Olivia Nuamah, executive director of Pride Toronto, has had to rebuild her organization from the ground up but you would never guess from her demeanour that she’s in the midst of organizing North America’s biggest LGBTQ parade.Or that Pride is facing massive pressure to reverse a ban on police in uniform, as well as police floats and booths, a decision made at the organization’s annual general meeting in January.Since then, hundreds of LGBTQ community members have pledged to boycott the celebrations and there is a petition with thousands of names asking that police be allowed to march.Toronto city councillor John Campbell plans to table a motion at council this week — and include the petition — to pull a $260,000 grant from Pride, a request first made by an internal network of LGBTQ officers in the Toronto force.Yet there is no doubt in Nuamah’s mind that the month-long festival, which begins June 1, will be a success.“I don’t know what failure looks like,” she says assuredly, shaking her head slightly from side to side before uttering the words during an interview in Pride’s Berkeley St. offices at the beginning of May.The 45-year-old Toronto native is calm and assured, despite joining Pride in February and having only months to pull together a $4-million festival.“Olivia has stepped up and immersed herself in all this work, and it’s come together,” says Alica Hall, co-chair of Pride’s board. “It’s really quite amazing.Nuamah was recruited after former executive director Mathieu Chantelois resigned in August amid accusations by staff that he was “abusive” as well as “racist, sexist and transphobic,” comments cited by Global News from an email it said was allegedly written bystaff. The email wasn’t verified, and Chantelois denied the allegations.The accusations came on the heels of last year’s parade, when Blac ...
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