Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe vowed not to participate in the upcoming Captial Pride events days after Jewish rights organizations pulled support from Ottawa’s Pride organization over its anti-Israel stance.
Sutcliffe posted a statement on social media Thursday in support of Ottawa’s Jewish community disapproving of Capital Pride’s refusal to reverse its decision to join the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement and its anti-Israel public statement.
In the Pride organization statement, the group said it would declare Israel’s retaliation for the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas a genocide in the opening remarks of each event, boycott any company that the BDS movement has declared anathema due to perceived ties with Israel, and that any gay rights that the state of Israel has is “pinkwashing” to hide its alleged human rights violations.
Capital Pride starts Saturday and continues until Aug. 25.
“I’m disappointed that despite conversations with the Jewish community, the board of Capital Pride has chosen to stand behind its original statement that caused significant hurt and distress for many members of the Jewish community,” Sutcliffe said on X. “This decision by the board, days before the start of Pride, has unfortunately created an atmosphere where many now do not feel welcome to participate.”
Sutcliffe left the door open for the Pride organization to reverse its position, continuing to encourage the group, whose mandate is to provide a safe and inclusive celebration for all in the gay and queer community, to “take steps to ensure no one feels excluded.”
“It’s important to continue to support the 2LGBTQ+ community and defend the values of equity and inclusion that the Pride movement has always stood for,” he said. “I will be attending Pride activities in the days ahead, but unless there is a change in approach, I will not be participating in events organized by Capital Pride this year.”
Pauline Colwin, the VP of communications for the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, which spearheaded the Jewish community’s collective response to withdraw support from this year’s Pride celebration, wants Ottawa Pride to retract its statements and reverse its decision to join the anti-Israel boycott.
“We fully support the Pride movement and Ottawa’s 2SLGBTQ+ community. Our concern lies with the fact that the Capital Pride organizers have compromised their core principle of inclusivity by creating an environment where Jews and Israelis feel unsafe and unwelcome,” she told True North. “Our decision to withdraw from participation was not made lightly. It came after significant efforts to engage meaningfully with Capital Pride, which unfortunately yielded a disappointing response.”
She said that JFO views Captial Pride as failing its mandate to keep the events inclusive and safe for all amid growing levels of anti-semitism in Ottawa and the country.
“Continuing our participation would imply approval or alignment with the organization’s one-sided, misguided, and off-mission public statement,” she said. “While the Federation has not called on elected officials to withdraw from the parade, we appreciate the mayor’s stance on inclusivity and his opposition to further marginalizing communities, especially those with the intersectionality of being both Jewish and 2SLGBTQ+.”
Jess Burke, the director for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Training at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, one of the signatories of the Jewish community’s condemnation of Capital Pride’s anti-Israel stance, agrees.
CIJA, along with the Jewish Community Centre, Kehillat Beth Israel, Temple Israel, and other Jewish social service agencies, has uniformly declared that it will not be marching in the parade.
“The Jewish community in Ottawa has been an active participant of Pride since its inception in 1989, and the betrayal here cannot be overstated; Jews, as a community, have been steadfast in support for human rights, including queer rights,” she told True North.
Burke, on behalf of CIJA, wants more political and community leaders to promote dialogue against antisemitism, like Sutcliffe, and to reconsider municipal, provincial and federal funds that may be misappropriated and directed towards “hateful activities.”
“It is crucial for leaders to publicly denounce hate speech and support inclusivity to maintain a just society,” Burke said. “The slopes are slippery; we know that what begins with Jews never ends with Jews, and the radical nature of these disruptions, parade hijackings, and rhetoric being spewed are a threat to liberal democracies everywhere.”