Jonathan Kay reports on the anti-Israeli event at U of T:
In general, McCaskell comes across as articulate and humane — even if his politics are quite radical. His motivations, I believe, mirror those of a lot of older anti-Israel activists trying to recreate the sense of tilting against evil windmills that lent energy and meaning to their younger years.
His experience as an anti-South-African-Apartheid campaigner, in particular, seems to have seeped deeply into his political DNA. (In fact, he lapsed into mini-speeches about South Africa at several points during the eventing). The campaign against Israel allows him to recycle the same slogans and sense of moral righteousness.
Perhaps more interesting than the speakers themselves was the crowd — which was disproportionately female, almost entirely white, and (by my casual observation of whose arm was wrapped around whom) heavily populated by lesbians.
This was not entirely surprising to me: Anti-Israeli activism has attained a sort of cult following among Toronto gay activists, who otherwise would be twiddling their activists thumbs in a country where gay marriage is legal and uncontroversial.
