Ottawa Pride Became The Protest it Was Meant to Be.

From cofounder Chelsea Bleau - Yesterday in Ottawa

“I am currently on holiday with my partner, doing a road trip from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to Ottawa/Gatineau. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to the Capital Pride Parade while we were here, as I’m not great with huge crowds. But my partner and I went, found a spot on Wellington, and just as the parade came into our view, it stopped.

Not long after, we learned why. Queers for Palestine Ottawa (@queers4palestineott), who had been invited by Grand Marshal Patience Plush (@misspatienceplush) to march at the front, halted the parade right in front of the House of Commons to issue demands: for Capital Pride to be transparent about their commitments to the community, and for Ottawa’s mayor, Mark Sutcliffe - who boycotted Pride last year over its pro-Palestine stance - to apologize and pledge support for all oppressed peoples.

We stayed. We listened. We participated. We watched as Capital Pride’s response unfolded - how they blamed Q4P, how the mayor chose to allow the parade to be ultimately cancelled. But what I saw on the ground was not chaos or disappointment, it was joy and community! Q4P and their supporters marched through Centretown anyway, without police support, led by union allies, full of joy!

It felt like witnessing Pride as it was meant to be: not a corporate spectacle, but resistance. Love and liberation in the streets. It will be a Pride for us to remember!

This significant moment matters. It calls us to ask: Who does Pride serve? Whose voices are amplified, and whose are dismissed? And what does true 2SLGBTQIAP+ solidarity look like, locally and globally?

Pride began as protest, and yesterday, it returned to its roots.”