Montreal Pride Festival cancels parade
CBC
Organizers of the Montreal Pride Festival cancelled Sunday's parade, citing a lack of security staff for the parade route.
The organizers said they were short 80 people — not enough to keep the parade route safe.
Earlier, Montreal Pride had tweeted that the decision was made in collaboration with Montreal police. They later corrected their statement, saying the decision was made by the organizers alone.
Events taking place at the Esplanade du Parc olympique from 2 p.m., including the closing show with Pabllo Vittar, went on as planned.
Tens of thousands of people were expected to attend today's parade.
Simon Gamache, executive director of Montreal Pride, said until this morning organizers thought the parade could take place.
"It's heartbreaking," Gamache said."We hope that we're able to organize something else in the next few weeks, few months to replace what we unfortunately had to cancel today."
Although Montreal Pride held several events earlier this week, Gamache says the limited number of staff and volunteers was always an issue.
"It was really always close every day," he said. "It went well, but it was not easy behind the scenes."
He says the organization will meet with its financial partners in the coming days.
At a news conference Sunday, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said she was shocked to learn of the parade's cancellation.
"If we had been made aware of the lack of staff or anything else, would have put in the necessary energy," she said.
"My frustration this morning is realizing that it seems there were decisions made, but we were never informed, and that's disappointing," she said.
Hours after the announcement, members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ communities started co-ordinating off-site events.