HARRIS GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS GAY PRIDE PARADE

TORONTO, June 11 (LSN) – Yesterday, Ontario Premier Mike Harris praised the decision of Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman to march in Toronto’s Gay Pride parade June 28. “He has shown a lot of courage There is a lot of interest. It seems to me it brings a lot of tourism dollars to Toronto,” Harris told reporters.  Although Harris will be in North Bay during the event, Citizenship Minister Isabel Bassett will attend the event for the Tories. “I have been on a float in the Gay Pride Parade for the last two years,” she said. “If I’m free that day, I will go.”  The provincial government’s support for the event is another example of its willingness to try to appeal to gay activists, while snubbing the Tories’ natural constituency of social conservatives. Last October, Ontario Education Minister John Snobelen said it was wrong for the York Region (Catholic) Separate School Board to fire teacher Joseph Stellpflug, who had just gone through a “marriage” ceremony with his gay lover. Snobelen said publicly funded school boards should not be “discriminating” against homosexuals.  In June of 1996, the Ontario Tories appointed gay activist Keith Norton to lead the province’s Human Rights Commission.