Earlier this month, the Toronto Star reported that Metrolinx, the provincial agency responsible for regional transit in the GTHA, has been providing various police agencies with user’s data, at times without warrant and without notifying the user of the disclosure. The amount of data that Presto users were being compelled to give up had been raised as an issue before, by the Sun‘s Jenny Yuen, but it was not clear that police were being given access to this data, much less without the user knowing.
Anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric has been on the rise everywhere. For Pride Month, Torontoist interviewed three gay Iranian-Canadian men about their lives, their communities, and their experiences as refugees and immigrants.
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Arsham Parsi, director of the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees.
Arsham
Arsham Parsi is a 35-year-old gay Iranian-Canadian man who works at a legal clinic in Toronto. However, he considers being the director of the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees his true profession. His LGBT advocacy started back in his home country in 2001. Realizing that there were few outlets for people like him, Parsi created a queer online space that he referred to as Rainbow. The concept of Rainbow was simple: using Skype, Yahoo messenger, Gmail, and a chat server accessible in the Middle East called Pal Talk, Parsi created a contact list filled with Iranians who identified as LGBT. The contact list was then shared amongst members so that they could connect to each other.
The risk was great, and the potential consequences for co-ordinating this contact list were severe.To be outed as queer in Iran in 2001 would typically result in receiving 100 lashes. To be co-ordinating an LGBT group could result in the punishment of 200 lashes. This form of punishment continues today. Keep reading: Fleeing Violence, Gay Iranian Refugees Find Safety in Toronto
Jewish anti-occupation group If Not Now leading the Jewish Resistance march in Philadelphia; a Toronto chapter of If Not Now is beginning to form.
Some members of the Jewish community in Toronto are pushing back against conservatism through panels, presentations, protests, and parties.
For many in the community, it’s a welcome change. Since the demise of the Canadian Jewish Congress made way for organizations like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs or the Canadian Jewish Political Action Committee, Jewish grassroots groups have been all but erased from the mainstream in favour of bureaucratic not-for-profit federations and lobby groups that need to play nice with conservative donors.
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