Sarnia holds first Pride parade in more than two decades

A Sarnia woman has a goal to bring Pride back to Lambton County. Brent Lale reports.

Starting from the ground up, a Sarnia woman has a goal to bring Pride back to Lambton County.

For the first time more than 20 years, a Pride parade was held in Sarnia Sunday.

“We have a long way to go, but it’s really cool to see kind of people come together in a lot of places and a lot of employers and a lot of people backing the community,” said Bri Dubowski, a member of the queer community who was walking in the parade.

Jessica Baker of Queer Joy Canada organized the Sarnia-Lambton Pride Fest and the small parade.

“I was like, if I get to 10 full groups that are just so excited to be a part of this, I will be over the moon,” said Baker. “We have 12, so I surpassed what I wanted there. To see the amount of people, like dozens and dozens within each group is amazing.”

Among those groups was about 40 members of the Lambton-Kent District School Board (LKDSB).

“Equity, diversity and inclusive education is one of the four strategic priorities for the LKDSB,” said Eryn Smit, LKDSB superintendent of education responsible for Indigenous education, diversity and inclusion.

“We believe as a publicly funded school board that everyone in the LKDSB, our staff, students and families are at their very best when they can be their full selves. We’re here today to celebrate the 2SLGBTQ community, our students who represent the community, our staff members and families, and those who love them,” said Smit.

It was a small parade which lasted about 10-15 minutes through Canatara Park. Security was on hand to make sure everything went smoothly.

“It’s really hard being a small town, very close to the American border and kind of seeing some of that sentiment kind of cross and come over,” said Dubowski. “It’s really cool to see people come together and really show that there is no place for hate and that there is a lot of love and positivity despite messaging and a lot of the voices that may say different.”

Baker’s goal is to eventually take this parade out of the park and back into downtown Sarnia where the last parade was held years ago.

“We have to start somewhere and is just going to get bigger and better,” said Baker. “Everyone here is so excited and everyone has ideas as to how to make this bigger and better and to be able to help more in the future as we figure out our footing with all of it. We are absolutely going to be closing down those streets in the future, and it that is going to be the next goal.”