Over the past few years, queer Jewish and Israeli people in Winnipeg had noticed the atmosphere around the big movers and shakers (so to speak) in the local Pride community had veered in a distinctly unwelcoming direction. Any hint of subtlety about it was removed during the Pride weekend last month.
For organizations who preach about safe spaces and inclusion, if you read between the lines, it’s safe spaces and inclusion for everyone, except for the Jews.
When a small ultra-leftist cadre halted the parade route, one of their top demands was that Pride had to exclude all Zionists and label the Jewish state as an apartheid regime. Pride Winnipeg agreed to bend the knee so the parade could continue, essentially agreeing the festival hadn’t yet been sufficiently antisemitic.
The experiences of two readers say that the line was already crossed the night before the parade.
A Saturday night gala was produced by the Rainbow Resource Centre. It was announced at the beginning that if attendees wanted to tip the performers, the money was going to a Palestinian fund. Since Jewish performers were excluded from the playbill, I guess no one was going to complain.
Then, at the midnight show, a drag performer hauled open a 40-foot banner proclaiming ”No Pride in Genocide”, a stark distortion of Israel’s military campaign to root out Hamas terrorists from Gaza.
The Palestinian flag was paraded on stage, “revolution” against Israel was touted, and as reader Number 1 explained, “Then it was up on the projection screens, the crowd cheering him on like a Hitler rally.”
A child of Holocaust survivors, it was an unprecedented incident. “To be a Jewish person in that room and hearing everyone cheering and chanting, it wasn’t very safe for some of us.”
Reader Number 2 was also at the gala, and described how the Metropolitan Entertainment Centre was sold out, and there was only a single exit.
“It was hard for anyone if they felt uncomfortable to leave the space. The entire theme of the festival might as well have been about Palestine. It was everywhere.“
An RRC rep actually admitted in response to a complaint about the performance that, “In terms of event design, the use of video and screens, and the space itself, we didn’t make it possible to exit the space, find personal safety, and then comfortably return to the event.”
The rhetoric on stage was pure Jew-hatred, reader Number 2 felt.
“Never once was it specified Israeli government, it was “Israel” or “Israeli,” a demonization of an entire population regarded as supporting Netanyahu and “genocide.”
Yet, the Rainbow Resource Centre doesn’t think any of it was antisemitic.
“I have confirmed that the messages at the event relating to Gaza were entirely within the artistic performance and content of drag performers… nothing I witnessed on Saturday was racist or antisemitic,” said executive director Noreen Mian, while offering “my sincere apologies for the lack of safety and belonging you experienced at Saturday Night Pride.”
Challenged if anyone was consulted from the Jewish or Israeli-Canadian communities, as it seems non-Jews at RRC were defining what is or isn’t considered antisemitic, a cone of silence descended.
A meeting was held last week of the Jewish and Israeli attendees at the gala who “were terrified” by the Jew-hate they saw. It seemed to meet the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, adopted by the Manitoba Legislature. The RRC could care less.
The Saturday fiasco was just the beginning.
The next day, when the parade hijackers handed out leaflets, a mother and nine-year-old boy were specifically handed the propaganda because “you look Jewish.”
The child asked why they hate Jews so much and the protester started chanting “There’s no Pride in Genocide” at a nine-year-old.
Participants with a Jewish-owned float were wearing Stars of David. They were screamed at, with demands they be removed from the parade.
Reader Number 2 said, “Pride Winnipeg employees saw and heard the commotion, shook their heads and just walked away even as we tried to flag them over.”
Event organizers had also conceded to allow regular Main Stage announcements of the cadre’s Marxist-playbook demands, and there was a steady stream of vile accusations that Israel is a “colonizer” and an “apartheid white supremacist” endeavour, despite over half the population of Israel being non-white.
“Lots of talk about Zionists, capitalism, equating police brutality with Israeli training,” noted reader Number 2. “There was no mention of peace. Or hostages.”
When Pride Winnipeg got a complaint from a Jewish queer non-profit group, it was told by Jenn Rands (VP-Advocacy) that any further discussion would be with the Jewish establishment leaders, not with Winnipeg’s Jewish queer community or the actual victims of the harassment.
“It’s entirely unacceptable that you are refusing to include our organization in these conversations,” the group responded.
Shame on both groups that champion “diversity and inclusion.”
So what if a nine-year-old was called a genocider? If people wearing a Star of David are bellowed at? If Jews are trapped in a ballroom that sounds like a Hitler rally?
Pride is for everyone except the Jews now. Not a single politician who marched in the parade has mentioned the in-your-face antisemitism. It’s Winnipeg’s dirty little secret.
Marty Gold is a Winnipeg journalist. You can find more of his work at The Great Canadian Talk Show. The original article was published by the Winnipeg Sun.