During our parade on July 7th, 2024, a group of people protesting in support of a free Palestine interrupted the parade on Humboldt Street between Douglas and Government. The president of the Victoria Pride Society (VPS), Ace Mann, met the community-led blockade and discussions were held regarding an agreement.
Pride started as a protest. As queer people, our existence is politicized and many of us are, in turn, political. This incredible community needs activists to continue to push for a better world through peaceful protests, and VPS fully supports peaceful queer activism.
This group made the following requests of VPS:
A public call for a ceasefire in Palestine
Boycotting and divesting from institutions that fund Israel
A removal of all law enforcement from Pride
A stop to police sweeps of parks to remove unhoused community members
To meet with communities for them to bring forward concerns
VPS has always fully supported a permanent ceasefire in Palestine. We have amplified many posts in support of this throughout 2024 and will continue to do so. We do not support the harm of any people and also call for the end of wars and/or human rights violations in Ukraine, Sudan, Congo, Afghanistan, China, etc.
The community-led group cut off the TD Bank group and singled TD Bank as their main concern. This is not the first time we’ve heard concerns about TD’s activities (e.g. Trans Mountain pipeline expansion; TMX, etc.), and we share them. Though we are a non-profit organization, we have been working towards becoming less financially dependent on any one grantor. We started working with official “partners” two years ago and have been trying to hire a grant writer to help us diversify our income. We commit to continuing to vet future partnerships to divest from companies that do not align with our values.
As mentioned on our old website, and re-posted on our new site, VPS does not currently support uniformed law enforcement in the parade. The Victoria Pride Society determined that law enforcement involvement in the Victoria Pride Parade does not align with our central mission at this time, and no uniforms belonging to law enforcement may be worn in the parade. This was initially discussed in 2019 and supported by discussions with the Victoria Police Department (VPD). It is the hope of the Victoria Pride Society that this decision will help to foster a safe and supportive environment for all equity-deserving community members who are disproportionately affected by police.
However, due to the large nature of our festival and parade, we must abide by the laws and regulations of the City of Victoria’s Police Department (VPD). We have been informed that police attendance at the festival and the beginning and end of the parade is required. We continue to hire additional traffic control personnel each year to avoid excessive police presence, and we will continue to work toward community-led safety.
This year, we negotiated with VPD to have police stay on the perimeter of the festival grounds and to do any “walk-throughs” with a Victoria Pride representative. This was a much-appreciated step towards our values, which we will continue to discuss.
In the past two years, VPS has been disturbed to learn that by-law officers have been displacing the unhoused residents of Victoria West Park before our annual Memorial Drag Ball game and blaming the displacement on our event. As we wrote on our website, VPS strongly believes that displacement of those sheltering the park is unacceptable. We had reached out to the by-law office prior to the event and asked them to not displace anyone in the park. By-law told us that they do these sweeps every day at 7 am regardless. In the days leading up to the event, VPS representatives went to the park personally to speak to the residents, let them know they were welcome to stay for the event, and brought them food, water, and dollar store gift cards. When we left for the day, we again left food and water.
VPS recognizes that the housing crisis causes a great deal of harm in our communities and disproportionately affects gender, sexual and relationship diverse (GSRD) and other equity-deserving communities. We will continue to work to ensure our events are inclusive, safe, and accessible for all and recognize that there will always be more to be done. We are here to do that work and will continue to reach out to the City of Victoria by-law offices to ensure the residents of Victoria West Park are treated with dignity and respect.
The final demand by the unnamed protestors was for accountability meetings with concerned community members. VPS has always welcomed meetings with community members by request. Though few and far between, these have been invaluable for VPS in helping us to move more towards the organization and festival changes you have seen. In the last few years, a Community Engagement Committee was started for this very purpose.
We commit to continuing to have these open-call meetings once per quarter where any person with a concern, feedback, ideas, enthusiasm, activism, etc. can come and share. We will also continue to meet with people, groups, and organizations as requests arise.
Our main concern was for the safety of the people in the parade who were immobilized during the blockade, exacerbated by the summer heat, which posed a real and immediate risk of heat stroke. Ensuring Pride remains an accessible event is paramount to us, and the potential harm to the community due to weather conditions, lack of mobility, access to restrooms, or water was a significant worry. We are grateful for those who helped reroute the parade and keep it moving. Unfortunately, due to the parade’s new route to avoid the blockade, the accessibility area set up by the Disability Resource Center was unable to oversee a significant portion of the parade.
In the days and weeks prior to the festival, VPS made several attempts to reach out to the protestors for Palestine in an effort to connect. Representatives from VPS connected with the organizers of the weekly rallies at the Legislative Assembly, the group Victoria to Palestine, who were not the group involved in the community-led blockade.
We apologize to any community members who may have been inadvertently harmed by the delay.
The Victoria Pride Society acknowledges that it organizes and works on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen peoples, and that the land’s relationships with the Songhees, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples have existed since time immemorial. Further to this acknowledgement, the Victoria Pride Society affirms that colonialism, and the attitudes and practices that have accompanied it, contributes to systemic discrimination and violence against Indigenous Peoples.
The Victoria Pride Society (VPS) gives a land acknowledgement at the beginning of each meeting and event to remind us all that the message of Pride is intersectional and we stand with all equity-deserving people. Members of the gender, sexuality, and relationship diverse (GSRD) communities will also share qualities with a myriad of demographics and ethos of Pride is to include and support everyone living at odds with a cisheteronormative society.
VPS is responsible for the hosting and execution of the Victoria Pride Parade (“Parade”) and the Victoria Pride Festival at the Park (“Festival”), in addition to other planned events to celebrate and promote equity, diversity, and inclusion for members of GSRD and intersecting communities. The Society’s central mission, as referenced in the Victoria Pride Festival Parade Applicant Terms and Conditions agreed to by all prospective Parade and Festival applicants, is to support inclusion, diversity, and equity for 2SLGBTQIA+ communities and enable the pursuit of greater justice for equity-deserving communities through an intersectional lens recognizing the distinct challenges of all marginalized communities. For this reason, the Victoria Pride Society shall always endeavour to prioritize the needs and advocacy of equity-seeking voices in important decision-making processes within our organization.
There has always been a consistent call from members of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities for Pride societies across the nation to acknowledge and change their approach to the inclusion of law enforcement within Pride parades. Furthermore, many other equity-deserving groups have also been systemically over-policed or harmed by law enforcement and these groups add their voices to the calls from BIPOC communities. These calls to action have been rooted in real and historical intergenerational harms that have been witnessed and felt by these affected members. Both peer-reviewed academic sources [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] and government-supported sources [1] [2] corroborate this.
Marginalization refers to the subjugation or oppression of a specific group of people by structural systems of power that results in them being devalued, sidelined, or unheard. Pride has always been a fight against marginalization and oppression which served to ignite the Stonewall Riots that birthed the modern Pride movement. While we have made social progress in the protection and celebration of diversity within our community, there is clearly more work that needs to be done for all members of GSRD communities to feel safe, respected, and loved. We want to be part of a larger initiative to create a positive space for BIPOC members to feel supported and celebrated. After all, that is what Pride is about: providing a compassionate heart and a loud voice to those who have traditionally fallen outside of the cisheteronormative mainstream.
In accordance with this objective, the Victoria Pride Society has determined that the involvement of law enforcement in the Victoria Pride Parade does not align with our central mission at this time and no uniforms belonging to law enforcement may be worn in the parade. This was initially discussed in 2019 and supported by discussions with the Victoria Police Department (VPD). It is the hope of the Victoria Pride Society that this decision will foster a safe and supportive environment for BIPOC community members, and all equity-deserving community members who are disproportionately affected, to celebrate their Pride without the reminders of generational trauma or the fear of ongoing persecution.
The Victoria Pride Society, however, believes that affected parties can build bridges between these institutions and affected community members through consistent and ongoing dialog and we encourage the diversity action committees of law enforcement to continue the important work of social justice and work to change the narrative of their respective institutions.
The Victoria Pride Society will continue to review this position every three years to ensure that this statement is in alignment with the values of the communities we aim to serve.
Due to the large nature of our festival and parade, we must abide by the laws and regulations of the City of Victoria’s Police Department. We’ve been informed that police attendance at the festival as well as the beginning and end of the parade is required. We have negotiated with VPD to have police stay on the perimeter of the festival grounds and to do any “walk throughs” with a Victoria Pride representative.
We thank the VPD for hearing our concerns and working with us to move closer to the ideals we have as a community. We will continue to speak for the needs of our community and we look forward to hearing further feedback from the community on how we can continue to hold our spaces safely while also abiding by the laws in place.
Once again this year, the Victoria Pride Society (VPS) has received reports that unhoused folks camping in Victoria West Park were displaced by City of Victoria by-law officers ahead of the Memorial Drag Ball Game today, July 1, 2024. As we have stated, VPS strongly believes that displacement of those sheltering the park is unacceptable.
We’re told that the City of Victoria by-law states that people sheltering in parks must leave by 7 am. By-law officers do daily sweeps to remove people from parks. As VPS strives to be an organization that stands with our most equity-deserving community members, we reached out to the City of Victoria ahead of time to ask that they not remove people from the park on July 1st as they have historically used our event, the Memorial Drag Ball Game, as an excuse to ask the campers to leave the park. We made several attempts to reach people and left messages.
In the days leading up to the event, VPS representatives went to the park personally to speak to the residents, let them know they were welcome to stay for the event, and brought them food, water, and dollar store gift cards. We spoke to the individuals personally.
Despite our efforts, by-law officers did a sweep of the park at 7 am. Some people did leave and others moved to a less noisy part of the park due to sensory needs or because they did not wish to be around the crowd. When leaving the park today, we again visited the residents and left more food and water.
VPS recognizes that the housing crisis causes a great deal of harm in our communities and disproportionately affects gender, sexual and relationship diverse (GSRD) and other equity-deserving communities. We will continue to work to ensure our events are inclusive, safe, and accessible for all and recognize that there will always be more to be done. We are here to do that work and will continue to reach out to the City of Victoria by-law offices to ensure the residents of Victoria West Park are treated with dignity and respect.
The Victoria Pride Society Team
With the unfortunate “We Unify” conference happening this weekend (June 22-23) at the Victoria Conference Center (VCC), we want to be transparent about the role of Victoria Pride Society (VPS) in this issue and our upcoming booking for an event at the VCC as well. Please see below for context.
The VCC is a City of Victoria-owned building but it is managed by Destination Greater Victoria (DGV). The conference used a third party to book the venue which means they did not state the content of the conference, the speakers, or even the name of the conference during booking.
Regrettably, DGV does not vet potential occupants for social impact; it only vets for financial viability and other such things. Once approved by DGV, they pass the contract to the VCC and are no longer able to legally make changes to the contract. Unfortunately, it seems the VCC is not able to have a say in whom they host once DGV has already approved it. The City of Victoria (CoV) is seemingly not consulted on occupants; rather, DGV is supposed to abide by the CoV’s current bills and Code of Conduct, which have policies against events such as the We Unify conference.
Several city councillors from the CoV have been in touch with the Victoria Pride Society’s president, Ace Mann, and have voiced their outrage towards the event. The CoV has policies already in place that were supposed to stop events such as We Unify to come to “Victoria,” policies which deserve review, especially in light of this conference.
Ace also met with DGV's CEO and discussed the possibility of canceling the event and how DGV can strengthen its vetting process going forward, namely by including social impact as a criterion for vetting.
It seems that VCC has a legally binding contract requiring them to continue to host the We Unify conference despite their disapproval of it. We have heard that the staff there are upset and finding it difficult to staff the event, as many are protesting as well.
Ace has been working closely with some of the members of the group 1 Million Voices for Inclusion (1MVFI). VPS has been amplifying their efforts and staying in close communication as information continues to evolve. 1MVFI is planning a protest on Saturday, June 22nd, at 9 a.m. at the VCC's Douglas entrance, and we encourage everyone to attend if they are able to do so safely.
Ace is also working to connect CoV, DGV, and the VCC to find a path forward that will ensure this type of event can never happen again.
Regrettably, VPS has our only ticketed event booked through the VCC. This event, including down payments, contracts, and planning, has been finalized for many months. With our event happening two weeks from now, we do not have the ability to move venues due to financial and legal liabilities. Additionally, many speakers, vendors, and staff have been booked for the amenities of this venue, and changing venues would negatively affect many people in our community who are looking to this event for income.
We truly hope that people from the communities will understand the unfortunate situation and help us to uplift and appreciate the incredible voices of the poets, writers, speakers, and vendors who deserve a successful event.
VPS is a non-profit organization that requires grants and the generosity of sponsors and community members to operate. We provide the largest free festival in “Victoria.” All events, save Pride in the Word, are free to attend for participants.
The Pride in the Word event is not a revenue stream for VPS and generally does not bring in any funding. Each year, the goal is to break even. We continue to arrange this event because it is the largest queer literary event in Western “Canada” and there is a small but dedicated group that attends year after year.
VPS became "partners" with DGV in 2023 which means we accepted a small donation from them as well as help in marketing. We have paused their 2024 partnership agreement and are reviewing it to reflect the impact this mistake has had on our communities.
VPS also receives funding from the CoV, without which we could not offer our free festival or parade. We were not able to alter the partnership for 2024 as it had already been signed and was legally binding by the time this event came to light.
The VCC is not a partner.
People make mistakes. Booking this event is a big one. There is much that can be done by all three parties—DGV, CoV, and the VCC—to tighten policies and improve procedures to make sure these events no longer fall through the cracks.
It’s also important to note that people with hateful commentary are aware that they will not be welcomed and are using false names in order to book venues. The Vic Theatre on Douglas had an issue earlier this year with a similar situation. We must all learn from these mistakes and work to ensure we pivot as quickly as hate does.
The Victoria Pride Society acknowledges that it organizes and works on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen Peoples and that the land’s relationships with the Songhees, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples have existed since time immemorial. Further to this acknowledgement, the Victoria Pride Society affirms that colonialism and the attitudes and practices that have accompanied it contribute to systemic discrimination and violence against Indigenous Peoples and all marginalized and equity-deserving people. Read more.
