Ottawa Pride Parade Canceled Cuz of Pro-Palestine Protesters 🏳️‍🌈🇵🇸 No Cap

The Deets

Okay, so listen up, besties. The Ottawa Pride parade? Yeah, it was supposed to be poppin' on Sunday. But plot twist! Pro-Palestine protesters rolled up and said, "Hold up, we got demands." They were all over Wellington Street, waving Palestinian flags and holding signs, basically saying Capital Pride needed to show some love for Palestine.

This group, Queers for Palestine – Ottawa, was leading the charge. They wanted Capital Pride to be transparent about where they stand on the whole Palestine sitch and wanted Mayor Mark Sutcliffe to apologize for ditching last year's parade because it was already throwing support to Palestine. Apparently, elected officials and other groups boycotted last year cuz of Capital Pride's solidarity statement, which has since been yeeted from their website. Major yikes.

The protesters wanted Capital Pride to host a BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) townhall and support PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel). They were straight-up blocking the parade route, and Capital Pride was like, "Uh, rerouting ain't an option." They said they were already in talks with Queers for Palestine and other groups, but since the street closures were only good until 4 p.m., they had to pull the plug on the whole parade. Big sad.

Mayor Sutcliffe was not feeling it. He said the protesters' actions were "deeply regrettable" and that supporting the LGBTQ2S+ community is still important. Donna Blackburn, a school board trustee, also clapped back, calling the protest inappropriate. Ouch.

Over 7,000 people from more than 175 groups were supposed to be there, so you know people were heated when they heard it was canceled. What a mess, tbh.