Hundreds of Palestinian supporters blocked the Capital Pride Parade shortly after it began Sunday afternoon, demanding parade officials come down and meet their “demands
But I thought Tricks where for kids Queens where for Palestinian?
Protesters gathered on Wellington Street near O’Connor, dancing to music while holding up signs and Palestinian flags. Many signs said “no pride in genocide.”
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A giant pink-and-black banner read “all of us or none of us” and “stone wall was an intifada.” They also chanted slogans like “free, free Palestine,” “long live the intifada” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
“We will not leave until our elected officials and Capital Pride come down and meet our demands,” said Masha Davidovic, a member of Queers for Palestine-Ottawa group?
At about 2:30 p.m., the decision was made to cancel the remainder of the parade.
The confrontation comes after Capital Pride quietly took down its statement of solidarity with Palestinians this year, sparking criticism among some members of the community.
Stefania Wheelhouse of TotoToo Theatre was marching in the parade with 30 other people before the event was cancelled. She told the Ottawa Citizen that they walked for about a block and half before they were stopped.
Around an hour later, they received word from Capital Pride officials that the remainder of the parade was cancelled and they were told to pack up and leave.
“We are bummed, of course, but we had a blast for the block and a half that we walked, and everyone was so positive, so it was still a net win for us,” Wheelhouse said.
“Blackmailing the mayor in the middle of the parade is completely, highly inappropriate. … There are ways to lobby. There are ways to advocate, and holding a parade like this hostage and blackmailing politicians in the middle of it is completely inappropriate.
Protesters gathered on Wellington Street near O’Connor, dancing to music while holding up signs and Palestinian flags.
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“Hopefully the rest of the day we can just go about celebrating. The community organizations are down (on Bank Street) with their booths, and I’m sure the music will be good and all that stuff. It’s just unfortunate the parade was hijacked.”
Controversial street preacher Artur Pawlowski and three parishioners have been convicted of breaching a city bylaw by joining the Calgary Stampede’s Centennial Parade two years ago. In his written decision released on Friday, provincial court Judge Mark Tyndale upheld the Calgary Municipal...
calgaryherald.com
Shame Ottawa wasn’t as progressive as Calgary, but then nobody expects protests to happen in Ottawa…