'Too much red tape': Canada Day parade cancelled in Montreal

Roberto Wakerell-Cruz
  |   June 21, 2024   |   Be the first to comment

The annual Canada Day parade has been cancelled in Montreal this year just two weeks before the event, with the organizer citing excessive red tape and bureaucratic hurdles with the city.

Nicolas Cowen has been running the parade since 2015 and says that he cannot guarantee public safety at the event due to a lack of volunteers and security staff because of issues obtaining licenses. He says for this reason, he's made the "really disappointing" decision to cancel the July 1st event that was scheduled to take place.

Cowen says that the issues are mainly to do with the City of Montreal, which he says is to blame for the overwhelmingly complicated number of regulations that one must consider when planning an event of such nature. He also blamed the amount of construction happening in the city's downtown core.

"There's too much red tape," Cowen said. "At this point, I've decided not to go ahead," he said to Global News, saying the process was becoming too difficult with too many hurdles.

The cancellation comes one year after the city cancelled its Caribbean carnival Carifiesta parade.

The year before that, Montreal's Pride parade was cancelled just hours before it was to start.

Canada Day celebrations are still scheduled to go ahead in the city's old port, organized by Heritage Canada.

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