[August 21, 2022] The Gender and Sexuality Alliance of the Graduate Students’ Association has decided to work with Calgary Pride for the 2022 Calgary Pride Parade, taking place on Sunday, September 4, 2022. In December 2020, we had committed to not working with or supporting Calgary Pride, Calgary Queer Arts Society, and the Queer Education Foundation due to extensive claims of racial violence at the hands of these organizations. A third-party organization completed an assessment that supported the legitimacy of these claims. Before making the decision to participate in Calgary Pride this year, GSA^2 and the GSA Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee reached out to Calgary Pride to determine what progress they have made since these issues were identified. We identified specific areas of growth that were not fully addressed on their “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” webpage. For full transparency, we have attached their answers to our questions below:

Pay equity for QTBIPOC artists: A community jury process determines all performers and artists for the Calgary Pride Parade + Festival. Folks apply through our website in June and July. All applications are gathered and the programming is determined by a semi-blind community jury of many 2SLGBTQ+ folks. During this application process we ask performers to provide their performance fee, this allows folks to set their own remuneration expectations. We pay performers what they request and provide accommodations and airfare support. Calgary Pride is a non-profit with a very limited budget as all of our events are non-ticketed, this means that we have to unfortunately say ‘no’ to many folks as we simply don’t have the financial capacity to say ‘yes’ to all of the 100+ performers that apply.
Exploitation of Indigenous artists: The identities of the complainants and witnesses were protected throughout the third-party investigation so we don’t know who specifically was involved unless they told us. We did offer a public apology, however we couldn’t speak to specific harm because all identities were protected – anything that would be identifiable, traceable to one person, was removed by the third-party investigator before being shared with us. It is unclear if certain folks participated in the investigation and we did honour all ‘no contact’ requests. Currently, we are working with a group of Treaty 7 Indigenous Knowledge Keepers and Elders to help inform all elements of our work. This work with Indigenous leaders is informing our practices and policies which are currently being drafted by the organization. All Indigenous folks who are working with Pride are remunerated, financially or with appropriate items (such as pendleton blankets, tobacco, offerings) according to their requests. We have set aside a portion of our yearly budget to ensure this work continues into the future and engage with Indigenous communities in a holistic way.
Nepotistic hiring practices: This was absolutely an issue with the organization. As all current staff and board are new to the organization, it is difficult for us to speak on the previous hiring practices as we weren’t with the organization then. There were also no policies in place to ensure proper hiring policies, that is being changed with the codified policies and procedures mentioned above. Currently, Calgary Pride has three full-time staff and five contract summer staff. A wide majority of the staff identifies as POC, but a more collaborative hiring process further ensures that we are negating any personal biases. Whenever Pride has a job opening, we share it widely – social media, our website, ads, grant boards, etc. All current staff were hired through these open job calls and no staff had previous personal relationships with one another. As far as we are aware, all current staff also had no previous experience/relationship with Pride, like being a contractor, performer, board member, etc.
Allegations against the Executive Director: When the complaints first came in 2020, Calgary Pride removed the former Executive Director from their role. We hired a temporary Director of Organizational Change, Hasina Juma, and moved to implement a non-hierarchical leadership manager model. Following the investigation we learned all allegations were founded and we released a public apology for the harm caused. We didn’t release specifics as all identities were protected by the third-party investigator. However, based on the outcome the organization decided to sever all ties with the former ED in 2021. Hasina Juma concluded her contract with Pride in December 2021 and the current leadership team includes Sumit Munjal (he/they) Manager of Production and Programming, Madina Kanayeva (she/her) Manager of Fund Development, and Brit Nickerson (she/they) Manager of Communications.
Next steps: Our major next steps include finalizing our draft policies and procedures. The organization recognized the lack of solid policy during the calls for accountability and we have worked with various outside organizations to draft comprehensive procedures and policies. These are currently being reviewed and codified by a third-party consultant. We are also beginning conversations with consulting groups to implement our Intersectional Advisory Council. The Council will consist of several 2SLGBTQ+ folks who contribute to the strategic visioning of the organization. Folks sitting on the council will be monetarily compensated for their time. Compensating members is critical to recognizing marginalized and vulnerable members of the community, often lack time or resources that would accommodate volunteering for a not-for-profit board. We are asking a third-party consulting firm to assist us with the framework and formation of the Council to ensure a fulsome and transparent approach. We have also implemented mandatory training for staff and board, including AHS Trauma Informed Care and Indigenous Canada through the University of Alberta. Following the festival, the organization will also be taking on strategic planning to set goals for the next five years, re-evaluate our values, mission, etc. and create a plan with key performance indicators to ensure we are reaching our goals and are accountable to the communities we serve. Updates are planned to be posted at least bi-annually on the DEI page, for transparency.
Can you release the recommendations from the assessment?
- No, our priority is protecting the privacy of the complainants and witnesses. As stated above we have no knowledge of the identities of the complainants and witnesses.
Have you provided any reparative compensation or direct apologies to those who were directly impacted?
- Complainants and witnesses were not directly compensated but we donated to a charity/NGO of their choice.

We understand that these are complex and intricate issues that must be purposefully and conscientiously confronted, and we believe that Calgary Pride has made meaningful steps to address these issues. As such, the GSA^2 and GSA EDI committee have offered to work with them in a consulting capacity to continue addressing these issues moving forward. On September 4^th, members from GSA^2 will be participating in the parade as representatives of the University of Calgary and will set up a booth to raise awareness and spread resources to the broader 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

Link to our previous statement: https://gsa.ucalgary.ca/open-letter-from-the-gsa-gender-and-sexuality-alliance-subcommittee/

More information from Calgary Pride: https://calgarypride.ca/diversity-equity-inclusion/