A secretive Queen's University anti-Zionist course disguised as "Jewish History" where "facts" don't matter

Imagine you'd enrolled in an undergraduate course last fall called "Jewish Women in Historical Perspective" at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. If you thought you would be learning about notable Jewish women like Ruth and Esther from the Bible through to authors like Emma Lazarus and Gertrude Stein, and renowned public figures like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Bella Abzug and their influence on the wider world, you could be in for a big surprise.

The course calendar describes it as being about "Jewish history from biblical to modern times using gender as a category of analysis" including "tensions between competing traditions; influences of paganism, Islam, Christianity." But the syllabus and the course content suggest something very different.

You'd certainly receive a healthy dose of tensions between competing traditions. But rather than Jewish History, it has more of the appearance of indoctrination sessions on the evils of Zionism and the Jewish state delivered by a veritable who's who of Canadian anti-Israel ideologues.

Included on that list are Sylvat Aziz, Palestine Liberation Organization Adviser Elia Zureik, Adnan Hussein, Ariel Salzmann, and a Communist professor named Abbie Bakan whose apparent raison d'etre for the last decade has been to attempt to de-legitimize Israel.

Abigail Bakan addressing a
CASMO al Quds Day gathering 

Bakan is a particularly egregious choice for an instructor in a Jewish Studies course. She is on the editorial board of a 9-11 conspiracy theory promoting website called The Canadian Charger, which was founded by Mohamed Elmasry, who notoriously declared that all Israeli Jews over the age of 18 are 'legitimate' targets for murder.

She has also been a featured speaker at al Quds Day gatherings, a 'holiday' invented by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini for the purpose of rousing Muslim support for Jihad against Israel. At one al Quds event, which she attended at the behest of a Khomeinist group called CASMO, which has posted anti-Semitic videos by the neo-Nazi leader David Duke on their website, Bakan fatuously declared that Israel "is exactly like the apartheid state of pre-1994 South Africa."

Such vicious polemical nonsense has the potential to cause quite a stir. But a directive in the course's syllabus is designed to nip that in the bud at the expense of the belief that university education should be above-board and open to scrutiny. A dictate in the Jewish Women in Historical Perspective's syllabus says:

To build an atmosphere of civility, trust, and participation, and afford reasonable privacy it is necessary and you are requested to abide by the following:
-no recording
-no cells, Internet, texting
-no visitors, no auditors

In order to keep the goings-on secretive, the classes can't be recorded and no outsiders are allowed. It's the Queen's anti-Zionist version of what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But indications are that what happens at Queen's is more insidious than the affairs at Caesar's Palace.

I telephoned Professor James Carson, the Chair of Queen's History Department under whose aegis the course falls, about its curious nature. He described the course as being about "dialogue."  That explanation is indeed supported by another dictum in the course syllabus which states:

"Truths or facts as labels are misleading to understand complex situations. ‘Even handed’ and ‘balanced’ for X may not be acceptable to Y. The important learning event happens in dialogue."

It doesn't require a lot of imagination to picture how that dialogue would be slanted in a course where most of the "authorities" are members of a group called "The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid."

But what I found perplexing was how something purporting to be a university history course could declare that truth and facts are "misleading" and secondary to a dialogue comprised of feelings and emotion.

It may serve the ideological purposes of the instructors to wave aside facts like five Arab armies tried to eradicate Israel upon its inception as a state, or that the Hamas charter calls for Israel's destruction and endorses the killing of Jews, or that Palestinian state television produces children's programs that glorify suicide bombers and call for war against the Jews. To these Queen's academics, "the important learning event" is the Palestinian feeling of oppression.

But how could that possibly be categorized as history?

Professor Carson attempted to explain it to me using an example from a course he teaches about the First Nations In North America.

He said that the Canadian Indian Act came into being in 1876 and from the government's perspective, it was to "civilize" the First Nations but from the aboriginals's point of view it was an act of "genocide." Carson felt that was an example of how there could be different perspectives on what constitutes a "fact."

I challenged that, observing that there were indeed indisputable facts in his example. The Indian Act was enacted in 1876, the actual wording of The Act is something that can be verified. The intent of these facts could be open to interpretation, but the facts themselves could not.

That agitated Professor Carson, who curtly replied, "I'm not going to engage in a forensic examination of the syllabus with you, thank you for your time." Then he hung up on me.

It's easy to sympathize with Professor Carson's frustration. It would be tremendously difficult to do a forensic examination of anything if you don't believe there's such a thing as a verifiable fact.

It seems the syllabus and curriculum has changed a bit for "Jewish Women in Historical Perspective" in the coming term. For the sake of that course's students and the integrity of Queen's University, it would be a good thing if their History Department's appreciation of historical facts changed along with it.

Toronto Mayor's Office orders City Staff to monitor Khomeinist dinner

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has instructed city staff to monitor a Khomeinist al Quds Day anti-Israel dinner and seminar taking place tonight at the municipally owned Scarborough Centennial Centre.

The event is being held by the Canadian Shia Muslim Organization (CASMO), a group notorious for posting anti-Semitic videos by a Ku Klux Klan leader on its website, and having held a hate rally at Queen's Park last year in which speakers engaged in racist and Jihadist invective.

The Mayor's office expressed disappointment that the al Quds would be proceeding, but the City's Facilities Manager and the City of Toronto's Deputy Manager decided the event did not breech civic policies. Al Quds Day is an invention of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini intended to rally Muslims to the cause of the destruction of Israel. Al Quds Day gatherings frequently feature anti-Semitic and violent rhetoric.

Toronto Ward 10 Councillor James Pasternak said he is "astounded that City re-booked facilities to this group after all we went through last year." He added "this group clearly does not meet the threshold for respect or tolerance we expect of those using City property."

Mayor Ford's office expressed its serious concerns about the Iranian-linked group's use of municipal property and insisted the event be closely watched by City staff to ensure compliance with civic regulations regarding Hate Speech.

Councillor Pasternak expressed the hope that City staff would ensure the usual "demonization and hate" that are routine at al Quds Day assemblies does not take place on grounds that are the responsibility of the City of Toronto.

UPDATE:  A well-placed source at City Hall believes that the Manager of the City's Office of Equity, Diversity and Human Rights must have been consulted by the Managers who decided to allow the seminar and dinner to proceed. That office is headed by Pakistani immigrant Uzma Shakir, who has written that Muslim immigrants do not owe their full loyalty to Canada because of the Canadian government's favoritism towards Israel.

Who and what is behind Toronto's Nazi/Khomeinist rally

The irony would be comedic if it wasn't draped in genocidal malice.

In Toronto, this Friday night and Saturday afternoon, two gatherings facilitated by followers of Iran's Holocaust-denying, totalitarian leaders will convene in a frenzy of hatred known as al Quds Day to remonstrate against the middle east's only genuine democracy.

The organizers of the upcoming assemblies are devout adherents to the branch of Shia Islam represented by the Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his successor as that nation's absolute ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khameni.

Both Khomeini and Khameni led Iranian regimes in which female political prisoners, many of them children, were systematically raped by security forces. Their political opponents, as well as religious and ethnic minorities such as Baha'i and Kurds are routinely tortured and executed.  Iran's Council of Guardian-approved  President Ahmadinejad's ridiculous assertion that there are no homosexuals in Iran was probably an aspiration, as Gays are executed in that country for their sexual orientation. There is no free speech in Iran as the media is tightly-controlled and opposition newspapers can be shut down by the government at will.

At the end of the week, Canadian acolytes of that tyrannical autocracy will be denouncing Israel, a country that has free elections, universal enfranchisement for its citizens, equal rights for women free speech, respects Gay rights and rule of law, all features that are absent in Iran. Al Quds Day was first decreed by Khomeini in 1979 as an annual event for the purpose of rallying Muslim to destroy Israel. The spectacle of disciples of Iran's sadistic rulers denouncing Israel as "oppressive" will be as preposterous as if followers of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un were denouncing Canada for its lack of democracy.

The offense of the travesty is not limited towards Jews. Iranian ex-patriots who fled the brutality of their homelands Mullahs are appalled at seeing the monstrous ideology they escaped manifest itself in the streets of the nation they fled to for asylum.

Toronto al Quds facebook page

The local Khomeinists involved with the Toronto al Quds Day reflect the poison exuded by Iran's leadership. A series of emails uncovered by the blogger BlazingCatFur in their online discussion group routinely feature Holocaust-denial and anti-Semitism.

Iluminating still is that a facebook page coordinating Toronto's Queen's Park Rally was created by Siraj Ali, an organizer of other local Shia rallies.

Rallies Mr. Ali was behind saw him cheering on as demented conspiracy theories were proclaimed, blaming internecine Muslim violence between Sunni and Shia in far-flung locals like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on "Zionist" plots.

On Tuesday, The Canadian Race Relations Foundation expressed its "grave concerns" about the al Quds Day rally, saying "the framework for attacks against Israel and Zionists is replete with phrases found in similar Neo-Nazi and antisemitic attacks."

It is immaterial whether the al Quds Day Khomeinists actually believe their paranoid, depraved proclamations against Israel and Jews or if they are are consciously employing Nazi-like propaganda and scapegoating as a means of demagoguery. What needs to be understood is that there is a hateful, bigoted infection of totalitarianism in our midst, and if we do  not confront it, the problem will only grow.

Toronto City Councillor denounces use of municipal facilities for Khomeinist al Quds seminar

A rancid melange of hummus and hatred will be served up at the municipally-owned Scarborough Centennial Centre when the Khomeinist Canadian Shia Muslim Organization (CASMO)  holds its annual dinner and al Quds seminar there this Friday night. 

Ward 10 Councillor Pasternak

The news of this event just became public and has outraged Ward 10 Councillor James Pasternak. "It's late in the day to get this cancelled, but the City of Toronto should be playing no role in providing space or shelter to groups that promote hatred and intolerance and I'm shocked they were allowed to use city facilities this year," he said in an exclusive interview with Eye on a Crazy Planet.

The al Quds Day rally planned for the following afternoon at Queens Park has already generated a whirlwind of controversy because of the racist invective featured at last year's rally which CASMO had organized.  It featured a local acolyte of Iran's regime, Zafar Bangash, who furiously spewed at US President Barack Obama, to whom he referred as "that black man in the White House" and declared his aspiration to witness a massive Muslim march on Israel to impose Islamic law there, presumably after all its non-Muslim inhabitants were slaughtered. The ravings of Shia speakers spouting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories at the rally became widely known and publicly reviled. The ensuing scrutiny discouraged CASMO from being the applicant for this year's rally.  

CASMO received national notoriety after posting anti-Semitic videos of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke on its website. After that public expression of Jew-hatred was publicized, first through through blogs and then the mainstream media, the ensuing humiliation led them to proclaim their ostensive opposition to anti-Semitism while continuing to espouse conspiracy theories about "international Zionism". The Shia group hosts an al Quds Day event to honor Iran's late, theocratic dictator, the Ayatollah Khomeini, who proclaimed the last Friday of Ramadan as a day to rally Muslims to the cause of the elimination of Israel.

Last year, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and Councillors Doug Ford and Pasternak attempted to have the city deny permission for CASMO's use of the Centennial Centre for the dinner. According to City policy, the decision had to be made on the basis of whether the applicant violated the City's anti-Discrimination policy. 

Toronto's Manager of Equity, Diversity and Human Rights was the person who was left to make that initial decision. But in a strange twist, that Manager, Uzma Shakir, had written inflammatory anti-Israel articles for the radical leftist website rabble.ca in which she asserted that because of the Canadian government's support for the Jewish state, Muslim immigrants do not owe their full loyalty to Canada.

For his part, Councillor Pasternak intends to contact City officials to ensure warnings are issued to CASMO, as they were last year, and that the gathering is monitored for compliance to make sure the type of hatred invoked at their 2011 Queen's Park rally is not repeated on City property. 

"I'm highly offended that groups like this are allowed to spew their hate both on City property and on the steps of the Legislature," Pasternak stated. "There should be no place in the City of Toronto for such groups that attempt to bully and promote hatred and intolerance."  

A spokesperson for Mayor Rob Ford's office said the mayor will review the situation regarding the CASMO al Quds dinner and determine which appropriate steps should be taken.

UPDATE: Canadian Race Relations Foundation denounces Iranian backed Khomeinist rally - points out it is similar to neo-Nazi hate.

Hate Group CASMO holding another al Quds gathering on Toronto municipal property

His ear always to the ground as far as the goings on of hateful Khomeinist organizations, blogger Blazing Cat Fur has discovered that CASMO is holding its annual al Quds day diner and Israel-bashing seminar on city property this Friday night. Al Quds Day is the annual event invented by Iran's sadistic despot, the Ayatollah Khomeini, to rally support for Muslims to destroy the Jewish state. CASMO gained national notoriety after it posted videos of the racist former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke on its website in which he espoused anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Last year, despite herculean efforts by Councillors Doug Ford, James Pasternak and Mayor Ford to convince the City bureaucrats to prevent it, the night of felafels and jihadism went forward. That happened because the decision to allow it was made by Uzma Shakir,  the City's Manager of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Human Rights.

But since then, a lot of information about Ms Shakir has emerged that suggests she has a very serious conflict of interest when it comes to decisions regarding anything involving Israel and its local supporters or enemies.

Ms Shakir has gone so far as to have written, at the virulently anti-Israel website rabble.ca, that Canadian Muslims do not owe loyalty to Canada because of the Canadian government's stance on the Israel Palestine issue.

She wrote:

“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..." 

The Khomeinists of CASMO have a right to their vitriol and fanaticism. But the question is, do they have a right to hold it on civic property rather than renting some private beer cellar or other such natural environment for Jew hatred?

The Mayor's office and a number of City Councillors are expected to speak out on this and we shall see what ensues.

Khomeinists plan hate rally at Toronto`s Queen`s Park

Last year, one of the low points in civic engagement in Ontario was an anti-Semitic hate rally at Queen’s Park held by local Shia Muslim organizations to commemorate what they refer to as “al Quds Day.” This is an event in the Shia calendar initiated by the brutal Iranian despot Ayatollah Khomeini to try to garner support for the destruction of the Jewish state and the so-called liberation of the Holy Land of Israel from the Jews, to be replaced by an Islamic state.

Politicians of al stripes were shocked and embarrassed that an event was held at the seat of Ontario’s government that was anti-Semitic and featured hate mongers like Zafar Bangash, a notorious supporter of the vicious Iranian dictatorship which persecutes and murders dissidents and minorities.  Last year, Bangash called for a Jihad against Jerusalem whereby Islamic law would be imposed upon Israel.

In a startling new development, another ‘al Quds Day’ rally at Queen’s Park on August 18 was just announced by a group calling itself the al Quds Committee.

The Sergeant-at-Arms of the Ontario Legislature must approve all demonstrations held at Queens Park. As of 9 am  today (July 31), the Sergeant-of Arms office confirms that an application for the al Quds Day demonstration has been submitted but not yet approved.

Iranian government funds hate in Toronto

Blazing Cat Fur has done another fine investigation showing the financial links between the Iranian government and local Islamist groups, including the one that sponsored the Queens Park hate rally in Toronto last August.

Check out BCF`s post here

Anti-Semitic OISE thesis author exposed as organizer of Toronto protests against civic fiscal responsibilty

The author of an anti-Semitic Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) thesis that claimed Holocaust education programs were part of a Zionist conspiracy to perpetuate Jewish victimhood has been exposed as a key individual behind the Toronto "Stop the Cuts" actions aimed at hampering Mayor Rob Ford's attempts to restore fiscal responsibility at City Hall.

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."

United Church Minister denounces Israel at CASMO hate fest

United Church minister Brian McIntosh appeared at the now infamous al Quds Day seminar organized by an anti-Israel hate group on Friday, August 26.  Despite condemnation of the event from Toronto's mayor and a slew of City Councilors, McIntosh lent his credibility, such as it is, to CASMO, a group of Khomeinist supporters of the racist, terror-sponsoring Iranian regime.

In his address to the assembled fanatics, McIntosh got caught up in the frenzy and denounced Israel with: "...the political powers of the world bear a false witness to the divine will, through politically and military-backed colonialism, horrific ethnic cleansing, systematic, state-sanctioned terrorism, the real, true terrorism, the carrying out of what many have called the Manifest Destiny of the West, known as the Zionist Project in Israel."

McIntosh, whose authority to speak on behalf of the divine will is questionable, went on to express support for a divestment, boycott and sanctions campaign against the only liberal democracy in the middle east, but on that night lacked the fortitude to utter a single word of criticism towards Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism that persecutes religious minorities, murders Gays, and represses women.

What McIntosh did do was to try to bolster his position by invoking Richard Falk, a Jewish anti-Semite and 9-11 conspiracy theorist who has distinguished himself by being the only Special Rapporteur in the history of the United Nations to be condemned by a UN Secretary General.

In addition to saying Palestinians suffer from an "apartheid" worse than that in South Africa thirty years ago, McIntosh also referred to Israeli settlements in the West Bank as "one of the largest politically motivated land grabs in human history." Given that McIntosh made that pronouncement in North America, it betrays a pathetic lack of historical knowledge on his part.

The word "Shahid" is Arabic for "witness", but it is generally taken to mean martyr or someone who has dies in fulfillment of Islamic religious duty. It is the term by which violent, fanatical Islamists in Hamas and Hezbollah refer to their suicide bombers. McIntosh, in his speech, said, "surely there have been enough shahids for Palestinian dignity, justice and freedom who have been killed to convince the world of the necessity of ending this conflict by returning the Palestinians to their homeland.."

McIntosh appears oblivious, if not indifferent to the fact that so many shahids have died not for dignity and justice, but out of a desire to murder innocent Israelis and collect 72 virgins in a promised afterlife.

The ignorance, lack of historical comprehension, lack of context and utter bigotry demonstrated by McIntosh in his speech are astounding. The United Church of Canada has just distanced itself from an individual named Karin Brothers who was said to be a representative of the Church at a CASMO hate rally at Queen's Park.

A question the United Church needs to address is whether the shameful speech by McIntosh reflects the Church, or will they bury their heads in the sand?

More anti-Semitism from NDP leadership hopeful Libby Davies' spouse's website

The radical socialist movement in Canada frequently veers into vociferous anti-Semitism. Under the guise of "Palestinian solidarity activism" socialists vent their Jew-hatred while betraying principles of equality in their alliances with groups that support regimes that repress women and persecute Gays. One such example is the unholy axis of James Clark's Canadian Peace Alliance and Zafar Bangash and CASMO, who act as advocates for the totalitarian, anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying Iranian theocracy.

One of the clearing-houses for this bigotry is run by the spouse of NDP leadership hopeful, Libby Davies. Rabble.ca is published by Kim Elliott, Davies' spouse. Its discussion forums are tightly controlled and users are frequently banned for defending Israel or criticizing unions. Indeed, rabble.ca's paid moderators sometimes use the discussion forums to promote Davies.  But one type of behaviour that is fostered there is calling Israel a "Nazi" country. This type of attempt to paint a liberal, democratic Jewish state with a free press and independent judiciary as a genocidal monster is one of the new forms of anti-Semitism identified by the Canadian Parliamentary Commission on Anti-Semitism.

It is little surprise that this type of hatred and bigotry would be associated with supporters of Libby Davies, who recently boasted about her association with a member of European Parliament who was tried for promoting anti-Semitism in France. Rabble's user forums, which have included the anti-Semitic invective directed at SUN TV host Michael Coren as a "damped Jew" now has a regular poster using Iranian propaganda to demonize Israel as following "in Hitler's footsteps." The anti-Semitic propaganda he promotes makes the absurd accusation that Israel is "using Gaza as a Nazi concentration camp."

Davies- her intellect is only matched
by her sex appeal

Davies frequently appears at rabble.ca-sponsored events and that venue provides insight into the sort of attitude that Canadians can expect to see fostered in the NDP if she and her camp of radicals continue to gain influence in that political party. By making both Davies and the pragmatic, intelligent Thomas Mulcair both Deputy Leaders, the NDP's shrewd former leader, Jack Layton, played radical and mainstream elements of the party against each other to consolidate his control. But now that Layton is gone and no leader has emerged with a semblance of his authority in his party, the NDP could easily descend into a fanatical, hate-mongering political movement dominated by obtuse ideologues like Davies.

Shia group CASMO makes racist, hate-filled speeches at Queen's Park as croud chants "Allah akbar!"

Blogger Blazing Cat Fur chronicled the CASMO-organized al-Quds Day rally at Queen's Park on Sunday, August 28.

Speakers spewed hate-filled, racist invective.

Mayor Rob Ford and Councillors Doug Ford and James Pasternak attempted to prevent CASMO from using city property, but were stymied by the City Manager. Questions remain about how and why the City Manager reached the decision to allow a hate group to use city facilities while denying other city facilities to a peaceful, legal gathering the very same day.



UPDATE: An individual identified as representing the United Church of Canada lends support to the bigots and racists of CASMO:




Brian Lilley and Tarek Fatah discuss the hatefest at Queen's Park: (Video courtesy of Blazing Cat Fur)

Ontario Public Service Employee attempts to deprive journalist of basic rights at Queens Park to defer to hate group supporters

Ontarians who were under the impression that they live in a free society where they can use cameras in public places may be surprised to learn they are not free from harassment by agents of the Province.

Well-known Canadian political blogger Blazing Cat Fur was at Queen's Park Sunday afternoon to record the al Quds Day rally held by CASMO,  a Khomeinist hate group that has posted anti-Israel videos to its website by the neo-Nazi former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

A Queen's Park Security Guard, an employee of the Provincial civil service, attempted to get BCF to stop filming since it was "offensive" to the Khomeini-worshipping women who had gathered to denounce and vilify Israel in front of the provincial legislature while waving the flag of a banned terrorist organization.

The Province appears to have omitted to provide basic training in civil rights to its security personnel. A Toronto Police constable finally told the guard that BCF had the right to film a public demonstration on public property - something that would be obvious to any high school civics student, but evidently not to someone entrusted with keeping the peace at the seat of Ontario's government.

CASMO came under fire earlier in the week when Mayor Rob Ford and a number of Councillors, including Doug Ford and James Pasternak, attempted to have the City revoke the Shia Muslim group's permission to hold an al Quds Day seminar and dinner at a city owned facility. City politicians were concerned that CASMO and al Quds Day, an event created by the late Ayatollah Khomeini for the purpose of demonizing Israel, had deeply anti-Semitic overtones and their use of the Scarborough Centennial Centre was a violation of the city's anti-discrimination policy.

The Mayor and Councillors' wishes were overruled by the City Manager, but it came to light that the decision to allow CASMO to use the facility was influenced by a City department head who had written an editorial in favour of the Canadian Arab Federation, which was defunded by the federal government amid allegations of it being anti-Semitic and expressing support for terrorism. This same department head also advocated for use of Sharia Law in Ontario's Family Courts and co-authored a paper with a U of T Professor who stirred up a recent controversy by facilitating anti-Semitism in her class.

It seems the Fords' and Pasternak's concerns about CASMO were well founded. Speakers at CASMO's Sunday afternoon rally at Queen's Park made pronouncements like, "..the Zionist regime that sucks the resources, the blood, and everything that belongs to the people all across the world..and they use it for themselves" while their supporters waved the flag of Hezbollah,  an anti-Semitic terrorist organization. The bigotry was abundant at the event as another speaker at CASMO's hate fest, the Islamic Society of York Region's Zafar Bangash,  referred to President Obama as "that black man in the White House."

At CASMO's Friday evening gathering, the City took unprecedented action in sending a supervisor to monitor what was said. That supervisor's report is not yet publicly available, but this entire episode highlights shortcomings in the decision-making process by the City's bureaucracy and the need to examine it in depth.




UPDATE:  A cruel irony is that the hate-group CASMO was allowed to use city property to spew its bile, but a peaceful, friendly group that wishes ill-will to no one was banned from using City property the same day.

update h/t Scaramouche

From ShiaTV.net, where CASMO routinely uploads its videos:

A call for the ethnic cleansing of Jews

Anti-Israel event to take place in City of Toronto facility despite opposition from Mayor and Council members

A fascinating story has developed through the intention of a group of Canadian followers of Iran's late Ayatollah Khomeini to use City of Toronto facilities for an event to demonize Israel.

The Canadian Shia Muslim Organization (CASMO) is the sponsor of an al Quds Day dinner and seminar set to take place the evening of April 26 at the city-owned and operated Scarborough Centennial Centre.  CASMO  is a group that made the news last April when they were publicly excoriated for posting anti-Israel videos from the racist former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon David Duke on its website.

After that humiliation, CASMO has since been a little more careful to pay lip service to the language of tolerance. While they now proclaim "No to anti Semitism" on their website, their other pronouncements belie that by expressing support for the anti-Semitic terror organization Hezbollah and their support for the regime of Iran's Holocaust-denying president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Al Quds Day, the event that CASMO plans to celebrate on city property, was created by the deceased absolute ruler of Iran's Islamic Republic, the Ayatollah Khomeini, for the purpose of promoting organized vilification of Israel in the Islamic world.

CASMO has held al Quds Day events in City facilities before, but it only came to the attention of Council members when it became a recent subject for bloggers in Toronto.  

This week, upon learning that the event was to take place on city property and was a potential violation of the City's Anti-Discrimination Policy, Mayor Rob Ford's Office and a number of City Councillors including Councilors Doug Ford and James Pasternak, wanted to put a stop to it. For that to happen, a ruling on compliance with the City's anti-Discrimination Policy was required and that was initially left to Uzma Shakir, the Director of the City's Office of Equity, Diversity and Human Rights.

Councillor Pasternak said "There is no way that this group (CASMO) should be allowed to hold an event on City Property. The nature of the group indicates that they could not possibly comply with the City's values of respect and tolerance. I'm dismayed that a City facility would consider allowing this event to take place and am doing what I can to stop it happening."

However the event will indeed take place. The Mayor and Councillor Doug Ford have expressed their deep disappointment in the ruling made late Thursday afternoon by the City Manager; that CASMO's evening of deploring the middle east's only liberal democracy can go ahead at the Centennial Centre. Councillor Ford's office voiced disgust with the ruling and made the statement that, "We don't believe City facilities should be allowed to be used by one community to denounce another."

Sources at City Hall have said that Ms Shakir's initial notes suggested that she felt that the CASMO al Quds Day event did not violate the City's anti-discrimination policy. Upon learning of this, the Mayor's Office and Councillor Ford placed intense pressure on City staff to re-examine the initial decision and the City Manager made the final decision based on reports and recommendations from Ms Shakir and other staff.

However in a surprise twist, it turns out that Ms Shakir, whose recommendations influenced the final decision, had written an editorial for rabble.ca, the radical leftist website that is the "media sponsor" of Israeli Apartheid Week, in which she criticized Federal Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney for defunding the Canadian Arab Federation due to alleged anti-Semitic statements from its leadership and its support for terror organizations Hamas and Hezbollah.  She has also expressed support for allowing Sharia Law in Family Courts in Ontario.

Ms Shakir's recommendations regarding CASMO's use of City property were reached in consultation with City lawyers and staff and there is no evidence that she was motivated by anything but a desire to determine fact in the matter.

But at least one Council member has expressed concern about the optics of this decision being influenced by a staff member who has made statements such as those made by Ms Shakir, who also acted as a spokesperson for a coalition that campaigned against the City renewing the contract of its then Chief of Police, Julian Fantino, in 2004.

For now, CASMO's evening of anti-Israel rhetoric will go ahead as scheduled. However the group was given a stern warning from City officials that if anything resembling hate speech occurs during their al Quds Day program on City property, they will be not receive any such approval for any event in the future. In an unprecedented move, the City is going to send a Supervisor to monitor CASMO's al Quds Day Seminar at the Centennial Centre to ensure that they comply with City policies.

The Mayor's office worked hard to attempt to revoke permission for the anti-Israel event, but the City's updated anti-Discrimination Policy, which requires that groups using city property comply with the principle of promoting respect, tolerance and diversity has not yet taken effect, and the determination about the al Quds Day seminar was made using the old policy.

The Mayor's Office issued a statement saying that "a positive outcome of this is that we see the need to establish clear guidelines for use of city property in the future and we're determined to make sure that happens soon. The new guidelines will give us better tools to deal with situations such as this."

Fanatical Khomeinist group to use Toronto City facilities for anti-Israel hate fest

CASMO, the Khomeinist Shia Muslim group that posted a video by neo-Nazi former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke to its website, will be using Toronto city facilities to host an anti-Israel event on August 26.

CASMO is hosting an Al-Quds Day Seminar and Dinner at the City owned and operated Scarborough Centennial Recreation Centre, where the event, by its nature, will violate the city's updated anti-discrimination policy.

The revised policy requires that events taking place on City of Toronto property must comply with the policy of promoting respect, tolerance and diversity.

Al Quds Day is an invention of the Ayatollah Khomeini who wanted the Islamic world to dedicate an annual day to denouncing Israel and Zionism. It is being carried on by his followers, including the Holocaust-denying president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad's Iran is the world's premier sponsor of terrorism. Canadian supporters of this vicious regime which treats homosexuality as a capital crime, persecutes practitioners of the Baha'i faith, and is responsible for the torture, rape and murder of Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi, will gather on Saturday for a hate-fest on City property.

Last year, CASMO'S al Quds Day rally was used to promote The Sea Hitler Canadian Gaza boat and this hate group routinely slanders Israel as an "apartheid" regime.

UPDATE below:

CASMO, like its inspirational leaders in Iran are, at least in word, supporters of the terrorist group Hezbollah. A number of City Councillors, after being informed of the CASMO-sponsored event, have expressed concern about city property being used for an al Quds Day seminar. Councillor Doug Ford has asked Uzma Shakir, the Toronto's Director of Equity and Human Rights Policy to make a determination about whether it violates city policies as they currently stand.

While Council has directed the City Policy Manager to update the Anti-Discrimination policy, the new policy has not yet come into effect. Ms Shakir has been asked to respond to Councillor Ford by tomorrow afternoon regarding whether CASMO's anti-Israel hate event will violate policy and be allowed to occur in a City facility. A spokesperson for Councilor Ford observed that while CASMO makes noises about refuting anti-Semitism, their press releases are filled with the usual virulent anti-Israel rhetoric that suggests otherwise. The event is scheduled for Friday at 6:30 pm.


Mayor Ford's contact information is here. You can contact his office to voice your opinion.


h/t Sassy Wire amd Blazing Cat Fur

Updated Aug 24 2:55 pm