Once Upon a Time in Edmonton: The Pride Parade

CTV News Edmonton's Matt Woodman looks back at the history of Pride parades in Edmonton as the city gets ready to hold the first one since 2018.

Pride marches or parades first hit Edmonton streets in the early 90s and continued until 2018.

The parade will return this year after a six-year absence. This edition of Once Upon a Time in Edmonton uses decades-old news coverage and current interviews from two figures in the local LGBTQ2S+ community to look back at the parade’s humble beginnings, its successes and struggles as well as its possibilities for the future.

A Pride history

Rob Browatzke and Michael Phair are part of the group that created the Edmonton Queer History Project (EQHP).

Their goal has been to gather and share stories about “queer life” in Edmonton – stories they’ve also lived.

Browatzke was a teenager in the 90s and not out.

“We were literally fighting the government and the government was saying, ‘No queer people don’t have rights,’” he recalls, referencing the Delwin Vriend case.

Vriend was fired from Kings College in 1991 because of his sexuality.

He filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission, but the commission would not hear his case because the words “sexual orientation” were not included in the Individual’s Rights Protection Act (IRPA).

Vriend’s fight for rights would last seven years and make it all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Phair was part of the Gay and Lesbian Awareness society (GALA) in the 90s, a group that organized Pride events in Edmonton. According to EQHP, the first march was held in 1991 and was led by Phair and Maureen Irwin.

In the years leading up to 1991, the group held many discussions about organizing a parade, Phair said, but they were worried about convincing people to show up, as many weren’t out and were worried about being recognized.

‘I didn’t think anyone would come’

“I will never forget coming across the bridge and coming to the gazebo and there were people there and I was astounded. I didn’t think anyone would come.”

On a Sunday in June 1991, a small group of 30 to 40 people met at the gazebo in McIntyre Park. Covered in pink petunias donated by Holes Greenhouse, the gazebo was the starting point of their march.

Organizers had asked the City of Edmonton for a proclamation of Pride Day, but in a vote of 12-to-one, the city declined.

The refusal of a proclamation was “discouraging,” Phair said, but they carried on with their plans.

The group walked down Whyte Avenue and back to the gazebo, and some wore paper bags over their heads.

“We basically just marched down those two blocks and back and we thought we’d done a miracle,” Phair recalled.

The following year, Edmonton held its first official parade repeating the two-block route. Newly elected mayor Jan Reimer offered a proclamation for Gay Pride Day, and the first openly gay member of Canada’s parliament, Svend Robinson, led the march.

Some people still chose to wear paper bags over their heads to conceal their identities.

‘We’re proud of it, get used to it’

By 1993, word had gotten out that Edmonton had a Pride parade.

Phair remembers June 26, 1993, as “a beautiful sunny day” and that hundreds gathered in McIntyre Park. Now an Alderman, Phair was the first openly gay person elected to Edmonton’s city council.

The gathered crowd cheered as he stood in the Gazebo and read an official proclamation from the mayor:

“I, mayor Jan Reimer, do hereby proclaim June 26 Gay and Lesbian Pride Day in Edmonton.”

Holding signs and banners, some holding hands, the procession made its way along Whyte Avenue. They waved small rainbow flags, shook cowbells and carried balloons. Nobody wore a paper bag on their head this year.

“We’re here, we’re queer, we’re proud of it, get used to it,” they chanted and people gathered to watch clapped as they passed by.

Protestors showed up this year, too.

“Shame, shame, shame, shame,” the marchers stopped to shout at the protestors.

Phair recalls some “pushing and shoving” and said they learned many lessons in those first years, including how to work with the police to ensure the safety of those participating and watching the parade.

Despite the protestors, Phair remembers the rest of the parade as being fun and feeling more like a parade than the previous years had.

“We went out to have a drink and party afterward.”

Years later, when Browatzke began attending parades, the crowds were much larger. He describes it as a “powerful moment” to arrive and see all the people gathered at the start of a parade, and credits Phair and other advocates with “changing the landscape of the culture in the province.”

“He’s an icon and a legend and sometimes I can’t believe that I would even be sitting here in the same interview as him,” Browatzke said.

The momentum created in 1991 grew and support from the city also continued with mayor Reimer offering proclamations for Pride events. Flags and banners got bigger. So did the balloons. Paper bags were replaced by colourful wigs, and costumes, music and singing became more prevalent than chanting.

“Ooooooh, it was not easy”

In 1995, Bill Smith defeated Reimer to become Edmonton’s mayor. With the new mayor came a different relationship between the city and Pride organizers. From the beginning of his time in office Mayor Smith refused to offer a proclamation.

“I don’t think we need to issue a proclamation to say to everybody, because Edmontonians clearly know that we shouldn’t be discriminating against gays and lesbians at any time,” Smith said in 1995 when asked why he had refused to proclaim Gay and Lesbian Awareness Day.

Attempts to persuade the mayor were “hopeless,” Phair said, even though other members of council were on board.

The Supreme Court of Canada gave its decision in the Vriend vs. Alberta case in 1998. Canada’s highest court found in Vriend’s favour and ordered that sexual orientation should be written into the IRPA.

According to the Alberta Human Rights Commission, it took the Alberta government 11 years to add the words “sexual orientation” as a protected right after the Supreme Court’s ruling. It happened in 2009, when the IRPA was renamed the Alberta Human Rights Act.

Despite this win for the LGBTQ2S+ community, Mayor Smith continued to refuse to give a proclamation for Pride.

Advocate Murray Billett called it “simply unacceptable.”

“He gives proclamations for everything,” Billett said. ”We deserve a proclamation like any other part of the community.”

Phair, who was still on city council, remembers the time as difficult.

“Ooooooh, it was not easy … it was hugely disappointing.”

Billett, as part of the Pride committee, made an official request to Smith in 2002, “hoping the mayor would recognize the evolution of human rights.”

The Edmonton Pride Festival Society (EPFS), the organization planning Pride events then, filed a human rights complaint against the mayor. Phair believes Smith received legal advice that he would not win in court.

“He was basically forced to do it,” Phair said.

So, in 2003, Mayor Smith proclaimed Gay Pride Week in Edmonton.

“I have personal principles, but the law is another matter,” he said.

Culture change

In 2005, the Canadian government passed Bill C-38, the Civil Marriage Act. This bill made Canada only the fourth country in the world to legalize same sex marriage, behind Spain, The Netherlands and Belgium.

Prime Minister Paul Martin said, “This has been a difficult subject for many, but I believe that Canada passed a very important test today.”

Leading up to the vote, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein threatened to use the notwithstanding clause, which gives provinces the right to opt out of federal legislation.

Klein and his government explored their options to avoid legalizing same sex marriage after the bill passed.

However, according to EQHP, Klein received advice not to pursue the fight and he changed his stance.

“I think it’s wrong, morally wrong to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.”

Back in Edmonton, newly elected Stephen Mandel became the first mayor to march in Edmonton’s Pride parade.

“It’s frustrating that people would speak ill of this or think we shouldn’t do this,” Mandel said.

Browatzke describes “a big emotional change” from having to force mayor Smith to proclaim Pride Week to receiving “visible and vocal support” from mayors like Mandel and later Don Iveson.

Mandel’s early support was just the beginning.

“Let’s just celebrate who we are, what we do and where we live.”

In 2012, Alison Redford became the first premier of Alberta to march in Edmonton’s Pride parade. She was also the first conservative politician ever to march, according to Phair and Browatzke.

“We are a very different province than we were many years ago and I’m very proud of that,” Redford said before the parade began.

Dave Hancock and Rachel Notley would follow in Redford’s steps and march in the parade as premiers.

“There’s no reason not to,” Oilers Captain Andrew Ference said in 2014 when he was asked to lead the parade.

He became the first professional hockey player to make an appearance. Walking down the parade route in his Oilers jersey, Ference stopped to pose for pictures and give out hugs to bystanders.

“To support something like this is something I think has to be done,” Ference told reporters during the parade.

Browatzke said their support was “transformative,” and Phair said the City of Edmonton was the “largest supporter” during that time."

Stopped in their tracks

Edmonton’s Pride parade had become one of the largest in Canada by 2012 and grown to more than 2,000 participants by 2015, according to EQHP.

The list of supporters also continued to grow, including federal politicians, more professional athletes and even an RCMP commissioner.

Despite the parade’s apparent success and popularity, some groups within the LGBTQ2S+ community had begun to voice issues they felt needed to be addressed.

Their concerns included that the parade had moved away from its roots of being a protest, that commercialism had become too prevalent and that certain members of the community didn’t feel safe or represented in the current format.

Phair said the parade committee was presented with a list of changes to implement but it was too late. A parade as big as Edmonton’s required a year’s worth of planning and there wasn’t enough time to resolve the issues.

Yelling “no justice, no Pride,” a group of protesters interrupted the 2018 parade.

Phair, who was near the front, didn’t even realize what had happened.

“Twenty minutes later we were like, where’s everybody else?”

The group refused to let the parade continue until their demands were met. Phair told CTV News Edmonton organizers had no choice but to give in, that it was a matter of safety. The 2018 parade resumed after a delay.

The issues were not unique to Edmonton, Browatzke said. The things they had fought to include in Pride – “to get sponsorships, to have a police and military presence, to have a conservative politician” – were now problematic.

Afterward, a meeting was called to discuss what could be done.

It did not go well.

“A number of people connected with the major group came to stop the meeting. The police had to come and help those of us at the meeting to leave,” Phair, who was there, said.

The parade committee disbanded and announced there would not be a parade in 2019.

Some of the issues were too complex to solve easily, Phair explained. He said a parade as large as Edmonton’s could not get rid of police entirely due to security and insurance reasons.

“And so, it ended.”

What comes next?

Edmonton will have a Pride parade this year.

Phair is “a bit apprehensive” and weary. Browatzke said the concerns that halted the 2018 parade have not gone away and he isn’t sure how they will be addressed this year. He hopes organizers will be able to find more balance between the party that some want and the protest that others need.

“Maybe the Pride parade and festivities aren’t what everyone wants them to be … whatever we have might be imperfect but it’s still so important," Browatzke said. He believes “this was just the next step that Edmonton had to face.”

Phair agrees.

“I love the parade and being part of it, but I also know that things change and move on,” he said.

“Maybe the time has passed for some of that … maybe a parade is not the same significance it was and maybe its time is gone.”

Neither is sure of what lies ahead but they remain hopeful. Phair said that even if the parade goes “the way of the go-go boy,” he’s proud of his city and the work he’s done for his community.

“Edmonton really has changed, in a positive way … and Edmontonians are really broad-based in their thinking.”

Browatzke said it can be easy to focus on the things that feel “overwhelmingly bad and very pessimistic” but that it’s important to remember the “huge leaps” Pride has taken.

“Certainly, it’s never going to get back to the days of 30 to 40 people in paper bags. Those days are long behind us.”