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All Xtra's Pride coverage here; our Community Advisory Panel coverage here.

Community Advisory Panel Presentation:

Pride Toronto Board response:

Tonight Xtra is live-streaming Pride Toronto's general meeting from the Church Street Public School starting at 6:30pm ET. The meeting follows the resignation of PT's executive director, Tracey Sandilands, and the release of audited financial statements that reveal irregularities and significant losses that went unreported by the board treasurer, Mark Singh, at the last AGM in September.

NOTE: This is a developing story. We're collecting reactions to the announcement here.

Official release by the Pride Toronto board of directors:

Pride Toronto Announces Resignation of its Executive Director

(Toronto, Ontario, January 26, 2011)
 
The Board of Directors of Pride Toronto announces that Tracey Sandilands, Executive Director since October 2008, has resigned from her position effective Friday January 28, 2011 to pursue other opportunities.  Pride Toronto wishes to thank Ms. Sandilands for her dedication over the past two years, and to wish her every success in her future endeavours. 
 
The Board will take over supervision of day-to-day activities of the staff and volunteers until a recruitment plan is developed. Planning for the 2011 Pride Festival is well underway and will continue without interruption.
 
Over the next few months Pride Toronto will be reviewing its structure to ensure that it is properly positioned to meet its members' needs.

Following this announcement, the board sent Pride coordinators this message directing them not to speculate on the reasons for Sandilands' departure on Twitter or Facebook.

Hi everyone

Please see the attached statement that has just been sent to the members and the media.

1. Our agreement with Tracey does not allow us to discuss the details of her resignation.

2. We wish Tracey the best in her future and thank her for the great contribution she has made over the past two years.

3. This was Tracey’s personal decision and we ask that her privacy be respected.

4. Please do not comment publically or speculate on Tracey’s reasons for resigning, even on social media.

5. Francisco and Margaret are the spokespersons for Pride on this issue. Please refer enquiries to us.

6. The Board will step in to supervise day to day operations until a recruitment plan is developed.

7. Pride Toronto has a realistic plan to deal with last year’s deficit. The 2011 festival will proceed as planned.

Thanks to you all for your continued hard work and commitment to Pride! This is a sad time but we will move forward together.

Pride Toronto audited financials 2010 final

Thanks to Neal Jennings for the handy 2010 to 2009 comparison sheet:

Pride Toronto financials 2009

UPDATE - JAN 6: Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto pastor Brent Hawkes told Xtra the names of the Toronto city staff members at the Community Advisory Panel targetted consultation on Jan 5.

The staff members include Mike Williams, general manager of economic development; Chris Brillinger, director of social policy analysis and research; Lori Martin, senior affairs officer; Rita Davies, executive director of culture and Ceta Ramkhalawansingh, the former manager of diversity and community engagement, who has since left the city for a new post but asked to attend the meeting, Hawkes says.

JAN 5: The list of groups and individuals requesting targeted consultations with the Pride Toronto (PT) Community Advisory Panel (CAP) has been posted publicly.

The release of the list on Jan 5 comes after vocal demands at the five consultation sessions in December as well as on the CAP Facebook page.

There are 36 groups and organizations on the list. Some come as no surprise: Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA), Pride Toronto staff, Church Wellesley Business Improvement Area (BIA) and Ward 27 Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam.

Then there are unnamed members of Toronto city staff.

Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto pastor Brent Hawkes didn’t have his notes from the panel's meetings with the city in front of him, so he could not provide Xtra with the names of the city staff members that attended, nor could he provide their departments.

There were two meetings between the panel and city staff, he says. One meeting was held about a month ago, and the most recent meeting, with five city staff members, was on Jan 5.

“From the city’s perspective, we heard what some of the key issues are, what the city feels Pride needs to work on,” he said. “For the city there are two issues: policy issues and political issues.

“But at the policy level, the city has requirements of all grant recipients. And finding out what Pride needs to do to ensure the funding is not in jeopardy because of a policy issue.”

Hawkes said the panel came away from its meeting with the city with much more clarity on policy issues.

This is a developing story.