Montreal's Canada Day parade cancelled after organizer pulls plug

Montreal's Canada Day parade has been cancelled less than two weeks ahead of time, and while organizers are blaming the city, municipal officials are blaming organizers.

"We don't even know the reasons," said Julie Parado on Friday. She's with the Filipino Association of Montreal, which was ready to participate in the annual event this year. "We don't know anything. I heard about it this morning."

Parade organizer Nicholas Cowen said he had to reapply for permits, funding and approval multiple times last year. 

The application process became so complicated, Cowen said he needed outside help from the offices of various elected officials at different levels of government to make the parade happen. 

This year, he said roadwork on Ste-Catherine Street and red tape is to blame, and that's why he didn't apply for parade permits this year. 

"The route then would have been changed and I would have had to apply for a whole new set of permits," Cowen told CBC News.

"And there's no guarantee I would have gotten it. I cancelled it to say, hey look here, there's something wrong."

In a news release sent out Thursday, Cowen's group, Défilé de la fête du Canada à Montréal, says the family event attracts 120,000 spectators each year. This year, there will be no parade or cake due to "political divisions," it says.

The very first Canada Day Parade in Montreal took place in 1977. Cowen has been involved since the '90s and has been the organizer for more than two decades.

Last year, the federal government requested that certain parts of the parade be entirely removed, including the annual celebration cake, the release says, and the budget was also reduced to 2013 levels, "which dealt another devastating blow to this cherished event."

Ericka Alneus, the city's executive committee member in charge of culture, said her office would have helped if Cowen had applied.

"We have to make sure when we're doing parades that everybody is safe. So there's regulations that need to be respected."

The Official Opposition's Aref Salem lamented the decision on the social medial platform X Thursday evening.

"Canada parade cancelled: What else?" he wrote. "The Plante administration must stop turning a deaf ear and act! Businesses and organizers deserve better," he wrote.

Cowen said he hopes the parade will roll again once again in the future.

This year, there will still be festivities in the Old Port at the clock tower. Events kick off at 1 p.m. More information can be found on the event's website.