Cambridge, Ont., Mayor Jan Liggett says she was obligated to stop a teen’s speech during the city’s Pride flag raising event on Monday and stands behind her actions.
“My actions were not about silencing anyone, but of refocusing,” Liggett said in a video statement published on the Office of the Mayor City of Cambridge Facebook page Friday afternoon.
“They were about protecting the integrity of an event that was intended to unite rather than divide. We live in a time when outrage often receives more attention than understanding.”
But shortly after Liggett’s statement on Friday, a local 2SLGBTQ-plus group called for her to resign.
Eric Bolton and Bryan Causarano-Bolton of Grand River Pride said they “reject” the mayor’s response.
On Monday, 17-year-old Sophie Mills was invited to speak at the city’s Pride flag raising event.
A video shared to social media shows Mills starting their speech, but just a few lines into it, Liggett stands up from her chair on stage, walks over and moves the microphone away from Mills.
Liggett made the move when Mills referenced Ward 6 Coun. Adam Cooper’s controversial Facebook post in January 2025 about pronouns and Mills started to say how the post made them feel.
Cooper’s post included a meme that showed a person with blue hair screaming toward the camera. “He took my pronouns! I have to live in reality now!” was written on the image, alluding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order ending many policies protecting 2SLGBTQ+ rights.
Council voted to have Cooper undergo sensitivity training after the city’s integrity commissioner determined he violated council’s code of conduct. Council did not dock Cooper’s pay, which was recommended by the integrity commissioner.
“Sophie, I’m not going to allow you to continue. This is disrespect,” Liggett said, speaking into the microphone after she moved it away from Mills during Monday’s event.
“Can you remove that part from your speech please. [Cooper] has already gone through what he needs to go through and I don’t think it’s helpful.”
Liggett then returned the microphone to Mills, who skipped that section of their speech and continued speaking.
In an interview with CBC News Friday afternoon, Liggett said she stands by her decision to pull the microphone away from Mills.
“I was abrupt … but there’s no other way to adjust the mic,” Liggett told CBC News. “The mic was standing there and I had to move it towards me, away from [Mills].”
Liggett said Mills’s speech had been vetted by city staff and the part about Cooper was added after the fact.
Liggett said Mills should take responsibility for not letting city staff know they were going to deliver a different speech when they were expected to give the “same speech they had done the previous weekend at a Pride event.”
“If [Mills] had spoken to the staff person in charge and said their intent was to no longer read the intended speech, then the staff person would have worked with them and all of this could have been avoided,” Liggett said in her video statement.
Mills told CBC News they watched a council meeting on Oct. 14, 2025 where council decided what course of action should be taken following the integrity commissioner’s report into Cooper’s actions.
After watching the council meeting, they decided to rewrite part of their speech to comment on how Cooper’s controversial Facebook post in January 2025 made them feel.
Mills said they made the changes to their speech the day of, but that no one from the city asked to vet their speech beforehand.
“No, they did not ask to see my speech,” Mills explained. “I did end up showing it to a few people before I had edited [the speech] the day of, but there was no vetting. They didn’t look at my speech beforehand.”
In her 10-minute video message, Liggett said part of her responsibility is to keep the peace.
“I have a responsibility to maintain an environment that is welcoming and appropriate for all participants,” she explained, adding she felt like Mills’s comments were violating the city’s code of conduct for city events.
“To maintain a respectful and safe environment. Allowing personal attacks on individuals by looking the other way are not consistent with my responsibilities.”
Cambridge teen speaks out after mayor interrupts Pride speech
Liggett said as a result of what happened at city hall, her office has been receiving “accusations, harassing calls and emails, death threats and threats to family members and staff.”
“Death threats to family members and staff is not cool, not cool at all,” Liggett said in the video. “The very people that are accusing us of not being kind are not being kind themselves.”
She also mentioned her office received emails of support, which she said shows how “polarizing” the topic is in the community.
“It reiterates why I must try to remain neutral,” Liggett said. “I have to create an environment where both sides can co-exist.”
One of the concerns Liggett raised in the video was how a local Pride group publicly called for people to boycott the city’s flag raising event. She did not name the group, but said the boycott raised concerns about whether the event could proceed in a safe and respectful manner.
She added in her interview with CBC News that the group is supportive of a candidate who is running against her in this October’s municipal election.
Although Liggett did not mention any groups, Bolton and Causarano-Bolton of Grand River Pride acknowledged leading the boycott.
“When Grand River Pride called for the boycott of the event, it was because we expected you to repeat your harmful actions and create an unsafe and disrespectful environment,” they said in their own statement.
The group also called on the integrity commissioner to “hold the mayor accountable for her disregard of the Municipal Code of Conduct and the infringement of [Mills’s] freedom of expression.”
“Mayor Liggett, we demand your resignation,” the group said.
Mills also said that during the same Pride event, the mayor also misgendered them.
“I corrected her and she had an awful response,” Mills told CBC News.
Liggett addressed this in the video, explaining that “using they/them pronouns was not part of [her] everyday vocabulary.”
The mayor also committed to being more “mindful,” although she also said she will “likely continue to make mistakes.”
However, Mills thinks this should not be the case.
“She’s a civil servant. She serves me, too,” Mills said. “She’s elected to serve the people and that’s not what happened.”
