Toronto Star: No Respect For Taxpayers?

The Toronto Star is failing to provide context in how much Federal Tax dollars are returned to Toronto. The Toronto Star may have taken the advice of Frank Graves, in invoking a "cultural war" and the "culture of entitlement."

However, last year, the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA), chose to sport tshirts with swastikas while they ambled down the street chanting "Fist by Fist, Blow by Blow, Apartheid State, Has Got to Go."Israel stands out as the only country in the Middle East where gay rights are respected on a par with other Western nations. Gay Pride rallies, for instance, are common in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities -- while the staging of such events in the Palestinian territories or any other part of the Arab world would almost certainly end in a bloodbath of dead gay paraders. If organizers cannot bring themselves to ensure participants keep their displays "on message," why should municipal, provincial or federal taxpayers have an obligation to foot the bill?

 

Why restrict the Poll to Federal Tax dollars of Toronto's Gay Pride? Did the Toronto Star miss the participation of groups that are political?

The early results are very interesting. Are all candidates running for the Mayor of Toronto pandering,  demanding the Federal Government provide funding indefinitely for a local event? What do the voters polled in the Toronto Star Poll think? Over 63% are against continuing FEDERAL tax dollars to fund Toronto's Gay Pride. Where is the respect for the taxpayers?  Luckily voters in Toronto can elect Rob Ford. He did not blame the Federal Government, which has contributed to over 500 projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars and invoke an adversarial relationship.

“I’ve always said the public sector shouldn’t be funding parades, no matter what parade it is,” Ford said. “The private sector should be sponsoring these parades.”

Martin Gladstone, a Toronto-based Jewish gay lawyer who has witnessed the anti-Israel messaging in past parades, implored Pride organizers to remain apolitical, arguing that allowing any group with a political mandate to march in the parade is contrary to Pride’s non-profit “LGBT human rights mandate,” and that “gay pride has nothing to do with anti-Israel advocacy.”

Gladstone said he feared that the rise of anti-Israel, “and by extension anti-Jewish,” political messaging could threaten Pride’s existence and funding if legally challenged.

“The law is clear,” he wrote to the Pride council this year. “You cannot allow a non-profit corporation to facilitate political advocacy unrelated to its charter.” -CJNEWS

It's no good pretending the vicious anti-Zionism of the apartheid crowd is free of anti-Semitism. Many Jews do feel threatened by it, and rightly so. Some will no longer attend the parade out of discomfort. Typically of others I interviewed, lesbian Denise Alexander told me that the 2009 parade was "the first time I've ever felt unsafe as a Jew in Toronto." It wasn't only the words, "Down with Israel" or "The end of Israel": "It's the tone ... and the veins sticking out in their necks, like in Nazi Germany."

Harassment & Intimidation at Toronto's Pride Parade 2009 from josephinejosephine on Vimeo.

The film explores the explosive controversy that surrounded the 2009 Toronto Gay Pride Parade by the inclusion of groups that branded Israel an apartheid state.

Offering exclusive footage of the annual parade that has become Toronto’s top attraction, Reclaiming Our Pride illustrates how Pride is being hijacked by groups that have nothing to do with the celebration of gay rights.

Additional reading:

Gays and Israel Apartheid Week...

Queen's Park Shows Leadership Against Destructive Campaign Against Israel

CPC Led Government Demostrates Best Friend Status With Israel: Coalition Not So Much!

Cultural Wars: Teabaggers Canadian Style

Stand up for Israel 

 Toronto's-No-Go-Zones-For-Zionists 

Toronto Star Reviving Liberal Policy

David Akin: Liberal ridings get $1 million out of $69 million highway fund

Perhaps those who don't think the Toronto Star has done a balanced piece in viewing the concerns of should contact the editorial staff. here. It is not difficult when an editorial does not support the political party in Ottawa. Should they be more careful in providing context and facts.

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