You get the strongest sense from Toronto Star writer Desmond Cole that if you are white, you are wrong. And the Toronto Star editors allow this form of discrimination? It might surprise Mr. Cole to find that there are people who do not approve of discrimination in any form.
And we are also very concerned about how he talks about the Toronto police. We do not assume they are bigots or racist. Our police are people from our community, serving our community. They carry guns to protect us. If they use those guns anywhere but on the firing range, they have a lot of questions to answer. To assume that they are collectively racist is a form of bigotry we do not need in our society.
Nor do we need to have all of our politicians referred to as “straight, white, cisgender, male. Since when? And where does this guy get off calling anybody “queer”? The only strange people are the ones cheering at the current fiasco between the Gay Pride organization and the police chief. Integrating the police into the parade was the best thing that could have happened.
Gay Pride works when it is about inclusion. When you let malcontents and trouble-makers dictate who can be in the parade you are destroying the good that it can do.
Cole seems to be a spokesperson for that group that calls itself Black Lives Matter. The Black Lives Matters movement originated in the United States as a reaction to serious incidents where American blacks were killed by militarized police in different parts of that country. That is not the case in Canada and the Toronto malcontents behind that movement here are an embarrassment to our black community.
Those ignorant people who blocked the Gay Pride parade last year did not speak for anybody but themselves. They should have been arrested for obstructing a legally conducted parade. No rational person considered their demands to be warranted or logical. They were invited as guests to take part in a parade in honour of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community. This parade makes a strong statement for our rainbow coalition and Canada’s diversity and nobody gives a damn whether you are black or white. These people need to learn how to behave as responsible guests.
Maybe Mr. Cole wants to stir the pot a bit but there is no excuse for the Toronto Star assisting him.
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Copyright 2017 © Peter Lowry
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