LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Reaction to Pride cancellation telling

The cancellation of the Pride parade was front and center on the front page of The Carillon as it should be because it is a local story relevant to the local population. However, all three political representatives for the Steinbach area that have columns in the paper, Ted Falk (Conservative MP), Kelvin Goertzen (PC MLA), Michael Zwaagstra (Steinbach councillor), did not once mention the cancellation of the parade nor, more importantly, condemn the threats that were directed towards the organizers.

Instead, they were hyper focused on a non-local international issue, albeit a tragic one. These individuals were elected to represent all of their constituents and showed absolutely no courage in standing up for what potentially could have been a tragic event. (I will give Mr. Zwaagstra one point for being quoted in the main article as saying: “Every group should be able to hold events peacefully and should be able to organize”). Perhaps they should resign and let someone who will represent everyone run instead.

And why is it that the writer for the local Steinbach community column, Randine Mclean Wiens, never once, at least not that I have noticed since getting The Carillon in the mail, added the promo paragraph for the Pride parade, when it is mentioned in another community column. There appears to be bias there. Why write for the community when you can’t include events for all of your readers?