Front-running Toronto mayoral candidate Rob Ford just issued the following:For Immediate Release
June 24, 2010
Toronto - Mayoral candidate Rob Ford is outraged Pride Toronto has reversed its decision to allow Queers Against Israeli Apartheid to march in the parade. "There is no room for hate speech in the City of Toronto, and I'm going to do everything I can to stop this," said Ford.
Ford supported the original motion put forward by his Council colleague Giorgio Mammoliti to withdraw funding to the parade if they allowed Queers Against Israeli Apartheid to participate. "Pride Toronto just doesn't get it - this taxpayer funded parade is not about international conflicts," Ford added. "The parade is a celebration, not an opportunity for an aggressive fringe group to spread their hateful message."
In 2009 Pride Toronto received nearly $300,000 tax dollars for the parade, policing and clean-up. "The Santa Claus Parade, the St. Patrick's Day Parade the Greek Parade and many others don't receive public funding," Ford added. "It is astonishing to me that in this day and age, Pride Toronto is going to allow such a hateful message at their event," he concluded.
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17 comments:
And if the group were called "Queers Against Palestinian Apartheid" would Rob Ford feel the same way?
I assure you he would.
The simple fact is that PRIDE is supposed to be a celebration that uses taxpayer funds to spread a positive message throughout the city for a weekend. Now that PRIDE has reversed the decision, OUR money is instead going towards an organization that allows their environment to be poisoned by the voice of hatred.
I'm starting to get sick of flip-floppers on this issue. START SEEING THE TRUTH! THERE IS NO APARTHEID!
Pride should remain a celabration not a protest. We have enough of those already
Anonymous - let's deal with the facts shall we? What if it was called "Queers against stupid questions by Anonymous" would you feel the same way?
"There is no room for hate speech in the City of Toronto, and I'm going to do everything I can to stop this," said Rob Ford.
So does this mean Rob Ford will be leaving Toronto forever? Let's hope so.
Let's not forget, in 2002, Ford called fellow Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, who is also a mayoral candidate, a “Gino boy” — a remark derogatory to Italian-Canadians.
In 2005, Ford called Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby a “waste of skin”.
In 2006, Ford fought against a $1.5 million AIDS prevention program, claiming he didn’t understand why more women were becoming AIDS patients, adding “Maybe they’re sleeping with bisexual men.”
In 2008, Ford claimed “Oriental people work like dogs. . . . They’re slowly taking over.”
Rob Ford is a hypocrite! He loves hate speech - against those he hates!
Great Job Rob! A principled decision!
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gino
However, this term is very limited as it often applies to people who do not wish to be called ginos or are not considered to be ginos by the "true" ones. Also, it must be stated that there are several people who can be given the characteristics of a gino but are not at all unintelligent. Whether you believe you are or someone you know is a gino, is up to you. Just don't judge too harshly.
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Anon is dumb.
btw, The Chinese do work hard and don't complain. They are quietly attaining top dog status through out the GTA. Very very quietly.
I like dogs that don't bark much.
Anonymous (you lot figure out amongst yourselves which one I mean)
For those on the real world, that don't spend their time being perpetually offended on behalf of everyone else, the phrase "“Oriental people work like dogs. . . . They’re slowly taking over.” Is nether racist, nor derogatory. The term Oriental is still in wide use as a synonym for Asian all over the world. And yes the 'they work like dogs' and 'slowly taking over' are generalizations, they are meant complimentary. I am sure many immigrant groups would be delighted to have such a reputation. Chill Out.
There is no way on God`s green earth that ANY tax money should be spent to promote the sexual preferences of ANYONE myself included. If they want to have a parade go for it but they should do it on their own damn nickel! The fact that they are throwing in a political agenda that seeks the destruction of the only free country in the middle east and by the way the only country in the middle east that does not call for killing them because of their sexual preference makes it even more distasteful than it already is.
Great job Rob Ford.... i hope to see all the mayoral candidates stand against PRIDES reversal of a misleading term. As a political sciences major i find this completely silly... only the ignorant get fooled by such phrases!
PULL ALL TAX MONEY FROM THIS HATE FEST!
Vote Rob Ford For Mayor.
The City should unconditionally revoke any funding for any parades AND relegate them to venues off city streets.
Good for Mr. Ford. Pride should have to return the cash Toronto gave them on the grounds that a group inciting hatred will participate. Pull the parade permit or deny it if it has not already been issued. No future funding! If pride wants to promote hatred they can do it on their dime, not mine.
Everybody freaks now that they're little wedge issue has been pulled out of the Mayors race. What do you have now Ford? What's even your platform? The only sound byte I've heard from you should have had the theme from Deliverance behind it. How about you find another thing put your name behind in the papers...I hear obituaries always run...
Wonder what the gay community protested at their parade in Tel Aviv...www.gaytlvguide.com
I'm thinking if Toronto's large Israeli community protested the Gay Pride parade, the outrage would reverberate for years.
Rob Ford's comments aside, I feel bad for members Toronto's Jewish/Israeli gay community. As if being gay wasn't difficult enough, the organization that supposedly supports and celebrates them is the same one causing further identity rifts.
Way to go Pride Toronto.
Zionism and Judaism cannot be equated. They are not the same thing. There are many Jewish voice for peace that oppose Zionism, because it advance an ethnocentric theocratic state which separates people in its borders into two camps: 1st and 2nd class citizens based on ethnicity, race and cultural affiliation and religion. It is a system of dehumanization, just as discrimination and dehumanization against gay people has been and still is in many parts of the world. Martin Luther King Jr. stated that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everwhere." If the Gay Pride event does not include diverse voices from multiple strands of life, including voices for justice against human rights violations by an oppressive police state against people based on their ethnicity and religion, then the parade has lost sight of the reason why it was created: to stand for justice against oppresion and discrimination, to stand up for human rights. It would good, for the same reason, if there were activists there who opposed human rights violations in China or Saudi Arabia. I think the abuses of Israel get a lot of attention because the Canadian and U.S. government spend billions supporting them, to maintain political hegemony in the middle east for the sake of oil. The price in lives and freedom is immense. It is absolutely a legitimate inclusion in the parade, if there are gay activists who want to bring attention to the connections between the different types of oppresion that exist in the world.
It's not legitimate unless they shed light on ALL oppressive states!
Shining one light on a single cause beyond their obvious mandate (Pride in the Gay community), screams of something entirely different!
Oh grow up, you mindless little dweebs.
Gays are MURDERED in Palestine: where do they run to (if they can)? Israel.
http://palestinenote.com/blogs/blogs/archive/2011/06/07/israel-s-treatment-of-gay-palestinian-asylum-seekers.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_the_Palestinian_National_Authority#Status_of_homosexuality
etc.
etc.
etc.
etc.
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