The Edmonton Pride Festival announced Wednesday this year's celebration has been cancelled.
In an email to stakeholders obtained by CTV News, the society said, “In light of the current political and social environment, it has been determined that any attempt to host a Festival will not be successful.”
The parade has also been cancelled.
CTV News also obtained a list of demands by the groups Shades of Colour and Rarica Now. They represent indigenous, black, and people of color in the queer and trans community.
They say the pride festival organization is not inclusive of people of colour, and have made seven demands to change this.
The first demand by the group is to reorganize the structure of Pride. Open Pride with a protest lead by QTIBPOC, trans folks and their allies.
Another demand is to rework the budget, and provide Shades of Colour and Rarica Now with $20,000 each to help create spaces for them.
CTV News has reached out to Shades of Colour and Rarica Now for comment.
Prior to the release of the email with the list of demands, Shades of Colour criticized Edmonton Pride for cancelling the festival.
"We are calling this decision for what it is: namely, a disavowal of deep systematic problems in the framework of EPFS as well as an attempt to dismiss, target, and put out of play the efforts put on the part of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour in the LGBTQ2S+ to point towards alternatives on how this organization carries out its activities."
Over the weekend, the Pride Centre of Edmonton faced backlash after it fired an employee, receiving allegations of a racist and homophobic culture.
The centre held a meeting to address the concerns and received a set of demands from groups in attendance.
Edmonton Pride said it would release more information about why the event was cancelled via social media "over the next week."
Ward 4 Councillor Aaron Paquette said he reached out to the city manager in an attempt to save the festival.
One of the owners of Evolution Wonderlounge said his bar will still hold pride events in June.
"I've seen parades get cancelled before with about this much notice ... so I'm fully confident in the community," Rob Browatzke said. "We are a resilient bunch of people and we will find a way to make something so wonderful happen in June."
The Edmonton Pride Festival was originally scheduled to run from June 7 to 16.