Male Visceral Fat Leading to Cardiac Conditions

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"Males tend to suffer from obesity at a younger age than females due to the protective effect of  estrogen on the female metabolism. Males generally tend to be more obese and tend to have more visceral obesity, which is sometimes described as 'beer belly'."

"The effect of obesity on the heart has been studied previously also in population-based studies."

"Most studies predominately classified obesity according to BMI [body mass index] and they found that a high BMI is associated with cardiac dilatation."

"Fewer studies investigated 'visceral' obesity according to WHR [waist-to-hip ratio], and some did not find a different effect of visceral obesity compared to general obesity."

"Moreover, many studies used echocardiography [ultrasound test that checks the heart's structure and function] to investigate how obesity impacts the heart's anatomy, which is broadly available but does not allow for further tissue characterization."

Dr. Jennifer Erley, radiology resident, University Medical Center, Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany

 

Men with higher waist-to-hip ratios showed early signs of heart damage even when their overall weight wasn’t very high. (iStock)

New  research now points to belly fat as being particularly problematic in the potential danger it poses to the male cardiac system. Abdominal obesity -- recognized as an unhealthy hip-to-waist ratio -- has been found to be associated with worrying patterns of 'cardiac remodelling' overturning the  assumption that overall weight alone is the culprit. This was discovered by researchers studying advanced cardiovascular MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] scans of 2,244  adults between the ages of 46 to 78 with no known heart disease.

 

According to the authors of the paper published in research presented at the annual meeting held in Chicago of the Radiological Society of North America, these findings "highlight the need for personalized risk assessment in obesity-related cardiovascular disease". An estimated 3 billion people worldwide are overweight or obese. This is an epidemic that significantly contributes to many other chronic health conditions such as high cholesterol levels, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and sleep disorders, and places them at  higher risk of coronary artery disease and death from cardiovascular issues.

 

According to Statistics Canada, Canadians are experiencing "high and growing levels" of fat stored around the waist and stomach. Nearly half (49 percent) of adults in Canada aged 18 to 29 had a waist circumference greater than the threshold for abdominal obesity. In other words, higher than 102 centimetres for males and 88 cm for females.  

 

(The Image Bank, Getty Images)

"Similar to previous studies we found a high BMI is associated with bigger heart chambers, indicated by increased cardiac volumes [the amount of blood the heart holds and pumps] and an accompanying hypertrophy [thickening of the heart muscle]."

"Abdominal or visceral obesity, on the other  hand, was associated with a proportionally greater hypertrophy but smaller heart chambers."

"This form of remodelling where the heart muscle thickens but does not enlarge, is called 'concentric remodelling' and we know from previous studies that this form of remodelling is prone to lead to heart failure."

Dr. Jennifer Erley 

 

Up to three hours collectively of weekly physical activity is deemed to be sufficient to enable abdominal fat reduction. Physical exercise connected with dietary changes in some instances help to reduce abdominal obesity, even without achieving overall weight loss. Lifestyle changes leading to weight loss helps to improve blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels; factors referred to as metabolic syndrome. Inflammation is reduced, blood vessel function is improved and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is eased.

Obesity may account for a fifth of all cases of atrial fibrillation -- quivering or irregular heartbeat. Each of the research subjects were measured for the size, thickness and volume of the heart's chambers through high-resolution MRI scans. Detailed health information, including weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking status, and any history of diabetes was collected for all participants. The research conclusions led to clarification of the conundrum that some people with normal or moderately elevated BMI develop heart disease and others whose weight is considerably greater may not 

"The male heart is exposed to the effects of obesity longer than the female heart."

"The sex-specific differences suggest that male patients may be more vulnerable to the structural effects of obesity on the heart, a finding not widely reported in earlier studies."

"Rather than focusing on reducing overall weight, middle-aged adults should focus on preventing abdominal fat accumulation through regular exercise, a balanced diet and timely medical intervention, if necessary." 

"Nowadays, we have a broad variety of therapeutic strategies to tackle visceral obesity and it's important to address obesity as a 'pathology', just like arterial hypertension and diabetes."

"Patients and clinicians should  take obesity [particularly the accumulation of abdominal fat] just as seriously as those other pathologies."

Dr. Jennifer Erley

 

Cardiac MRI scans revealed thicker heart walls and smaller chamber volume in people with excess belly fat. (iStock)

 

A Potential Solution to Offset Dementia Onset

Pascal Geldsetzer

"All these associational studies suffer from the basic problem that people who go get vaccinated have different health behaviors than those who don’t."

"In general, they’re seen as not being solid enough evidence to make any recommendations on."

"Because of the unique way in which the vaccine was rolled out, bias in the analysis is much less likely than would usually be the case."

"What makes the study so powerful is that it’s essentially like a randomized trial with a control group — those a little bit too old to be eligible for the vaccine — and an intervention group — those just young enough to be eligible."

"It was a really striking finding. This huge protective signal was there, any which way you looked at the data."

"The most exciting part is that this really suggests the shingles vaccine doesn’t have only preventive, delaying benefits for dementia, but also therapeutic potential for those who already have dementia."  

Pascal Geldsetzer, senior study author, assistant professor, Division of Primary Care and Population Health, Stanford University

(Image Credit: PeopleImages/Shutterstock) 

 

"These findings are promising because they suggest that something can be done."

"Obviously the vaccine was not designed or optimized to prevent dementia, so this is sort of an incidental finding."

"In some ways, we are being lucky."

Alberto Ascherio, professor of epidemiology and nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health 

Researchers earlier this year reported that the risk of developing dementia can be cut by 20 percent over a seven-year period through vaccination with the shingles vaccine. Shingles vaccination was found by a large follow-up study to protect against risks at various stages of dementia, including for those people already diagnosed with the disease. Published in the journal Cell on Tuesday, the research found that  cognitively healthy people who were vaccinated were less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment, an early symptomatic preceding dementia onset.

 

The study suggest that the shingles vaccine which consists of two doses -- recommended for adults age 40 and older or for individuals 19 and older with a weakened immune system -- may help those who already have been affected with dementia. Over a nine-year period, those who received the vaccine were some 30 percent less likely to die of dementia. Which suggests that the vaccine may slow the neurodegenerative syndrome's progression. 

 

Anupa Jena, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, and a physician practising at Massachusetts General Hospital who reviewed the paper, remarked that "It appears to be protective along the spectrum or the trajectory of the disease".  Researchers are reacting with cautious optimism and excitement over these results.

 

Maxime Taquet, an associate professor at Oxford University who has conducted research into shingles vaccination and dementia risk, lauded the research, explaining that "If the findings are confirmed, then this would be groundbreaking for dementia. I think there's no other word for it", he went on. 

 

The scientists who conducted the research took advantage of an age cutoff in how Wales rolled out its shingles vaccination program in 2013 to measure dementia impact, in view of the fact that randomized controlled trials -- the gold standard in medical research -- are often unfeasible in the real world. The conclusion that a common vaccine may succeed in protecting the brain represents a bonanza finding. 

 

When Wales introduced the shingles vaccine for older adults in 2013, while those 79 years of age were eligible to receive the vaccine, those who had turned 80 were deemed ineligible. "Just a one-week difference across this date-of-birth cut-off means that you go from essentially no one getting vaccinated to about half of the population getting vaccinated," explained Professor Geldsetzer.

 

The Wales nationwide electronic health records meant that the researchers were able to study the entire population of Wales born between September 1925 and September 1942, to determine how dementia risk was affected by vaccine status. The researchers' focused analysis on those closest to either side of the eligibility for the shingles vaccine to ensure the study group was as close to the same age as possible.

 

"We know that if you take a thousand people at random born in one week and a thousand people at random, born a week later, there shouldn’t be anything different about them on average. They are similar to each other apart from this tiny difference in age. What makes the study so powerful is that it’s essentially like a randomized trial with a control group — those a little bit too old to be eligible for the vaccine — and an intervention group — those just young enough to be eligible", Professor Geldsetzer said.

 

 

A new study out of Wales has found those who received the shingles vaccine were 20 per cent less likely to develop dementia over the next seven years than those who did not receive the vaccine. (Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

 

"If the shingles vaccine really prevents or delays dementia, then this would be a hugely important finding for clinical medicine, population health, and research into the causes of dementia."  

"There is a growing body of research showing that viruses that preferentially target your nervous system and hibernate in your nervous system for much of your life may be implicated in the development of dementia."

"It suggests that from a clinical public health perspective, we should be providing this potentially at early stages, maybe on a regular basis."

Professor Pascal Geldsetzer 

 

 

"Harm Reduction" In Ontario

"You've basically got a doctor anywhere in the province telling a pharmacy somewhere else in the province to go ahead, give this person [hydromorphone] tablets."

"It's not medicine. It's just wrong."

"[There is] no  way [that patients receive adequate care under this] predatory [form of telemedicine]."

Dr. Lori Regenstreif, addiction physician, Hamilton, Ontario

 

"Many [clinics] operate virtually, with physicians seeing patients every one to two minutes from within a pharmacy setting ... Pharmacies benefit financially through high dispensing and witnessing fees, while physicians incur virtually no overhead costs."

"Urine drug testing is often performed on-site with kits supplied by the pharmacy, further blurring the lines of accountability."

"There appears to be no consistent intake process, documentation standards, or clinical guidelines governing these practices."

Dr. Janel Gracey, addiction physician, Ontario

 

"It's laziness on behalf of the physician, and it's for financial reasons."

"You can see a lot of patients by video link and get a video premium for conducting that service."

"[The practice is] dangerous to society."

Dr. Martyn Judson, addiction doctor, Ontario 

The term 'safe supply' has been used colloquially by advocates and politicians to refer to the practice of providing people with opioid use disorder alternative drugs that are safer than the street supply. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

Dr. Judson, as it happens, pioneered Ontario's use of methadone in the 1990s, reasoning that it would inevitably lead to weaning drug addicts away from their harsh addictions. It is the rationale behind most provinces in Canada establishing 'safe supply' prescribing free recreational drugs to addicts with minimal supervision, assuming that riskier street substances would no longer be attractive to those addicted to hard drugs of the opioid family when less harmful drugs were supplied to them free of charge. 

 

This was a 'do-good', 'feel-good' initiative that gained traction as a result of rising overdose deaths throughout the country, when deadly fentanyl began to make an impact, often used by drug dealers as fillers with other drugs. British Columbia, where overdose deaths skyrocketed made liberal use of safe injection sites, believing that handing out drugs without supervision would lower the risk of street drug use, mostly fentanyl. Until reports began circulating that the free drugs were showing up on the street, where those receiving them sold them to finance the more harmful drugs the initiative meant to keep them from. 

People take part in a rally in support of the Drug User Liberation Front after the arrest of two workers in Vancouver on Nov. 3, 2023. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

The federal government had given its approval to the British Columbia experiment of legalizing all drugs meant for personal use under the safer supply pilot, and then withdrew from and defunded the project when evidence began to accumulate of the pilot's failure. Just as the government of British Columbia itself stepped back from the kind of 'harm reduction' that was fuelling greater drug use, even to impacting a younger demographic for whom the rejected drugs became an introductory course on drug use, at a more affordable street price than harder opioids.

 

Now, in British Columbia, safer supply doses must be consumed under medical supervision, minimizing diversion. In Alberta, safer supply prescribing is functionally banned. Yet in Ontario little attention is given to the money-making 'electronic pill mills' where some medical practitioners set themselves up as one-stop pill-prescribing agents in an easy approach to over-prescribing drugs to the addicted, in concert with certain pharmacies in coordinated protocols financially beneficial to prescriber and supplier, but deadly to their consumers.

 

Nauman Shaikh, a pharmacist and owner of the downtown Medpoint Care Pharmacy, says he's seen positive changes in patients who are prescribed opioids they would otherwise have to buy on the street. (Kate Dubinski/CBC)

 

Video booth set-ups at pharmacies operate like confessionals; confess and forgiven. Safer supply in Ontario is being co-opted by tele-prescriptions. Drug users simply enter the premises at will to receive massive opioid prescriptions following several minutes of remote consultation; essentially rubber-stamping requests for drug supply, courtesy of the taxpayer. The user, on having their prescription filled at the pharmacy then is free to sell their drugs on the street for the formulaic transaction of resale funding a more desired drug acquired on the street.

 

These taxpayer-funded billings enrich both physician and pharmacy. And please the drug user no end for the freedom to dispense of the unwanted drug and alternately shop for the drug of choice. Large volumes of drug users simply pick up their prescriptions and they can be multiple times daily, while pharmacies collect extra dispensing fees to fatten their bottom line. Whereas in responsible addiction medicine, regular physical exams of patients and attention to psychosocial stabilization and recovery are bypassed.

 

 Concerned physicians who treat the drug-addicted, aware of what is transpiring have attempted to report the issue to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario whose purpose is to regulate doctors operating in the province. Yet despite Addiction Medicine Canada, an advocacy group led by physicians having sent the College formal requests for safer supply reform, there has been no response.  

 

“We know that there has been an issue with diversion, but we really do believe that safe supply is an evidence-based approach in saving lives,” insists Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. Photo by Darryl Dyck  /The Canadian Press

 

South Korea: ChatGPT becomes Exam CheatGPT

Yonsei University in Seodaemun-gu, western Seoul (Korea Tourism Organization via Getty Images Bank)

"A.I. is a tool for retaining and organizing information so we can no longer evaluate college students on those skills."

"[Students should be tested on their creativity which A.I. cannot replicate]." 

"The current method of  education is already out of date." 

Park Joo-Ho, professor of education, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea 

 

"It's inevitable that A.I. will affect our education."

"[To find research papers and aid in translating between English and Korean, I used ChatGPT] but if students break a pact with their professors to refrain from using it, [then it is a matter of trust and a bigger issue."

Ju Yuntae, Yonsei University student 

University students are seen in a lecture hall at a university in Busan on Sept. 1. [YONHAP]

 

 In South Korea, mid-term university exams have been completed and with that a sudden scandal has been revealed with the nation's most prestigious institutes of higher learning, those elite universities referred to  by the acronym SKY identifying the elite institutes of higher education in the Korean hyper-competitive world of education. The discovery that dozens of students have indulged in the use of textbooks, computer programs, even ChatGPT during online midterm examinations. The irony here is that the  course involved was itself on ChatGPT.

 

This revelation occurred when a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul  discovered the clandestine cheating taking place. When the story hit the news, two other top-tier schools in South Korea -- Seoul National University and Korea University found similar mass cheating had been discovered with students using A.I. on recent tests. Typically such incidents are found in 'lesser-reputed' universities. The discovery that underhanded student actions on tests at the elite universities sent the nation's academic reputation into a headspin.

 

In South Korea (as in Japan) the highly competitive arena of successful students leaving high school to  enroll in university with grades in the stratosphere ensuring their acceptance at these Ivy League schools represents frenetic studies toward such academic achievements and future upward social mobility. South Korea can boast one of the highest proportions of college graduates among developed countries where most students ply themselves to achieve the marks required to qualify for entrance at SKY* schools. 

 

To qualify for entrance acceptance at one of these top-tier schools, a high score on an eight-hour college entrance exam to test knowledge of Korean, mathematics, English and other subjects must be achieved. Over half of the nation's million high school seniors sit for the exam taking place on November 13. On that traditional day, flights are grounded, construction halted and there are enforced traffic restrictions to keep ambient sound to a minimum to enable students to concentrate on their exam performance.

 

High school students are seen during the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), also known as Suneung, at a school in Suwon, Gyeonggi on Nov. 13. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

 

Over 90 percent of college students in South Korea with generative A.I. experience acknowledge their use of such tools on school assignments, according to a 2024 survey by the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training.  

"Some professors don't like us using A.I. "

"Some encourage it because it helps solve problems quickly."

"[However], there isn't really a way you can stop students from using it."

Lee T.H., graduate student of computer engineering, Seoul National University 

 

*SKY schools = Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University 

Euthanasia in Canada (oops) MAID

"While the data suggests that the number of annual MAID [medical assistance in dying] provisions is beginning to stabilize, it will take several more years before long-term trends can be conclusively identified."

"[People who receive MAID don't disproportionately come from lower-income or disadvantaged communities; they're] more likely to be represented in higher income neighbourhoods."

"Loss of ability to engage in meaningful activities was the most commonly reported source of suffering]." 

Health Canada's 6th annual report on MAID

According to the latest update, 95.6 per cent of Canadians who died by MAID last year had a "reasonably foreseeable" death. Photo by Getty Images

 

Health Canada was in receipt of 22,535 MAID requests last year of which 16,499 were approved to proceed. Of those not having been approved, 4,017 of those requesting medical assistance in dying, did so before MAID could be provided, while 1,437 people were found to be ineligible and another 692 changed their minds, withdrawing their request for MAID. In that same year of 2024, 2,255 doctors and nurse practitioners were actively involved in providing MAID. Of that total it was a small group of medical volunteers who were responsible for providing 38 percent of all requests (6,185).

 

In 2025, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities called for a repeal of the 2021 law in Canada expanding MAID eligibility to those whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable, concerned that people with disabilities seek MAID as a result of "unmet needs, a systematic failure of the State party". Groups representing the rights of those with disabilities lobbied government not to include those with disabilities in the expanded eligibility list for MAID, fearing the expansion would take the place of workable medical interventions.

 

Altogether MAID deaths in Canada account for 5.1 percent of all deaths in the past year, representing a small increase from 2023 of some 0.4 percent. Since the introduction of MAID in 2015, 76,475 MAID deaths have been registered, according to Health Canada. In 2024 alone, a total of 16,499 people died by MAID. The vast majority (85.6 percent) of hose who died by MAID (averaging 76 years of age and older) last year qualified for 'Track 1' deaths, representing the category of a 'reasonably foreseeable' death qualifying them for MAID approval.

 

Questions are being raised around how MAID is being approved in Canada for people with dementia. Photo by Getty Images

 

Doctor-assisted deaths where natural deaths  were not reasonably foreseeable, saw a majority of women (56.7 percent), slightly younger qualifying, with autoimmune conditions and chronic pain, along with neurological conditions were most often cited among people asking for MAID, who were not on the verge of dying. There was some controversy linked to MAID requests by individuals suffering the effects of mental conditions making their lives impossible, where medical intervention might make a difference.

 

Concerns that some MAID deaths are driven by loneliness, hopelessness and isolation and that some physicians are stretching the qualification provisions of the law have also emerged. The principal criterion of MAID qualification is that a person must be experiencing intolerable and "enduring physical or psychological suffering". Those applying for MAID approval often report multiple sources of suffering impacting their lives.

 

The most common in 2024 was loss of capacity to engage in meaningful activities, as well a loss of ability to perform daily routines such as eating, drinking, dressing and moving about. Track 1 applicants were likelier to report inadequately controlled symptoms, "while Track 2 MAID recipients were more likely to report isolation or loneliness and loss of dignity". Other findings indicate that MAID applicants are less likely to live in remote areas, thus lack of access to health services is not an issue. 

 

The most frequently reported condition in most all age groups of those who died by MAID in 2024 was cancer, in particular lung, colorectal, pancreatic and blood cancer. With the exception of those 85 and older "for whom 'other conditions' were the most frequently cited". 

 

A screen displays a patient's vital signs during open heart surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore on Nov. 28, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Patrick Semansky (Patrick Semansky)

 

"We Will Achieve This By Force"

 

Photo montage, Getty Images

"We need to sit down and discuss this seriously."

"[President Donald Trump's plan is] a set of issues put forward for discussion [rather than a draft agreement]."

"If Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territories they occupy, hostilities will cease."

"If they don't withdraw, we will achieve this by force."

Russian President Vladimir Putin 

Russian President Vladimir Putin reviews the honor guard during a welcoming ceremony at Yntymak-Ordo in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, November 26, 2025. Igor Kovalenko/EPA/Shutterstock

 

Force, of course, is what this revanchist imperialist employed with his 'special military operation' launched against a sovereign Ukraine, with the intention of dragging the nation back into the fold of the Soviet Union that Vladimir Putin is planning on reconstructing. It is the reason Russia's near neighbours shudder at the Kremlin's actions in Georgia, Moldova, Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 

 

Speaking of Ukraine in holding its own territories as 'occupied' is typical Putian logic. It is, of course, Russia/Putin that 'occupies' Ukrainian territory starting with the coveted Crimean Peninsula and going on six years later to add Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts. Even that is not enough for Putin, vowing to fight on 'until the last Ukrainian dies'.  

"Putin does not want an agreement." 

"The only agreement he wants is diktat -- a Ukrainian surrender. Otherwise, he wants to continue fighting."

"I suspect if Ukraine had accepted those dreadful 28 points, Putin would come back for more."

"He realizes those 28 points reflected great flexibility moving his direction on the part of the United States, and he would say, 'See what else we can get'."

John Herbst, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine  

Vladimir Putin's idea of an end to war and the arrival of peace, is that Ukrainian forces must vacate the areas they 'occupy', for if they insist on remaining in defense of Ukrainian territory, Russian troops will roll right over them. With Russia's larger military, generously equipped, the original Ukrainian defensive swiftly turned into an offensive, demonstrating the courage and determination of a unique social/political order and historical culture to protect its inalienable sovereignty from the malign grasp of a warmonger.

 

Russia is demanding territory from Ukraine it has devastated throughout the course of the nearly four-year war (AFP/Getty)

 

The U.S. president's confidence that his status as the reigning world leader would convince two warring parties to submit to reason; enough blood shed, enough material destruction, enough displacement, enough refugees, and more than enough madness in the fog of war, greed, revenge, fear and misery. The tactics employed to date; strong-arming and verbally abusing and threatening the defender, while deferring to the offender have failed in their aberrant and clumsy overtures.

 

What is obvious that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not bow to the unreasonable pressures he has been plied with, while acknowledging the need to placate to a certain measure some of the demands impressed upon him. Putin, on the other hand, remains fixated on the enterprise he set out to accomplish; acquiring by limitless force as much of the geography of Ukraine for a Greater Russia that the sacrifice of lives on both side can accomplish.

 

Andriy Yermak (right) said Ukraine’s Zelensky (left) would never give up land before he resigned on Friday amid an anti-corruption probe.  Reuters

 

Ukraine, as far as Putin is concerned, must withdraw completely from all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions to make way for Russian annexation. Until this demand is satisfied, Moscow has no interest whatever in 'peace negotiations'. Nor can Ukraine be permitted to join NATO. Much less be permitted to host NATO troops for security reasons. 

 

European leaders, in their support of Ukraine while regarding the scenario that has been unfolding for the past three years in that country to be a potential prelude to what they too might experience should Russia prevail, are anxious to be consulted along with Ukraine for any alterations to the draft peace plan the Trump administration has pieced together. 

 

Europe is well aware that their adversary in Moscow plans to outwait their commitment in supporting the Ukrainian war effort. They are also acutely aware that it wouldn't take much for this irascible president who does not take kindly to opposition, to walk away from American past obligations in upholding the world order. Ukraine shudders at the prospect of being left adrift without any support at all from the U.S., whether it be badly needed military arms, or intelligence.  

"I see nothing at the moment that would force Putin to recalculate his goals or abandon his core demands."

"He feels more confident than ever about the battlefield situation and is convinced that he can wait until Kyiv finally accepts that it cannot win and must negotiate on Russia's well-known terms."

"If the Americans can help move things in that direction -- fine. If not, he knows how to proceed anyway." 

Tatiana Stoyanova, founder, R.Politik, senior fellow, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center  

 

"What Is Being Done About It?"

"We are extremely concerned about such a phenomenon. We understand the rules of democracy, the freedom of speech and all of that. But as I said earlier, we are in a new reality. In this new reality, these kinds of incidents have an impact, and so it's different than just having a broad discussion and allowing people to come up with extreme views."

"Such acceptance may give rise to expressions of hatred by other parts of the public and repeating messages that are inflammatory, that are hateful, that are discriminatory."

"[While people should be able to speak freely] within the law [there are ongoing discussions how to preserve democracy while protecting] citizens from hateful speech, from brainwashing, from misinformation and disinformation."

"This is one of the biggest challenges of these times, and we face that, and I would only say that the best way to do it is to do it together and share our experiences." 

Israeli ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed

Israel’s Ambassador to Canada said he was unnerved by rising anti-Semitism here. “Some of the things I’ve witnessed here to me are mind-boggling,” Ambassador Iddo Moed testified at the Senate human rights committee: “When it comes to attacking Jews here, that’s very troubling.”  Blacklock's Reporter

 

"Last week, a Global News investigation uncovered that roughly 450 individuals with various roles inside Hamas have ties to Canada. These include Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and others with relatives or associates here. CSIS did not confirm if these individuals are currently under scrutiny. Global reported the agency “was investigating Canadians in Middle East terror groups, but declined to elaborate.”

The exposé yet again confirms a long-running trend: Canada remains one of the most vulnerable western jurisdictions for infiltration by Hamas-linked operatives, and the aftermath of October 7 has deepened the country’s exposure."

"Hamas and its ideological progenitor, the Muslim Brotherhood, have spent decades cultivating networks across western democracies, exploiting charitable sectors, legal systems, immigration frameworks, and political sensitivities. A series of international cases that have come to light this month alone illustrates how widespread and deep-seated this threat ecosystem has become."

"A full audit of asylum, refugee, and citizenship cases from the past decade must be conducted to identify any fraud or irregularities, and denaturalization and deportation measures should be enforced wherever the law permits."

Joe Adam George, Middle East Forum  

"I think that there is a total lack of law enforcement of these marauders who are on the university campuses, who are in the streets of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and so on."

"And I think this lack of law enforcement, plus the statements that are made by faculty associations, by unions, has created an environment of absolute permissiveness, so that it is socially acceptable right now to be an antisemite."

"[The recognition of the Palestinian state by the Canadian government is what has opened] Pandora's box against Israel, against the Jewish community in Canada." 

Talia Klein Leighton, president, Canadian Women Against Antisemitism 

 

News that the Senate of Canada in mid-November hosted a Palestinian tribunal came as a surprise and a shock to many. It shouldn't have; 'Palestinian' sympathizers, choosing to be oblivious to the lethal violence Palestinians inflict on their neighbours in Israel, lingering instead on the populist narrative of Palestinian victimhood, see the current Israel-Gaza conflict in terms that Palestinian public relations pose as an aggressive 'occupier' dominating and abusing the human rights of an Arab population struggling for recognition as a sovereign nation.

 

The history of that population is that of refusing in 1947 the United Nations plan for Partition, and refusing ever since to recognize the reality of the Jewish state, while taking very opportunity to turn down negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to reach an agreement of mutual recognition, peace and assured security, in favour of destroying Israel and taking possession of the entire Judaic ancestral geography. For three-quarters of a century those calling themselves Palestinians have launched suicide missions with a goal to kill as many Israelis as possible.

 

In that same period of time, Israel has absorbed two million Arab Palestinians as citizens able to take full part in the nation's politics, social life and business in every sphere of activity. Where Palestinians represent a full 20 percent of Israeli society, no Jews are permitted to live among Palestinians within the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, yet the world accepts the Palestinian Authority's charges that Israel is an apartheid society and that it is Israel to whom charges of 'genocide' must be attributed. Not the Palestinians whose focus is killing Jews, much less the abhorrent October 7 slaughter by Palestinian terrorists committing mass murder on a grand scale.

 

Supporters stand in front of an anti-Israel encampment on McGill University campus, in Montreal, Monday, June 17, 2024. Photo by Ryan Remiorz/THE CANADIAN PRESS

 

Canada, which the Liberal governments of the past decade have transformed in every conceivable way, including an open-doors invitation to immigrants, refugees, migrants and illegal entrants to Canada, resulting in the notable fact that circulating within the population are members of the Iranian IRGC, and terror groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, given entry visas, landed immigrant status, even citizenship. Enabled to infiltrate Canadian society, politics, institutions, academia, unions to support the 'Palestinian cause'. To the extent that the rot of their anti-Israel, antisemitic slanders have taken deep root.

 

The Senate's two-day Palestinian tribunal featured panelists who in the past were refused entry to Canada by the Canada Border Services Agency, for their denials of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, that the Charlie Hebdo  atrocities were arranged by French authorities, and that all the lethal attacks targeting Israel were fictions; their truth rather charging Israel of intentions of genocide against the hapless, helpless Palestinians, the world's most pitiable refugees.

 

Israel's ambassador to Canada spoke before the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights, along with other invited participants. A Jewish law student at the University of Alberta, Rachel Cook, described for the committee "an institutional coddling of people who have views that the administration (of universities) agree with". Her own experience of asking her university to display a menorah for Hannukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights occurring the same time as Christmas, was telling.

 

In a speech to protesters on Oct. 28, Adil Charkaoui, speaking Arabic, denounced "Zionist aggressors" and called on Allah to "kill the enemies of the people of Gaza and to spare none of them." Charkaoui's speech drew broad condemnation from politicians like Premier François Legault and groups like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. (Adil Charkaoui/X)

"As a Jewish student on a university campus, I did not conflate my menorah with Zionism. My institution did when they chose not to put it up."

"I'm a Canadian Jew. I'm not Israeli. I asked to display a menorah and because the institution was worried about showing support for Israel, they took the (Christmas tree) down instead of doing it (displaying a menorah alongside the Christmas tree)."

"It wasn't me that conflated Zionists and Jews. It was them."

Rachel Cook 

"[Recognizing a Palestinian state at this point, where Palestinian leaders still refuse to recognize Israel goes against the Canadian government's foreign policy that has existed for years] which is, we will recognize the state of Palestine when and only when there is a negotiated settlement, when there is a path toward democracy."

"I'm not sure that [recognition] actually has any impact on foreign policy or has any impact on what actually goes on in Israel or in Gaza."

"And it certainly doesn't help the Palestinian people. All it does is open up the Jewish community to greater hatred, to greater targeting."

Talia Klein Leighton

Senator Leo Housakos of Quebec pointed out that despite ongoing conflicts worldwide, the only one that has disrupted Canada's social peace to the extent it has, has been the war in the Middle East, sparked by Hamas terrorists slaughtering 1,200 in southern Israel, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 hostages, on October 7, 2023. Following which he asked Ambassador Moed where Canada stands on the global scale of combating antisemitism.

The ambassador responded that Israel is interested in knowing how official Canada is responding to the viral antisemitism being openly displayed in public. "What is being done about it?" 

 

Canada remains one of the most vulnerable western jurisdictions for infiltration by Hamas-linked operatives, and the aftermath of October 7 has deepened the country’s exposure. An anti-Israel protest in Toronto, Ontario, May 8, 2024.   Shutterstock