Good Bow & Scrape Ya Got Going There Ms. English

A post in which we link to the consequences of publicly criticizing or poking fun at the CJC, its officials, or its’ actions.

‘Gay’ blog post was just not fair

KATHY ENGLISH
PUBLIC EDITOR

Capturing about 900 hits daily on the Star’s website, Antonia Zerbisias’s Broadsides blog is seen by a fraction of the people who read her twice weekly column in this newspaper.

I’m aware then, that by drawing attention in this column to a controversial comment that emerged this week on Zerbisias’s blog, I am alerting a far larger audience to what I think is an unfortunate misstep on Zerbisias’s part and an embarrassment for the Star.

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Briefly: A discussion ensued on Zerbisias’s blog about the controversy over participation in this year’s Pride Week parade by the group Queers Against Israel Apartheid (QAIA). A blog commenter named Susan stated that the CJC did not attempt to stop QAIA from marching in the Pride parade and, in fact, had participated in the parade.

Indeed, Farber, though he had stated on CBC Radio that “politics” did not belong in the parade, did join the parade. He marched with Kulanu Toronto, which describes itself as a Jewish social group for the gay community.

Here’s what Zerbisias wrote: “Yes Susan, imagine my surprise when I saw Bernie Farber identifying himself as queer by joining a pro-Israel gay rights group in the parade. Funny, because I had never seen him in the march before.

“Funny because I didn’t know he was gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

Farber is not gay, as was made clear in several subsequent comments Zerbisias herself allowed to be posted on her blog. Those commenters praised the CJC head for being “gay positive.”

Zerbisias knows Farber is not gay. She says she intended the post to be “ironic” and she expected he would know that.

Understandably, Farber doesn’t accept that. Further, I think Zerbisias’s ambiguous words forced him into the awkward position of having to make clear that he is not gay, while also affirming that “I take no offence at being misidentified as gay.

I think that Farber knew exactly what AZ was doing, you don’t get to positions like his by being stupid, and chose not to accept it in favour of another tactic – trying to shut her up.

…. and rather than support one of their writers the Public Editor of the Toronto Star chose to publicly chastise a writer for what was obviously a tongue in cheek comment, and by doing so send a message to others within the organization that some lobby groups and some people are off limits as far as the Star is concerned.

Is it any wonder that people are leaving the dead tree media in droves and looking to the new media for information, where, unless it’s an MSM of course, the topics are not so driven by political correctness, big business, and powerful lobby groups.