The Vancouver Pride Parade–set to run Sunday–is bathed in controversy.
This is the 38th edition of the parade, which had grown into a giant celebration of diversity and human rights, but the lead-up is not running smoothly.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to march, but so–as they have for 20 years–are the Vancouver police.
That’s not sitting well with the Black Lives Matter movement, which temporarily stopped Toronto’s Pride parade earlier this month.
Two weeks ago, Black Lives Matter Vancouver posted an open letter on its website saying it wanted the Vancouver police department to voluntarily withdraw from the parade because its involvement makes some communities feel unsafe.
After receiving no response from the Vancouver Pride Society, BLMV said it would neither protest the parade nor participate in it.
On Monday, a group representing gay Muslim and a group representing South Asians announced that–in solidarity with Black Lives Matter–they would not be participating in this year’s parade.
If police are feeling pressure to withdraw, it’s not showing.
A police spokesman says they will be marching in the parade and securing its routes.
Tim Stevenson is a life-long campaigner for human rights, a United Church of Canada minister, a college professor, and currently sits on the Vancouver City Council as a member of Vision Vancouver, which he helped found.
In 1992, he became the first openly gay person ordained in a Christian denomination in Canada in 1992.
In 1996, he became first openly gay person elected to the British Columbia provincial legislature.
In 2000, he became the first openly gay cabinet minister in Canada.
I asked him to put this year’s controversies into perspective.
He spoke from his office at Vancouver City Hall.
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