Pride is a celebration of the advancement of 2SLGBTQIA+ rights and a rallying cry for the work still to be done to protect their community from discrimination.
That discrimination unfortunately seems to be on the rise in Canada.
Conservative premiers in three provinces, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick, have instituted anti-2SLGBTQIA+ policies particularly targeting trans youth.
READ MORE: In Alberta’s new war on trans people, children will suffer
Furthermore federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre earlier this year voiced his support for practices to exclude transgendered persons from participating in sports and for blocking trans youth from receiving gender-affirming healthcare.
Due to these rising levels of discrimination targeting members of their community, Pride organizers across the country are beginning to be more selective about who in their local communities can participate in parades, rallies and events.
Toronto police, for example, were barred from participating in Pride events in uniform in that city in recent years due to that institution’s past persecution of members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
The premier of Alberta and her entire party were banned from participating in Pride events in that province this year due to their government’s previously stated anti-trans policies.
In smaller communities, this trend has continued. One such example is Cornwall, ON.
Pride in a small town
Cornwall is represented both at the federal and provincial levels by conservatives, and both Conservative Party of Canada MP Eric Duncan and Progressive Conservative MPP Nolan Quinn were not invited to this year’s Pride events by the organizers, Diversity Cornwall.
In Quinn’s case, despite years of support for Diversity Cornwall and Pride, he was uninvited due to his vote earlier this year against Bill 42, the Gender Affirming Health Care Advisory Committee Act, 2024, which would have provided more provincial supports for trans youth.
Duncan was uninvited due to his silence on national 2SLGBTQIA+ issues. Since his party leader Pierre Poilievre made his anti-trans statements in February, Duncan has yet to rebut or even comment on them, nor has he condemned the discriminatory policies of Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick.
A letter sent by Diversity Cornwall to Duncan reads as follows:
“We are deeply disappointed by the silence of our MP on critical issues that affect the safety and rights of our fellow community members. Despite opportunities to oppose bills that harm 2SLGBTQ+ individuals, particularly impacting trans and non-binary youths and children’s rights, you have chosen to remain voiceless. This silence inadvertently aligns with the troubling increase in violence and hate our community faces each year.”
Cornwall is a small community. Like in any small community, local activists, organizers and local politicians are all well known to each other.
Neither Duncan nor Quinn responded to the letters they received from Diversity Cornwall. Neither Duncan nor Quinn attempted to register to participate in any Pride events this year. And finally, neither Duncan nor Quinn took Diversity Cornwall up on their offer to speak in person to discuss and work out these issues prior to the event.
Instead of dialogue, just days before the annual Pride parade was to be held, Diversity Cornwall received letters from the mayor of the City of Cornwall, and the warden of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry (SD&G), whose constituent municipalities surround the city, calling on them to rescind their letters to Duncan and Quinn.
The letters from both the mayor, Justin Towndale, and warden, Jamie MacDonald, state that Duncan and Quinn were being uninvited from Pride solely because of their political affiliation, something the letters to both from Diversity Cornwall clearly refute, as does Diversity Cornwall president Liz Quenville.
“The Board made the decision to do that after we heard concerns from our community,” said Quenville in an interview with rabble.ca. “Not just locally, but across Canada pride organizations have been raising concerns and making the difficult decision to ask some conservative party leaders not to participate in pride parades and festivals where they don’t feel as though their leadership, their MP and their MPP are supporting their community.”
Local political leaders defend MP, MPP
In his letter to Diversity Cornwall, mayor Towndale defended the character of both Duncan and Quinn.
“While I can appreciate the actions of certain individuals affiliated with conservative movements are certainly discriminatory, and I condemn them unequivocally, I do not believe that these two individuals have undertaken any actions or speech that are discriminatory in nature,” Towndale’s letter reads.
Towndale explains in his letter that as an openly gay MP, Duncan has advocated against discriminatory practices like the federal gay blood ban and conversion therapy.
Quinn made donations in support of Pride events in Cornwall for years prior to becoming MPP.
Neither Towndale nor MacDonald in their letters to Diversity Cornwall address the recent behaviour that raised concerns among members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and which led to them being uninvited from this year’s Pride events.
In his letter to Diversity Cornwall, United Counties of SD&G Warden Jamie MacDonald pointed out that his government is a funder of that group and implied that they may reconsider their support unless Diversity Cornwall rescind the letters.
“It should be noted that Diversity Cornwall has successfully applied for funding under SDG Tourism’s Regional Tourism Grant. Half of the $2,500 grant has been provided to Diversity Cornwall, with the balance still to come,” MacDonald’s letter reads. “We must consider your response to our request when it comes to fulfilling the balance of the funding arrangement contained in the contract. We point this out because, as noted in this letter, SDG Counties prides itself on supporting like-minded organizations that share in our beliefs.”
In responding to a request for comment from rabble, Mayor Towndale said that he stood by his earlier comments and stated unequivocally that Eric Duncan never approached him to request that any funding be withheld from Diversity Cornwall.
Local media in Cornwall were quick to pick up on the story
Diversity Cornwall stands its ground
Quenville said going public with this dispute was not something that they would have necessarily chosen to do, but Cornwall is a small community, and elements of the story were already reaching the public.
“I have nothing negative to say about our funders. They gave us money that allowed us to deliver much needed life saving programs and services and their funding is very important,” Quenville said.
Quenville said she would have appreciated a conversation with Duncan and Quinn about the issues, something that both politicians have yet to engage in.
“As a member of the 2SLGBTQ community himself, I would have hoped that Eric would come to us and say, ‘you know, I hear that our community has concerns. I’m listening to you and want to have that conversation and get to a point where our community did feel supported,’ but that wasn’t the approach that he took,” said Quenville.
Quenville added that many members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community are suffering and need strong supports from their communities.
“They’re really struggling with the rise in hate and anti-2SLGBTQ messaging and policies that restrict trans rights and trans health care. People are dying as a result of this and we need people in our community and particularly our MP and our MPP to hear that and to take it seriously,” she said.
She explained that the funding they received and events that they organize are critical for the survival of some members of the queer community in Cornwall.
“We’ve had numerous people reach out and say they were in a very dark place that they were thinking of ending their lives and that they finally found a sense of community that when they come into our office, they feel like they’re home,” said Quenville.
The offer for Quinn and Duncan to dialogue with Diversity Cornwall about their concerns stands.
rabble attempted to reach Jamie MacDonald and Eric Duncan with questions about the issues discussed in this story, but neither responded at time of publication.
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