James Pasternak
James Pasternak is a Canadian politician, who was elected to Toronto City Council in the 2010 city council election to succeed Mike Feldman in Ward 10. He was previously a Toronto District School Board Trustee.
Pasternak is a graduate of York University he also has degrees from the University of Western Ontario and the London School of Economics and Political Science.
"Israel apartheid" debate
Councillor Pasternak has played a prominent role in the debate around whether Toronto Pride should ban the Queers Against Israeli Apartheid group participating in the annual Toronto Pride celebrations. Specifically, Pasternak introduced a motion that directed City Manager Joe Pennachetti to update Toronto’s anti-discrimination policy and to determine whether including QAIA in Pride events violated the anti-discrimination policy. James said "My intent is to block the funding on June 6 and wait until after the parade to make sure they didn’t march. We believe that QuAIA is not there to support the Palestinian people; it’s there to bully and demonize Israel, its supporters and the Jewish community." The following year, in 2013, James Pasternak continued to lead the effort to de-fund Toronto Pride over the use of the term Israel apartheid by its participating members.Pasternak has been prominent in opposing the staging of annual Al-Quds Day demonstrations on city property, in particular the north lawn of Queen's Park which is a city park, after the event was evicted from the provincially owned south lawn.
Election results
| 2014 Toronto election, Ward 10 | - | - |
| Candidate | Votes | % |
| James Pasternak | 11,183 | 57.78% |
| Igor Toutchinski | 3,112 | 16.08% |
| Epstein David | 2,126 | 10.99% |
| Mitchell Michael | 1,096 | 5.66% |
| Bucao Randy | 1,040 | 5.37% |
| Masucci Liberato | 796 | 4.11% |
| Total | 19,353 | 100% |
| 2010 Toronto election, Ward 10 | - | - |
| Candidate | Votes | % |
| James Pasternak | 3,159 | 19.15% |
| Nancy Oomen | 2,777 | 16.83% |
| Brian Shifman | 2,632 | 15.96% |
| Igor Toutchinski | 2,605 | 15.79% |
| Konstantin Toubis | 1,887 | 11.44% |
| Magda Gondor Berkovits | 935 | 5.67% |
| Jarred Friedman | 850 | 5.15% |
| Joseph Cohen | 535 | 3.24% |
| Eric Plant | 355 | 2.15% |
| Edward Zaretsky | 326 | 1.97% |
| Robert Freedland | 244 | 1.48% |
| Drago Banovic | 186 | 1.12% |
| Total | 16,491 | 100% |
| 2006 Toronto District School Board election, Ward 5 | - | - |
| Candidate | Votes | % |
| James Pasternak | 6,210 | 62.27% |
| Mitchell Worsoff | 1,940 | 19.45% |
| Donna Khaner | 1,077 | 10.80% |
| Frank Bonavota | 745 | 7.48% |
| Total | 9,972 | 100% |