May 29, 2009

Pride comes before a fool

Well this is a turn up. Well a turnabout rather than a turn up. See a piece of the article from the Toronto Post in my earlier post:
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA), an anti-Zionist protest group that made corporate sponsors squirm by flying banners at last year’s Toronto Pride parade, has been banned this year, along with any other group that would advance a political agenda.

“We will be very much more careful this year. We will make sure that we have a presence to ensure that people don’t slip into the parade,” Pride Toronto executive director Tracey Sandilands said today.

Well shame on pride, I said. But what's this? Tadhg, in the comments said that the Post article was flatly contradicted in the Star:
Pride's executive director Tracey Sandilands assured me, insisting that, contrary to the report in the Post, "Where we stand at this point in time is, we are not taking a side. We are not going to ban anybody from the parade."
Now I wasn't sure about this. The articles flatly contradict each other. But now the Post has run an update. Got that? An update, not a clarification, correction, retraction or a woops-we-got-it-wrong. An update, which they link to in the original article:
Pride Toronto will permit groups to march in next month's parade with banners reading "End Israeli Apartheid," as long as they are officially registered.
It's still a funny old diversity event that insists on registration of participants. I wonder what happens if you register but don't turn up. Will they ask for people's measurements so they'll know how big a space to leave?

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