Leduc city council received a shock during the public commentary section of its Monday night meeting when a group of people showed up to speak strongly against the city’s LGBTQ initiatives.
The city recently painted a rainbow crosswalk in town and wrapped a city bus with the vibrant colours, but Mayor Bob Young says the city has been celebrating pride for at least six years now.
“There are always people who don’t celebrate pride, and I get that, but I’ve never seen the opposition to the pride events we’ve had this year,” he said.
Young said most of the people who made up the anti-pride group at city council were from outside the community, however there were a few who were from Leduc.
He said it become so “rowdy and raucous” that council was unable to continue with the meeting.
“When they started making the threats that they did, it was tough not to feel threatened,” he said. “I have been on the council for 18 years now and I have never, ever experienced anything like this.”
He estimated there were about 50 people in the chamber at the time, 30 of whom were supporting the group.
The group’s main speaker, who introduced himself as Bill McDavid, said to council that the entire city should be asked their opinion before painting crosswalks or raising flags that aren’t representing the country, province or city, and added the city shouldn’t be favoring one group over another.
“That stuff should be left in the bedroom and at home and get it out of our schools,” McDavid said. “If it doesn’t go, we’re comin’,” he threatened. “And there’s a lot of us. We’re freakin’ upset. This stuff’s gotta stop.”
To diffuse the situation, Young called a recess then asked council to close the session. Council carried on in closed session, but the group could still be heard while council was in chambers, Young said.
“I used to love public commentary. It was an opportunity for people to come in and point out things council wasn’t aware of. In the last year though, it’s become very, very abusive to staff and to council. I’m hoping that eventually we’re going to change and put some rules around public commentary but at this time there’s no plans.”
Ryan Pollard, a city councillor, said he was “pretty shaken” by the event.
“It was really unprecedented that people would feel so emboldened to come to our council chamber and spew such a terrible string of lies and defamation toward a group in our community,” Pollard told 630 CHED Wednesday.
He said it’s “not comforting” that people in the community would support these ideals, “but what’s more alarming is when people appear to be organized and they appear to be emboldened to engage in intimidating behaviour in a council chamber in front of a … body who’s tasked with dealing with the city in a democratic way.”
Outbursts from the gallery, applause and punctuating remarks, Pollard added, gave the impression that the group was an “organized mob.”
Despite the hate received, the city will not be cancelling any pride events, Mayor Young said.
“It just amazes me that a rainbow flag, a rainbow crosswalk or a transit bus that has seats for everybody threatens people. To me, this is one of the reasons why we have to keep on doing things for pride because it just shows us there are still people in our community that hate.”
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