As the newly elected Board of Directors the Vancouver Southsiders we believe that dialogue, honesty and transparency are fundamental in building relationships. We take this seriously and will work hard to regain the trust of everyone involved in this situation.

In the past weeks our members expressed a wide range of views and opinions following the release of the August 2nd statement. Many of you expected a public follow-up from the Board of Directors. We regret that it has taken until the appointment of new Directors for a public message to be released. While some of the comments directed at the previous Board of Directors crossed a line into unacceptable behaviour, many of our members found their concerns or comments unacknowledged or even rebuked without dialogue.

To Kendall Waston:
We apologize to Kendall Waston for the manner in which member concerns were raised in the public arena without any attempts at personal dialogue beforehand. We believe face-to-face conversation will allow us to find a way we can move forward positively. We have reached out to the Whitecaps organization in hopes of relaying our apology in person.

To our members:
The Vancouver Southsiders leadership takes the group’s long-standing commitment to equality seriously. We have participated for years in numerous anti-racism and anti-homophobia campaigns, and strive to keep bigotry out of the stands at Whitecaps matches. In this case we feel the group’s effort to be an ally organisation to the LGBTQ2+ community did not work out as intended. We will work to enable a dialogue between concerned members, the Southsiders Board of Direcors, and the Whitecaps organization on this topic.

Going forward we will strive to address member concerns directly & in a timely manner. If you have a concern about this issue or any other topic, please contact us. If you wish your feedback to remain anonymous to the Directors, please reach out to the Ombudsman, Greg Petrie at ombudsman@vancouversouthsiders.ca.

We can be reached at:
Dylan Callow – treasurer@vancouversouthsiders.ca
Peter Czimmermann – president@vancouversouthsiders.ca
John Knox – vp@vancouversouthsiders.ca
Dim McNami – events@vancouversouthsiders.ca
Paul Sabourin-Hertzog – info@vancouversouthsiders.ca

Sincerely,
The Vancouver Southsiders Board of Directors