Christian Gammon-Roy
Tribune
West Nipissing Pride is hitting some roadblocks in their planning of this year’s Pride Month events. At a municipal council meeting on February 3, WN Pride President Ryan Jackson made a presentation requesting support for their events, and to have safe space stickers put up in municipal buildings. In subsequent meetings, council had to deliberate and vote on what used to be easily approved, in large part due to the flag raising. The request to do flag raisings in outlying communities, and to have the Pride flag displayed for the full duration of Pride month in June became an issue due to a flag policy implemented last year, after complaints arose regarding Canada flags being taken down during the Pride celebrations. By the end of their most recent meeting on Tuesday, March 17, council had finally voted on all of WN Pride’s requests, but not to the satisfaction of the organisation.
In his initial presentation, Jackson explained the need for Pride events by saying there is “currently in Canada and in our communities, an increase in hate, an increase in violence, and in political parties using hatred of our community to scapegoat. This puts our community and individuals at risk, in West Nipissing and beyond.” He gave examples from neighbouring communities, such as rainbow crosswalks being defaced in Sudbury and a North Bay Pride youth group getting online death threats, adding that WN Pride had also seen an increase in hateful comments on their own social media.
In requesting a repeat of community-wide flag raisings, called the ‘Rainbow Tour’, Jackson acknowledged the backlash from last year. He made a point to mention the community’s purchase of additional flag poles “as we want to raise our flags and not take down the Canadian flag. We’re glad there is room for both our flags there.”
Jackson requested that the municipality once again declare June as Pride month, and that the Pride parade be held again. A map of the parade route was provided to council, to begin and end at Goulard Park, as the committee intended to hold a small festival there so that community members could gather with artists and vendors. Jackson also asked for the presence of a fire truck in the parade, mentioning that emergency services are present at other annual parades. “It has been brought up to us, that it is visible when emergency services are represented at other things, and not at this one. We know that emergency services, police, (…) have had a troubling history in the past, not necessarily in West Nipissing, but in other places, a difficult relationship with the Queer community. We want to show that in West Nipissing we will be treated the same as any other festival, any other group, any other individual,” he stated.
The final request was for safe space stickers to be placed at “public facing municipal buildings.” The stickers feature a rainbow flag background with the statement that “This is a safe space for the queer and trans people of West Nipissing,” both in English and French. “They serve two purposes. One, so that when anyone comes to these buildings, they see that they will be treated with dignity, equality, and they are safe here to present as themselves. They don’t have to say, ‘my friend,’ they can say ‘my partner, my husband, or my spouse.’ It also means that anyone walking through those doors, any person that is working, any municipal contractor or employee knows that this is what is expected,” explained Jackson.
