The continuing saga of Toronto Pride: anti-Israel group now says it won’t march in parade
As part of what it’s calling a challenge to Rob Ford, the anti-Israeli gay group QuAIA says it won’t march in the parade at this year’s Pride festival. According to a statement by QuAIA, the group thinks it’s got Ford right where it wants him:
QuAIA’s new plans will pose a challenge for Mayor Rob Ford, who announced that he would cut more than $100,000 in city tourism funding for Pride Toronto if QuAIA continued to march. “Rob Ford wants to use us as an excuse to cut Pride funding, even though he has always opposed funding the parade, long before we showed up,” says Elle Flanders of QuAIA. “By holding our Pride events outside of the parade, we are forcing him to make a choice: fund Pride or have your real homophobic, right-wing agenda exposed.”
QuAIA says it will still be participating in Pride, just far off the parade route. Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti is still not convinced—he plans to put forth a motion that the festival’s funding be made contingent on Pride guaranteeing in writing that QuAIA will not participate. However, he’s now lost a powerful ally; Bernie Farber, head of the Canadian Jewish Congress, says the matter is now closed. Now, if only all parties can keep from pulling the football away at the last moment, Lucy-like, the city can move on from this whole brouhaha.
• QuAIA to Mayor: Find another pretext for your Anti-Pride Agenda [QuAIA Toronto]
• Councillor demands Pride promise to ban Queers Against Israeli Apartheid [Toronto Star]
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/the-continuing-saga-of-toronto-pride-anti-israel-group-now-says-it-wont-march-in-parade/&title=The continuing saga of Toronto Pride: anti-Israel group now says it won’t march in parade&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/QUAIA-Marches.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_65612" align="alignright" width="320" caption="QuAIA members doing in 2008 what they won’t be doing in 2011 (Image: Neal Jennings) "][/caption]
As part of what it's calling a challenge to Rob Ford, the anti-Israeli gay group QuAIA says it won’t march in the parade at this year’s Pride festival. According to a statement by QuAIA, the group thinks it's got Ford right where it wants him:
QuAIA’s new plans will pose a challenge for Mayor Rob Ford, who announced that he would cut more than $100,000 in city tourism funding for Pride Toronto if QuAIA continued to march. “Rob Ford wants to use us as an excuse to cut Pride funding, even though he has always opposed funding the parade, long before we showed up,” says Elle Flanders of QuAIA. “By holding our Pride events outside of the parade, we are forcing him to make a choice: fund Pride or have your real homophobic, right-wing agenda exposed.”
QuAIA says it will still be participating in Pride, just far off the parade route. Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti is still not convinced—he plans to put forth a motion that the festival’s funding be made contingent on Pride guaranteeing in writing that QuAIA will not participate. However, he's now lost a powerful ally; Bernie Farber, head of the Canadian Jewish Congress, says the matter is now closed. Now, if only all parties can keep from pulling the football away at the last moment, Lucy-like, the city can move on from this whole brouhaha.
• QuAIA to Mayor: Find another pretext for your Anti-Pride Agenda [QuAIA Toronto]
• Councillor demands Pride promise to ban Queers Against Israeli Apartheid [Toronto Star]){kind=link}
This makes QuAIA look that much more petty, stupid and ignorant.
i wish these clowns would shut up and put their warped agenda away.
Funny that homosexuals live perfectly happy in Israel, but if they went to any of the Arab territories they’d be be-headed…. basically what I’m saying is they support Palestine, which doesn’t support gays…ironic, huh?
Warped agenda = pride
quote: “fund Pride or have your real homophobic, right-wing agenda exposed.”
OMG, that statement just proves that the Mayor is dealing with people that still have that junior high school mentality. “If you don’t let me, I’m going to tell.”
“Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti is still not convinced” – I agree with him.
Only an inexperienced person would buy their bull.
Don’t cave Mayor Ford. Let them learn the real world business ethics of contracts! A little education is a dangerous thing.
Miller, I blame his for all this.
Mammoliti, Ford’s former “Gino Boy”, needs to get some PR lessons because this issue has gotten so much attention for the group that it otherwise would never have had. And silly conservatives. When will they learn that trying so hard to ban something only gets people to pay more attention to it? And how rich for Mammoliti to advocate for this issue when he is proposing legalized brothels on the Island but not in his own Ward so his own constituents can’t toss him for it.
Missy = Queens Quay Karen (?)
@ Richard: You’ve obviously completely failed to understand what happened. Unless of course you’re invested in pride having its funding removed.
@Bob: The point is not how gays in Israel are treated. The point is that a continued policy of racial discrimination, occupation and displacement exists. Yes, that means gay activists aren’t only interested in gay issues.
@Missy: The only junior high school mentality present is the use of QuAIA as an excuse to defund pride. Ford’s feelings about the parade are well known. Look them up.
@ G – Missy is a well known Rob Ford Troll. She trolls around BlogTO too so it wouldn’t surprise me if she once held the name “Queens Quay Karen”