{"id":850381,"date":"2026-08-08T08:10:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/850381\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T08:10:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:10:25","slug":"fundy-albert-council-refuses-to-discuss-invite-to-pride-parade-in-moncton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/850381\/","title":{"rendered":"Fundy Albert council refuses to discuss invite to pride parade in Moncton"},"content":{"rendered":"

A councillor in the municipality of Fundy Albert says she\u2019ll respect the rest of council\u2019s decision not to entertain a motion about participating in a nearby Pride parade.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Davis, who represents Ward 5, said she\u2019ll still be participating in the River of Pride Parade in Moncton on Aug. 8, but as a private citizen, not as a representative of the community of Fundy Albert.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided these people in our community deserve to feel that somebody was there for them on their council, even if the non-seconding might have appeared otherwise,\u201d Davis told CBC News.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I can respect the will of council, and I can also do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

On July 7, Davis brought a motion to council that would allow councillors and residents to march with a Fundy Albert banner. But when no one on council seconded her motion, it couldn\u2019t even be debated.<\/p>\n

WATCH | It\u2019s disappointing to say the least\u2019 says one local parent:\"\"<\/p>\n

Fundy Albert councillor\u2019s Pride participation motion met with silence<\/p>\n

Rebecca Davis asked to walk in Moncton\u2019s Pride parade. Council didn\u2019t even want to talk about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s pretty understood this is a very traditional, more old-fashioned thinking rural area,\u201d said Davis. \u201cI tried to make it as much of a compromise as possible, ensuring that nothing was being shoved in anybody’s face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis said she\u2019d heard from a lot of 2SLGBTQ+ voters and youth while she was campaigning for council who said they\u2019d like the option.<\/p>\n

\u201cMultiple teens, families who said, \u2018I have to march in the pride parade every year with a different municipality or a different group. Can you please make it so that I can march with people from our area and feel like we’re welcome and they’re proud of us?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew there wasn’t an appetite, let’s say, for a pride festival or a crosswalk or anything too progressive in the area, but I did speak to a number of people who wanted to feel represented in some way.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘I thought it was 2026’<\/p>\n

Fundy Albert doesn\u2019t have its own Pride parade, with the closest neighbouring communities that offer one being Saint John and Moncton.<\/p>\n

Davis said she expected some negative responses from community members, but not nearly the amount she has received in the past few weeks since posting about the motion on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t think it would be a big controversial issue, to be honest. I thought it was 2026,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you ever wonder why a pride parade is still necessary, check out the comments section on a post about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Davis said she\u2019s also gotten a lot of support from other community members.<\/p>\n

One of those people is Jeannette LeBlanc, who plans to march with Davis\u2019s independent group of residents in the Moncton parade.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we moved here from Riverview seven years ago, we’ve continued to March with the town of Riverview because there was no representation for our area,\u201d said LeBlanc, who has a transgender child.<\/p>\n

\"AJeannette LeBlanc says she plans to march with Davis this weekend, and that the backlash makes her want to participate even more. (Victoria Walton\/CBC)<\/p>\n

LeBlanc said she was disappointed but not surprised that council didn\u2019t want to discuss the invitation from Pride organizers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that they should realize that there are members of the LGBTQIA community that are in their municipality,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is something that shows people that they’re supported.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018You don\u2019t need to be brave alone\u2019<\/p>\n

The Mayor of Fundy Albert, Jim Campbell, said in an emailed statement to CBC News that because they didn’t discuss the motion, council doesn\u2019t have an official position he can comment on.<\/p>\n

\u201cFundy Albert council is committed to serving all residents respectfully.\u201d said Campbell in the statement.<\/p>\n

Fundy Albert Mayor Jim Campbell, pictured here in a 2020 photo, says council doesn’t have an official position because it didn’t debate the motion. (Pierre Fournier\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Davis wants to keep things positive, but she said some people have dubbed her a troublemaker. She argues she was just pushing for something her constituents told her they wanted, just as she would with any other issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respond to the folks calling me a troublemaker, saying if that means I focus on roads and plowing and economic development and things like that, as well as equality, all right, you can put that label on me,\u201d said Davis. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I’ll still be there for you when you need your road fixed. because I do believe in representing everybody and that’s why I’m doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis said that she has a strong group of supporters who will march in the parade with her on Saturday, but that she will stick to the municipal CAO\u2019s advice of not using municipal logos or signage.<\/p>\n

\"AThe River of Pride parade will weave its way through the streets of downtown Moncton on Saturday Aug. 8. (Babatund\u00e9 Lawani\/Radio-Canada)<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really afraid after all this went down and after all the negative calls and comments I received from people that maybe people would be too afraid to march,\u201d said Davis. \u201cBut I’ve heard from a lot of people saying you don’t need to be brave alone, and we\u2019ll march with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

And LeBlanc said that the backlash surrounding the Pride parade participation has made her even more eager to participate.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to educate people,\u201d she said. \u201cIt would be nice if people would be interested in being educated, but it seems like that’s not the case\u2026They don’t want to hear it. They just want to stay the same, and not progress.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A councillor in the municipality of Fundy Albert says she\u2019ll respect the rest of council\u2019s decision not to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-850381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}