Cognitively-challenged TDSB Trustee Howard Kaplan makes an incoherent attempt to defend exposing children to depravity

I'm giving some serious thought to running as for the Toronto District School Board in the upcoming election. I don't really want the job, but the system is so badly broken and is filled with incompetent fools like Howard Kaplan that something needs to be done.

Even anti-Israel leftists are starting to want "Queers Against Israeli Apartheid" out of Pride

From Borderless News and Views:

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid
``a disfiguring blot on Pride’s otherwise
 cheerful face``

...The Pride Week festivities draw friendly hordes, building a commercial buzz that leaves marketers weak kneed, and a community having lots of fun, with no pretensions.

It is here the QuAIA make their loud, intolerant annual entrance, a disfiguring blot on Pride’s otherwise cheerful face. These are the self-styled advocates of Palestinian independence, where Israel is demonized for innumerable sins, with ‘moral inferiority’ number 1 with a bullet. Free speech is mother’s milk for this scribe, and if a bunch of ill-informed clowns want to paint swastikas on banners and proclaim their solidarity against Zionist oppression – fill yer boots. But why Pride Week, and insufferable anti-intellectual arrogance of the rightness of the cause, to deliberately spike a celebratory punchbowl with bilgewater… where fun, tolerance for other views, and a liberal, diverse society that respects all is the overarching theme everyone else adores?

The normalization of Jew-hate in Canada's left-wing media

A year or so ago, a federal Cabinet Minister, while we were discussing the people involved in demonizing Israel as an "apartheid state," described them as "intellectually vapid hatemongers."  He quickly added, realizing the force of the language he had used, "let's keep that off the record" and so I won't mention the Minister's name. But having met and listened to a number of the sort of people he described, I concur with  his assessment.

A Queer Against Israeli Apartheid
from Toronto's 2013 Pride*

I've heard them describe Israel as a "racist apartheid regime," without their being able to cogently explain how Israel's policies are racist. Israel affords the same rights of enfranchisement and ability to serve in the legislature and judiciary to all its citizens, including Muslim Arabs. It does not afford those rights to non-citizens living in The West Bank, but for the intellectually-challenged fanatics who want to see an end to the Jewish State, in the sole case of Israel, this natural legal distinction that every country makes between citizens and non-citizens becomes "racist apartheid."

These same anti-Israel hatemongers express no objection to any form on national self-determination movement anywhere in the world, with the one exception of Zionism, which is Jewish national self-determination. While claiming this unique discrimination they practice is not anti-Semitism, there is no other convincing explanation for it.

Writers like University of Washington English Professor Emeritus Edward Alexander and University of Utah Professor Emeritis of Philosophy Bernard Harrison have described at length the new leftist anti-Semitism that manifests as anti-Zionism. Most insidious about it is that while other forms of bigotry would be reviled by the so-called progressive left, the casual hate expressed through anti-Zionism has been socially normalized for them. While that is more the case in Europe, with its traditions of Jew-hate extending back millennia,  this phenomenon is becoming more frequent in North America, as one can see in an article in yesterday's Toronto Star.

The lead article on the Star's online edition yesterday was the Dyke March at Toronto's Pride festival, essentially extolling it as a symbol of Toronto's diversity and progressiveness.

Worked into the article were three paragraphs, about a quarter of the whole piece, about a couple named Jacquie Buncel and Lorraine Gale, that unaffectedly and completely uncritically, as if recounting a fashion accessory like flowers on sunhats, described the hateful anti-Israel slogans of the pair's placards.

Jacquie Buncel and Lorraine Gale, both of Toronto, have participated in the Dyke March with their daughters, Aviva, 12, and Maya, 10, since the girls were infants. Buncel said it was unusual a decade ago to take children to the Dyke March but it is more common now — evidenced Saturday by parents pushing baby strollers and youngsters carried on shoulders. 

“We haven’t met with a lot of homophobia as a family” said Buncel, who noted Toronto crowds — some people standing three deep in places along the Yonge Street segment, most with cameras — are supportive of marchers. 

Buncel and Gale, both in their early 50s, were part of a group carrying black placards that stated in pink lettering: “Boycott Gay Tourism to Israel” and “There’s nothing hot about cruising in an apartheid state.”

The inclusion of the deplorable bigots of the group calling itself Queers Against Israeli Apartheid has been a source of division and controversy for both the Pride festival and Toronto. But for The Toronto Star, the hatred they express for Israel is just another minor descriptive element of an ordinary family outing with the kids. If this is the state to which the left-wing media in Canada has descended, then we are in for truly sad times ahead.

As an interesting aside, the pair of anti-Israel protesters featured by the Toronto Star are an odd duo who seem to have been on a natural path to their particular fold.

A Lorraine Gale is listed as the Coordinator of the Children's Aid Society of Toronto's Out and Proud Program. If this is the same Ms Gale, given the sad, radicalized state of contemporary university Sociology programs from which Children's Aid workers usually spring, it would be unsurprising if unthinking bias came hand-in-hand with that type of education.

Jacquie Buncel is the Executive Director of an organization called The Sunshine Centre for Seniors and who describes herself as a "Holocaust Educator." She is also a graduate of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, a hyper-politicized institution where emotion is frequently privileged above fact, and is notorious, among other causes, for producing a facile, anti-Semitic Master's thesis that alleged Holocaust education is a racist, Zionist plot.

Whether that is the same view of Holocaust education taken by Ms Buncel, I do not know. But if someone is making the types of pronouncements ascribed to her in The Toronto Star article, it would appear the only lesson she learned from the Holocaust is the appalling, specious one that you may get to live a little longer if you abase yourself to your oppressors.

-----

*Curiously, this Queer Against Israeli Apartheid has no plans to deliver the same message in the same manner in Gaza or Ramallah, or Tehran, where one would expect they would be receptive to his anti-Israel message. Why ever could that be?

Pride Toronto promotes group with ties to murder and persecution of Gays

Pride Toronto had maintained the lie that they included the hate group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, not because they were interested in promoting anti-Semitic message of the fanatical activists, but because they did not want to 'censor' the Pride Festival.

Pride Toronto promoting the hate group
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid

Toronto Sun reporter Sue Ann Levy has long maintained that Pride Toronto`s supposed neutrality when it came to Queers Against Israeli Apartheid was a sham. Now, with the commitment from Toronto City Council to deliver almost $150,000 in cash plus provide far more in services like Police support to the annual event, the veneer has fallen and Pride Toronto has shown its overt support for the anti-Israel group, promoting its most recent event on the official Pride website.

This comes as no surprise. Last month, after delivering a deputation to Toronto's Executive Committee about  the inappropriateness of providing tax funds to Pride if it is a platform for a hate group, I overheard something interesting outside the Committee Room.

The heads of Pride Toronto and the representatives of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid were discussing and coordinating strategy between them.

However, Pride Toronto`s involvement with Queers Against Israeli Apartheid should be of serious concern, and not just because it is an affront to every taxpayer in Toronto who is subsidizing the festival.

Pride Toronto has chosen to promote a group whose senior members have shown support for countries and individuals that promote the persecution and even murder of Gays because of nothing other than their sexuality.

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid`s spokespeople have supported and held banners at Toronto`s al Quds Day rally, which along with its goal of eliminating Israel is also a show of solidarity with the Islamic Republic of Iran, where the persecution and execution of homosexuals is entrenched policy.  The rally is largely driven by one of Iran`s chief acolytes in Canada, the notorious Islamist hatemonger Zafar Bangash.

Bangash has called for Muslims to dominate what is now Israel and impose Sharia Law there. Given his outspoken devotion to the Khomeinist leadership of Iran, it is safe to assume that the version of Sharia Bangash wants for Israel would be the same as Iran, which he describes as representing  `the true values of Islam today. They make us proud of Islam!`

Israel is the only country in the middle east to recognize Gay marriage and have laws protecting Gay Rights. The values of the nation admired by the man who holds rallies that Pride Toronto-promoted Queer`s Against Israeli Apartheid`s leaders attend in support include hanging Gay men from cranes as punishment for their `sins.`

Pride Toronto nor even the vapid hatemongers of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid are likely to condone the persecution of Gays.

But in the case of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid,  they are a group comprised of fanatics who are devoted to an anti-capitalist, anti-western ideology and they are willing to make common cause with virtually anyone they see as allies.

Their interest is not Gay rights, but taking down America, and America's allies, of which they consider Israel to be particularly vulnerable, and therefore a ripe target.

Making the fatuous argument that Israel, where Palestinians enjoy more civil rights than in virtually any Muslim country, is an apartheid state, is transparent bigotry as well as absurd propaganda. But Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, as the preposterous name of the group suggests, are not comprised of particularly intelligent individuals. Many of them have obvious psychological problems. They make the absurd, narcissistic claim that Israel's support for Gay rights is not based on respect for Human Rights but is what they call "pinkwashing". From the appearance of the ratty group of unkempt clowns in Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, "pink" isn't the only type of washing they oppose. These HamasSexuals might better describe themselves as Queers Against Personal Hygiene. 

These idiotic, posturing radicals blame Palestinian persecution of Gays on Israel. So how do they explain the persecution of Gays throughout the Muslim world that is so closely linked with the Palestinian cause? Is the persecution of Gays in Iran, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia also all because of Israeli Apartheid?  In the unlikely event that Queers Against Israeli Apartheid ever got their way, that same murderous oppression would extend into the one sanctuary that Gays have in the Middle East.

At last month's Toronto Executive Committee meeting, a Gay physician, Dr. Paul Druzin, said he does not want his "Gay tax dollars" to fund Pride if it includes a hate group like Queers Against Israeli Apartheid. 

The fact that Pride Toronto supports such a group is an insult not just to Gays in Toronto like Dr. Druzin, but to anyone who is concerned about the persecution of Gays throughout the world. This obscene cooperation between the so-called Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and Pride Toronto not only discredits Pride's leadership, but calls the suitability of Toronto to host the World Pride Festival next year into question.



UPDATE: Blogwrath was there, enduring the whole tedium. You see the videos he put up of the entire lecture HERE

Queers Against Toronto Taxpayers

Miserable, aggrieved, embittered and enraged, the grotty supporters of the anti-Israel fringe group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) were at Toronto's City Hall today. They were there to make the case that City Council should accept a City Manager's report that would not prohibit municipal funding for Toronto's Pride parade if their group participated.

The Executive Committee was packed with media this morning, not to report on issues related to Pride funding, but because it was the first time embattled Mayor Rob Ford was set to preside over a Council meeting since he had been accused of being in an as-of-yet unsubstantiated video in which he was alleged to have smoked something appearing to be crack cocaine. The media behaved more like paparazzi tacking George Clooney than municipal affairs reporters, but the circus atmosphere died down after a couple of hours.

Rob Ford at Tuesday's
Executive Committee meeting

Ford was in fine form, good humored and professional as always in his role of Executive Committee Chairperson. The day also happened to be Ford's 44th birthday and he seemed genuinely warmed by the  felicitations he received for that.

The first speaker was someone named Carol Rawson who proceeded to provide definitions of apartheid and tried to link them to the Israeli state. Like most of the anti-Israel speakers who appeared, she seemed to lack basic insight into the situation involving the Israel and the Palestinians. Either that or she didn't comprehend the definitions she was reciting.

The definitions of apartheid she listed named discrimination on the basis of racial, ethnic and religious grounds, despite that in Israel, the issue actually has to do with nationality. Israeli Palestinians and Israeli Muslims and non-Jews have full citizenship rights, whereas Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza are not Israeli, so naturally do not enjoy those rights. If her idea of apartheid were the case, then the United States is also practicing apartheid against Mexico.

In speech after speech, it was blatantly obvious that Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and its supporters are little other than a collection of vapid, hateful, self-serving ideologues. They invent their own facts and lie outright about the situation affecting the Palestinians in Israel and the Middle East.

Describing the so-called "apartheid", one speaker spoke about "Jewish-only" roads in the Occupied West Bank. However no such roads exist. There are roads for Israeli citizens, which include non-Jews, and they were built following many deadly attacks on Israelis by Palestinians. Betraying the anti-Semitism they deny,  Queers Against Israeli Apartheid's supporters frequently conflate Jews with Israelis and Zionists and that linkage is not only limited to within Israel.

There were speakers who took the floor to denounce the bigotry of the anti-Israel fanatics, the most poignant of whom were members of the Gay community. Martin Gladstone, a Toronto lawyer, was one of the first people to speak out about the divisiveness and hatred that Queers Against Israeli Apartheid brings to a Pride festival that is supposed to be an event which should be welcoming to all members of the Gay community. That point was powerfully reiterated by Dr. Paul Druzin, a physician who said that he does not want his "Gay tax dollars" to fund Pride if it includes a hate group like QuAIA.

An thoughtful, balanced speech was given by Hassan Maalbaki. He said that as a Gay, Muslim Arab, he wanted a better life for his Palestinian brothers and sisters, but he did not want his city to support a venue for the intolerance and discord among the Gay community promoted by Queers Against Israeli Apartheid.

I spoke to the Executive Committee as well, beginning by noting that the world isn't going to come to an end if Queers Against Israeli Apartheid participate in Pride. They are disingenuous hatemongers whose agenda is both transparent and unconvincing. But there were matters that others hadn't raised in detail which were worth addressing.

The City Manager`s report that was under discussion is something I said was hopelessly tainted.  It was produced largely under the aegis of Uzma Shakir, the City`s highly paid Director of its Equity, Diversity and Human Rights Division. The same Uzma Shakir, a proponent of Sharia law, had written an article for the vociferously anti-Israel website rabble.ca in which she essentially declared that Muslim immigrants do not owe loyalty to Canada because of our government's pro-Israel stance.

Her exact words were:

“when we adopt a partisan policy stance towards conflicts that are unresolved like Palestine and Israel when both Arabs/Muslims and Jews are Canadian citizens and deserve our 'equal' consideration, it is hard to be grateful or indeed hopeful. No! Immigrants do not owe their loyalty to Canada unquestioningly -- Canada needs to earn that loyalty..." 

A report by such a clearly biased source would never be accepted by a court, nor should the City`s Executive accept it. I noted that the decision should fall to elected members of Council who were chosen by the citizens of Toronto to make such determinations. The issue isn`t whether "Israeli Apartheid" is hate speech, and it likely does not fit the legal definition as such. The issue is whether the city's elected representatives have the right to choose on behalf of Toronto's citizens not to pay for or be associated with a venue for a disgusting group of bigots like QuAIA.

I discussed the nature of the group, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid itself. The group masquerades as a "social justice" and a "human rights" group, but in fact they are nothing of the sort. The are, either by actual intent or by default, an anti-Semitic hate group. The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that, "Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is vile. But singling out Israel for opprobrium and international sanction out of all proportion to any other party in the Middle East is anti-Semitic, and not saying so is dishonest. " Singling out Israel, Zionists and in so doing, most Jews for hate, is Queers Against Israeli Apartheid's sole purpose. If indeed they were concerned about the human rights of Palestinians, then they would speak out about the egregious human rights abuses faced by Palestinians in Lebanon, where they are denied citizenship, the right to own land or to be employed in dozens of occupations. Or they would speak out against the mistreatment of Palestinians that far exceeds anything perpetrated by Israel  in places like Syria, Iraq, Kuwait and other Muslim countries. Queers Against Israeli Apartheid never discusses those violations of Palestinian human rights, because human rights is not really what their agenda is about.

The group is comprised and headed mainly by Marxists and anti-Capitalists. Its principal spokesman, Tim McCaskell, was a featured speaker at a Marxism conference held last weekend in Toronto. Marxists see Israel as a vulnerable, capitalist entity that is an ally of the great, evil epicenter of global capitalism, the USA. From their perspective, if Israel can be taken down, it strikes a blow against America and capitalism. If millions of Israeli Jews die and a brutal form of Sharia Law that represses women and executes Gays is imposed in its place, that would be of little concern to adherents to an ideology responsible for tens of millions of murders in the last century. But Human Rights is not their actual motive.

I observed for the Executive Committee that just because Jews are members of QuAIA, it no more precludes their being anti-Semitic than the fact that a handful of Jews collaborated with Nazi Germany precluded them from Jew hatred.

The issue of free speech was also not discussed in detail by anyone else and that was a critical aspect of the matter. QuAIA and its cronies make the deceitful argument that by attaching conditions to Pride's funding, their right to free speech is being taken away. Nothing could be more false.

Free speech is denied when the state prohibits it with sanctions and penalties. No one is depriving Queers Against Israeli Aparthied from publishing, saying, or spreading their message. The issue before council is a question of whether to fund it.

If I were to go to Council and ask for $200,000 to rent the Goodyear blimp to fly around the city and broadcast, "Richard Klagsbrun is a god and everyone should throw themselves at his feet," and got the response, "no, that's idiotic", I noted that using QuAIA's logic, I too would be deprived of free speech.

Of course free speech is not really what Queers Against Israeli Apartheid wants. They want tax-funded, subsidized speech so other people can pay for them to spread their vile poison.

Following my presentation, one of the QuAIA members took to the floor to speak, upset at what I had said. A wretched, weathered looking woman by the name of Anita Block proclaimed that she was offended at having been called a "Nazi collaborator."  Her means of trying to justify that was by professing she was a "child of Holocaust survivors."  She then had to clarify that her parents had left Europe in the 1930's prior to the actual Holocaust, which would not really make them 'Holocaust survivors.'  But the Jews in the fanatical anti-Israel movement like to play that card whenever they can, not quite understanding it lends no validity to anything they say. It gives them no more credence than if a murderer used the excuse that being the child of a Holocaust survivor means that they could not possibly have committed a capital crime.

But there is a truly sad, pathetic component to Jews who have attached themselves to fanatics like Queers Against Israeli Apartheid. Many are what I call Munchausen Jews, who profess to be Jews almost exclusively for the purpose of demonizing the Jewish state, which also happens to be the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.  Their desperate need for attention and approbation leads these Munchausen Jews to make fools of themselves while consorting with the most deplorable characters.

If Ms Block was more discerning, she might have noticed I did not call Jews like her Nazi collaborators, but only compared her to them. If I was going to identify a vicious, fascistic movement with which QuAIA was collaborating, it would be the monstrous totalitarians who worship the murderous ideology of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini.

On many occasions, QuAIA members have appeared to show support for the racist, Khomeinist hatemonger Zafar Bangash, such as at his annual al Quds Day rally to celebrate the Iranian dictator's call for the elimination of Israel.

An interesting episode followed at the Executive Committee. A Toronto woman gave an impassioned speech denouncing QuAIA's hypocrisy, in which she talked about the hate group "bitching" about free speech while they were actively engaged in trying to censor others. The woman used the phrase 'let's call a spade a spade' when identifying QuAIA as hateful bigots.

That speech provoked a remarkable response from Ward 9 Councillor Maria Augimeri.  The Councillor, who is one of only a few who effectively stood up for the hateful term "Israeli Apartheid" by being one of just seven of Council's 42 members to vote against a motion last year to denounce it, took a seat allotted for visiting Council members at the Executive Committee.

Augimeri shouted into the microphone in front of her that she had a Point of Order. However Mayor Ford noted that she could not introduce it, as that was a privilege not accorded to visiting Councillors at the Committee.

It was a basic procedural matter that the Mayor was correct in noting. But acting like a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum, she kept shouting over the Mayor, who pleaded with her to follow the rules. Ford did not want to demean himself by getting in an argument with the near-hysterical Augimeri, who then spat into the microphone about being outraged that the "sexist" word  bitching was being used by a deputant at the Executive Committee. Augimeri then denounced the phrase "calling a spade a spade" as racist to a small smattering of applause from the grubby QuAIA contingent in the room. Before anyone could respond, Augimeri stormed out of the room in a huff. The meeting then continued, ignoring the interruption as if Augimeri had never been there.

Had she remained, someone might have pointed out to the not-particularly-bright Councillor that if she were familiar with the etymology of  "calling a spade a spade," she would have known it has no racist connotations whatsoever. The phrase originated in the mid 16th Century and was based on Nicholas Udall's translation of Erasmus. The quote comes from:

"Philippus aunswered, that the Macedonians wer feloes of no fyne witte in their termes but altogether grosse, clubbyshe, and rusticall, as they whiche had not the witte to calle a spade by any other name then a spade."

Another visiting Councillor, Kristyn Wong-Tam, came to the microphone to speak about the issue at hand.  Being the original owner of the Queers Against Israeli Apartheid group's website, her bias would seem apparent.  Wong-Tam dissembled about Pride being discriminated against for having to fulfil conditions that are not applied to any other recipient of City funds. She naturally neglected to mention that no other recipient is also consistently used as a platform to denounce an entire community within Toronto. But honesty and integrity are not features anyone has come to expect from QuAIA's supporters.

A few members of the Executive Committee stood out as bringing forceful reason to the debate, including Budget Chief Frank di Giorgio, and most particularly David Shiner and Norm Kelly. Shiner spoke about the realities in Israel that put the lie to the deceitful claim that Israel, which affords more democratic rights to the Palestinians than any Arab country, is an "apartheid state." Kelly expressed dismay that, as Gays are persecuted throughout the Middle East in every country but Israel, where they have equal rights, Pride's response was shocking. Kelly said Pride should be honoring the Jewish state rather than investing so much energy into demonizing it.

A motion was passed by the Executive Committee that called for the city to only fund Pride's cultural events, but not the parade in which Queers Against Israeli Apartheid participates. Whether that motion is passed by all of Toronto's City Council remains to be seen.

Yesterday's events reiterated the reality that Queers Against Israeli Apartheid are an unprincipled collection of detestable cretins who have managed to manipulate the spineless leadership of Pride. Along with them for the ride are a small handful of sordid City Councillors on the hard left.

A point I raised to the Executive Committee is that the City expects its elected officials to effectively represent how tax funds are spent. There are many important needs for which we haven't found the funds. Our roads are in a terrible state of disrepair and remain in need of fixing. There are homeless people living in our streets. Supporting Pride, should it do what it's supposed to, which is to honor and celebrate the contributions, inclusion of and participation of the Gay community within Toronto, would be an appropriate use of city funds. But if tax funds are handed over to a venue for Queers Against Israeli Apartheid to spew their poison, then it would be a gross abuse of the trust that citizens place in the hands of their representatives.

There are victims to QuAIA's spiteful activities, but not the ones they would prefer. QuAIA are a group of insignificant bigots and Israel will neither be hurt by nor likely even notice them.

In the end, the real victims of the QuAIA hatemongers are the taxpayers of Toronto, who have had to subsidize them and deal with their self-serving divisiveness for far too long.

Islamist-headed Toronto City department tries to give a pass to anti-Semitic hate group

The Executive Director of Toronto`s Social Development, Finance and Administration Department sent a report to the city`s Executive Committee that would allow Toronto`s Pride parade to receive civic funding despite inclusion of the anti-Semitic hate group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid.

The report was done in consultation with Toronto`s Equity, Diversity and Human Rights Division. That division is headed by Uzma Shakir, a Sharia Law advocate who has written that Muslim immigrants do not owe full loyalty to Canada because of the government`s pro-Israel policies.

As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote,"Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is vile. But singling out Israel for opprobrium and international sanction out of all proportion to any other party in the Middle East is anti-Semitic, and not saying so is dishonest." By applying a standard to the Jewish State that is different to the standards to which any other country is held, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, despite containing some Munchausen Jews (idiot Jews and fake Jews who only proclaim their religion for the purpose of defaming Israel and currying favor with Islamists and Marxists)  is clearly anti-Semitic.

Toronto`s City Council has the right to disregard the biased report that was submitted. Giving tax funds to an Gay Pride that serves as a platform to a a group that attacks the only Gay-positive country in the middle east while aiding groups that persecute homosexuals is obscene.  That they want to suppress Jewish national self-determination in the name of promoting Palestinian self-determination is perverse.

If a Nazi-admired group like Queers Against Israeli Apartheid want to march in a parade, let them do so without any subsidies from Canadian taxpayers. Or better still, let them hold a parade for their murderous  `friends` in Gaza or Tehran.

Westboro Baptist bigots get some in-their-face Pride

The Westboro Baptist Church - most famous for picketing funerals and its "God Hates Fags" website - is being targeted on its own turf.

The house across the street from its Topeka, Kansas, headquarters has been bought by an activist and painted in the rainbow scheme associated with gay pride.

Toronto City Council wimps out on Pride funding issue - again

This weekend I had tapped out what I thought was a lovely little speech about the responsibility of the municipality not to fund a platform for the vapid hatemongers called Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (al-Quaia)  that I was planning to deliver to the Executive Committee of the City of Toronto today . But thanks to a motion put forward by Ward 37 Councillor Michael Thompson that passed overwhelmingly, deliberations about the revised Anti-Discrimination Policy, which would have provided an avenue to address the conditions for Pride Toronto's 2012 funding, will be deferred until September .

Last year, the room was overflowing with so many people speaking about the issue, the meeting went late into the night despite the reduction of deputants' usual talking time from five to four minutes. Even though there were only a handful of people who had signed up to deliver a message this year, it's not surprising the Executive Committee avoided dealing with the contentious matter until after Pride was over. It is a highly contentious and controversial issue at the best of times, but a fight was certainly in the brewing this year.

In a compromise motion proposed by Councillor James Pasternak that that passed last week  27 to 7, rather than make funding to Pride conditional on the exclusion of the hate group al-Quaia, Toronto Council instead voted to condemn the use of the term Israeli Apartheid. (Councillor Thompson, who voted against the motion was allegedly told Councillor Pasternak he made a mistake and intended to support the motion - I have a call in to Councillor Thompson's office to clarify whether that is the case.)

Armed with that official condemnation, Councillor Pasternak had intended to show that the term Israeli Apartheid was hateful and violated the City's Anti-Discrimination Policy, something the revised policy itself did not address. If that was made clear by an amendment to the policy and If Pride were to include the group using the term, it would therefore violate its funding conditions.

But this year that would have engendered a huge fight, which would have been made all the more vicious following revelations first published on this blog and later picked up by the Toronto Sun, the person who was tasked with revising the policy had a clear conflict of interest. Uzma Shakir, the City's Manager of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Human Rights, has a long history of making anti-Israel pronouncements, going so far as to suggest that immigrants do not owe their full loyalty to Canada because of the government's stance towards Israel.

Council would have had to deal not only with the volatile issue of hardcore, radical Pride activists advocating for unfettered funding versus Jewish groups outraged that their tax dollars are being used to fund anti-Semitism. But on top of that, municipal politicians were blindsided with having to explain how a partisan ideologue evidently vehemently opposed to Israel was placed in a position of oversight of such a controversial matter in which she had already demonstrated bias.

In the end, the Executive Committee bought time to look into a matter that could have made everyone at the City Manager's office look like an idiot.

However as Pride funding has already been approved, the anti-Semitic hate group that has exists for the sole purpose of demonizing the Jewish state will be allowed to march in this year's Gay festival in Toronto.

Tremendous pressure will now be brought to bear on Pride's corporate sponsors who will be tarred as funders of Jew hate if they support an event featuring the hate group.

UPDATE: Gay Jewish group Kulanu files complaint with Toronto Pride over hate group's participation (h/t Scaramouche)

Kathy Shaidle on The Arena with Michael Coren:

Toronto City Council Wimps out on Pride Funding

An expected battle between those who wanted unconditional funding for Toronto's Gay Pride Festival and those who wanted civic contributions withheld until it was clear that the hate group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid would not be allowed to participate resulted in an inconclusive compromise.

Councillor Colle proposed a motion that affirmed Pride's value as a cultural event while condemning the use of the term "Israeli Apartheid." The motion did not address funding at all and unless the city's revised anti-discrimination policy, which will be unveiled next week, expressly prohibits it, the fanatical anti-Israel group will be able to participate with tax funds subsidizing their vapid, discriminatory message.

Colle's motion passed 27-7 following snide questioning from radical leftists councilors Gord Perks and the original owner of the hate group's website, Krystin Wong-Tam.

As tax funds may yet give a platform to the hate group, Pride Toronto will come under continued economic pressure, as boycott and protest campaigns are anticipated against sponsors of Pride who support an event that  promotes hatred of the Jewish state.

More here from Sue Ann Levy in the Toronto Sun

UPDATE: The councilors who supported use of the term "Israeli Apartheid" in Toronto's Pride parade by voting against the motion were:

Gord "aptly named" Perks, Sarah "even more aptly named" Doucette,  Krystin Wong-Tam (the owner of the hate group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid's website), Mike (I'm not very smart but I have a job because my last name is) Layton, Janet Davis, Michael Thompson and Maria Augimeri. Remember these names next municipal election and what a waste of your tax dollars these individuals are.

Hate group may get thumbs up from Toronto City Council

A radical anti-Israel hate group that goes by the name Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, along with the leadership of Toronto's Pride Festival, have been quietly lobbying Toronto's city councilors to secure funding if that hate group participates in the annual event. According to Martin Gladstone, the Gay activist lawyer who has been countering the fanatical organization that seeks to delegitimize the Jewish state, the anti-Israel group has enough votes lined up at present to win the vote.

The group was the source of enormous controversy last year when it threatened to participate and then later  and withdrew from the Pride Festival, ostensibly to ensure the event didn't lose funding. The real reason for their withdrawal was more likely that the loss of funding from the city and corporate sponsors that their involvement would have spurred would make them pariahs in the Gay community to a greater extent than they are currently.

The year before, amid threats from the to withhold funding from Pride, the festival's organizers first promised that that anti-Israel group would not be allowed to [participate, then once they secured City funding scammed the City by reversing that decision to the outrage of many on City Council including the current mayor, Rob Ford.

Councilor James Pasternak had proposed a resolution last year that was adopted by Council that required Toronto's anti-discrimination policy to be revised,in order to address funding to events that include hate groups. By lying about the nature of the Jewish state,  seeking its destruction by falsely labeling it a nation that practices crimes against humanity, singling it out and holding  the only country in  the middle east that respects Gay rights to a standard they hold no other country in the world, the so-called Queers Against Israeli Apartheid is an anti-Semitic hate group. Yet Councilors such as Kristin Wong-Tam, who is the original owner of that group's website, along with City Councilors Gord Perks and others on the left wing of Council support the participation of the anti-Semitic group in Pride.

Pride and the anti-Semitic group have been effectively lobbying councilors such as the pliable Mary-Margaret McMahon with the deceptive and ironic claim that Pride is being held to a higher standard than any other city-sponsored event. As there is no other city-sponsored event that gives a platform to a hate group whose sole purpose is to vilify and demonize an entire nation and community, Pride's argument is clearly disingenuous.

Toronto City Council will vote on funding for the Pride Festival on Wednesday, June 6. Councillor Pasternak has proposed that funding from the city be withheld until after the event and submitted to Pride only on the condition that Queers Against Israeli Apartheid is not a participant. Torontonians concerned about their tax dollars being used to subsidize the hateful anti-Semitism and anti-western fanaticism of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid should contact their councillors and hopefully sway them to act responsibly.

(A form that can be used to contact city council is available through Martin Gladstone's website, Reclaiming Our Pride)

They're back! Intellectually vapid hatemonger group al QuAIA threatens to derail Toronto's Pride festival (again)

The collection of hideous gargoyles that calls itself Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (al QuAIA) says it wants to participate in Toronto's Pride festival this year.

Contentious City Council hearings last year almost derailed the Pride festival as a whole, when the Mayor and a number of councilors threatened to withdraw city funding and in-kind donations to the festival, which would have effectively driven the festival into bankruptcy.

The vapid hatemongers whose sole purpose is to demonize the only liberal democracy in the middle east, and the only one in its region that respects Gay rights, because it is a Jewish state were expected to lay low until after 2014 when Toronto is supposed to host the World Pride festival.

But because of their fanatical, narcissistic self-interest, this year's Pride and Toronto's hosting the world festival will again be placed in jeopardy.

Al QuAIA's participation also has the effect of crippling Toronto Pride's ability to attract sponsors, since no credible organization wants to be associated with a venue that gives a platform to hateful fanatics.

Right now, only one hotel is listed on Toronto Pride 2012's sponsor list. Keep an eye on that page and if more appear, be sure to let the sponsor know what you think of them giving money to a platform for the  bigots and hatemongers of Al QuAIA.

More Scenes from Toronto's Pride Festival 2011

Huge pro-Israel contingent the day after the Dyke March was slimed by QuAIA

For more photos from Pride 2011 click here

And you can see stuff from Trans Pride here

and The Dyke March here

All photos in this post © 2011 Eye on a Crazy Planet

Scenes from Pride Toronto 2011

Check back - I expect to put up more; I have plenty! (Update: go to the bottom of the post to find the link to the others!)

If there's anything I like better than cute women, it's cute women handing out free chocolate
Even if they are wearing intimidating Clockwork Orange hats

I wonder if I can get these 3 to pose? Check back later

Some pompous dude went around shouting at
the top of his lungs and tried to high-five everyone
in sight. I think he used to be a politician

Happy Canada Day weekend!

You knew they would pose

Click THIS LINK to get to the rest of the Pride 2011 photos!

All photos in this post © 2011 Eye on a Crazy Planet

A Closer Look - the chant that put Pride's funding at risk

A shill group for the narcissistic Queers Against Israeli Apartheid decided getting attention for themselves was worth putting funding for Toronto's Pride at risk after City Council said it would withhold funds if the group participated.

Instead of protesting a nearby conference featuring speakers who say that Gays should be put to death, these geniuses want to vilify Israel and possibly take Pride down with them


More pictures here

al-QuAIA takes new name and suicide bombs Toronto Pride Festival

Trans March 1/7/2011

(Watch the videos near the end of this post!)

The fanatical anti-capitalist, anti-Israel Queers Against Israeli Apartheid was a source of controversy and disgust for Toronto. Their attempt to hijack Toronto's Gay Pride Festival for their hysterical anti-Israel agenda falls into a number of categories that discredits and disparages that group.

Unintentionally ironic is the mildest term that can be used to describe Gay people who chose to vilify a Gay-friendly country while advocating for people who believe homosexuals should be put to death for their sexual orientation. That they should choose to do so in Toronto at the same time that a few blocks away, a conference of Islamic fundamentalists that think Gays should be stoned to death is going on, and not protest that, suggests Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, as a group, suffer from severe psychiatric problems.

As Michael Lucas put it, "The anti-Israel clique has developed a completely new use of the concepts of human rights and universal solidarity: Only for them does “solidarity” require complete blackwashing of one party and whitewashing of the other."

After lengthy hearings, City Council made it clear that Pride would not receive civic funds if that offensive hate group participated in the festival. And Queers Against Israeli Apartheid "promised" they would not put Pride at risk by participating. Just as Pride said they would not participate this year.

But these fanatics evidently are so stupid that they thought if they changed their name and joined in anyway, everything would be fine.

They and Pride could be in for some bad news.

Both the Trans March and the Dyke March were invaded by people from Queers Against Israeli Apartheid.

And Pride officials did nothing to remove them.

Tomorrow, if they turn up at the main Pride parade, it should be very interesting seeing what happens when they ask for their six-figure cheque from the city.

Trans March 1/7/2011

Here are some pictures from the Trans and Dyke Marches today and yesterday:

the anti Israel, "Israeli Apartheid" group led by this person of..
which group was that?

(UPDATES: Here is an article by QuAIA spokesperson Savannah "Savvy" Garmon for Electronic Intifada titled "Queers Against Israeli Apartheid refuse to be silenced" She evidently took her own words literally both during the Trans and Dyke Marches this year. She is listed as "an activist for transgender rights, sex worker rights and has been active with various groups in the Palestine solidarity movement since 2002." Which makes a bit of a different description than her caption for this QuAIA video where she is listed as a physicist. Physics, it appears, ain't what it used to be.)


From the Dyke March, July 2, 2011:

The anti-Israel group joined the march on Church St - Pride officials -
including the woman in the blue shirt -
spoke with them and let them join in

Pride officials (w/blue shirts) with anti-Israel group

Pride Officials accompanied the anti-Israel group along most of the route,
here one plays traffic cop for them

And look who the leader is (again):

Here's the video with them chanting "We're sexy, we're hot, Israeli apartheid's not"

Talk about false advertising! Not only is Israel not an apartheid state, but there isn't a single one of these fools that comes close to being sexy or hot!




The sexy, hot lesbians were with the Pro-Israel group:

Blazing Cat Fur has more pics from Pride today

And the Roller Derby Girls were sexy and hot too:

Toronto Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti caught the new incarnation of the al-QuAIA bozos on video:

UPDATE:

According to the Toronto Star, Giorgio Mammoliti wants the city to withhold Pride's funding because of this group. The Star reports, "Organizers said they did not see the controversial group." If that's the case, as you can see from the photos above, Pride organizers aren't above lying.

Here is some of the video Councillor Mammoliti shot

AND...

Blazing Cat Fur just posted a video with some revealing information about the anti-Israel group and their personal Pride escort

All photos in this post © 2011 Eye on a Crazy Planet

The Queers Against Israeli Apartheid ethos: