On Campus

Professor wants Pride Parade banned

Shinder Purewal tweeted that the parade is “vulgar”

A Kwantlen University professor tweeted Thursday that Vancouver’s Pride Parade “should be banned.”

Shinder Purewal, who was also a third-place Liberal Party candidate in Surrey during the recent federal election and was a citizenship judge, sent out this offensive tweet on Thursday morning:

“Vancouver’s so-called ‘Pride Parade’ should be banned. It is vulgar…to say the least!”

Purewal later explained to the CBC that he would not want his children to see half-naked people walking down the street.

“A lot of people in our society wouldn’t want to see that display downtown.” And he added, “it’s not homophobic… It’s simply if they want to have a pride parade it should be a cultured phenomenon. It should not be sexuality on display.”

Vancouver Pride organizer Kevin Coolen said Purewal has the right to his point of view, but he added that he thinks it couldlead to more homophobia.

Kwantlen University sent out a tweet stating that Purewal’s point of view does not represent the school’s.

A flood of other Tweeters responded to his statement, mainly with criticism.

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