Kamloops Council approves downtown rainbow crosswalk at 2nd and Seymour

Some councillors brought up concerns that installing a $6,000 rainbow crosswalk, paid for mostly by tax dollars, could have legal implications.

“The concern is not that I feel that $6,000 is a great deal of money, that we’re not in a position to be able to spend that,” Councillor Dieter Dudy said. “The concern I have is that once we do this we may be opening the door to a number of other special interest groups coming with their hand out saying, ‘you did this for them, why can you not do that for us?’ And the concern goes even further that if we do deny somebody along the road afterwards, after we’ve done that, we may be opening ourselves up to legal challenges.”

Despite some concerns, the installation of the crosswalk was unanimously approved by council.

The crosswalk will be paid, in part, by Kamloops Pride. The organization is contributing $1,500 to its installation.

It will be installed using an inlay technique and durable paint that should last 5-10 years before maintenance is needed.

Mayor Ken Christian believes the crosswalk is an opportunity for the city to express its support for diversity.

“Other religious groups have not necessarily been persecuted in the Canadian mosaic and the Canadian history,” he said, “but the LGBTQ2S+ community has in terms of service in the military, service in the police force and the approaches that society has taken to homosexuality in particular over the years.”

by Jill Sperling

Kamloops Council approves downtown rainbow crosswalk at 2nd and Seymour

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