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 landβs relationships with the Songhees, Esquimalt, and WΜ±SΓNEΔ 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.
