City council declared Saskatoon a 2SLGBTQQIA+ safe city during its regular meeting Wednesday.
“This is a first step. This is not this is not a finish line,” Ward 6 Coun. Jasmin Parker said.
The city unanimously approved a motion from Parker after previously mulling over the idea during a committee meeting two weeks ago which asked: “Should the City of Saskatoon declare itself a 2SLGBTQQIA+ Sanctuary City?”
The main issue with the initial question is no one could accurately describe what that means.
“It’s unclear at this time,” city solicitor Cindy Yelland said.
“There is a couple of cities that have declared themselves sanctuary cities for immigration, but there is no other city in Canada that has declared themselves a sanctuary city for the LGBTQ community.”
Local advocate Blake Tait approached the city in 2023 about sanctuary city status after the 1 Million March 4 Children, a nationwide protest movement calling for the removal of sexual orientation and gender identity as topics in school curriculums, made its way to Saskatoon.
Speaking to councillors on Wednesday, Tait said he was unable to support the motion simply because he believes queer people are not safe in Saskatoon, and he never intended his request to be misconstrued.
“Sanctuary does not mean safe. It means there is work being done. It means there is a slow conscious healing. A sanctuary is a place of refuge, a shelter, a retreat,” Tait said.
Tait regularly experiences verbal and physical confrontations based on his gender identity.
Tait has been called numerous slurs, nearly been run over when crossing the street and told councillors he quit the best job he ever had because of hate speech.
“Just this past weekend, my friends had ice cubes thrown at them, along with slurs in a local bar. Gender non-conforming people are not safe here. And to claim we are is nothing short of irresponsible,” Tait said.
Those in favour of the motion said the gesture from city hall isn’t perfect, but it’s a start.
“We also want to emphasize that this motion must be just the beginning. This work cannot end here, and it certainly has to be more than words,” said Tasnim Jaisee, the chair of the city’s diversity, equity and inclusion advisory committee.
“I don’t view this as a declaration that we’re done, (that) we’re safe. That isn’t the case. This is about establishing a statement that says we want to be a safe city for everybody, including the LGBTQ community,” Ward 3 Coun. Robert Pearce said.
Others lamented the city’s missed opportunity in becoming a sanctuary city.
“If the council is honest about their goals of preventing discrimination and transphobia within the city at a systemic level, declaring Saskatoon a sanctuary city is the most powerful and maybe radical step towards that goal,” local student Memphis Ramsden-Enns said.
