Last year, Pride events in Canada seemed to be more about radical politics and foreign conflicts than human rights, and now five big companies have pulled their funding for Toronto’s Pride parade this year.
As Pride Toronto blames U.S. President Donald Trump and his “war on woke” for the companies’ withdrawal, the companies that responded to True North’s requests to comment pledge they haven’t dropped their support for the Pride movement writ large.
A number of major corporations, including Google, Home Depot, Clorox, Nissan, and Adidas, have confirmed they will not be sponsoring this year’s Toronto Pride festival. These companies typically provide significant financial contributions, with gold and silver level sponsorships totaling over $150,000 and $100,000, respectively.
Kojo Modeste, the executive director of Pride Toronto, confirmed the five companies had dropped funding after Home Depot and Google joined those who will not be participating in the Toronto parade this year.
Pride Toronto did not respond to True North’s requests for comment but had released statements to outlets in the legacy media, citing Trump’s anti-woke policies spreading across the U.S. border.
Among the five companies True North contacted for comment, three responded but insisted the move to drop contributions from Toronto’s Pride march was unrelated to Trump.
“We work with an extensive network of nonprofits made up of thousands of local and national organizations to amplify our support to the communities we serve. We continually review our nonprofit giving and decided not to contribute to this event this year, with no agreement in place to do so,” a spokesperson for Home Depot said in an email. “We continue to participate in Pride activities throughout Canada and look forward to working with Toronto Pride on future opportunities.”
Clorox similarly said they dropped funding to the Toronto event but continue to contribute to other “Pride-aligned” initiatives, though they did not elaborate further.
“Our decisions around sponsorships evolve year to year as we look to make an impact and foster healthy and inclusive communities,” a spokesperson for Clorox said. “This year we chose to direct our support to other meaningful initiatives aligned with Pride.”
Nissan Canada told True North it made its decision based on marketing priorities to “ensure we will efficiently support our new product launches and marketing campaigns coming in 2025.”
“Nissan Canada remains committed to promoting an inclusive culture for employees, consumers, dealers, and other key stakeholders, and we will continue to explore other ways to support and celebrate inclusion,” Nissan said. “We look forward to finding new opportunities to collaborate and contribute in the future.”
The other two companies released similar statements claiming the decision was a matter of local advertising decisions and not a condemnation of the Pride movement.
Much to the chagrin of many of Canada’s Jewish Community, Toronto Pride released a one-sided statement last year condemning Israel for its defensive actions against the terrorist group Hamas in response to the October 7, 2023, massacre.
The 2024 parade itself was blockaded by anti-Israel activists self-described as “Coalition against Pinkwashing.” Pinkwashing refers to the idea that Israel is the only Middle Eastern country that supports gay rights, just to deceive the public into thinking they are virtuous.
Toronto Pride has not released any anti-Israel statements this year.
Activists at the anti-Israel encampments that summer on student campuses popularized the ideology of anti-pinkwashing, which claimed that Israelis bringing up human rights in the country was a ruse.
Viral clips from the 2024 Pride Parade in Toronto were shared widely after the first parade as multiple instances of adult public nudity around children were recorded.
One such incident involved the GTA Skinny Dippers club advertising at a Trans March in the city. The group’s website boasted that children under the age of 18 could swim naked for free with adults, without parents or guardians present.
Last year’s Ottawa Pride parade was similarly embroiled in controversy as Jewish community groups and even the Liberal Party of Canada dropped support due to Capital Pride excluding any company which supported Israel.
One Newfoundland business had also withdrawn from its local Pride celebrations last year after “Palestinian Action YYT” was appointed to lead the July Pride celebrations. Just like Capital Pride, the group heading the Newfoundland Pride festivities also prevented any company which has investments in Israel from participating.