Advocates say one of Canada's oldest LGBTQ2S+ spaces is under threat

A split image from planning documents for Hanlan's Point (right) and of an inspiration photo used in the master plan (right) from the City of Toronto.

Decades ago a sea of sunbathers stretched across towels on the beach at Hanlan’s Point as one of Canada’s oldest openly queer spaces began to take shape – a place advocates now fear is under threat.

“We were surrounded by a whole bunch of people, feeling open and safe,” Ed Jackson, a long-time queer activist and community historian who was 33 years old at the time in 1978, told CTV News Toronto.

Ed Jackson, a long-time queer activist and community historian, is photographed at Hanlan's Point in 1978. “There were still not a lot of places, especially in the ‘70s, where LGBTQ+ people could feel open and safe and that’s what it's come to mean for a lot of people who go there now.”

In recent days attention has gravitated to the historic space as concerns have mounted about a city of Toronto plan for an open-air events and festival space at Hanlan’s Point.

“Instead of protecting this space at a time when so many queer spaces are under threat … we’re seeing it pushed towards something that it’s not,” said Travis Myers, a member of the group that founded Hands off Hanlan’s, a social media account that has garnered nearly 5,000 followers in a week.

Since then, the city has admitted Hanlan’s community was not engaged enough in consultations about the potential festival and events space in their master plan, which has been in the works for more than two years.

 

 

 

 

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“We just didn't see the need. Maybe we didn't comprehend that there would be such a concern about this idea specifically because it's, it's essentially just formalizing an existing use,” Daniel Fusca, manager of public consultation in Toronto parks, forestry and recreation, told CTV News Toronto.

The Toronto Island Park Master Plan is a long-term planning document that acts as a blueprint for future decision-making. In it, there’s an open-air amphitheatre that would host “island-sized” festivals and cultural events. If this comes to fruition in its current form, advocates say the decades-old safe queer space could be squeezed out and replaced by a party venue.

A public meeting to discuss the potential events space is set to take place on Feb. 27, in addition to a virtual meeting the city has added on Thursday, which Fusca said 200 people have signed up to attend.

A LONG JOURNEY

The city engaged with the 519 back in Dec. 2020 and received input from the 2SLGBTQ+ community on a number of occasions but it wasn’t until an open house in Nov. 2022 that members of the LGBTQ2S+ community were shown a display board with images of the potential event space.

At the time of the first consultation in 2020, Fusca said there weren't specific plans in place yet for the formalized events space. Indigenous groups, event organizers like Live Nation and local residents have been part of the ongoing consultation process.

Fusca said the proposal for the events space is much smaller than the 200,000 square feet Hands off Hanlans said they have measured in the city’s renderings and that the drawings are closer to half that size.

“It's just a representation of an idea,” Fusca said. “It's meant to guide change on the island over the next 25 to 30 years. Although we're two years into this master planning process, we're really at the very beginning of a very long journey.”

But Myers said referencing these documents as mere guides that shouldn’t be taken at face value is concerning since these ideas will pave the path for future decisions about the space and are set to be presented to city council this summer.

“It's important to remember that these documents are designed to be the foundation for all decision making around an area for decades. It's before anything has been finalized and approved that we have the ability to determine if something can and should happen,” Myers said.