Those who walked in the first half of today's pride parade in Victoria missed the real event: a street blockade to challenge the Victoria Pride Society's stance on Palestine and beyond.
Sixty activists blocked the road on the Victoria Pride Parade‘s path to call out the Society’s silence on Palestine and its complicity in colonial measures such as the displacement of homeless people prior to Pride events in town.
The blockade was called thirty-eight minute into the procession, effectively splitting it in two; eighteen minutes into the action, the parade would withdraw from Humboldt Street and continue instead down Douglas Street.
The protesters held their ground for nearly an hour nonetheless, while negotiating with the Victoria Pride Society with a list of demands, starting with a call for a ceasefire in Gaza and a commitment to Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against the Zionist state and its partners, but also including distancing itself from the police for the latter’s historical oppression of queer people, and demanding the end of homeless encampment sweeps at Pride event sites. On this last point, the demonstrators were particularly outraged by the Vic West Park sweep which preceded the Memorial Drag Ball Game on July 1st.
Law enforcement was quick to respond, dispatching no less than ten officers from the Victoria and Saanich police departments, followed shortly by a squad of what I presume to be Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team (GVERT) officers standing a respectful distance from the action. Police only engaged with protesters via diplomatic channels, and no arrests were made.
Reactions were of course highly polarised. While roughly as many supporters as activists supported the blockade on the sidelines, several hostiles engaged with the crowd as well. There was one scuffle with a man who grabbed an activist who was recording him a bit too closely for comfort; the perpetrator was apprehended by the police and briefly detained before being released and sent on his way.
The Victoria Pride Society reportedly replied by agreeing with the protesters’ demands, and promised to issue a written statement imminently. The activists then dispersed in an orderly fashion. Police did not pursue them. UPDATE 2024/07/10: Victoria Pride did indeed release a statement conceding some of the points raised by the protesters.
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