Pride Corner organizer says repeated restraining orders are 'silencing' group's LGBTQ advocacy
CBC
Organizers with Edmonton's Pride Corner say repeated restraining orders against one of their founding members are hampering their advocacy for the city's LGBTQ2S community.
Over the last eight months, three civil restraining orders have been filed against Pride Corner organizer Claire Pearen.
Two of the orders have been dismissed, but the person who filed the second restraining order applied for another just 18 days after a judge dismissed the previous one.
Pearen and other Pride Corner organizers say they know the two people who have filed the orders because they've seen them working with local street preachers.
Pearen initially started protesting street preachers by herself, and by 2020, that grew into a gathering every Friday for the LGBTQ community and allies at the corner of Whyte Avenue and 104th Street.
"For a young person to come out and walk by and see a rainbow and a message of hope, or hear that they're worthy rather than hear that they're going to hell for their existence, then all of it's been worth it," Pearen told CBC.
"It's very scary to be queer right now, and especially a queer youth."
The two women who filed restraining orders both alleged Pearen harassed them while she was engaged in Pride Corner protests, causing them to fear for their safety.
In affidavits filed in response to the restraining orders, Pearen denies making threats or trying to harm either person, and says her aim is to counter "hateful messages against LGBTQ2S+ people" expressed by street preachers.
"Our protests are peaceful and operate within not only the law, but common decency," one of Pearen's affidavits says.
"I have never put my hands on the applicant or another protester. I do not act aggressively towards other people."
Pride Corner organizer Erynn Christie said in addition to the weekly gatherings on Whyte Avenue, a smaller group has been showing up for "pop-up protests" in other places where street preachers evangelize, including downtown.
But when a restraining order is in effect, if Pearen is within 200 metres of the person who filed it, she could be arrested. That means her involvement has been scaled back, and the pop-up protests might not go ahead.
"It's silencing Claire's voice and silencing Pride Corner's voice as a whole, and almost undermining all the work that we have done in the two and a half years to get where we are and be such a pillar within the queer community of Edmonton," Christie said.
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