Mathieu Chantelois resigns as Executive Director of Pride Toronto
Posted August 10, 2016 4:04 pm.
Last Updated August 10, 2016 8:41 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Pride Toronto has lost its Executive Director.
Mathieu Chantelois tweeted Wednesday afternoon that he presented his resignation to the Board and is now working at Cineplex Media.
A three-line statement on the Pride Toronto Facebook page confirms the resignation, adding that the search has already begun for a new Executive Director.
Chantelois became embroiled in the controversy around the Black Lives Matter protest at the Pride Parade earlier this summer, when he signed a document accepting their demands following a sit-in by the group on the parade route.
Among the demands was one to ban police floats and involvement in future pride parades.
Chantelois later indicated that just because he signed the group’s demands, it was not necessarily written in stone, saying he did what needed to be done in order to keep the parade moving.
“One thing needs to be really clear. I don’t decide who goes in the parade. Black Lives Matter doesn’t decide who goes in the parade. Our community decides,” he told CityNews back on July 4.
“Over the next weeks we will consult with them, we will make sure that what the community wants we will do. If they want police to have floats in the parade, the police will have floats in the parade.”
Rodney Diverlus, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter-Toronto, indicated in a series of tweets that Chantelois was becoming an obstacle within the Pride movement.
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