Levy urges Jewish leaders to press city to defund Pride Toronto

Xtra obtained today an email from Toronto Sun columnist Sue-Ann Levy addressed to several leaders in the Jewish Community encouraging them to lobby Toronto city councillors to defund Pride Toronto. Read the text below. Read more on the Pride Toronto city funding story in On a razor’s edge. —–Original Message—– From: Sue-Ann Levy Sent: Tue 29/03/2011 3:21 PM To: abenlolo@fswc.ca; LRudner@on.cjc.ca; Farber@on.cjc.ca Cc: martin@gladstonelaw.ca Subject: City funding of Pride Good afternoon Gentlemen: I had an interesting discussion this morning with Earl Provost, Director of Stakeholder Relations in Mayor Rob Ford’s office. He is very concerned that unless the Toronto Jewish community gets on board and starts sending mass e-mails to ALL 44 councillors, the vote to defund Pride this year because of QuAIA’s involvement will fail. He told me that while the mayor is very supportive of keeping QuAIA and hate speech out of the parade, he is ONLY ONE VOTE on council. There’s no doubt in my mind that the supporters of QuAIA — including Xtra and QuAIA’s new friend Rev. Brent Hawkes– are working behind the scenes to ensure there’s enough votes to overturn the motion. This is the time for the Jewish community to speak loudly and clearly. If we sit on our hands with a mayor in power who supports us, we will pay the price of missing an opportunity to put an end to hate speech. Make no mistake. The Rev. Brent Hawkes tour of Jewish media and basically whomever will listen to him is only about one thing: Saving face, keeping bums in the seats of his church and promoting the image of himself, Rev. Hawkes, as the self-appointed leader of Toronto’s gay community. Rev. Hawkes does not speak for me. He does not speak for Martin or for any of our Jewish gay friends. I highly doubt he speaks for most of the gay community, many of whom have written to me saying that he and his panel should have banned QuAIA outright. He speaks for a fringe group only. Despite all of his talk about there being a process in place to ensure hate speech is not in the parade, you have to ask yourself one thing. Will QuAIA march this year? The answer is an unequivocal yes. Please take Earl’s concerns to heart and I urge you to get the e-mails going. Cheers, Sue-Ann Sue-Ann Levy City Hall Columnist Toronto Sun 416-947-2393 ——Original Message—— From: Mark Harris To: Councillor Augimeri To: Councillor Bailão To: Councillor Berardinetti To: Councillor Carroll To: Councillor Cho To: Councillor Colle To: Councillor Crawford To: Councillor Crisanti To: Councillor De Baeremaeker To: Councillor Del Grande To: Councillor Dford To: Councillor Di Giorgio To: Councillor Doucette To: Councillor Filion To: Councillor Fletcher To: Councillor Fragedakis To: Councillor Grimes To: Councillor Holyday To: Councillor Kelly To: Councillor Layton To: Councillor Lee To: Councillor Lindsay Luby To: Councillor Mammoliti To: Councillor Matlow To: Councillor McConnell To: Councillor McMahon To: Councillor Mihevc To: Councillor Milczyn To: Councillor Moeser To: Councillor Nunziata To: Councillor Palacio To: Councillor Parker Subject: Fwd: City funding of Pride – A Blood Libel Sent: Mar 30, 2011 3:13 PM As I resonable, thinking proud Canadian, I fully agree with Mr. Bauskin… how is this even an issue? Have you lost your minds? Mark Harris ———- Forwarded message ———- From: Harry Bauskin bauskin@rogers.combauskin@rogers.com mailto:bauskin@rogers.com bauskin@rogers.com Date: Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 2:37 PM Subject: City funding of Pride – A Blood Libel To: Mayor Ford Mayor_Ford@toronto.ca Cc: councillor_wongtam@toronto.ca; councillor_vaughan@toronto.ca; councillor_thompson@toronto.ca; councillor_stintz@toronto.ca; councillor_shiner@toronto.ca; councillor_robinson@toronto.ca; councillor_perruzza@toronto.ca; councillor_perks@toronto.ca; councillor_pasternak@toronto.ca; councillor_parker@toronto.ca; councillor_palacio@toronto.ca; councillor_nunziata@toronto.ca; councillor_moeser@toronto.ca; councillor_milczyn@toronto.ca; councillor_mihevc@toronto.ca; councillor_mcmahon@toronto.ca; councillor_mcconnell@toronto.ca, councillor_matlow@toronto.ca, councillor_mammoliti@toronto.ca , a councillor_lindsay_luby@toronto.ca , councillor_lee@toronto.ca councillor_layton@toronto.ca , councillor_kelly@toronto.ca , councillor_holyday@toronto.ca ,councillor_grimes@toronto.ca , councillor_fragedakis@toronto.ca , councillor_dford@toronto.ca , councillor_fletcher@toronto.ca , councillor_doucette@toronto.ca , councillor_digiorgio@toronto.ca c, councillor_delgrande@toronto.ca , councillor_debaeremaeker@toronto.ca , councillor_davis@toronto.ca ,councillor_crisanti@toronto.ca , councillor_crawford@toronto.ca councillor_crawford@toronto.ca mailto: councillor_crawford@toronto.ca , councillor_colle@toronto.ca , councillor_cho@toronto.ca , councillor_carroll@toronto.ca , councillor_berardinetti@toronto.ca , councillor_bailao@toronto.ca c , councillor_augimeri@toronto.ca , councillor_filion@toronto.ca Ladies and Gentleman, In case there are any doubts, I will repeat that what we have here is a blatant blood libel against the Jewish People. There is no difference between claiming that Israel is an Apartheid State and the statement “Jews kill babies to use their blood for the baking of matzos (unleavened bread). What is even more shocking is the position taken by TD bank that “we are caught between a rock and and a hard place, and this situation needs to be handled delicately.” They then go on to quote The Rev Hawkes recommendation::”Pride will establish a clear new rule barring messages promoting “hatred, violence, degradation and negative stereotypes” -a rule based word for word on the City of Toronto’s own Anti-Discrimination Policy.” Further his committee recommends:”these rules will have teeth. As of this year, anyone who believes that someone has promoted or will promote hatred in the parade will be able to complain to an experienced adjudicator, who will have the power to ban offending groups and individuals from the parade.” Well, So far….nada..nothing! Imagine if a Jewish/Israeli group marched in the parade, protesting Muslim attitudes to Gays and carrying Nazi swastikas alongside a symbol of Islam. They would be banned in less than a blink of an eyelid (at luckiest). No Committees, no political correctness, no hypocrisy and no discussion. This situation with Qaia is the perfect example of raw ant-semitism, and it is taking place for all to see. We call on all decent people, to stand up for truth against lies, for love against hatred. Please write your councillor. You can find his/her email at http://app.toronto.ca/im/council/councillors.jsp http://app.toronto.ca/im/council/councillors.jsp NEVER AGAIN! Regards Harry Bauskin The Inconvenient Truth FYI. Sue-Ann Levy City Hall Columnist Toronto Sun