An Open Letter to The Home Depot Canada
June 1, 2025
Vinod Nalajala
President, The Home Depot Canada
1 Concorde Gate, Suite 400
Toronto, ON M3C 4H9
Dear Mr. Nalajala,
We at Dyson Contracting Inc. are writing to express our profound disappointment regarding The Home Depot Canada’s decision to withdraw sponsorship from Pride Toronto 2025. This unexpected move, disclosed just days before Pride Month, has contributed to a significant funding shortfall for the festival, jeopardizing its ability to support local artists and maintain accessibility for the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
Pride Toronto is more than a festival; it’s a vital celebration of identity, solidarity, and hard-fought rights. In an era where those rights are increasingly under threat—especially from rising right-wing ideologies in both the United States and Canada—corporate allies must do more, not less. The decision to step away now sends a deeply unsettling message about The Home Depot Canada’s priorities.
Your own stated commitments make this decision especially concerning. The Home Depot Canada has long promoted its internal “Orange Pride” associate resource group, which supports LGBTQIA+ employees and allies through professional development and community engagement. Store associates proudly wear Pride-themed shirts, and for sixteen consecutive years, your company has been recognized as one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers. These public values are admirable—but they ring hollow when the company fails to support the very communities it claims to uplift.
This decision is especially consequential given The Home Depot Canada’s predominantly straight, cisgender male customer base. When a company with that reach chooses to visibly support Pride, it sends a powerful message: that inclusion is not a niche value, but a Canadian one. Conversely, when that support is pulled, it signals that diversity can be deprioritized when it becomes politically inconvenient.
What message does this send to your LGBTQ+ staff and customers? That they’re celebrated only when convenient? That Pride is merely a marketing opportunity? Our communities deserve better.
The broader context cannot be ignored. In the United States, the Trump administration has led an aggressive rollback of DEI protections, targeting LGBTQ+ rights and trans inclusion. These actions have emboldened right-wing movements across North America, threatening the hard-won progress toward equality. That mindset has no place in Canada—and it must not be allowed to shape Canadian corporate policy.
We call on The Home Depot Canada to take the following actions immediately:
Publicly apologize to the 2SLGBTQ+ community and to Pride Toronto organizers.
Reinstate your full funding commitment to Pride Toronto 2025.
Reaffirm your DEI policies with public transparency and tangible support for LGBTQ+ employees, customers, and community initiatives.
At Dyson Contracting Inc., we choose to do business with companies that align with our values. As such, we will be taking our business elsewhere wherever and whenever possible—and encouraging our clients and peers to do the same—until meaningful action is taken.
Sincerely,
Wes Dyson
Owner, Dyson Contracting Inc.
This letter is based on publicly available information as of June 1, 2025. For the most current details, please refer to official statements from The Home Depot Canada and Pride Toronto.