Podcast Episode: Montreal: The City That Stopped, and the Moment I Will Never Forget

Pip: There are travel posts, and then there are travel posts that make you put your phone down and just sit with it for a minute. Brett's latest is the second kind.

Mara: This episode follows brett through Montreal — the conference, the parade, a silence that stopped thousands of people in their tracks, and the personal story that grew out of a bid that didn't go the way he wanted.

Pip: Let's start with Montreal itself.

Montreal: The City That Stopped, and the Moment I Will Never Forget

Pip: The post opens with a distinction worth sitting with — cities you visit and enjoy, cities you visit and admire, and then a third category. Montreal lands in the third.

Mara: The setup for that third category comes early: "Montreal is that third kind of city. It has been, across all of my travels in Canada and indeed across all of my travels full stop, the most welcoming, the most diverse, the most genuinely inclusive place I have ever had the privilege of standing in."

Pip: That's a strong claim, and the post earns it. The context is an InterPride AGM and World Conference — described as magnificently run, precisely organised, with a spirit that felt different from arrival. But the conference is almost a backdrop.

Mara: Right, because what the post is really building toward is Fierté Montréal — Montreal Pride. The parade draws staggering numbers, and the energy is described as something you feel physically. He marched in it.

Pip: And then the parade stopped. No announcement, no warning. Music gone. Crowds gone. Thousands of people, silent at once.

Mara: A minute's silence, in honour of the pioneers of the 2SLGBTQIA+ movement, in memory of those lost to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and in commemoration of victims of anti-LGBTQ+ violence across the world. He calls it the most emotional moment he has experienced at any Pride event, anywhere.

Pip: That's a person who has marched on multiple continents saying that. The weight lands.

Mara: The post then moves into the WorldPride bid. Montreal's management asked for his support to host WorldPride, he gave it without hesitation, and the competition was Sydney's Mardi Gras. Sydney won. His support for Montreal created friction with the Sydney delegation.

Pip: He sums it up as c'est la vie — quite literally, in this case. Which is either gracious or perfectly dry, depending on how you read it.

Mara: Probably both. But the post doesn't end on the bid. Because Sydney winning meant his longtime New York friend Alan finally had a reason to travel to Australia — and stopped in Melbourne first, at brett's home. After years of being the guest in Alan's New York apartment, he got to be the host.

Pip: The post calls it something that can't be easily articulated. Some things come around in the end, even the ones you didn't plan.

Mara: A city that holds a minute of silence for its history, and a friendship that finally crossed an ocean. Those two things are what stay.

Pip: Next time, more of the World Traveller Series. Entry ten — Toronto — is already waiting.