Montreal reacts to Pride parade cancellation

Many in Montreal thought Sunday’s rainy forecast would be what would put a damper on the city’s annual pride parade. Instead, it was Pride Montreal’s last-minute cancellation of the entire event – that ended up raining on their parade – just hours before thousands were expected to take to the streets in celebration.

In the aftermath, many are still left shocked that staffing shortages led to this.

“When we found out that the parade was cancelled, there was a little bit of like, okay, well, that’s a little bit of a relief. We don’t have to worry about getting rained out. But more importantly, I think that there was a lot of frustration,” said David Hawkins, executive director of West Island LGBTQ2+ centre.

After a scaled-down version last year and cancellation in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic the iconic parade, which usually closes Montreal’s Pride festival week of celebrations, was supposed to be the first one back in full force.

“I think the sad thing is this year was kind of the perfect storm for pride,” said Hawkins. “Having it cancelled at the last minute after two years of not having been able to do this kind of work and to do this kind of event, I think hit a little bit harder for a lot of people because it was way past due.”

“It’s shocking and something I feel that is really unacceptable for particularly like organizations and groups that wait like they have waited so long really,” said Maria Arcobelli Sacco, volunteer, PFLAG Montreal.

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Just hours before the parade was set to start – Pride Montreal issued a statement on their social media saying they made the decision to cancel the parade with the support of Montreal police due to safety reasons.

But in the afternoon said the decision was made solely by Montreal Pride due to the fact, that there were not enough volunteers to ensure safety along the parade route.

A volunteer for the event who spoke to CityNews anonymously fearing repercussions from Pride Montreal, said:

“I was really disappointed when I heard the parade was cancelled and the statements about the lack of volunteers felt like we were being blamed. A lot of people were available and said they weren’t asked,” they said.

Adding that many volunteers were extremely committed and hard-working, willing to pick up the slack. Saying that all week things felt disorganized.

Hawkins added, “we saw that there were like some of those logistical challenges in terms of there not being enough volunteers necessarily or just that there was a lot more work than there was staff available.

“Every day is a fight to be seen and to be visible. Every day of every year is like that for us. Pride is one of those few moments were allowed to openly and publicly celebrate.”

Montreal Mayor Malérie Plante also reacted to the cancellation on Sunday, saying if the city had been made aware of the lack of staff they would have put in the necessary energy to help.

End of the day Sunday, Pride Montreal’s executive director, Simon Gamache told La Presse that they forgot to hire about 100 people to monitor the parade route.

Pride Montreal said they were declining all interview requests Monday. Saying in a statement to CityNews that, “The board of directors of Montréal Pride has set up an internal post-mortem committee to investigate the events that led to the cancellation of the pride parade yesterday, in Montreal. Montréal pride will issue a news release on the results of its 2022 festival later this week.”