Jenny Peto, whose Masters' Thesis for the discredited Sociology and Equity Studies in Education program at OISE alleged that the mainstream Jewish community "is dominated by racist...ideologies," was revealed by an anonymous reader of Eye on a Crazy Planet to be the registrant of http://www.torontostopthecuts.com/, the website that is the central information repository for the anti-Ford activists. Peto's thesis, titled, "The Victimhood of the Powerful: White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust Education" was condemned in Ontario's Legislature by both the Minister for Citizenship and Opposition MPP's as being a "hateful and poorly researched...piece of garbage."
Understanding who is behind the radicals who want to prevent Ford from managing the city's fiscal crisis is instructive in unravelling some of their motives.
A number of vociferous anti-Israel and anti-Semitic organizations and individuals still harbour a grudge against Ford for his efforts to keep the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid out of Toronto's Pride parade and his attempt to prevent anti-Semitic al Quds Day activities held by the Canadian Shia Muslim Organization (CASMO) from taking place on City property.
Until now the individuals organizing the anti-Ford actions remained mostly in the shadows, but the media contact number for Stop The Cuts is the same as that for the violent, union-financed activist group OCAP. One of OCAP's spokespeople is Liisa Schofield, whom anti-Semitic author Peto refers to in her thesis' acknowledgments as her "partner."Regarding Ms. Peto's involvement in the anti-austerity campaign, Adrienne Batra, Rob Ford's Press Secretary, said on behalf of the Mayor's Office, "It's not surprising that someone who is clearly misinformed on so many issues would be participating in spreading this type of hysteria. The Ford administration is going through a thoughtful process on how to fix our City's finances, something that will, ironically, even help out those involved with this [torontostopthecuts.com] website."
