TORONTO — To Paul Druzin, a former Israel Defence Forces soldier and a current member of Toronto’s gay community, Toronto’s Pride Parade is about more than just rainbow flags and drag queens.
Josephine Livak, 5, and her mother, Ann Komaromi, marched with Kulanu at the Pride Parade. [Rita Poliakov photo]
“It’s about gay rights. Or it used to be,” said Druzin a few hours before walking with Kulanu Toronto, Toronto’s Jewish lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group, in the city’s Pride Parade on Sunday.
Pride’s vision has changed since its decision to allow the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) to participate in the parade, Druzin said.
“As a gay person, I’m very offended that there’s a hate group at Pride,” he said, adding that, while legitimate criticism of a government shouldn’t be censored, the phrase “Israeli apartheid” should.
This phrase, which is regarded as discriminatory by members of the Jewish community, was originally banned from the parade by Pride Toronto, which later reversed the ban.
“Pride did a flip-flop,” said Martin Gladstone, a gay activist and lawyer who spearheaded the campaign to ban QuAIA. “But the facts didn’t change. It’s still a violation of the city’s rules of discrimination.”
While the city does have a non-discrimination policy, it cannot enforce this policy unless it’s been violated by city workers or by a city-run event. The city has said that Pride must determine whether or not the phrase “Israeli apartheid” is discriminatory and that anyone with complaints about a non-city service must address the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.
Giorgio Mammoliti, a city councillor who was expected to drop out of the mayoral race on Monday, tabled a motion in May asking that Pride have its more than $121,000 city funding pulled if it allowed QuAIA to participate.
The councillor said he would be tabling a similar motion again after Pride. This motion would ask for Pride’s funding this year to go back to taxpayers and that the city discontinue its funding of Pride next year. Rob Ford, a city councillor and mayoral candidate, said he would support this motion.
Gladstone said the phrase “Israeli apartheid” doesn’t belong at Pride.
“Pride is supposed to be a place of inclusion and tolerance. [QuAIA] has created a divisive, hateful environment,” he said. “[Pride turned] from a celebration to a battleground.”
Elle Flanders, a spokesperson for QuAIA, said on Sunday that the organization is not a hate group and is criticizing Israel’s policies, not its right to exist.
Flanders, who is Jewish and has lived in Israel, said Pride’s purpose hasn’t changed.
“Pride is what it’s always been about, which is achieving equality,” she said, adding that the group is trying to create a dialogue in the Jewish community about Israeli policy.
“Equal rights is about having a voice,” she said. “I think debate is healthy… The core of American democracy is free speech. It shocks me when it’s free speech for me but not for you.”
Bob Rae, member of parliament for Toronto Centre who walked with both Kulanu and the Liberal Party at the parade, sees the term “Israeli apartheid” as discriminatory.
“I don’t think it’s an appropriate term. It’s not something I support,” he said, adding that that no country in the Middle East has been more supportive of human rights and gay rights than Israel.
About 500 marchers chanted and sang their way through the Church Wellesley Village with Kulanu on Sunday. Some covered themselves in rainbow flags, some in Israeli ones, some held signs, some clung to banners and others just marched.
Participants included mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi, as well as members of Hillel and the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.
The number of people who walked with Kulanu grew from around 125 last year, said Justine Apple, Kulanu Toronto’s executive director. This year, about 500 people made up the Kulanu contingent.
“[The Jewish community] noticed there was a real need for action in the Jewish and Jewish LGBT community, considering there was an anti-Israel group present in the parade,” she said. “By way of numbers, [we] showed everyone that we are very determined to support the State of Israel.”
For Cáit R. Power, a first-year master’s student in political science at McGill University, Pride’s message is similar to the message she gets from the Jewish community.
“I think Pride represents inclusiveness and that’s how I see my Judaism,” Power, 27, who identifies as queer, said. “I think Pride says we can be more than one thing, and us Jews, we’re always more than one thing.”