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Pride in New West

> Events ongoing throughout August

Colten Kamlade
Staff Reporter

 

his month the Douglas College
Student Union will have a booth at
the New West Pride Street Festival.

The festival lasts for one week,
running from 3 to 8 pm every day on
Columbia Street. According to the
New West Pride website, there will be
entertainment with acts performing
across three different stages. There will
be singers, dancers, poets, DJs, and drag
performers, all celebrating the LGBTQ+
community. If you are interested in
volunteering for the festival, check out

their website at www.newwestpride.ca.
If you can’t wait for August
18, then there are plenty of pride-
related activities taking place in New
Westminster throughout the month.
On Tuesday, August 14, there is a Pride
Family Picnic, as well as a 19+ event
brought to you by Steel & Oak Brewing.
On Wednesday, August 15, there is a
Pride Hoedown (which includes square-
dancing, two-step, and line dancing),
and Rainbow Pride Trivia. On Thursday,
August 16, there is Rainbow Karaoke and
a Pride pie contest. On Friday, August
17, there is a New West Pride Edition of
Fridays on Front, as well as an event at

the Terminal Pub celebrating Pride.
Other events around the Tri-City
area will also be taking place. For the
entire month of August, there will
be a display of Pride literature and
film in the library at both Douglas
College campuses. In Vancouver, the
SFU Belzberg Library is celebrating
Canadian LGBTQ+ histories and
stories through a similar display.
The first Pride Parade took place
on June 29, 1970. According to an
article from the New York Times, the
parade took place in New York the
year after the Stonewall rebellion.
“The Stonewall rebellion had

  
     

 
   

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happened the year before in
Greenwich Village, and the parade
was both a commemoration and a
next step,” the Times article said.

According to ABC News, Gay
Pride is celebrated worldwide.

“LGBT Pride Month events draw
millions of participants from around
the world each year. Today, the month-
long celebrations include pride parades,
marches, parties, concerts, workshops
and symposiums across the nation.
Memorials are also often held for
members of the LGBT community
who have lost their lives to hate
crimes or HIV/AIDS,” the article said.

Saudi students forced to leave Canada

> Diplomatic dispute displaces thousands

Jake Wray
News Editor

 

pproximately 16,000 Saudi Arabian

students might be forced to leave
Canada due to the Saudi government
revoking their scholarships.

This is only the latest development
in a diplomatic dispute between
Canada and Saudi Arabia after a tweet
by Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister
Chrystia Freeland criticized the
Saudi Arabian human rights record.
The Saudi government responded
by expelling Canada’s ambassador
from Saudi Arabia and recalling its
own ambassador from Canada.

Joseph Wong, vice-provost at the
University of Toronto, said Saudi Arabian
students have been notified that they
must leave Canada within a month.

“T understand this is what is being
circulated to students,” Wong told the
Canadian Press. “I’m hearing from
other universities in Canada that their

students have been [receiving notices].

“T have never heard of
anything like this before.”

Bessma Momani, a political
science professor at the University of
Waterloo, told the Toronto Star that
the Saudi government will not rescind
its decision to revoke scholarships
for students studying in Canada.

“I don’t think, understanding Saudi
Arabia’s foreign policy, that they're
going to climb down from this, so
were at an impasse,” she told the Star.

The King Abdullah scholarship,
administered by the Saudi government,
pays all education and living costs,
Momani told the Star. The Star
also reported that a group of Saudi
Arabian doctors who are in Canada for
specialized training will be forced to
leave. The doctors treat approximately
20,000 patients, Momani told the Star.

UBC is supporting its Saudi students
with the sudden transition, according
to a report by the Vancouver Sun.

“Understandably, many of our

  

students have questions about how
the current dispute between Canada
and Saudi Arabia will affect them
now and in the future, and we are
working hard to help them manage
with the limited information that is
available, and to provide individual
support as they consider the next

steps for their studies,” UBC president
Santa Ono told the Vancouver Sun.

“T appreciate this is a time of
stress and uncertainty for UBC’s Saudi
Arabian student population and I] want
to reassure them that we are doing all
we can to provide required supports
during this evolving scenario.”

Photo by Analyn Cuarto

Photo of Chrystia Freeland via Wikimedia