I’m a few days late but here are some photos from this year’s Pride Parade, Sunday June 23rd.
below: The crowds line both sides of Dundas at the end of the parade route as the beginning of the parade has just reached them.
below: Thousands of pieces of bright and sparkly mylar.
below: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walked at the beginning of the parade, along with a lot of security.
Dyke March 2019, sunshine and smiles, and a lot of positive energy.
I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
below: Pride over Mannum and a sign for Amma
below: I don’t exist for your pleasure and something about liking girls!
below: Let me be perfectly queer, respect existence or expect resistance
below: Society has Evolved in 2019, Love Wins, catch up!
below: Playing with dolls
below: Many flags! Pink, yellow and blue horizontal stripes for pansexual and pink, purple, and blue for bisexual.
below: Another flag, this time it’s asexual.
below: A large transexual flag and a group from Womens College Hospital
below: Ford Cabinet for sale, real cheap! Just a buck!
below: Proud to be queer and Jewish
below: Still a Pakistani, Still a Muslim, and Still a Dyke, along with a proud Polynesian dyke.
below: Say Know to Sex Ed
Today was the day of the parade to celebrate the Raptors NBA Championship win. Today was the day that downtown was immobilized. Like many of the thousands (millions) of people, I couldn’t get anywhere near the parade. I also couldn’t get into Nathan Phillips Square, the end point of the parade. I am not sure I wanted to! Too crowded. Besides, walking around the periphery of Nathan Phillips Square still gave me a plethora of opportunities to take lots of pictures of people out celebrating.
below: Bay Street was one of the many streets that were closed. Two large screens showed footage of the parade as it progressed. In this photo, you can see a sea of red at the Prince’s gates, the entrance to the Exhibition grounds.
below: A larger picture of the screen. This photo was taken at 10:49 a.m. The parade was supposed to start at 10 a.m. I am not sure what time it arrived at Nathan Phillips Square, I was already long gone by the time it did.
below: Red for Manchester United as well!
On Saturday there was another small protest by a group that goes by the name PEGIDA which is actually an acronym for a German organization that can probably be called far right. The protest attracted a counter protest by a larger group of people. By the time I passed by, police and metal barricades stood between the two groups. Apparently the protest had planned to walk down University Ave. but the counter protest prevented them from doing so.
below: “Smash racism, no platform for fascists”
below: Patriots of Canada Against the Islamization of the West . P is for Patriot, whatever you think that that word means or implies.
below: “Fascism is a death cult” and “Nationalism is for losers”.
below: “When the state protects bigots, hate is state sanctioned.”
Greek Independence Day is March 25, comemorating the start of the War of Greek Independence in 1821. Prior to that, they had been part of the Ottoman Empire for almost 400 years, since 1453. Yesterday there was a parade along the Danforth to mark the occasion.
There were people with banners representing many groups including the Cultural Society of Kilkis and Suburbs,
the Thessalon Federation of Ontario, and many more,
below: There was only one float in the parade. It was a memorial to those who died in the Greek genocide during and after WW1 when the Christian Ottoman Greeks living in Anatolia (now part of Turkey) were killed or driven out.
There’s a new mural in one of the Kensington alleys! It was painted recently by Dave Setrakian. It is also too long, and the alley too narrow, to get a good picture of the whole mural.
below: A parrot, an airplane and some Italian.
below: An Immigration Canada stamp from the 29th of May 1986 beside an Italian flag just out of reach.
below: Inspector Gadget appears on TV – a kids’ cartoon produced in the 1980’s.
below: A little yellow car with an Armenian flag in the back passenger window.
below: A large palm tree grows here, along with a Kuwaiti passport stamp and Kuwaiti flag
below: IATSE Local 58 led the parade this year. They have been locked out of the CNE who brought in workers from Quebec and Alberta to help set up the Ex this year. Usually the parade ends at the CNE grounds at the Dufferin Gate and participants get free admission to the Ex. This year, the parade ended at Lamport Stadium instead.
below: Mayoral candidate, Jennifer Keesmaat, walked in the parade with the IATSE locals. At Bathurst St., the groups at the front slowed down to let the others catch up. At that point, Keesmaat was interviewed by CP24.
