One of Mayor Rob Ford's allies at city hall wants the city to pull its funding from Pride Week.
The reason?
Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti said he recorded video of an anti-Israeli group shouting "Israeli Apartheid" during Saturday's Dyke March.
The controversial phrase has cast a shadow over Pride events for more than a year because of demonstrations by Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA).
QuAIA voluntarily withdrew from this year's parade after city councillors, including Mammoliti, threatened to nix Pride Week's funding if the group marched.
The activist group has been accused of being anti-Semitic.
Mammoliti is accusing QuAIA members of participating in the Dyke March under a different banner.
Mammoliti provided the Dyke March video to CP24. In it, women are heard shouting "We're queer, we're hot. Israeli Apartheid is not."
He said the message is offensive to the city's Jewish community.
In an interview with the Toronto Star on the weekend, Mammoliti said the city should pull its funding for Pride.
He stopped short of repeating that message Monday, telling CP24's Stephanie Smyth that the city should withhold funding for all parades and marches until city hall reviews its policies.
"It's taxpayers' dollars that are subsidizing this language that is offensive," Mammoliti told CP24.
The city gives Pride $130,000 in grants, which accounts for one-quarter of the 10-day festival's budget.
Mammoliti said he plans to discuss the matter with Mayor Rob Ford, who came under fire for choosing not to attend Pride Week events.
QuAIA didn't march in Sunday's parade, but its members made their presence known on the sidelines by hanging a large banner over the side of Wellesley Station.
The banner read "Support Palestinian queers, boycott Israeli tourism."
Meanwhile, Mammoliti stood by the mayor's decision to skip the Pride parade to spend the weekend with his family in cottage country.
"Pride is supposed to be about choice, so why is it that they want to force people to go to the event? It's his choice," Mammoliti said.
