"No pride in genocide" - Montreal's first-ever 'Wild Pride' draws a crowd of 10,000
As a rift splits between the queer community and Fierté, head of queer, Jewish Zionist group that is the cause of these tensions isn't even Jewish.
Photo by William Wilson
Queer people fed up with corporate pride flooded the streets Aug. 10 for the first-ever Wild Pride march.
Many members of the 2SLGBTQ+ are disillusioned by Fierté Montréal's corporatization, the organization's mistreatment lesbo-queer organizations, their continued partnership with Montreal Police (SPVM), and Fierté's lack of solidarity with Palestine.
In just a few months, grassroots queer organizations came together under the banner of Wild Pride to deliver an alternative pride festival from July 30 - Aug. 18: explicitly political, sapphic- and trans-led, and funded by the community. Raves, family-friendly events, panels and workshops were all part of their programming - and a pride march held the same day as Fierté's.
As the Wild Pride marchers assembled at Place Des Arts, their messages were clear from their homemade signs, banners and flags: "Capitalists are oppressors," "Be gay free Palestine," "Tapettes en feu contre le fascisme," (Fags on fire against fascism) "Liberate Judaism from Zionism.” Palestinian flags peppered the crowd and organizers of Wild Pride helmed the march with the largest one of all.
Meanwhile, two openly Zionist groups who have denied that a genocide is occuring in Palestine marched in Fierté Montréal's parade: the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and Ga'ava. This is despite Fierté's recent statement publically acknowledging the Palestinian genocide.
Ga'ava, which calls itself "Canada’s oldest and most important LGBTQ+ Jewish group," was initially uninvited due to Ga’ava president Carlos A. Godoy's public and private comments against Palestinians and their allies. He called pro-Palestine demonstrators and people opposing Ga'ava's inclusion in the pride march "pro-terror" and "pro-Hamas" and denied the famine happening in Palestine.
Godoy, who is not Jewish (he calls himself a "Friend of ✡️" on X), called Fierté Montreal's exclusion of Ga'ava "anti-semetic."
Marleau said they received feedback from the Jewish community that the exclusion of Ga'ava and CIJA amounted to faith-based discrimination.
"We really make the distinction between the State of Israel and Jewish people, especially 2SLGBTQIA+ people living in Montreal who wanted to march," said Marleau. "We have to be able to recognize that Jewish people in Montreal, especially in our (2SLGBTQ+) communities, have less impact than one might think on the politics of Israel… As for our mission, it's to amplify the voice of 2SLGBTQIA+ people that include Jewish people, but people of all faiths.”
Zev Satiel, member of Independent Jewish Voices Montreal and one of Wild Pride's co-organizers, said that reinviting these groups is antithetical to Pride Montreal's posited mission.
"When hospitals are bombed and people are starving and aid isn't let in, this means queer people won't get the healthcare they've fought tooth and nail for," said Satiel.
Many Zionist groups have insisted that Israel is the only "safe" place for queer people in the Middle East. Satiel calls this tactic "pinkwashing": weaponizing queer identity to justify violence. Satiel says Fierté's minute of silence for victims and survivors of the AIDS crisis is hypocritical without advocating for HIV+ Palestinians, who no longer have access to live-saving care due to the genocide.
""How can we say that we don't believe in taking a geopolitical stance? (The genocide) does impact us. That impacts all of us," Satiel said.
Photo by William Wilson
Wild Pride's march took off around 10,000 strong. People wore matching shirts representing community groups, not corporations. Instead of Rupaul and Lady Gaga tracks, the truck leading the parade blasted Palestinian music. Trans people, sapphic groups, BIPOC queer organizations and proud lesbians took up space in the march instead of being crowded out by cis gay men. While drummers kept the rhythm, marchers carried a parachute-sized trans flag at the parade's head.
Anti-establishment chants echoed across downtown Montreal as the marchers made their way through the streets:
"Free, free Palestine!"
"No pride in genocide!"
"No justice, no peace, fuck the police!"
"Pride is a riot!"
"Pas d'assimilation, on veut la libération!" (No assimilation, we want liberation)
Despite the 40 degree heat, the energy stayed positive throughout the afternoon. Everyone I approached for an interview greeted me with a smile and was happy to share why they were marching.
Sam was starting a "No cops at Pride!" chant with her fellow members of Université de Montréal’s Alternative queer group when I approached her.
"The major sponsors and the people at the centre of Fierté's events are not queer people – they're banks," said Sam. "It's the same banks that are contributing to gentrification, that are driving poor and gay people out of the Village, that are impoverishing them. It's the same ones that are investing in the genocide."
Kelly was marching dressed in hot pink jumpsuit, cowboy hat, and Chappell Roan hair, wearing the pansexual flag as a cape. They’ve marched in Fierté's parade for eight years, but were happy to have an alternative this year.
"I think Pride began as a protest and it still is," they said. It shouldn't stay out of (what's happening in Palestine) because we know what it's like to be discriminated against. And so we should first and foremost be the ones supporting Palestine."
Beaming, Kelly told me how good it felt to connect with queer people at Wild Pride.
"I think we're fighting for something serious, but there's still room for joy. There's always room for joy and there's always room for some sort of positivity and hope," they added.
Gabriel brought his parents to the Wild Pride march.
"I found this to be an interesting initiative; an alternative to Fierte or simply refusing to attend.. It's a more active form of boycott. We're re-appropriating this moment," said Gabriel.
Shannon Thompson, a Wild Pride organizer who works with the Coalition of LGBTQ+ Youth Groups, was overwhelmed by the support for the festival.
"I think it's incredible that we're able to pull this off in three months. I can only imagine what people can pull off within six months to a year," Thompson said.
Wild Pride ran entirely on donations, small ticket sales and unpaid labour. Any extra money was donated to Palestinian and Indigenous mutual aid funds and the Prisoner Correspondence Project.
Photo by William Wilson
'Wild Pride is for the people, Fierté Montreal is for the money'
Back in early June, Aisha Smith and Yara Coussa were in the early stages of organizing Wild Pride. Both are members of Montreal's sapphic community and members of the South West Asia and North Africa diaspora. Their frustrations with Fierté Montreal had been mounting for months.
Coussa is a member of Helem Montreal, an Arab 2SLGBTQ+ organization. Last year, they were among the queer organizers who demanded that Fierté Montréal show solidarity with Palestine by cutting ties with their main sponsor, TD Bank (a major investor in Israeli weapon manufacturing) and by publically denouncing the genocide.
These demands were not met.
"Wild Pride is for the people, Fierté Montreal is for the money," added Smith. "I think Fierté is blind to what is happening to queer people everywhere, especially in the city. They forget to mention the brutality that we face from the police, from right-wingers, from transphobes,” Instead, she said, they just want to throw a party and ignore the real issues.
In April 2025, several lesbo-queer organizations said they would no longer be working with Fierté Montreal after experiencing "problematic and exploitative behaviours" from the organization. This includes a lack of transparency, dismissing concerns, going back on financial commitments, even forcing an organizer to work with their abuser.
"For us to be queer, it can't be dissociated from politics," said Coussa.
Photo by William Wilson
NO COPS AT PRIDE
Satiel was frustrated that police were insisting on escorting Wild Pride's march. Many of Wild Pride's organizers and supporters have faced police violence at pro-Palestine protests and alternative pride demonstrations, so they were trying to avoid having police at their march.
"I truly have lost count of the amount of times I've been assaulted by the police or been pepper sprayed and tear gassed since October 2023," he said.
Last year, pro-Palestine protesters were repeatedly met with tear gas and riot police. This year alone, riot cops deployed tear gas and beat attendees at the anti-police brutality protest (March 15), the Trans Day of Vengence protest (March 31), and others.
"It’s unbelievable and this primarily happens at rallies where it's queer-led or queer-focused. There is a link (between queer led rallies and violence towards these communities by the police). So why are they here pretending to protect us?" Satiel said.
Wild Pride had originally planned to use Dur à Queer, a queer motorcycle group, as their security and traffic control. They allege the SPVM initially said they would allow Wild Pride to run their own security, but on Sunday, they refused to allow the bikers to ride with them. In an emailed statement, the SPVM said: “The group of motorcyclists was refused because these vehicles and pedestrians at this type of event posed a safety hazard.”
"That right there shows that they also don't allow us to keep ourselves safe because they want to have closer access to us, which is the exact reason we asked the motorcyclists to come to begin with," Satiel said.
Shannon, who is Black, said that she is tired of people expecting dialogue with the police. She asserted that the police pretend they’re safe, that they’re guardians but “They're not safe for people who look like us," she said."If you want to partner with the SPVM, it means that you only care about one type of person, who is the ‘Jean-Francois’ type – like a white dude. And money. That's not what pride is about. It's a riot, it’s about getting together with a little bit of money and asking people for help," she added.
The police escort at Wild Pride did not result in violence, but that has not been the case at other pride events.
At Rad Pride's annual march on the night of Aug. 9, the eve of Wild Pride, protestors were almost immediately met with police brutality. Isaac Peltz and William Wilson were on the scene, documenting the brutality. A police officer used his bike to beat Peltz, and Wilson suffered severe bruising to his head and knee. The police denied starting violence at the protest, despite being shown video evidence filmed by Isaac and photos by William.
“Crowd-dispersal tactics were used during this event, following violent and criminal behavior,” They said.
Gabriel, one of the marchers at Wild Pride, held up a poster with Wilson's photos from the evening.
"I think there's a huge double standard that Rad Pride was attacked before it even began," Gabriel said. "Then today, as soon as we're in something more family-friendly, more festive, we have a different police response.” Gabriel criticized the police for assaulting one group and pretending to care for the next, despite both having the same reasons for protesting.
As Wild Pride marched on, queer organization Faction Anti Génocidaire et Solidaire (La Fags) expressed their voices in a more disruptive approach. According to William Wilson's reporting, about 30 La Fags protestors interrupted Pride Montreal's march, stepping out in front of Ga'ava and CIJA's contingent. Their chants of "Free, free Palestine!" were quickly met with riot police ordering them to move out and shoving protestors.
According to Rebecca Lavoie, one of the counter-protestors, no one was seriously injured, but one person was violently tackled to the ground and arrested. She says this violence reminded of the police response to last year's counter demonstration at Fierté.
"In collaborating with police, Fierté Montréal is complicit in not only the Palestinian genocide, but also the oppression of queer people and marginalized people everywhere," said Lavoie.
Photo by William Wilson
“We took back our pride”
Wild Pride's march slowly made its way through the downtown streets, drawing the attention of downtown terrasse-goers. They paused at the site of the Truxx raids where a Gay Archives volunteer highlighted the history of 2SGLBTQ+ resistance in Montreal. They stopped near Dorchester Square, to hold a moment of silence for queer people who died not just of HIV, but of violence and genocide across the globe. At the front, people began to raise a fist, the historic Black power symbol of resistance. A wave of fists raised all along the wide downtown streets. Once it was over, the crowd erupted in cheers of rage, of sadness, of joy in being together.
They eventually settled in Dorchester Square, and the whole park filled with queer people. Some volunteers set up tables offering iced tea, water and food.
I caught up with Yara Coussa at the end of the march, sitting on the grass as people came up to them to thank them. Despite spending all day leading people through the hot sun, chanting, and managing the crowd, they were already thinking about making next year's Wild Pride even bigger and better.
"We achieved something where we took back our pride. We successfully boycotted a corporate mockery of our pride. So, now I'm feeling fucking great, amazing."
Despite Marlot Marleau's promises to consult with the queer community to figure out how Fierté can be more inclusive, Coussa said the future of pride lies in the hands of community organizations.
"Fierté Montréal does not represent the queer community," they said.
"They only represent the privileged few. And unfortunately for them, their end is near."
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