Withdrawal of political and corporate support comes in wake of Capital Pride’s support for Palestinian human rights.
Members of the Palestinian solidarity contingent rally people at the end of the Pride march at Bank Street and Slater. A watermelon balloon hovers in the background. Credit: Lital KhaikinCredit: Lital Khaikin
Over 5,000 people marched through Canada’s capital on Sunday chanting “Pride is a protest” – a slogan which harkens back to the origins of Pride, when in 1969 the Stonewall Uprising against police brutality was ignited. For participants in this year’s Capital Pride, it is also a reminder of what inclusion, safety and solidarity are at the core: a social justice movement.
As Israel continues a nearly year-long bombing campaign that has claimed the lives of over 40,000 Palestinians since October, this year’s Capital Pride has taken a principled stance of support for Palestinian human rights.
Solidarity with Palestine at Pride
A statement issued by Capital Pride reaffirmed the organization’s “commitment to solidarity as the core principle” guiding their work. The statement acknowledges Israel’s human rights abuses and war crimes, which in little detail have included the murder of over 13,000 children in Gaza just since October, torture at Israeli military prison Sde Teiman, and the unprecedented murder of journalists by Israeli forces.
Capital Pride’s statement explicitly called for “[i]ntegrating resources such as the Palestinian BDS National Committee’s boycott list in our existing review process of current and future sponsorship agreements.”
Boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) is a non-violent form of protest—which was critical to ending South African apartheid—that seeks to end international support for Israeli apartheid and the weapons industry, illegal settlements, and illegal business operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It has repeatedly proven effective.
This past May, Scotiabank’s 1832 Asset Management nearly halved its stakes in Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems. Norway’s largest private pension fund KLP announced its divestment in June from U.S. company Caterpillar, whose construction equipment is sourced in razing Palestinian homes and building illegal Israeli settlements.
The Jewish Federation of Ottawa withdrew and called Pride’s statement “anti-semitic.” A letter by Ottawa business leaders in the Toronto Star denounced Capital Pride for “align[ing] itself with entities that oppose the very freedoms Pride events are meant to celebrate” and referring to the support for Palestinian human rights as “not relevant to Pride.” OCDSB trustee Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth told CTV News that Pride is unsafe for “the whole Jewish community.”
Meanwhile, organizations, businesses and grassroots initiatives by and for queer, marginalized and migrant communities in Ottawa have emphasized their support for Pride’s stance.
A member of the Palestinian solidarity contingent dances with the Palestinian flag in front of a large painted mural carried by participants in the march.The Palestinian solidarity contingent heads the march down Elgin Street toward Gladstone Avenue.A participant in the Capital Pride march carries the rhythm with a drum.A participant in Capital Pride dressed in pink and blue shorts, a crop-top and neon mesh arm bands stands on top of a bus station on Gladstone Avenue.
“Unfortunately, nowadays when you stand for justice, you get into trouble,” said Mariam Mannai, co-founder of the Montréal-based Mubaadarat, a collective serving the queer Palestinian and wider Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) communities across Canada.
Mubaadarat and Mannai were among a collective of organizations identified as Queers of Consience—also including Helem Montréal, Independent Jewish Voices Montréal (IJV), and Faction Anti-Genocide Solidarity (F.A.G.S.)—who pursued negotiations with Fierté Montréal to divest from corporate sponsorship that supports Israeli apartheid. When negotiations were ineffective, a Palestinian solidarity contingent blockaded Montréal Pride on August 11, demanding the resignation of Fierté’s CEO.
Pink-washing Pride
Corporate sponsorship of Pride has long been criticized for commodifying and co-opting queer activism into a branding exercise for companies and political parties. Loblaws, for example, carries the BDS-listed and U.S.-based company Sabra hummus, which is a joint venture between PepsiCo and Israeli company Strauss Group, and Israeli produce like oranges.
Some companies that have not publicly withdrawn their support of Capital Pride still remain invested in the infrastructure of Israeli occupation. Presenting partner TD Bank’s TD Asset Management holds over $16 million in stock in General Dynamics, which manufactures weapons and surveillance technology used against Palestinians. Bronze partner tech companies Nokia and Ciena are well-established in the Israeli telecommunications sector.
“This is the gist of pink-washing: we want to stay, we want to show the queer community that we’re supporting you, Capital Pride and your festivities,” Mannai explained. “They are using queer bodies and queer representations to clean up their face.”
“Let’s remember that Pride was a riot and it should always be a riot,” Mannai continued. “It was never about festivities. It’s capitalism and imperialism that made it this way.”
Some, however, embrace the political power of corporate support for Pride to help normalize queer identities and sexualities that might otherwise be criminalized.
“Back home, many corporations that are criticized for supporting Pride would be hesitating to support Pride because it’s dangerous. It could be harmful for their business—including physical violence, not just image,” explained Lenny Emson, executive director of Capital Rainbow Refuge, which supports LGBTQI+ refugees in Ottawa.
Political identities at Pride
Serving the LGBTQI+ communities around the world for over thirty years, Emson views the controversy around Capital Pride’s statement of solidarity as a critical historical moment. As a Ukrainian, he sees a resurgence in diasporic relationships with national identities when they had not previously been as visible or politically important in queer spaces, and pride in national identities may have been seen as bigotry.
“We are going from a narrow agenda that would welcome just our community, to welcoming broader identities that we all are carrying,” he said. “We’re going to a much wider community with broader political identities.”
And despite claims that Palestinian solidarity has made Pride unsafe for Jews, a contingent from Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) marched at Capital Pride.
“As a queer and trans Jew, it is incredibly disheartening to see fellow Jews attack and harass our queer community organizers for taking a principled stance on the side of human rights,” Iso Setel, interim communications coordinator and IJV member, wrote to rabble.
“Our Jewish values teach us b’tzelem elohim, that every human life is sacred; our queer and trans histories teach us that we are strongest and safest in diverse communities,” Setel added. “If pro-Israel groups feel threatened by the recognition of Palestinian humanity, they have lost track of the most fundamental Jewish ethics and have failed not only our queer communities but our Jewish communities as well.”
Green Party and NDP share support
While the federal Liberal Party withdrew support from Capital Pride, the Greens and NDP remained.
Sarah Gabrielle Baron, Green Party member and CEO of the Ottawa-Vanier-Gloucester Electoral District Association, sees the withdrawal of Sutcliffe and the hospitals as a mistake and creating further divisions.
“It was an inappropriate response to a legitimate remark from some Jewish organizations saying ‘we’re afraid’. But you don’t respond by withdrawing and creating further division,” said Baron. “Support for Palestinians does not equate with anti-Semitism.”
NDP MPP Joel Harden sees intersectional solidarity at the heart of Pride.
“Not even as a New Democrat, but as a human being, I struggle with why we give the Palestinian cause less weight than we have given other causes,” he said, responding to Capital Pride’s call for integrating BDS in the sponsorship review process. “What we need are specific targeted sanctions and embargoes to stop the war machine in Israel.”
A participant in Capital Pride poses on Elgin Street. They are wearing white angel wings and have adorned their hair with flowers in a style that recalls the iconic look of Marsha P. Johnson.
Two participants in Capital Pride embracing in front of Knox Presbyterian Church on Elgin Street.
A Palestinian flag in the hands of a member of the Palestinian solidarity contingent as the march heads up Bank Street.
Members of the Pinecrest-Queensway Health and Community Services group march down Elgin.
Grand Marshall of 2024 Capital Pride, Haley Robinson, Cree/Filipinx Two-Spirit actor, model and advocate residing in Ottawa, dances in a Shiibaashka’igan along Elgin.
Other than referring to a tweet published here, spokespeople at Mayor Sutcliffe’s office didn’t provide rabble.ca with any other justification or details on withdrawing political support from Capital Pride amid the call for BDS.
The Ottawa-based organizers of the Palestinian contingent had a blanket policy not to speak with media and declined to speak with rabble. Capital Pride also declined to speak with rabble.
All photo credit to Lital Khaikin.
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Lital Khaikin is a freelance journalist and author based in Montréal who regularly writes on humanitarian and environmental issues related to underreported regions and conflict zones for independent media...
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