As Pride celebrations get underway in Montreal, the LGBTQ2 community is decrying an increase in threats and hate speech.
Sonja Matschuck is one of the organizers of Afro Pride Montreal.
Matschuck says she is concerned.
“We’ve had threats made to us, we’ve had smear campaigns, sabotage, threats to sabotage our event,” Matschuck says.
Matschuck says she’s reported serious threats to police.
She’s not alone.
Montreal police say there’s been an increase in crimes against the LGBTQ2 community.
This year, from January to July, police say they recorded 26 crimes and 10 incidents against people due to their sexual identity or gender expression.
That’s almost the same number of crimes reported in 2022 for the entire year, with 27 crimes and 11 incidents.
“It’s definitely sad,” says Catherine Duclos, the president of GRIS-Montréal.
GRIS-Montréal does workshops in schools to help demystify prejudices against the community.
Duclos says that in the past two years, volunteers have seen a shift in how youth behave.
“They get more, not hateful questions, but emotionally charged questions, more questions that are asked aggressively sometimes. Some of them (volunteers) feel a bit more unsafe doing their volunteer work that they did five years ago,” Duclos explains.
Duclos says one thing to blame is negative political rhetoric from the United States that is creeping into Canada.
“I feel like that’s influencing discourse here. People feel like it’s legitimizing homophobia and transphobia,” Duclos says.
A recent post on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his son wearing pink, ready to watch the Barbie movie, generated a slew of homophobic comments.
As Pride festivities continue, organizers insist it’s a safe event.
Simon Gamache, Montreal Pride’s executive director, says that although they are seeing more hate speech online, there aren’t any specific threats.
Regardless, they always take measures to protect festivalgoers. They’ve hired private security and are collaborating with Montreal Police.
As hate is on the rise again, Gamache says it’s more important than ever to show support.
“This is the moment to come out and actually celebrate and be proud of who we are,” Gamache says.
Matschuck and Duclos both invite those in power to create more inclusive policies and for allies to come out and stand by the community.
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