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Pride parade and rally called off, replaced by hybrid events

Pride parade and rally called off, replaced by hybrid events

‘If the community would like to see more and new activities, if they would like to see Timmins Pride make a difference, they should join.’

Pride week 2022 will not feature a main rally or parade, central events that have been the signature hallmarks of the celebration of Timmins’ 2SLGTBQ+ community in previous years.

Fierté Timmins Pride cites a lack of necessary staff for the cancellation, hoping it can rally from the setback to issue a call to action for new volunteers.

“A celebration of this size takes a lot of resources that we just don’t have this year. Unfortunately, due to a lack of volunteers, the board has determined that it cannot safely host a rally and parade in 2022,” said Matthieu Villeneuve, president of Fierté Timmins Pride.

While the organization has enough temporary general volunteers on the ground, it does not have enough board members. As a result, the events of Pride Week are being shifted to a mix of in-person events and virtual learning opportunities. 

“We would need three to four more board members to help with the planning,” said Villeneuve.

He added that the existing four-person board has been stretched thin trying to keep up with both the planning of a major event like Pride Week and the usual efforts of advocacy and education it is involved in. 

“This is a lot to put onto four people,” he said.

The organization has also sent a message to Timmins cancel to cancel their request for Third Avenue to be closed on June 11 for Pride events.

“A lot of people are concerned about time commitment, but it’s usually meetings once or twice a month via Zoom, and smaller tasks like booking activities,” he said, noting the busier times are generally April and May.

While it is no longer possible to stage a parade or rally this year, Villeneuve is still hopeful that the cancellation can be turned into a moment of awareness that will bring in new board members. For him, Timmins Pride is an organization with a great deal to contribute for support and advocacy for their community.

“If the community would like to see more and new activities, if they would like to see Timmins Pride make a difference, they should join,” he said.

Villeneuve points to services he wants to encourage through Timmins Pride, including helping people connect with trans and queer inclusive doctors. He wants new voices to provide fresh perspectives on efforts at social services, community activities and running Pride to its full potential.

“Timmins Pride is needed. We’re doing our best to create an inclusive, safe space for the community,” he said.

Anyone interested in applying to volunteer for Fierté Pride Timmins can find an application on their website or contact the organization at info@timminspride.com

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This summer’s Formula E race event in Vancouver called off

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“It was a decision made between the organizers and the City of Vancouver,” according to spokesperson Kirsten Mihailides. “The timeline and parameters for the event were not achievable.”

The Formula E event planned for Vancouver this summer has been postponed.
The Formula E event planned for Vancouver this summer has been postponed. Photo by Alastair Staley /LAT

Vancouver’s first Formula E Race proposed for False Creek this summer has been called off.

One Stop Strategy (OSS) Group, the Montreal-based promoters organizing the Canadian E-Fest, said Friday the three-day festival has been “postponed until 2023.”

“It was a decision made between the organizers and the City of Vancouver,” according to the OSS Group. “The timeline and parameters for the event were not achievable.”

As of Friday afternoon, the event did not have a permit from the city.

In a statement, the City of Vancouver confirmed OSS Group had “elected to exercise its rights under the Host City Agreement to postpone the Formula E Event … to a future date.”

“The City and OSS Group will continue to work together and hope to announce a new date in the near future.”

The Canada Day long weekend festival — for which more than 30,000 tickets had been sold online, organizers said — was to include a live Nickelback concert, a business conference focused on climate change solutions, celebrity events and a headline Formula E electric car race.

“Arrangements will be made for those who purchased tickets,” the OSS Group said. “The process of the 2023 event is still being finalized by OSS and the city.”

The event was billed as a “major asset to Vancouver” and its mission was to “accelerate the change towards sustainability” as part of the Formula E electric series that hosts televised championship races in countries all over the world.

When city council discussed the prospect of E-Fest in April 2021, councillors and staff discussed the importance of ensuring Vancouver wasn’t financially on the hook. Costs were to be “borne by the organizer, and all city service costs to be recoverable from the organizer,” according to a motion from Couns. Sarah Kirby-Yung and Michael Wiebe, which was approved.

The event was expected to generate an estimated $80 million economic spinoff for the city’s tourism and hospitality industry and 3,000 jobs.

“One of our main missions is to work closely with the City of Vancouver and the False Creek residents to ensure this event is here to stay and that we leave a lasting legacy … be that charging stations, improvements to facilities or items of significant interest,” Matthew Carter, CEO of OSS, said when announcing the venture last July.

Earlier this week, city hall confirmed to Postmedia it had received $350,000, the second instalment of a security deposit from the OSS Group.

Organizers had a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Thursday to provide additional items before an event permit would be issued, including proof of insurance, a safety plan, outdoor concert licensing, and confirmation of private property agreements. It was unclear Friday which were turned in.

Postmedia had earlier learned a partner producing the business conference portion of the Canadian E-Fest event had abruptly pulled out, advising stakeholders in an email that “numerous issues” had made their involvement “untenable.”

The business conference, called E-Volve, was billed as “a transformative business and innovation conference … where top executives, global and local leaders, and market influencers shape the future of e-mobility, transportation and electrification.”

OSS Group had said it was producing the conference in partnership with Globe Series, a Toronto-based company responsible for major events, including the Globe Forum climate and sustainability conference in Vancouver.

But on Wednesday, a representative of Globe Series sent out an email to stakeholders advising they were pulling out.

“As a values-driven organization where honesty, integrity and transparency are key to who we are, we want to let you know that we are no longer supporting OSS Group (event producers) on delivering the E-Volve conference,” said the email, which was obtained by Postmedia.

“Numerous issues have made our involvement in this initiative with OSS untenable, and as a result we do not believe we can produce a high-quality event nor service our partners in the current time frame.”

The email went to say: “Despite this setback, we strongly believe that the Canadian E-Fest and the FIA Formula E World Championship race are not only important steps on the road to net zero, but represent an enormous opportunity for Vancouver, B.C. and Canada,” adding: “We would love to be involved in the future of the Canadian E-Fest/Formula E race should it be delayed/postponed and new leaders are put in place.”

A Globe spokesman confirmed to Postmedia the email was authentic, but said he could not discuss details of what led the company to back out.

In a statement Wednesday, the OSS Group said Formula E principals were in Vancouver all week to “understand the actual situation with the different suppliers, as well as meeting with city officials and other stakeholders for the delivery of the Vancouver E Prix.”

“Formula E is the governing body to the Vancouver E-Prix only, not for the E-Volve event or other ancillary events included in the Canadian E-Fest, and are here to ensure a world class motorsport event will be delivered to all who have, and will purchase tickets, to attend from Vancouver and internationally,” the statement said.

With files from John Mackie

dfumano@postmedia.com

sarahgrochowski@postmedia.com

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Melania Trump Event Called Off After Officials Question Fund-Raising

Melania Trump Event Called Off After Officials Question Fund-Raising

“Tulips and Topiaries will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience — an afternoon of sophisticated elegance set in elaborate, lush floral gardens designed to inspire giving, hope, possibility, and dreams,” a news release her office put out in January said. She later sent out a notice on her new social media account with Parler.

But Mrs. Trump, in a statement to The New York Times, has said she was not organizing the event, and was just a participant. (Ms. Moffet said the state had separately concluded that Mrs. Trump had not solicited funds in way that would require her to register.) She declined to address whether money raised at the planned event would be used to pay her personally, and instead criticized questions about the event.

“The media has created a narrative whereby I am trying to act in an illegal or unethical manner,” she wrote in a statement last month. “That portrayal is simply untrue and adversely affects the children I hope to support. Those who attack my initiatives and create the appearance of impropriety are quite literally dream killers. They have canceled the hopes and dreams of children by trying to cancel me.”

Both Melania Trump and former President Donald J. Trump have aggressively raised private money in the year since he left public office. Mr. Trump has published a $75 coffee-table book, gone on an arena tour, held an event with Whip Fundraising last December, and is behind a new social media company.

Even as Mr. Trump holds political rallies, he has carved out time for for-profit events. On March 19, he is speaking at an arena in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where “presidential” level tickets are selling for nearly $3,000.

Mrs. Trump held an online auction in January to sell a hat she had worn at the White House in 2018. More recently, she has started what she says will be a series of sales of unique virtual photographs — so-called NFTs — of her and Mr. Trump at White House events, a promotion she started on Presidents’ Day that will generate as much as $500,000 in revenues if all 10,000 of the items sell out. So far, her website suggests more than 6,100 of these items have been sold for $50 a piece.

Mr. Keltner on Thursday declined to provide a new date or location for the rescheduled event. The website that had offered tickets to the Naples event has been taken down, a move Mr. Keltner attributed in part to bots that he said had been attacking the site “nonstop.”

Shane Goldmacher contributed reporting.