Council unanimously opposes Pride in the Woods
Council unanimously opposes Pride in the Woods
Controversial LGBT campground will not receive letter of support from municipality.
Last month West Nipissing council received a delegation from the organizers of the Pride in the Woods festival in Lavigne. The festival which is hosted by Foxhaven campground was seeking municipal support. That meeting led to interesting exchanges between councillors and the organizers regarding the campground in question.
As is normally the case, council deferred to a future meeting to officially vote on a motion of support. That meeting was yesterday.
Ryan Jackson who is also the campground owner, communicated to council that a letter of support would give the organization a much better chance to get provincial and federal grants.
As was mentioned by Jackson last year, Foxhaven and Pride in the Woods have received federal grants that were personally delivered by MP Marc Serré in the past. However, granting agencies were increasingly requiring municipal support to access funds.
Lack of Support from West Nipissing Pride
When Jackson and fellow organizer Jason Maclennan made their pitch to council last month, they were questioned for their apparent lack of support from the designated local Pride organization, West Nipissing Pride.
Although the group received endorsements from North Bay Pride, West Nipissing Pride has indicated that they are in no way associated with the controversial group hosting LGBT themed events in Lavigne.
The organizers received sharp criticism from councillors who pointed out that most events hosted by Foxhaven are not family friendly. These include “spanking” festivals and toddler events. The toddler events (Toddlerfest) are the most disturbing whereas Foxahaven has become the national centre for the age-play branch of the LGBT community. Age-play involves adults who seek others who identify as toddlers.
Lavigne councillor, George Pharand opined that as a gay man himself, he would not be comfortable attending the events at the campground. He added “I wouldn’t recommend that the municipality offer it’s support.
Although Jackson is the campground owner, after facing questioning, he stated that council should not be discussing Foxhaven. He stated that council must differentiate between the campground and the events in question. However his request specified that he was seeking support for all of “Foxhaven’s PRIDE events”.*
*A list of Foxhaven’s Pride events can be found here however please be advised that there is some disturbing content.
Motion Defeated
Some councillors attempted to defer taking a stance on the controversial motion by asking that once again, more information be sought. Daniel Gagne, Jamie Restoule and Kathleen Thorne-Rochon proposed a motion to defer but councillors Pharand and Nicol objected saying council had enough information to proceed. The deferral request was defeated. Following a vote on the motion of support all councillors appeared to vote against.
I reached out to Pride in the Woods and Foxhaven for a comment on the matter but as of publishing I have not received a response.
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I am flabbergasted that this was even a consideration. What a waste of taxpayers money. How about fixing the roads… Ethel road near Franco is absolutely disgusting, it’s pretty much using your car to go do some shady trails in the bush.
There’s so many other discussions that need to be talked about, lots of issues that need attention, but yet we’re putting on the agenda for a town council meeting, a place that has adults dressing as toddlers and spanking eachother. It’s ridiculous.
If there be any provincial or federal founding going directly to the municipality for this kind of shit show, Foxheaven would have got their letter of support. This kind of woke stuff is a direct attack against heterosexual people, period.