OCDSB trustee issues invitation to join her at Capital Pride

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A trustee at Ottawa’s largest school board has issued an invitation to join her for the Capital Pride parade — after the board withdrew from this year’s event.

In a social-media posting, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board Trustee Donna Blackburn said she would be waiting in front of a yellow school bus at city hall on Sunday.

“This is about sending a clear message to our LGBTQ community that we care about them,” Blackburn said Thursday.

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The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board ignited a firestorm Monday, when it announced it was not participating in the parade after Capital Pride released a pro-Palestinian statement on Aug. 6, saying some members of the community had expressed feeling unsafe and unwelcome. Other Ottawa institutions including hospitals and universities have also withdrawn from events organized by Capital Pride in the past week, many citing concerns about safety and inclusion.

Blackburn said she couldn’t see how the event would be dangerous for Jewish people and she would march with a school board contingent, as she has done since 2011.

“I have not had one Jewish person explain to me how they will be unsafe. Nobody is going to get hurt. We should stand together,” said Blackburn, who argued that, while the school board had withdrawn, it was still handing out T-shirts it produced for the Pride parade.

Blackburn was one of the five trustees who sought an emergency meeting earlier this week, arguing that the decision to withdraw was made by senior administrators, not elected trustees, and it should be publicly debated.

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The bid for the meeting failed because it didn’t receive the necessary support of six trustees.

Trustee Nili Kaplan-Myrth called Blackburn’s invitation a “coup” in defiance of the decision to withdraw.

“It’s a direct disobedience action,” Kaplan-Myrth said. “Of course, individuals are allowed to march, but, imagine of someone showed up with a CHEO banner or a Liberal banner or the banner of any other organization that has withdrawn.”

Kaplan-Myrth, who is Jewish, said Blackburn’s invitation had distressed Jewish school staff members and parents.

She considered the invitation to be a “flagrant snub” to members of the Jewish community and was especially concerned about the use of the yellow school bus and the T-shirts. People at the parade would see those as symbols that the school board supported Capital Pride’s pro-Palestinian statement, Kaplan-Myrth said.

“There’s only one way that will be interpreted by members of the public. It’s not subtle to have a school bus and encourage everyone to meet at the school bus.”

Kaplan-Myrth said she was considering filing a trustee code of conduct complaint against Blackburn, although she would prefer that another trustee took that step.

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Blackburn shrugged off that possibility.

“I won’t be bullied by that threat,” she said.

Some who work for other organizations and institutions that have officially withdrawn from the parade are also making plans to march.

Stand With Pride, a group of 50 local businesses, unions and 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations, issued a statement Thursday expressing support for Capital Pride’s pro-Palestinian statement.

“Members of our community have already been doxxed, threatened and harassed for having the courage to express their queer solidarity with Palestine,” Stand With Pride said in its release.

“Capital Pride has been made less safe for everyone due to the attacks on Pride by public institutions. These attacks only serve to increase homophobia and transphobia and place a target on the back of our community — a community which has been under direct attack over the past two years.”

Kymani Montgomery, executive director of the Ten Oaks Project, which offers programs for 2SLGBTQ+ families, children and youth, said people in the community might disagree with Capital Pride’s statement, but, when organizations and institutions withdrew support, it sent a different message.

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“I’ve spoken to teachers and child-care workers who were not included in the decisions, and they’re really frustrated,” Montgomery said.

“Queer people have different viewpoints, but we come out and support each other. We aren’t in alignment with everything, but we come out together.”

Other groups have also expressed frustration with their employers and institutions.

A letter signed by Carleton University staff and alumni said they felt “betrayed by our employer’s cowardly decision to withdraw its support from this week’s celebrations of our diverse community.”

Another letter signed by 82 students, alumni, librarians, staff and faculty at the University of Ottawa said the university “does not speak for us.”

Lydia Dobson, a part-time professor in uOttawa’s law faculty, said she would be joining Queers for Palestine at the Pride parade.

“I think there are a lot of people who are part of the queer community who are disappointed with our institutions and and the mayor,” she said, referring to an Aug. 15 statement by Mayor Mark Sutcliffe that he would not attend events organized by Capital Pride because its statement “created an atmosphere where many now do not feel welcome to participate.”

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Dobson said Pride had become “more and more corporate. We’re see more and more corporations pull out. But I don’t think it reflects the view of the queer community in Ottawa. I think it reflects the views of those who are employing those people.”

School is starting soon, Montgomery noted.

“We’re really concerned about the public institutions and the politicians and what they’re communicating to youth,” he said. “What are conversations going to be among youth when we have to figure this out?”

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