Pride parade honours the victims of repression
MONTREAL: Hundreds of thousands celebrated Montreal’s Gay Pride March on a sun-drenched Sunday, an event opened by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and marked by a minute’s silence for the victims of discrimination and repression around the world.
“It’s great to celebrate today with everyone. Bonne Fierte! Happy Pride!” the premier told the crowd, dressed in a pale pink shirt and white trousers.
Mr Trudeau was joined by his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, and the Canadian-Polish actor Antoni Porowski, who stars in the hit series Queer Eye.
Hundreds of thousands of people, according to organisers, cheered on a colorful procession of pride, which put women in the limelight and observed a minute of silence for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) victims of repression certain countries.
The pride parade, which involved about 10,000 marchers, notably welcomed as a guest LGBTQ activist Kennedy Olango, who is striving for change in his native Kenya where homosexuality is brutally punished.
Mr Olango called for help from Mr Trudeau’s government to change attitudes in his country.
Mr Trudeau, at a press briefing, added: “Can we stop talking about tolerance?
“We need to talk about acceptance; we need to talk about openness; we need to talk about friendship. We need to talk about love, not just tolerance.”
Montreal’s Pride March is one of the largest such event held in Canada, drawing hundreds of thousands of people from across the country each year, according to organisers.
Later on in the day, Mr Trudeau also announced that he will run for re-election in 2019 legislative polls.
The Liberal Party leader was officially nominated by his party in the central Montreal district of Papineau, a centrist stronghold he has represented since 2008. He was re-elected in 2011 and 2015.
He spoke of his “deep conviction that despite the politics of fear and division, staying positive, pulling people together, looking for ways to emphasise our common ground, our shared values among our differences, is the only way to build a stronger country, a stronger world”.
He also promised to reduce the gap between rich and poor and lift up indigenous populations.