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". 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]"
- 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.