news Anti-Muslim Hate Groups Plan to March in the Toronto Pride Parade

"We’re going there to cause some shit. The lefties are going to lose their shit."

Far-right groups have invited the Jewish Defence League to join them in marching in the Toronto Pride parade on Sunday, carrying Islamophobic signs and “severed heads,” according to a public video posted on Facebook.

The video, posted to the personal Facebook page of the leader of the JDL’s Toronto chapter, Meir HaLevi (also known as Marvin Weinstein), features Doc von Lichtenberg, the president of LGBTory, a group representing LGBTQ members of federal and provincial conservative parties. Doc von Lichtenberg invites the far-right JDL to march behind LGBTory.

Licthtenberg claims he was approached by members of the ICHR and asked, “‘How many JDL guys are going to join us on Sunday in the Gay Pride March?’ I go, ‘We’re going there to cause some shit. The lefties are going to lose their shit.’

“You don’t have to be gay to go to a gay Pride march. Especially this year. They kicked the cops out. Black Lives Matter are totally controlling the whole set-up…,” he says. “How many JDL guys are we gonna get with us on Sunday? We’ve got severed heads. We’ve got coffins.”

Since its 2015 inception, LGBTory has fielded criticism over their name, which many transgender activists suggest risks erasing transgender people (who form the “T” in LGBTQ).

In the video, Lichtenberg advises JDL supporters to avoid making obscene gestures towards their political opponents, citing issues of visibility and public perception. The JDL’s public image may have taken a hit following recent allegations of Islamophobic intimidation and violence at Nathan Philips Square here in Toronto. One Toronto member of the JDL was charged with a hate crime for attacking a Palestinian man in Washington D.C. earlier this year.

According to Lichtenberg, the JDL will be marching alongside representatives of an organization called the International Center for Human Rights, listed simply as “ICHR” as a registered group on the Pride Toronto website. Around the 24-minute mark, Lichtenberg claims that members of the ICHR requested the JDL’s presence in their Pride parade contingent.

At roughly the 25-minute mark, Lichtenberg continues to claim that members of the ICHR, who he describes as “mostly Iranian dissidents,” will be bringing severed heads, coffins, and signs to display at the parade protesting “Islamist terrorism.”

The Facebook event for the ICHR contingent at Pride currently has no attendees listed. Pride Toronto did not respond to requests for comment in time for this story. Updates to follow.