Video: Tempers flare at Niagara Catholic trustees meeting as anti-Pride protestors locked out

A small but extremely vocal crowd of protestors were met by Niagara Police and security teams at the Niagara Catholic District School Board headquarters last night (June 20) as trustees debated a motion to reverse the Pride flag policy.

The entrances to the building in Welland were cordoned off by blockades, causing furious arguments from the protestors who wanted into the chamber.

The controversial motion by trustees Natalia Benoit and Joe Bruzzese to reverse the board’s 2021 decision to fly the Pride flag through the month of June has been meet with much debate over the past month when the pair first tried to add it to the agenda at May’s trustee meeting.

Both Benoit and Bruzzese were both supported at election time in October 2022 by the “Vote Against Woke” parents group.

Despite the commotion outside, the trustees voted against the motion by an expected 8-2 vote. Chair Danny Di Lorenzo indicated prior to the meeting that he would not be supporting the motion from Benoit and it seems none of the other trustees had any interest in overturning the two-year-old decision to fly the Pride flag through the month of June.

Below, the protest was caught on video. (WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC LANGUAGE)

Life is a tragicomedy.

Here, hell breaks loose in the most anticlimactic ways possible.#cdnpoli #Welland pic.twitter.com/zg28axUWgI

— Caryma Sa'd – Lawyer + Political Satirist (@CarymaRules) June 21, 2023