Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted the Victoria Pride March on Sunday for about 20 minutes had demands that were already being met in some form prior to their blockade, the president of the Victoria Pride Society said.

“A lot of those things were already in motion,” said Ace Mann. “All of their demands were already being met in some way.”

Shortly after noon on Sunday, a group of 70 demonstrators at Humboldt Street cut in between parade entries from two Canadian banks and forced the parade, attended by tens of thousands, to a standstill.

The protesters, most of them masked, formed a human roadblock with banners and chanted slogans calling for a Gaza ceasefire and for the Victoria Pride Society to disinvite banks and other corporations that they say are “profiting from the genocide in Gaza.”

Unlike the executive director of Pride Toronto Pride, whose June 30 march was also disrupted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, Mann did not criticize the parade interruption and called the blockade “totally fine.”

“We completely appreciate the right and necessity for queer people to protest for what they believe in,” they said. “When our existence is made political by the world, it makes sense that we are political people.”

Other responses to the disruption varied. A volunteer with Capital Bike handed out lollipops to some in the blockade. A man on a bike with a CUPW flag traded fist bumps with protesters holding banners.

A small group of people with the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association and the BCGEU left the parade to join the demonstrators.

Tara Ehrcke, of the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association, said she decided to join the protest because she supports “Palestinian freedom.”

“There’s a genocide going on. As we’re marching, bombs are dropping. It’s absolutely shameful, what’s happening there,” she said. “Pride should be a day for all marginalized people and all people experiencing oppression.”

But several parade watchers, unhappy with the pause, got into screaming matches with the protesters about the disruption. Others made heckling comments from the side.

“Pride has always been political,” a masked protester yelled back.

After about 15 minutes, the rest of the 127-entry parade was rerouted further along Douglas Street and onto Belleville street.

Protesters stayed on Humboldt Street.

One man, who did not appear to be affiliated with the protesters, was led away by police after engaging in an altercation.

Protesters called for Pride Parade attendees to join them in the blockade, with about 100 or so heeding the call.

Around 12:50 p.m., a protester with a megaphone announced that they had received written “concessions” from the Victoria Pride Society and demonstrators began to disperse.

That protester, who did not give their name, told the Times Colonist their group had specifically chosen to stop the TD Bank float at Humboldt Street because of the bank’s association with Elbit Systems and General Dynamics, two companies that protestors are accusing of being complicit in the Gaza conflict.

“We won’t allow them to use our queer identity to launder their reputation,” the protester said.

In a copy of communications between the protest group and the Pride Society’s Ace Mann, obtained by the Times Colonist, Mann said that the society will work towards the group’s demands “through the channels available to us,” adding that they will be seeking legal counsel on the matter following the end of Pride Week.

Some of the demonstrators were later seen around McDonald Park enjoying the Pride festival without their masks on.

In an interview, Mann said that the protest was unexpected.

The society had reached out to the group organizing weekly pro-Palestinian rallies in downtown Victoria more than a week ago asking if any demonstrations were planned for the march, Mann said. “They had said no. So this demonstration today was a surprise.”

The protesters who spoke to the Times Colonist on Sunday said their group was unaffiliated with the weekly rallies or the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Victoria, though a number of individuals participating in the blockade had previously been seen in those other protest actions.

Mann said the Pride Society is aligned with many of the protesters’ demands. “A permanent, lasting ceasefire in Gaza is very important.”

Other protester demands include the removal of police from the Pride Parade and for the society to take more action to prevent homeless people from being displaced for Pride Week events.

The Victoria Pride Society has said it is against the street sweeps that appear to coincide around Pride events happening in Victoria. For example, campers at Vic West park were removed from the area before last week’s Memorial Drag Ball despite explicit calls against it from the society, Mann said.

“It seemed that they were displacing the unhoused community to make way for our event, which is very frustrating because we contacted the police weeks before saying that we do not want that to happen.”

Members of the society had gone out to the park in days beforehand with gift cards and water to tell campers that they didn’t need to move, Mann said. Asked about police presence at Pride events, Mann said that “every year we ask for less cops.”

Mann acknowledged that one struggle for the non-profit Pride Society is that one of their biggest donors has been TD Bank. “Its been very difficult to find the amount of funds that we need without getting money from TD.”

The society is working on hiring a grant writer to find alternative funding sources, Mann said.

Mann said that changes at the Pride Society will take time and continued effort. “It’s important to recognize that Pride is a big ship. So it’ll take a while to steer.”

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