Regina Pride parade set to go on despite Edmonton cancellation

Queen City Pride is hoping Edmonton’s LGBTQ community can unite in understanding following reports that that city’s Pride Festival wouldn’t go on this summer.

Organizers cancelled the June event earlier this week, citing the “current political and social environment” as reasons why.

The Edmonton festival’s board of directors wrote in a letter the decision was made with a “heavy heart,” noting other community organizations will still be putting on events.

The letter posted on the Edmonton Pride Festival Society’s website late Wednesday said the goal is to host a safe event encompassing of the entire community — something the society says is not attainable this year.

Watching from afar, Dan Shier, co-chair of Queen City Pride, hopes the LGBTQ community there still finds a way to unite.

“I hope, in light of the recent events in Edmonton, that their different communities will acknowledge what happened and will have some sort of parade or procession,” he said in an interview Thursday. “I encourage everyone to try and see all the other perspectives — to prioritize love and understanding and empathy.”

Born from marches and protest, the parade is a significant part of Pride festivities, Shier said.

“Here in Regina, Pride is a platform for a lot of different issues, so the loss of Edmonton Pride’s festival this year, I’m sure, has impacted a lot (of people),” he explained.

There’s currently a country-wide debate over whether police should be involved in Pride; demonstrators paused Edmonton’s parade last year as part of a demonstration against the inclusion of uniformed police.

In Regina, Shier says they’re still working with police and the LGBTQ community to see if officers will join Queen City Pride’s event this summer.

Last year, plainclothed officers walked in the parade, but Shier noted they were requested not to wear their uniforms.

Regina’s Pride parade is scheduled for June 15.

—With files from the Canadian Press