The mayor of Ottawa, Mark Sutcliffe, is changing the fault with the pro-palestinian protesters for the cancellation of this year’s pride parade.
Sutcliffe described it “deeply unfortunate that a small group of activists chose to block the parade” on Sunday.
Queers’s Ottawa chapter for Palestine stopped the march when blocking the parade route on Wellington Street. They issued a list of demands, including two directed to Capital Pride, both related to the movement to boycott Israel.
But two other demands were addressed to the mayor. The protesters asked him to apologize for withdrawing from the 2024 parade, a decision that the mayor made after a controversial Pro-Palestinian declaration of Capital Pride that year. The group also asked him to stop with oppressed people, including the Palestinians.
“I don’t think any kind of apology is justified,” said Sutcliffe told journalists on Monday.
He said he listened to the blockade and demands, but said he would not have been “appropriate” simply to give in to the protesters to resume the parade.
“I do not think we should be in a situation in which someone can block an event or a parade, especially capital pride, make a lot of demands and, unless these demands are met, then the parade or the event does not continue,” said Sutcliffe.
“Why does it follow? What will be the list of demands next time?”
The mayor had the option to leave, says the activist
Emily Quaille, a member of the ottawa chapter of Queers for Palestine, said Sutcliffe could have deactivated the situation in another way: he could have left the parade.
“I told the mayor through Capital Pride to come to talk to us, apologize, at least listen to us, find a resolution, or he can leave,” he said. “He chose a third option, which is to sit there and force the pride of capital or me to choose what to do.”
She said Sutcliffe cannot be an ally 2SLGBTQ+ if he chooses to boycott the parade for a year and return to the next without an apology, with her decision depending on the Pride capital position on the war in Gaza.
“I do not understand why a heterosexual man with the considerable amount of power he has is pretending to be an ally, but that works as the opposite of an ally,” he said. “He is dictating our values, and what we must be next.
“The queer community says that pro-palestinian values are our values,” Quaille added. “We face the oppression of all people.”
Capital Pride issued a statement last year condemning both the massacre of the Israelis of October 7 and the response of Israel, which called an “endless and brutal campaign” that has killed innocent Palestinians.
Capital Pride also promised to recognize “the genocide ongoing against the Palestinians.” Sutcliffe, the city of Ottawa and several organizations withdrew from the parade in response.
That statement disappeared from the Pride Capital website before this year’s event. Quaille said it was a factor in his group’s decision to interrupt the parade. For her, she pointed out that the parade was tilting at the external pressure.
Sutcliffe said that he will not apologize for attending a parade that is supposed to be about respect and inclusion. He said he has always been a supporter of the 2SLGBTQ+community, and it will always be.
“I don’t think there should be a point where people say: ‘We are not going to let the parade continue unless certain people leave,” he said.
The organizers need plan for future interruptions, says the mayor
Quaille said that Capital Pride pledged verbally to meet the demands aimed at him, so the mayor’s refusal to negotiate or left remained a main point of conflict.
However, he regretted that Capital Pride has not yet been publicly committed to the demands, which a City Council requested in the boycott movement, divestment and sanction, and a commitment to Israel’s academic and cultural boycott.
“I’m not sure why that hasn’t happened yet Monday afternoon,” he said. “So I would consider that our Capital Pride demands are not yet fulfilled.”
According to Quaille, there was still another solution on the table. She said she agreed to stop the blockade and March for Bank Street, although Capital Pride announced the cancellation of the parade before organizing her group behind such movement.
Capital Pride did not make anyone available for an interview on Monday. In his statement announcing cancellation on Sunday, he said that the Queers for Palestine “refused to have a significant conversation about how to move forward” and “was not willing to establish a conversation of good faith.”
Sutcliffe said Capital Pride will have to work to avoid repetition of this year’s interruption.
“I know that many people were disappointed with the result yesterday. I have connected with many people who planned to participate and excited to participate,” he said.
“I think that Capital Pride has to make sure that next year’s event has a plan on how he will continue and how they can assure participants that if they appear and rely and invest in the event that it continues.”
