Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Question: If There Was an Outfit Called 'Queers Against Islamic Gender Apartheid,' Would It Be Allowed to March in Toronto's Pride Parade?

That's the question that occurred to me as I read this, from the Toronto Star:
City council has no legal grounds to deny grant money to Pride over the gay festival’s refusal to ban the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, Toronto’s chief lawyer has told Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee. 
In a confidential and frank April report obtained by the Star, city solicitor Anna Kinastowski says she “cannot recommend” that council require Pride to ban the phrase “Israeli apartheid” as a condition of receiving taxpayer funds. 
Kinastowski writes: “The term ‘Israeli Apartheid’ does not violate the city’s human rights policy, does not appear to violate the Ontario Human Rights Code, and does not appear to constitute ‘hate’ as the (Supreme) Court has interpreted it and would therefore appear to fall within the realm of potentially ‘offensive’ yet protected speech.” 
The committee will again discuss Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) on Tuesday during a debate on the city’s anti-discrimination policy for grant recipients. Pride’s annual grant — about $124,000 last year — will be debated by council in June, only 10 days before the festival begins...
I suspect that if there were a "Queers Against Islamic Gender Apartheid" it would violate the city's human rights policy, it would appear to violate the Ontario Human Rights Code, and it would appear to constitute 'hate' as the (Supreme) Court has interpreted it, and would therefore not appear to fall within the realm of potentially 'offensive' yet protected speech.

This being about Zionhass--hatred engendered by and directed at the Jewish state--though, it's okey-dokey with the city's politically correct powers-that-be. That sad reality seems to be resonating with an Official Jew, too:
“I don’t think the question is a legal question — I think the question is one of morality and divisiveness,” said Avi Benlolo, chief executive of the pro-Israel Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies. “And if we want to live in a pluralistic society where we demonstrate respect for one another, then there’s just morality. . . . We’re just saying to the city we don’t think this is socially acceptable.”
Hating Israel? Not socially acceptable? Oh, Avi. Surely you must know that in certain key quarters, not only is it socially acceptable to see Israel as the greatest evil known to man (the latest manifestation of age-old Jew hate), it is pretty much de rigueur.

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