chair quits amid police debate
No-confidence motion over decision to let officers march leads to resignations
Pride Toronto co-chair Erin Edghill has resigned after a motion of no confidence was passed during the LGBTQ organization’s annual general meeting Tuesday evening.
“I understand Pride began as a sexual liberation movement against police and state violence,” Edghill told the meeting, according to a written statement obtained by the Star. “Somewhere along the way, the organization either forgot or began to actively ignore this history.”
Edghill was named alongside three Pride board members — Amanda Bitton, Keegan Oliver and Kevin Rambally — in a motion that accused them of
having “consistently acted in a manner that undermines the will of the membership.”
The motion, which passed by a vote of 42 to 28, according to three people present, was tabled by a group of Pride members calling themselves No Pride in Policing.
The board’s decision last fall to invite police back into the annual summer Pride parade without consulting with membership was “fundamentally unethical and undemocratic behaviour,” said No Pride in Policing spokesperson Gary Kinsman.
A second motion calling for Pride to denounce the $30-million Toronto Police Services budget increase also passed and the organization committed to sending a representative to city hall to speak against the budget measure.
“This was a big victory for the membership,” Kinsman said.
Beverly Bain, another spokesperson for No Pride in Policing, said their objective is not to take over Pride Toronto.
“It’s to defend the decision to exclude police and to support Black Lives Matter Toronto,” she said.
Pride’s membership rebellion took place during the third contentious Pride Toronto meeting in the last two months, which saw members overturn executive director Olivia Nuamah’s call for police to be welcomed back into this year’s Pride parade.
A motion calling on Nuamah to resign was ruled out of order and was not voted upon during Tuesday’s meeting. Last week, Nuamah announced that Pride would have to be severely scaled back this year due to a $700,000 debt taken on over the last two years. She suggested that Pride has had trouble fundraising after its decision to exclude uniformed police from marching in the parade. “Board members somehow think inviting police back in will get them more funding, that’s not true,” Kinsman said. “The policing issue has nothing to do with the financial issue. It’s an excuse.”
Uniformed officers have been banned from the Pride Parade since 2016, when Black Lives Matter held up the march to protest their presence. Last October, Nuamah invited police back to the parade.
A general meeting of Pride membership was shut down in December when activists sought to overturn Nuamah’s decision. Last week, those activists succeeded at a special meeting, where Nuamah’s invitation to police was rescinded. Two new members were elected to the Pride board during the meeting, Gwen Bartleman and Ande Clumpus.