Pride Toronto has instituted a Dispute-Resolution Process (DRP) to provide an objective, transparent appeal mechanism to review and resolve complaints about participation in the Pride Parade and March.
The Officers are independent, professional, impartial members in good standing with the Law Society of Upper Canada, or have relevant professional experience or training in human rights issues, mediation or adjudication.
Officers have been selected because they are experts in the fields of dispute resolution and arbitrations. Given the importance of getting the process up and running as quickly as possible, the roster of Officers was recommended by the Community Advisory Panel and approved by the Board of Pride Toronto. They have agreed to act on a voluntary basis to ensure that an independent impartial consideration is given to assigned complaint matters.
In the future, Pride Toronto will also continue to accept names of qualified people to be on the roster.
This process is the first of its kind anywhere in the world. The community has recommended a process that uses a progressive way to resolve differences.
Pride Toronto recognizes that the rules and the process are new and may need to be amended from time to time to ensure the process is working effectively. Pride Toronto recognizes that the rules and the process are new and may need to be amended from time to time to ensure the process is working effectively. Pride Toronto will seek input from the community, its membership, Dispute-Resolution Officers, and complainants and respondents to inform those amendments.
The Dispute-Resolution Process will only consider complaints about the participation or exclusion of a group in the Pride Parade or March. The objective of the DRP is to resolve, correct and remedy behaviours that are contrary to policy; to ensure fair application of the rules for Parade and March participation; and to ensure compliance with those rules and applicable legislation.
Dispute-Resolution Officers are governed by the Arbitrations Act, 1991, its relevant regulations, alternative-dispute-resolution codes of ethics/conduct, and best practices.
These officers are also informed of Pride Toronto’s mission, mandate and relevant policy which must be in-line with applicable legislation and regulations.
On April 12, 2011, Pride Toronto released the list of over 235 groups who participated in the 2010 Parade. According to the Dispute-Resolution Process, individuals or groups have 30 days to complain formally about any group that participated in 2010.
If a complaint is brought forward to the Dispute-Resolution Process regarding the participation of QuAIA, then that complaint will be dealt with by the independent, impartial Dispute-Resolution Process, in accordance with policy. Once a decision has been reached whether or not QuAIA is eligible to participate in the Pride Parade in 2011, it will be made public.
It will depend on what process the complainant chooses.
All reasonable steps will be taken to review and respond to the complaints in a timely fashion. It is expected that in most cases the complaint will be reviewed and a decision reached within 30 to 45 days of receiving the complaint.
In exceptional circumstances – based on mutual agreement between the parties or by order of the Dispute-Resolution Officer or Panel – timelines may be adjusted or extended.
disputeresolution@pridetoronto.comIf you have additional questions about the Dispute-Resolution Process, you can contact Douglas Elliott by E-mail at rde@reolaw.ca or by telephone at +1 (416) 362-1989.