I have a saying: “If you are a fool, don’t advertise this fact.”

So what does the “advertising” of Queers Against Israel Apartheid (QuAIA) tell me?

Their advertising tells me at least three things. First, they are an extreme leftist group that is anti-West and anti- Jewish. I expect to see them joining their fellow thugs on the streets of Toronto during the G20 meeting in June.

When George Bush was president, they likely participated in the annual gay pride parade in Toronto under the banner attacking Bush and his advisers. With a non-white as president, I guess it would be bad form for them to continue attacking the U.S. with their venomous anti-West diatribes. Thus, they go after the surrogate and freely display their hatred towards the Jewish state, Jews, democracy and capitalism.

The second thing their advertising tells me is that they are arrogant, self-centered hypocrites. After fighting for many years for the rights of gay men and women in Canada, I would have thought that they truly were interested in supporting gay rights worldwide, as well as human rights and freedom in general. Obviously, I was mistaken.

They only seem to care about themselves, and have no interest in the billions of people who have no or limited rights in many parts of the world, none of these parts coincidentally being the Western countries. I do not recall ever seeing them protest against the truly and unfortunately too numerous evil despots in the world.  I suppose for them, greed, money, freedom and the West are more evil than brutality, rape, censorship and genocide. They can just as aptly call themselves “Queers Supporting the Taliban and Mugabe”.

The third thing I surmise is that they crave recognition and admiration. Being gay fortunately no longer stands out. Neither does flaunting one’s being gay. Thus, these particular gay men and women need some other outlet for the attention they seek and obviously need. They are missing something in their lives. Too bad they don’t spend their time doing something useful to fill the void.

Now what about the mainstream gay community in Toronto and the organizers of the annual gay pride festivities? They did manage to vote “overwhelmingly” (four votes to three) against allowing the QuAIA to participate in this year’s parade. What was the principle behind their decision? Surprise, surprise: it was greed and money! They were on the verge of losing substantial corporate financial support.

I doubt that the QuAIA actually will be blocked from joining the parade. Hence, if I were advising potential corporate sponsors, I would recommend that they make their financial contributions contingent on this group not being allowed into the parade.

I fully support freedom of speech, even when it is dogmatic and lacks any substance. The QuAIA have every right to espouse their ignorance and hatred. That’s one of the beauties of a free country. But companies too have the right to pick and choose the groups and the views that they want to support. Freedom of speech is a two-way street.

Furthermore, I do not believe that any level of government should provide any financial support (directly through grants or indirectly through tax write-offs for charities) to any group expressing a particular point of view. Politicians and governments are free to express their views, and they should do so. But they cannot pick and choose surrogates. This becomes an indirect form of censorship. So censor everyone by not giving them taxpayers’ money, and speak for yourselves and your parties.

The opinions expressed in this blog are personal and do not reflect the views of either Global Brief or the Glendon School of Public and International Affairs.