By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
TORONTO, September 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Promoters of Toronto's sordid annual homosexual “pride” parade are upping the ante with a bid to have the city host World Pride in 2014.
“We believe that hosting World Pride 2014 in Toronto will engage and inspire people from around the world, be a fabulous celebration of Pride and showcase Toronto as one of the most diverse and accepting cities in the world,” wrote Pride Toronto co-chair Mark Singh in a Pride Toronto press release.
Singh claims that this summer's homosexual festival, held during the city's garbage collection strike which filled parks and streets with rotting refuse, “attracted 1.3 million people” and generated “$100 million in business.”
Cecilia Forsyth, national president of REAL Women of Canada, released a letter following the Toronto homosexual parade in which she protested the nearly $400,000 grant given to the Toronto Gay Pride Festival by Conservative Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism, Diane Ablonczy, and questioned the attendance and financial figures proffered by the homosexualist group.
“REAL Women of Canada is deeply offended” over the grant, the letter states. “The Gay Pride Parade is well known for its full nudity, open engagement in public sexual acts and its deliberate disregard of behaviour acceptable to most sectors of Canadian society.
“The parade is about hedonistic exhibitionism and narcissism, promoting a deadly form of sexuality. The parade is designed to shock and titillate and the week-long 'celebration' has become an excuse for partying, drug use and promiscuity.”
Forsyth observed that the attendance figure is absurd from a purely mathematical point of view, due to the limited size of the parade route. “The crowds would have had to be 80 deep along the 3.1 kilometer parade route,” she said. “It is also highly questionable that the 'celebrations' that week contribute millions to the economy, as alleged, as this figure again appears to be part of the air of unreality surrounding the event.”
The controversial $400,000 grant, given by Minister Ablonczy as part of the Marquee Tourism Events Program, has been harshly criticized by pro-family advocates and members of the Conservative caucus, many of whom claimed they were unaware that Ablonczy had directed the money to the homosexual event.
Saskatoon MP Brad Trost expressed his disapproval of Ablonczy's actions in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com on July 6th, and also hinted that the Minister may have lost the portfolio as a consequence of the embarrassment she caused the Conservative Party, although the government claims there is no official connection.
The proposed 2014 event would be substantially bigger and more expensive, costing an estimated $10 million rather than the $4 million allegedly spent this year, according to Singh. “Basically, we're just making our event, which is already such a globally popular event, into something a lot bigger and on the world's stage,” Singh told the Toronto Star.
A spokesman for Industry Minister Tony Clement, who now administers the Marquee Tourism Events Program, told the Star that future funding of Toronto's homosexual parade was “under review” to ensure it was providing a genuine stimulus to the economy.
Clement had already denied funding to Montreal's gay festival, Divers/Cité, this summer, a decision that may have been connected to harsh criticism levied by concerned citizens against the federal government.
Campaign Life Coalition's Mary Ellen Douglas said she was pleased with the government's decision in this case. “I think it's good news that the Conservative government has taken a stand against funding the Montreal festival,” she told LSN. “These events always seem to have alternate funding, and it's not justified to spend taxpayer's money on these festivals.”
World Pride in 2012 is scheduled to be held in London, England, according to the Pride Toronto press release. The only other such event to have taken place was held in Rome in 2000, in spite of protest from the Vatican and Catholics around the world. A planned World Pride spectacle in Jerusalem in 2006 was cancelled after outrage expressed by Christian, Jewish and Moslem leaders, and the outbreak of military action between Israel and Hezbollah.
To contact Toronto's mayor with your concern:
David Miller
Toronto City Hall, 2nd Floor
100 Queen St. West, Toronto ON M5H 2N2
Phone: 416-397-2489
Fax: 416-696-3687
Email: [email protected]
To contact the federal government with your concern:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
Email: [email protected]
Read related LSN articles:
Canadian Conservative MP: Party Funding of Gay Pride Parade Came as a Shock to Most of Caucus
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09070615.html
Conservatives Deny Funding to Montreal Gay Pride
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09072207.html
Religious Leaders Demand Israeli Government Block World Pride in Jerusalem
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06062902.html
Homosexuals Hold Protest in Jerusalem in Wake of Nixed Pride Parade
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/aug/06081107.html