Capital Pride facing campaign to restore pro-Palestinian statement to its website

OttawaAn advocacy campaign is calling for Capital Pride to bring back a polarizing statement in support of Palestinians that it removed from its website ahead of this year’s Pride Month. Some groups boycotted last year’s Pride parade in response to Capital Pride’s pro-Palestinian statementCBC News · Posted: Aug 18, 2025 5:39 PM EDT | Last Updated: August 18A spectator waves a Palestine flag during the Capital Pride parade in Ottawa on Aug 25, 2024. The group’s statement of support for Palestinians proved polarizing during last year’s Pride Month, and this year the organization is hoping to avoid controversy. (Chris Tanouye/The Canadian Press)An advocacy campaign is calling for Capital Pride to bring back a polarizing statement in support of Palestinians that it removed from its website ahead of this year’s Pride Month. Capital Pride, the group that organizes Pride Month in Ottawa, said it removed the statement as part of an “online refresh” aimed at focusing on this year’s theme of “We are the village.”Queers for Palestine says it represents 70 organizations calling on Capital Pride to reaffirm the statement. “Capital Pride needs to choose between standing with us and standing with the institutions that boycotted and pressured them last year,” Masha Davidovic, a member of Queers for Palestine — Ottawa, told CBC’s All In A Day on Monday. “It’s really clear that overwhelmingly, the feeling of our community is that solidarity values and Pride as a protest is really what they want to see from our prides more and more, especially at times like this,” she said.Capital Pride had hoped to avoid the controversy it stirred during last year’s Pride Month when it issued a polarizing “solidarity with Palestine” statement that provoked a backlash. The statement included four “commitments” relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including pledges to recognize the “ongoing genocide” in Gaza, integrate a boycott list into its sponsorship reviews, host a “queer Arab showcase” and call for a ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages and increased humanitarian aid.Callie Metler, the executive director of Capital Pride, said a statement in support of Palestinians had been removed from the organization’s website as part of an ‘online refresh.’ (Jodie Applewaithe/CBC)The Jewish Federation of Ottawa called the statement “antisemitic” and said it would boycott the Pride parade in response. Other groups and individuals withdrew their support and sponsorship from some Pride Month events, among them Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, Ottawa hospitals, school boards and the Liberal Party of Canada. Davidovic said last year’s withdrawal of support looked like “bullying and censoring” from non-2SLGBTQ+ groups.”What we saw was non-LGBT organizations, politicians, corporations pulling their support from our community and making their allyship with us and their support for us conditional on us censoring our own protest in solidarity values,” she said. “That’s not real allyship.”Capital Pride’s executive director Callie Metler said the organization removed the statement in support of Palestinians as part of a website update, but it stands by its “principles and values.””Every year, we refresh our online environment and we focus on new issues and new concerns in our community,” she told CBC’s Ottawa Morning on Monday. “This year we’re focusing on the theme ‘We are the village’ to really just bring home the fact that we are stronger together. And when 2SLGBTQ rights are under attack across this country and south of the border, we need to come together as a village.”A screengrab from the Capital Pride website shows that a link to a pro-Palestinian statement now redirects to an error page. (Capital Pride)She continued: “The principles and the values that we expressed in that statement continue to guide the organizing of the 2025 festival.” Some Jewish groups have welcomed Capital Pride’s efforts to mend bridges. The Jewish Federation of Ottawa will be returning to this year’s Pride parade, according to federation president Adam Silver. “We acknowledge that Capital Pride leadership has met several times with queer and ally Jewish leaders in our community and taken important steps to rebuild trust,” Silver wrote in a statement to CBC. He continued: “[W]e are encouraged by Capital Pride’s focus on ensuring that every member of Ottawa’s 2SLGBTQ+ community can participate safely and with dignity, including those who are proudly Jewish.”