2023 Pride Festival

Bitter public battles began very shortly after the end of Halifax Pride 2022.

Fall

Pride hired social worker TerrenceLewis? to do a mediation / conflict resolution workshop; they had meetings on August 29, 2022 and September 12, 2022; it lists "significant miscommunications about events planning, leadership roles and expectations, leadership accountability, unprofessional leadership communications, and a lack of cultural sensitivity" among many other things. That report is here.

October 22, 2022

MBA KieranParmelee? released a Strategic Development Report with careful analyses and recommendations in a strengths / weaknesses / opportunities / threats format. "The absense of key management skills within the Board makes day-to-day operations and resource management challenging; these challenges are compounded by inconsistent leadership and engagement from the Board of Directors." That report is here.

October, 2022

Both staff members, Executive Director AdamReid? and FionaKerr?, resigned with several months notice. They were not replaced.

October 2, 2022

Annual General Meeting

November 7, 2022

Special General Meeting: all but two of the Board had resigned. The new board elected that evening: FrancesDadinAlli (she/her) Chair; JessSmith?; Catherine Richardson; TrinaJames?; Dana Marsh, Secretary; JamesMellor?; Jenna Downey; JordanParker?; Joseph Allen; MarkMonk, Treasurer; Nailah Tataa; Quinn Anderson. There are some notes here and a Wayves article.

JordanParker? quit shortly after the AGM

December 23, 2022

"Our chair FrancesDadinAlli and secretary Trina have been holding things down while so much change has been happening!" "we'll be releasing [the new Board names] as the days come starting from today with the chair then moving forward"1. That didn't actually happen.

December 29, 2022

HaydenOMalley? wrote: "I and many other former Halifax Pride Staff have faced a lot of verbal and emotional torment from these three individuals, who now run the organization." JessSmith? responded with "As Hayden has made it very clear, they would like my resignation. I would encourage Hayden to step up and take the space as the organization is in serious trouble. [more - see screen cap]"2

There was another public posting accusing Smith, DanaMarsh?, and FrancesDadinAlli of verbal and emotional torment and public social media attacks.

January 9, 2023

they issue a statement on Instagram. Wayves publishes a dire warning the next day.

January 23, 2023

Special General Meeting. The assembled community of about 110 elected four new board members: AdamSigrist, NatalieMatheson, TovaCranford, and NatalieMatheson will be added to the board, joining the remaining three who were elected in November: JamesMellor?, MarkMonk, and JosephAllen?. Wayves article here.. By March, 2023, JosephAllen? was no longer listed on the Board.

March 15, 2023

"We know that we’ve been quiet for a while. We've been learning how to grow and evolve. We're planning for the future and want to be a voice that our community can be proud of. are looking to recruit a new Treasurer. Board listed as AdamSigrist, NatalieMatheson, TovaCranford, MarkMonk, CatherineRichardson, JamesMellor?.

April, 2023

WayvesMagazine does a story about the lack of communication; CBC Radio Information morning interviewed journalist Sonya Winterberg about that, audio here. (mp3, 8 minutes).

April 10, 2023 - May 10, 2023

Board listed on instagram: AdamSigrist (chair), NatalieMatheson (vice-chair), TovaCranford (secretary), new Treasurer KimberleyFowlow, CatherineRichardson (board) MarkMonk (board). Not listed: JamesMellor?.

May 21, 2023

Announcement: Parade Date July 23, 2023 and route. Wayves article here.

October 5, 2023

Annual General Meeting (altho it didn't really turn into that. New board: AdamReid?; KayMacDonald?; CarmelFarahbakhsh?; JennWaugh?; HaydenOMalley?; SaraGordon?; MoPhùng?. Report in the Wayves article.

Media Coverage

July 20, 2023

Dan is interviewed by Eilish Bonang of Global News Morning about Pride 2023.

July 21, 2023

Dan and MorganManzer are interviewed by Vanessa Wright of Global News about Pride 2023. There's a screen grab of this this video here too.

July 21, 2023

Dan is interviewed by Paul Legere of CBC's Le téléjournal Acadie about the Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia.