City drops idea of event space at Hanlan's Point after public backlash

Torontosun.com
March 1, 2023
Jane Stevenson

A city of Toronto proposal to create a permanent events space on the lawn near Hanlan’s Point Beach -- the site of T.O.’s first Pride event in 1971 and Canada’s oldest surviving queer space dating back to the 1940s -- has been dropped following public backlash.

Daniel Fusca, manager of public consultation for Toronto parks, forestry and recreation, said the idea “to add some infrastructure to support a wider range of events there” was contained in a draft version of the Toronto Island Master Plan which has been in the works since May 2020.

Fusca said the city open house was held on Nov. 30, 2022, followed by a Feb. 23 virtual meeting. About 90% of 2,000 people who responded online over a four-day period were in opposition to the idea, Fusca said. A Feb. 27 meeting was held at The 519 on Church street where the city officially announced the events space was no longer being considered.

“The beach has been a space for queer folks to gather for a very long time,” said Fusca. “And so there was a fear that by formalizing an events space you would be inviting a lot more events that could potentially create opportunities for conflict between beach users and event-goers and potentially subject beach users to homophobia, transphobia and potentially violence.”

A grassroots group, Hands off Hanlan’s, formed last fall after about a dozen people attended that first Nov. 30 meeting, and it launched a social media campaign against the events space over the last two weeks that appears to have worked.

“I think our first post was shared 15,000 times,” said Hands Off Hanlan’s spokesperson Travis Myers, who says safety was their biggest concern after there was in increase in homophobic violence in the area during the pandemic.

“And we hit like 6,000 followers in just a few days. So it was fantastic to hear (the events space was dead at The 519 meeting). People did let out a cheer. People were happy in the room. What happened was that thousands of queer people in the city found a way to have their voices heard when it didn’t feel like anyone was listening.”

Fusca said there were also concerns about the commercialization of public space and the environmental impact on ecologicially sensitive areas.

“We’re making other changes to the (master) plan including adding a new (theme) which is about centering queer heritage, history and community well being,” he said.

Myers is pleased to hear that but added: “Now the work begins on holding the city true to their world.”

Fusca points out events will still take place seasonally at Hanlan’s like the upcoming Electric Island, a musical festival scheduled on May 20-21, so “for now, status quo.”