Pride Montreal said the city’s iconic parade that closes the festival’s celebration of LGBTQ+ communities was cancelled on Sunday citing security concerns stemming from a lack of volunteers for the event.
Festival Executive Director Simon Gamache says the event scheduled for Sunday was called off over staffing reasons and would not have been able to proceed safely. “We were missing more than 80 people this morning, it’s a lot,” Gamache said in an interview, adding the absentees represented more than a third of the number needed for the parade to go ahead.
Pride Montreal issued a statement saying it made the decision with the support of city police because there were not enough volunteers to ensure safety along the parade route.
When asked about the cancellation during a presser on Sunday, Mayor Valérie Plante said the city had “no clue” there were any issues ahead of the event that was called off just hours before it was scheduled to take place. READ MORE: Quebec expands monkeypox vaccine access across the province as cases grow She said the first thing she did was call her team and talk with the police department to find out what happened. “We didn’t know.