As the Galt Pride Party lit up Main Street with Pride festivities Saturday, one business in the heart of the action says they were prevented from taking part and are calling out the city and the Downtown BIA for discriminating against them.
"There are a lot of closed-minded people who are stuck in their old fashion thinking and they did not want a cannabis store to operate in the event," said Corry Van Iersel, owner of True North Cannabis. "We were really looking forward to getting involved with the event and were begging the BIA to put us on the list."
True North Cannabis Co. sits in the middle of the closed road in downtown Galt at 51 Main St., and draws in thousands of customers every week.
Van Iersel thinks they were purposely left out of the event due to the nature of their business.
"Just because we sell cannabis, which is completely legal, doesn't mean we should be excluded from events that we technically pay to be a part of," he said. "We have many employees and customers who identify with the LGBTQ+ community and the fact that we couldn't support them was really disappointing,"
Van Iersel maintains that the City of Cambridge and the Downtown BIA did not let them in, because it was an all-ages event and beer and cannabis were not supposed to be prominently displayed.
The cannabis store owner was quick to point out that local breweries were allowed to help sponsor the event and local restaurants were able to serve beer and alcohol.
Van Iersel said the city's special events co-ordinator told him the Pride Party was an all-ages event and that cannabis is not supported. The City of Cambridge, however, denies this and said it had no role in regulating which businesses participated in the event.
"If you can sit on the patio right next to us and drink a beer or stand on the street and smoke a joint, I don't think that having a cannabis store selling t-shirts to help support the event is causing any harm," Van Iersel said.
True North Cannabis has over 50 other locations across Ontario and were participants in Pride events in various other cities, according to the business owner.
An organizer for the Cambridge event, and co-founder of Grand River Pride Bryan Causarano, told CambridgeToday in an email that True North Cannabis missed their opportunity to register with them, and had to try and get on the list with the local BIA and the city's event planner.
Causarano confirms that this application request was denied.
The Downtown BIA did not respond to a request for comment.
During the event, True North Cannabis put out a table after speaking with the BIA. Van Iersel said they were given the approval, but they were not allowed to promote their store.
"Despite the BIA saying we could have a table, by-law came by and shut us down. They told us we had to go back inside," he said. "After talking with some of the locals who gave us support, we decided to bring back out the table and by-law came back and told us we were going to get charged."
True North Cannabis is expecting a summons to appear in court for operating without a permit.
The City of Cambridge said no charges were laid.
Melissa Lopez, vp of strategic initiatives for True North was there on the day of the event and said, it felt like they were being kicked out for no good reason and the treatment they were getting from the city was unfair.
True North had hired extra staff for the day to help man the table outside and made up special Pride Month t-shirts to sell. Proceeds from the shirt would have been donated to Grand River Pride.
"It was pointed out to us by the BIA that they were concerned that the Pride shirts had the word cannabis on them, but it was very small," Van Iersel said.
Eric Bolton co-founder of Grand River Pride, said that the cannabis shop initially was very receptive to helping them run power out of their store for the event, but that changed when they were kicked out by the city.
"We are and were totally optimistic to work with True North and are grateful for their clear stance of inclusivity and support for the Pride community," wrote Bolton in an email to CambridgeToday.
"It was all very unfortunate and was simply a matter of them not wanting to follow the guidelines the city and BIA required us to have for vendors. They were in no way being excluded."
Despite this, Van Iersel and his staff still feel like the cannabis store has been wronged by the BIA and the City of Cambridge. They plan to hire a lawyer and go to court to fight the city on this issue, a case they feel like they will easily win.
"The city will have to hire lawyers which will be a waste of money. We obviously want to get this resolved and be allowed to participate in events with the city. Why doesn't the city want to support local business, just because we sell something they might not like, it's ridiculous," said Van Iersel.
As for True North's commitment to the BIA, they are looking for a way to leave the community organization and be reimbursed for their fees.
