Montreal gay pride festival head defends Tories

The director of one of Canada's premier gay and lesbian festivalscame to the defence of the Conservative government Wednesday, saying she has received even more stable support since the Tories took power.

Suzanne Girard, director of Montreal's Divers-Cit artistic festival, blamed right-wing fringe elements for unfairly trying to embarrass the Conservatives and cause problems for events like hers.

Tory MP Brad Trost recently told a website promoting socially conservative values that "almost the entire Conservative caucus" and the Prime Minister's Office were caught off guard when Toronto's gay pride week received $400,000 in funding over two years under a new program for major tourism events.

He suggested that junior tourism minister Diane Ablonczy had been stripped of the funding envelope because of the grant. The government denied that.

Another member of the Conservative caucus said under condition of anonymity that Trost and four other MPs who criticized the grant at a weekly meeting last month were barely acknowledged.

Girard said she has received money from the federal government's Economic Development Corp. for the last decade. And this year the Conservative government committed to two years of funding, providing her with more budget stability.

She has also received minor funding from Canadian Heritage for the 17-year-old festival, which features gay musicians, dancers and theatrical performers. Divers-Cit brings in $10 million in tourism dollars.

"Personally as an organization, we have been treated very fairly and on an even footing with everybody else," Girard said in an interview. "We've had to work hard, but like everybody else. We live in a great country in that we can do this, even if it is a Conservative government."

Meanwhile, Canada Family Action, a socially conservative advocacy group, said Wednesday it was disturbed taxpayers' money was used to fund Toronto Pride. It said Toronto police should have laid charges against individuals who paraded nude at the event.