The emotion was palpable in council chambers Monday night as supporters of the Royal Lancers fought for their chance to dance as part of May Day.
David MacGrotty, chair of the Royal Lancers, said the group has been willing to work with the city to address any concerns or changes it would like to see with the dances performed at May Day festivities in New Westminster for more than 100 years. Council recently announced it was eliminating the dances from this year’s May Day banquet.
“I feel for the traditions in this city. There is value in tradition. It’s actually priceless,” he told council Monday night. “New Westminster is a unique city which prides ourselves on our rich history. Not all history is bricks and mortar such as buildings and statues. City council will have public consultation prior to tearing down a 100-year-old building, or even cutting down a 100-year-old tree. How could a small group of seven people … tear something down without public consultation?”
After listening to a dozen speakers urging the city to reconsider its position about the Royal Lancers dances, Mayor Jonathan Cote said council would discuss the item at its next meeting.
“What I will say is we will talk about this at our next open public council meeting, to take time and reflect on the comments that have been made this evening,” he said. “Certainly council has had some opinions and I have made some comments in the public, but I do want to make sure the people in this room do know we are going to take some time to reflect on the comments that have been made.”
Kathy (Gifford) Glassie, who was New Westminster’s May Queen in 1975, was among dozens of supporters of the Royal Lancers at city hall Monday night. She urged council to reinstate the lancers’ dances.
“In my opinion, this decision is not in the public interest. This is a historical, well-loved tradition which makes New Westminster stand out as a unique Canadian city, holding its traditions close and strong,” Glassie said. “It makes me wonder if you as decision makers, as custodians of our city, understand what May Day and the lancers mean to the city. The audience knows and they share my concerns.”
Royal Lancer Bud Sage said “there has not been one problem” with the group during their 110-year history in New Westminster. Sage is one of the lancers who does a march-in and march-out and dances with members of the May Queen Suite.
“The dance brings generations together and is part of what makes New Westminster a special place to live. I can’t just stand by and watch as this tradition is thrown away by a misguided council,” Sage said. “What I am hearing from council now is a ‘modernization’ theme which is difficult for tradition.”
Cassidy Tecklenborg, the city’s current May Queen, said she’ll miss not dancing with the lancers at this year’s banquet and feels sad that members of future May Queen suites will miss out on a special part of May Day. When talking about the Royal Lancers, Cassidy said people mention the longstanding city tradition and the connection between the children and seniors of the community.
“Those things are all true, but for me, the most important thing is that dancing with the lancers is just super fun,” she told city council. “I speak for myself, as well as the rest of my Royal Suite when I say it was one of the most fun parts of our day and definitely of the banquet. We will be very sad if we don’t get to do it this year. It is too bad that no one asked us and the Royal Knights how we felt about it continuing.”
Evelyn Benson said many families in New Westminster have been offended by this “poorly thought out decision to tamper with the heritage” of the children in the city. She said New Westminster has prided itself on supporting multiculturalism in a variety of ways, but it doesn’t seem to want to protect the city’s British heritage and traditions.
“All these performances are old-fashioned, in fact some of them are centuries old. Yet our Royal Lancers dance somehow needs to be modernized?” she said of dances done for celebrations like Chinese New Year and Diwali. “We are the Royal City, New Westminster, British Columbia, yet somehow the multiculturalism protection does not apply to things British?”
Lorraine Brett said she didn’t grow up in New Westminster and was “somewhat perplexed” about the city’s May Day rituals and initially found them to be “out of step with modern culture.” As part of a journalism project she took part in a decade ago, she interviewed people involved in May Day, including members of May Queen Suites and Royal Lancers, and what she heard in those interviews led her to believe the city should preserve May Day and its rituals. Instead of seeing May Day tradition as the last vestiges of a patriarchal society and of female oppression, Brett said the young women told her of the joy and pride they had in the community and strong self esteem and sense of community that came with their involvement in May Day, including the lancers’ dances.
“Making drastic changes to May Day, such as cancelling the lancers’ dance seems to fly in the face of decades – and decades, and decades and decades – of positive memories and community building benefits,” she said. “The power of New Westminster’s May Day tradition is its unbroken connection to the past. It’s a reminder that while fashion is subject to change, our core values are not. From what I have seen, nothing about May Day, and especially the lancers dance, is in need of updating.”
The Royal Lancers consists of community members who have volunteered or served the city, including former councillors and trustees, lawyers, businessmen and principals.
Former school trustee Lisa Graham expressed concern that council is cancelling the lancers’ dances in response to undocumented complaints from people who believe it is politically incorrect for older men to dance with the girls in the May Queen Suite.
“I would really, really hope that council could see the wisdom in reversing your decision because if you don’t, effectively what you are doing is you are maligning the characters of so many good men, today and in the past, who are not deserving of that kind of defamation or characterization,” she said. “This is purely community building. It is a positive experience for everyone involved.”
Many residents criticized council for making the decision in a closed meeting without community input.
City clerk Jan Gibson said the city is aware of the closed meeting provisions in the Community Charter. She said this item was discussed under a section that covers negotiations and discussions about the proposed provision of a municipal service that are at their preliminary stages.
