Cambridge protest supports teen’s Pride speech

People marched to Cambridge’s city hall to denounce the mayor’s actions at a Pride event. CTV’s Colton Wiens reports.

A crowd of people gathered in downtown Cambridge to call for accountability and to support a teen whose speech at a Pride event was interrupted by the city’s mayor.

Sophie Mills, a 17-year-old non-binary teenager, tried to delivered a speech during a city-run Pride flag raising event last week. However, when Mills began to address their feelings around a demeaning meme that was posted by Councillor Adam Cooper last year, Mayor Jan Liggett stepped up to the podium and moved the microphone away from Mills.

Liggett admonished the teen, calling that portion of their speech disrespectful. Mills was allowed to finish an altered version of their remarks.

Liggett has published a lengthy statement about the incident and said she wasn’t trying to silence Mills, she was trying to prevent personal attacks.

However that statement was not well received by the people who joined Monday’s protest at city hall.

“Jan took away somebody’s freedom of expression,” Bryan Causarano-Bolton, co-founder of Grand River Pride, said. “It’s protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She silenced someone. And as mayor, that’s despicable.”

The people who gathered at Cambridge City Hall on Monday carried colourful signs in support of Mills and the 2SLGBTQ+ community at large.

“Nothing about what happened with the mayor is right,” Shelby Shapiro, a protestor and a co-owner of Woolf and Company, said.

Some politicians have also added their voices to the cause.

“I think that the behaviour of Mayor Liggett was absolutely appalling. To rip a microphone away from a young person in particular, outlining their emotional response to Pride, was not only disgusting, but can be traumatizing and triggering for those in the community,” Kathryn McGarry, former Cambridge mayor and MPP, said.

“The behavior of Mayor Liggett and then doubling down on it and offering only a defensive explanation without a true apology is absolutely beneath the office of a mayor or any elected official,” McGarry said. “I would love to see her resign. I think that she has embarrassed the city.”

“I am hoping that the integrity commissioner will investigate this. I’m sure that his findings will bring some justice to this,” Causarano-Bolton said.

CTV News reached out to Liggett on Monday. In an emailed statement she wrote, “I respect people’s right to gather.”

Mills speaks

Sophie Mills was one of the people who joined the gathering on Monday. They delivered the entire, unedited speech they had tried to say last week.

“My mental health is decreasing more. This has gotten really overwhelming. [Liggett’s] response did not help, I think that made it worse. But the community outreach has continued to get better and been incredible,” Mills said.

Mills said they want both a personal apology and a public one.

“I have not personally heard from the mayor. Nor did we hear from them before they released their statement,” Mills said.