Tens of thousands of people crammed into downtown Halifax on Saturday afternoon to watch the 2017 Halifax Pride Parade. The event has become a staple of the city’s Pride Festival and attracts more than 100,000 people annually.
For the first time in three decades, the parade started with a Mi’kmaq-Indigenous float.
“The parade this year is being led by the Wabanaki Two Spirit Alliance and that’s very important to Halifax Pride because we have made a commitment to our community and one of those commitments is that we always acknowledge that Halifax is settled upon unceded Mi’kmaq territory,” said Sky. H. Smith, a board member of Halifax Pride.
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The parade was filled with lots of entertainment, music and colour.
“It’s important to be who you are and to accept it and to let everybody else know that you accept it,” said Anthony Forsyth, who came to watch the festivities.
This year, the parade had a special guest: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family marched through the street as part of the event. He is the first sitting prime minister to take part in the Halifax Pride Parade.
“The energy, the beautiful day, the celebration of diversity, of rights of the LGBTQ community is a wonderful thing to be part of,” said Trudeau.
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For the first time in a decade, uniformed Halifax Regional Police officers were not involved in the parade itself.
The force announced earlier this year that they would continue to be on traffic duty but were looking for new ways to participate in the Pride festival.
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For some spectators, Saturday was their first time at a Halifax Pride Parade, while others have been taking in the event for years.
“We come down every year. We like it because it’s probably the best parade for the kids. They really interact with the kids, lots of candy, lots of free swag and you know, the diversity aspect. It’s nice for them to get to see a wide range of people and colours,” said J.P. Blaquiere.
The parade is an opportunity to embrace diversity, a message that’s being passed down to many.
“It’s pretty much that girls can marry girls and boys can marry boys,” said Libby Blaquiere as she hugged her younger sister.
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Organizers say things have come a long way since they held their first Halifax Pride Parade 30 years ago.
“In the very first march in Halifax, and I wouldn’t call it a parade because it was a march, people wore paper bags on their head because at that time, it was still legal to fire someone if they were LGBTQ, if they were 2SLBTQ aligned,” said Smith. “So people wore paper bags over their heads so that people would know that they marched but people wouldn’t know who they were so they couldn’t get fired or let go from their jobs.”
Although things have improved, Smith says there is still more work to do.