Jerusalem-based Haneen Maikey is the director of al-Qaws - a community-based and grassroots organization that works with LGBTQ Palestinians throughout Israel and the Palestinian occupied territories. Haneen spoke in Toronto on Tuesday, June 29th, at the QUAIA (Queers Against Israeli Apartheid) Pride in our Politics Cabaret.

Haneen Maikey: Proud, Palestinian, Queer from rabbletv on Vimeo.

On Tuesday, June 29, Naomi Klein made a surprise appearance at Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QUAIA)'s Pride in Our Politics Cabaret. Making the links between the police repression of protest over the G20 and the slanderous attacks that groups such as QUAIA have experienced, Klein explained: "There has been a very powerful attack on freedom of expression in this country. A McCarthyite campaign against people who fall outside of the Harper government's version of what we should be saying or doing."

The quality of this video is not great - but the audio is worth a listen.

 Pride Toronto made what many considered a highly divisive mistake last month, when they decided to censor the language of one participating group, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, or QuAIA.

Free-speech advocates created an uproar, and Pride Toronto was eventually forced to listen, and rescind the QuAIA ban. What have we learned from all of this?

Shawn Syms is this week's Not Rex commentator and weighs in on the controversy.

After extensive lobbying of Pride Toronto, corporate sponsors and city officials by Martin Gladstone and right-wing Jewish groups, Pride Toronto's Board decided, by a vote of 4 - 3, to disallow the use of the term "Israeli Apartheid" at the 2010 Pride festivities. At a press conference in Toronto on May 25, 2010, Pride Toronto's Executive Director and several Board members were met by 150 outraged protesters chanting "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Censorship has got to go!", "Politics are what makes pride, we won't run, we won't hide", "Whose pride? Our pride! Queers against Apartheid!", and "Resign!"

Xtra! Magazine produced this report:

About 100 gay and lesbian people gathered at the Dundonald St offices of Pride Toronto on May 25 to protest the organization's decision to censor the term "Israeli apartheid" from this year's Pride celebration.