Canadian Indigenous Zionists

"Our children and youth, the students of the TDSB [Toronto and District School Board], are our much welcomed and loved treaty partners. They are not colonizers. The true colonizers are the adults who hijacked the field trip and wickedly co-opted our child and youth treaty partners to facilitate their anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian demonstration -- to facilitate hate."

"A thorough investigation is needed into the events of September 18. The investigation cannot be conducted by the TDSB, which has shown itself to be demonstrably unfit to do so on so many levels."

"What the TDSB did to children on September 18 is despicable and borders on criminal. It dishonours the very concept of reconciliation and the Seven Sacred Teachings."

"Together we must ensure that such politically ideologically-driven events never happen again."

The Honourable Harry S LaForme, Anishinaabe, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation

Karen Restoule, Anishanaabe-Kwe, Dokis First Nation

Dr. Mark S. Dockstator, Onyota'd:ka, Oneida Nation of the Thames

Photo by Tristan Sosteric on Unsplash

When hundreds of school children from 15 schools of the Toronto District School Board were taken by their teachers to a field trip on September 18, their parents were advised that the trip's purpose was to expose the students to yet another facet of Canada's ill-treatment of its First Nations; in this instance generations of Indigenous Canadians exposed to mercury contamination at Grassy Narrows, calling out for attention and long-ignored remediation.

 

Parents were informed that the trip would represent a measure to instill in students a sense of human rights so sorely lacking historically in Canada's relations with its First Nations populations. This event was meant to raise public awareness in "efforts to address mercury contamination and advocate for their rights regarding mining and logging activities within their territory". Parents were advised the students' presence would be to "observe and learn from the presentations and discussions".  

When parents were informed that their children preparing for the outing should wear blue shirts it is likely that none among them would have suspected that blue shirts would identify the students as 'colonial' usurpers of Indigenous land, and that the colour blue had another linkage, reflecting the colour of the Israeli flag; the ultimate 'colonialists', ostensibly depriving Palestinians of land they claimed as their own despite that Israel sits on its own ancestral heritage geography.

In effect, the Grassy Narrows River Run Rally became a focal point for anti-Israel-pro-Palestinian demonstrators; an ideologically hostile group that holds Israel accountable for a conflict forced upon the Jewish state by Palestinian terrorists who almost a year ago had carried out a wholesale atrocity of sadistically savage rape, torture, and mass murder, finally spiriting away as hostages 240 Israeli infants and children, women and men for the ransom of prisoner exchanges.

The demonstrators, many of whom were teachers with the school board who connived with others to turn attention away from Indigenous suffering to transform the event into one where Palestinian aggrieved 'victimhood' carried the day. Children are wont to obey their teachers and this event saw them being coerced to chant the Palestinian mantras of 'Zionist genocide' and 'From the river to the sea Palestine will be free'; essentially calling for the destruction of Israel.

Indigenous leaders were not amused at the turn this event took. The leaders listed above pointed out in their objections to the atrocious shoving aside of Indigenous historical injustice and the lack of government policies to adequately address them, that the teachers and other adults involved in this hijacking of a critically important Indigenous event viewed the introduction of an anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian crusade as injurious to their own cause. 

"Zionism does not kill -- as the stickers handed out to students at the 'rally' declared; extremism does. Chants of 'Turtle Island to Lebanon, Israel will be gone' by anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian demonstrators promotes terrorism", they pointed out.

Indigenous values, they pointed out with justifiable indignation, "do not align with pro-terror and hateful messages. They are anathema to the Seven Sacred Teachings of Indigenous people. These values are found in Treaties of Peace and Friendship, which are grounded in the Seven Sacred Teachings -- Love, Respect, Courage, Honesty, Wisdom, Humility and Truth", they pointed out.

Their call for an independent investigation into the event co-opting, humiliating and denying justice to the people of Grassy Narrows, is critical. Without such an investigation thoroughly examining the event, its participants, the role of the Toronto and District School Board, the need to hold the board and the teaching staff involved to account, and to take steps to cleanse the largest school board in Canada of their malign, inappropriate and harmful agenda is required, to re-build failed trust with the Canadian public.

Parents and others protest after a Toronto school trip that was supposed to teach students about mercury poisoning at Grassy Narrows was hijacked by anti-Israel protesters and teachers failed to intervene. Photo by Peter J. Thompson / National Post

Gun Crimes, Car Thefts, Smuggling, Violence Increase in Canada

"Rival gangs control parts of the tow-truck industry here, using the heavy-duty vehicles to transport drugs, extort car-crash victims with high fees and fake automobile accidents to defraud insurance."

"They once resolved their territorial differences with their fists, but now a wave of gun smuggling from the U.S. has turned their fights into a lethal blood sport."

Reporter Vipal Monga, Wall Street Journal

"Experts say organized smugglers are taking advantage of lax Canadian screening."

"U.S. Customs and border Protection records an 'encounter' in its database when it comes across someone who is inadmissible to the U.S., or when border patrol officers find someone who has illegally crossed the border into the U.S. between border posts."

CBC

Handguns are pictured near recovered stolen cars during a Toronto Police Service press conference in Toronto, Ontario on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. Police say the surge in auto thefts has led to rises in home invasions, violent robberies and gun violence throughout the Greater Toronto Area. (Greg Bruce/CBC)

 

Canada is fast gaining a reputation, under the Trudeau-led Liberal government, of being an unreliable partner to the United States on immigration, crime and border security. Migrants crossing illegally into Canada from the United States by their tens of thousands a few years ago, bypassing legitimate border stations where they knew they would be turned back to the U.S. transited for the purpose of entering Canada have hugely diminished in prevalence.

The preferred mode of entry by far now has become through flights into Canada where disembarking passengers declare on arrival that they are seeking haven, and Canada immigration and border agents simply rubber-stamp a refugee hearing date for them, since they are unequipped and incapable of any background checks to determine whether claimants have any legitimacy and above all, have no criminal records from their countries of origin which would make them inadmissible to Canada.

The mayor of Brampton, Ontario, Patrick Brown, spoke of the irresponsible immigration practices and policies attributable to the Liberal government, in an interview. His comments were directed to the flood of student visas that have allowed ostensible students from abroad to enter Canada for study and to take advantage of the lax entry requirements, with plans to become permanent residents. In the last few years such student visa entrants numbered a half-million annually.

With the presence of so many, a concomitant explosion of car thefts has been bedevilling Canada's residents and police forces in its largest cities. A growing number of gangs operate in the Toronto region where young men are paid to steal cars and drive them to rail terminals, there to be transported by shipping container to the Port of Montreal. Arrived in Montreal, the vehicles are off-loaded by organized crime groups at the port, loaded onto ships and exported globally.

Over $1 billion in value of purloined cars was represented by these thefts in the Province of Ontario alone. The preventive expedient of having government policing agencies inspecting such shipments would catch the problem in its end-game making it unprofitable for the gangs that control this crime of growing proportions, and thus serve to frustrate their purpose, persuading them there is no profit to be had and the runaway thefts would substantially subside.

Ottawa's dismal failure to prevent gun smuggling from the United States to Canada is yet another outstanding problem of long duration. The situation has been responsible for a dramatic increase in shootings and crime among tow-truck gangs that operate in Toronto where it is being recognized that the profits from car thefts sent overseas fund the gun-smuggling racket. 

Compared to 2023, shootings in Toronto have risen 50 percent, and homicides have increased up to 20 percent, caused in part by "the tow-truck violence", according to Inspector Paul Krawczyk of the Toronto Police Service guns-and-gangs unit. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow faced the need to increase the police budget while investing in preventive programs in hopes of sidelining youth from joining gangs. "No doubt about it we are seeing way too many guns from the States coming across the border", she agreed.

It is clear that once again Canada's governing Trudeau Liberals have failed the test of good governance in this index as in so many others. It has not escaped the notice of both American presidential candidates that the U.S. border with Canada is becoming a vexing problem by a government that appears to have no real interest in finding ways to protect Canadians from the growing scourge of criminal violence.

Ontario Provincial Police and the Canada Border Services Agency said they've seized 598 stolen cars that were destined for export at the Port of Montreal, during a news conference on April 3. The vehicles had an estimated value of $35.5 million dollars. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

Secret Security Malfunction

"[The multiplicity of Secret Service failures leading up to the July rally for former president Donald Trump were] foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day".

Bipartisan Senate investigation conclusion

 

"Every single one of these actions is directly related to a failure in the U.S. Secret Service's planning, communications, intelligence sharing and law enforcement coordination efforts." 

"Every single one of those failures was preventable, and the consequences of those failures were dire."

Senate Committee Chairman Gary Peters

Still from video

 

The monumental failures of all police and intelligence agencies combined at that dramatic July rally event utterly belie the proud professionalism of American agencies tasked to protect the well-being of politicians at the very time of tense and angry divisions within the American voting public. Multiple investigations into the event when a gunman opened fire at the former president even while his suspicious presence had been seen and that information conveyed to different levels of public safety officers draw similar conclusions; a massive failure of both intelligence and professional vigilance.

The Secret Service Agency itself had launched an internal investigation. And there is an ongoing bipartisan House probe. First to present their findings, however, was an interim report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which found multiple failures on every conceivable level leading up to the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting.

Planning, communications, security and allocation of resources were all inadequate and ill-fitting to the occasion. "The consequences of those failures were dire", commented Senator Gary Peters, Michigan Democratic chairman of the Homeland panel. There was no clear chain of command among the Secret Service, according to investigators' findings. Nor was there among other security agencies. 

 

No plan was formulated for coverage of the building where the shooter positioned himself on the roof to fire from relatively close range toward his target.

Separate multiple radio channels were used by security officials which inexorably led to missed communications. After  his equipment failed to work properly, an inexperienced drone operator was fixed on a help line with no assistance forthcoming. Most telling of all, likely, was a report finding the Secret Service had been given notice of an individual on the roof of the building several minutes before the shooter opened fire.

In total, eight rounds were fired in Trump's direction from a distance less than 150 yards from the location of the speaking former president. The presidential nominee for the Republican ticket ended up struck in his ear by a bullet or bullet fragment during the assassination attempt. A superficial wound, with great dramatic effect. More serious was the death of one individual at the rally, with two others injured before the gunman was shot to death by a counter-sniper with the Secret Service.

The report found that a local officer had sent a radio alert some 22 seconds before shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks fired his first shot. The information sent of an armed individual on the building roof failed to be relayed to key Secret Service personnel, however. 

 

Getty Images

"Leaving a roof unattended, just you know, barely over 100 yards from the podium with a direct line of sight was an unacceptable and inexcusable error." 

"Everybody thought this guy was suspicious and nobody thought to stop the proceeding and remove the former president from the stage." 

GOP Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, committee member

Peace: Not In our Time

"Any parallel or alternative attempts to seek peace are, in fact, efforts to achieve a lull instead of an end to the war. [Those who support our cause must] put pressure on [Russia]."

"Do not divide the world. Be united nations. And that will bring us peace."

"When some propose alternatives, half-hearted settlement plans, so-called sets of principles, it not only ignore the interests and suffering of Ukrainians who are affected by the war the most, it not only ignores reality, but also gives Putin the political space to continue the war."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

UN Photo/Loey Felipe

Volodymyr Zelenskyy (at podium and on screens), President of Ukraine, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s 79th session

 

Speaking before the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, Ukraine's president appealed to global leaders to take a firm stand alongside his country, not to seek "a lull" rather than a "real, just peace", at a time when two years have passed since the Russian 'special military action' invasion of Ukraine and the third year has begun of unremitting warfare, the constant bombing of Ukraine's territory and the slow and steady advance of Putin's territorial plans, at the dreadful price of thousands of human lives, both Ukrainian and Russian.

President Zelenskyy is only too well aware of the pressure he faces from his allies in the West, as well as some of his own fellow Ukrainians, anxious to have him negotiate a ceasefire. Yet he well understands that such a ceasefire will inevitably work in Moscow's favour; no withdrawal of forces, no return of Ukrainian sovereign territory to its rightful owners, no reparations from the wholesale destruction of civilian infrastructure in towns and cities shelled indiscriminately by the Russian military. 

 

Above all, it would give Russia the opportunity to rest, regroup, re-plan, recruit and return refreshed to the battlefield.

As fr as Volodymyr Zelenskyy is concerned, no alternative exists to the peace formula he presented two years earlier that seeks the expulsion of all Russian fores from his country, Russian accountability for war crimes, release of Ukrainian prisoners of war and deportees, nuclear safety, energy and food security assurances. Russia has not yet addressed the UNGA's annual gathering of presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and allied high officials.

Only low-level Russian diplomats have been dispatched to represent Russia on the world stage to hear out Zelenskyy's speech. High-level meetings at the General Assembly are absent the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, this year;  his foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is mean to present Russia's address. From Moscow, Dmitry Peskov attacked Zelenskyy's remarks at the Assembly when the Security Council was told Russia needs to "be forced into peace", by the Ukrainian president.

According to Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, that claim represents "a fatal mistake", as "a profound misconception which, of course, will inevitably have consequences for the Kyiv regime". This year's UN General Assembly sees the war in Ukraine moved aside from stage central while the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and escalating developments along the Israel-Lebanese border now share the spotlight.

Ukraine officials rejected a proffered Chinese and Brazilian peace plan. President Zelenskyy addressed that as well: "You will not boost your power at Ukraine's expense", he remarked heatedly. Both Ukraine and Russia are locked in a grinding battle along their contiguous border, a 1,000 kilometre front line. With Ukraine facing down Moscow's territorial expansion ambition under the thin guise of 'saving' Ukraine from neo-fascism, and Russian-speakers in east Ukraine from Kyiv's malign intentions.

 

Russia's intimidating tactics veer off into not-too subtle threats highlighting its huge nuclear arsenal. 

Shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin alluded to a shift in his country’s nuclear doctrine, Sergey Lavrov accused the West of using Ukraine as a tool to try "to defeat" Moscow strategically, "preparing Europe for it to also throw itself into this suicidal escapade."

"I’m not going to talk here about the senselessness and the danger of the very idea of trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power, which is what Russia is."

Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs addresses the UNGA meeting on September 28, 2024  AP

'You Cannot be a Christian and be an antisemite"

"[We condemn] those who foment antisemitism in Canada."

"We will stand against all those in this country, regardless of motivation or ideology, who seek to demonize and dehumanize our Jewish fellow citizens."

"As Christians, we will not simply speak but act in support of you, our Jewish friends, in the interest of all that is just and good."

"We will not abandon you."

The Canadian Christian Declaration on Antisemitism

"If we look back ... we see a steady increase in antisemitic hate crimes really since 2020. This is not simply about October7 and the aftermath of that."

"[Jewish communities have historically functioned as] the canary in the coal mine for growing intolerance and hatred within society. We've seen this throughout history. When Jews come to be targeted, it's usually a symptom of something ... rotten within the society at large."

"On the one hand we see the very overt antisemitism on our streets, this very awkward alliance between Islamists and woke progressives who have radicalized around this particular issue. But also I'm concerned about the silence and the inability amongst people who should be speaking out to realize that there's an issue, and to speak out without equivocation."

"My hope is that once we have these signatories to this declaration that we will have a summit, most likely in Toronto, later this year, where we'll bring together 50 of the leading Christian leaders who have been engaged with this declaration, together with 50 Jewish leaders ... to reaffirm this declaration publicly."

"Ant then the third stage is then to have those Christian leaders form a partnership with a local Jewish congregation."

Reverend Dr. Andrew Bennett, director of faith communities, Cardus

The Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett drafted the Canadian Christian Declaration on Antisemitism. Photo by Cardus

It has been a year since the horrendous atrocities of October 7 took place, an infamous day when thousands of Palestinian terrorists led by the governing Gaza Hamas group whose covenant with fate is to please Islam to enable them to rise to Paradise on the glowing record of having raped, tortured and murdered Israeli girls and women, shot to death infants and schoolchildren, burned entire families alive in their homes, as they marauded through southern Israel farming villages pillaging, destroying, slaughtering. An entire year when the Canadian public across the country has been treated to constant displays of rabid antisemitism posing as anti-Israel marches while threatening Jewish Canadians.

 

Governments at any level have done little to express their disgust at these betrayals of the Jewish Canadians at the terror-supporting, Hamas followers that have infiltrated Canada as immigrants, refugees and migrants, amassing a presence of formidable hate-dominating Islamist conquest against human decency and civilizational norms in favour of instilling their medieval-era exclusion/isolation/threatening agenda of Jew-expulsion by any means possible.

 

True, there have been courageous individuals whose moral compass has been outraged at these spectacles of hateful demonization of Jews and Israel, and they have taken to speaking up publicly in defense of human rights, equality, justice and the right of any country to defend itself and its population against the forces of evil exemplified by armed death squads whose function is to destroy and to kill for the rewards of justifying the most basic of Islamist dictums to jihad for the recognition they derive from their lethal actions that place them among the warriors of the Islamist death cult that aims for Jewish lives.

 

Canadians in the aggregate, who like to think of themselves as kind and considerate, courteous and welcoming toward others, believing in equality and neighbourliness, have been strangely silent. There have been no collective challenges to the hate-filled rallies that target their Jewish neighbours. Absent completely demands from civil society to their government to uphold the laws against injustice and hate-mongering. Silence from faith leaders. There has been no groundswell of support from non-Jewish Canadians for their Jewish neighbours.

 

Jews in Canada have been threatened and attacked in every conceivable way. They have been left in a state of disbelief and fear, and wondering whether their generations of life in Canada have been a dream overtaken by a nightmare. Finding empathy with their plight only amongst themselves. Placed in a ghetto of psychological bleakness, fearing for the present and for the future of their children. Simple acts of reassurance conveyed by non-Jewish neighbours to their long-familar Jewish neighbours have been absent.

 

The messages of unconcern for the well-being of Jews in Canada under the weight of an imported loathing of an ancient people viewed by Muslims as challengers to the favouritism of their heavenly spirit of choice bespeaks a total abandonment of civil, social, lawful and just alienation; it is their battle, they can fight it for themselves. The tiny demographic of Jews who have always considered their diaspora home in Canada to be inviolate, now know otherwise.

But here we have a sole individual who has dedicated himself within the country's faith communities to spur them to react to the spirit of carnage brought against the Jewish presence in Canada and the legitimacy of the tiny Jewish state dedicated to the preservation of Jewish life on this globe. Who has invested himself with the obligation to act as a Christian, to urge other Christians to acknowledge their duty to their religion and their fellow man. Hoping to arrive at a strong, inclusive coalition that will help to drive divisiveness, threats and hatred back to where it belongs; in the deepest, darkest corners of the human psyche.

Appealing through the humanitarian argument of a document of 450 words to convince fellow Christians to agree that: "In that light and in support of this declaration we affirm that the Jewish people remain God's chosen people. The law and the covenants that God gave to the Jewish people, which we see as fulfilled in Christ, remain intact." Posted on September 23, forwarded to 675 Christian leaders across Canada, the Reverend Bennett exults that over 200 signatures have been achieved in the first four days. 500 by the end of October, he hopes. "I'd love to see a thousand, I'd love to see 1,500", he enthuses. Good luck.

 

People take part in a pro-Palestine demonstration in Ottawa, Canada, on October 15, 2023. (Kadri Mohamed via Getty Images)

"The people in their respective congregations come to know one another, they come to have conversations about the relationships between Christians and Jews, presently, historically, the good and the bad ... and in that way to build a solidarity between Christians and Jews in this country."

"I think that can have the longest and most lasting impact."

"You cannot be a Christian and be an antisemite. It doesn't work. It's completely incongruent with our Christian faith."

Reverend Dr. Andrew Bennett, deacon, Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Canada

Canada's 'Two State Solution' For Thee, Not For Me

"[The Foreign Affairs Committee is called upon to] immediately study the issue of how the Government of Canada can advance the recognition of the State of Palestine within a two-state solution."

"[The motion] supports the recognition of a viable and independent State of Palestine."

Motion before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Canadian Parliament

 

"[Trudeau] has said that the recognition of the state of Palestine will happen, not necessarily at the end of the process, but sometime during the process where the timing and conditions will be such that it will foster lasting peace."

"We need to know what that timing is, what the issues are and what the conditions should be, because we want a two-state solution."

Rob Oliphant, Toronto Liberal MP

 

"To veer from [Canada's traditional] path would reward violence and authoritarianism as a path to achieving statehood."

"[The committee adopted] a radical position [that parts-way from Canada's long-standing agreement that recognition can be achieved only as part of a negotiated agreement."

Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong 

"Canada's foreign policy should hold Hamas accountable, not legitimize them with status as a governing power."

"Put bluntly, they are the terrorists who murdered 1,200 Israelis, eight Canadians, continue to hold and executive hostages, and want to eradicate the Jewish people."

Liberal MP Marco Mendicino

"I can't pre-empt what the government will respond to. What I can tell you is our position is a two-state solution to this longstanding conflict."

"We believe that a two-state solution is the best path forward for lasting peace in the Middle East -- that's our position."

"How we end up getting there is something that obviously, is something (sic) that the government will continuously look at based on the situation on the ground."

Liberal MP Omar Alghabra introduced the motion. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

A motion tabled in the House of Commons presented by Liberal Member of Parliament Omar Alghabra called for Canada to recognize a Palestinian state, upending the past 75 years of tradition calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state, but only as a component of a two-state solution. Four Conservative votes were against but the motion passed by eight votes of members of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee in agreement representing the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois.

 

That the committee motion to fully recognize a 'Palestinian State' arrives mere weeks before the one-year anniversary of the October 7 savagery that rent apart farming communities in southern Israel when the Gaza-governing terrorist group Hamas led thousands of terrorists from Gaza across the border into Israel in a planned orgy of pillage, rape, torture, murder and hostage-taking, speaks volumes about the current government of Canada led by Justin Trudeau and the sensibilities of his Muslim-Canadian caucus members.

 

One can only wonder whether the Liberal party that forms Canada's current government is comprised of a majority of legislators under the illusion that their opinion on world matters has any merit, and in particular their decision that a two-state solution be achieved seeing Israel and the Arab Palestinians living in harmony is a true reflection of their mind processes, or that they are deliberately obtuse to the realities on the ground. 

 

That being primarily that the Hamas rulers of Gaza reject a two-state solution in their overt commitment to the destruction of Israel. As opposed to the covert commitment by the Fatah-led West Bank government of the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas which also envisions and nurtures the prospect of destroying Israel, leaving the entire geography 'from the river Jordan to the Mediterranean sea' in Palestinian hands, giving them their desired one-state solution.

For almost a year now, pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel crowds have been marching through the streets of Canadian towns and cities shouting 'long live the Intifadeh!' and 'From the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free!', the obvious message of a one-state solution, the reality of which appears to have eluded the government of Justin Trudeau which prefers to see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. A caution it lifts from time to time, to criticize Israel and its leadership and to charge Israel, not Hamas, with war crimes.

Canada has no wish for a two-state solution for itself. The Bloc Quebecois in the House of Commons still opts for separation for Quebec from Canada. The province is the only one in Confederation that bills itself as a 'national' entity. It has extracted special powers given no other province in Canada, as its just due as one of the two founding 'nations' of the country. But its true agenda is to achieve full sovereignty, something that the government of Canada will never countenance.

Yet this Liberal government of Justin Trudeau has worked out a winning formula for Israel; to accept a two-state 'solution' despite since its founding in 1948, Fatah and later Hamas and other terrorist Palestinian groups have always violently challenged Israel's right to exist. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas pays out handsome rewards to the families of suicide bombers or those ending up in Israeli prisons for crimes against Israel. 

Palestinian school curricula teach the younger generations of Palestinians to hate Israel and Jews, viewing them as their oppressors living on land rightfully belonging to Arab Palestinians who claim sole possession of ancient Judean ancestral lands -- as well as their traditions and history. According to the PA even that world-renown Jewish pacifist-scholar Yeshua, was actually 'Palestinian'. But only in the sense that during the Roman Empire Judean lands were named a Roman province called 'Palestine'.

Yet Justin Trudeau's government has arrived at the solution to the Arab Palestinians' aggrieved victimhood which considers the rebirth of Israel a 'disaster'. A day celebrated by Jews the world over as having finally, after millennia of a far-reaching, forced diaspora, Jews finally had a homeland of their own returned to their possession. That day one of mourning as the 'Nakba', memorializing the loss of Arab Palestinians' aspirations of their own state. 

The Palestinians created their Nakba when they rejected the Partition Plan offered by the United Nations to both Jews and Arabs, when the Jews were ecstatic about their return to Zion, and the Arabs awaited the onslaught of the combined Arab armies to vanquish and destroy the newborn state of Israel. They have never stopped trying. While most surrounding Arab/Muslim states have finally surrendered to the reality of Israel's presence, the 'Palestinians' forge on in their aspiration to kill Jews and destroy their state.

“Palestine will remain ours. And if anyone were to leave, it will be the occupying usurpers,” he declared.

UN Photo/Loey Felipe

Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-ninth session.

Ukraine Proffered 'Victory Plan'

"I see Zelenskyy is here. I think Zelenskyy is the greatest salesman in history -- every time he comes into the country, he walks away with $60 billion."

"If I win this election, the first thing I'm going to do is call up Zelenskyy and call up President Putin and I say 'You got to make a deal, this is crazy'."

Former US President Donald Trump  

In this image provided by the Office of the Ukrainian Presidency, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, listens to Rich Hansen, the commander's representative for the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, in Scranton, Pa., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (Office of the Ukrainian Presidency via AP)

 

It's as simple as that. The man aspiring to return to the presidency of the United States has such a Solomonic mind; like Occam's razor he knows the simplest solution is the best, the only solution to any problem. Just pass the problem off to the principals involved. All else is unnecessary fireworks accomplishing nothing. So Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian President, is presented with the solution of entirely submitting his country to the violent wiles of a vicious aggressor, and the aggressor is given the latitude of finishing what it has begun; territorial expansion completed.

Mr. Trump interprets the problem as one belonging solely to Ukraine and Russia; theirs to solve, relieving Ukraine's backers of their self-imposed duty to aid a sovereign nation that has been marked for destruction by a neighbour, to its fate. Unrecognized by this genius is the domino effect that will capture eastern Europe in a time warp, moving it back to the era of the Soviet Union when its neighbours willing or not, once again become appendages of a powerful and ruthless state.

Kyiv's strategic responses and the Ukrainian military's actions in this Russian 'special military operation' have both been outstanding in their firm grasp of options and the spirit of defiance against a larger military, a powerfully grasping nation and a military armed with superior and greater numbers of technologically advanced weaponry. The courage of the Ukrainians under constant threat and fire from an enemy that respects no international standards of modern warfare has been exemplary.

In a deadly conflict that has imposed straitened living conditions on the Ukrainian public, forced them to relocate throughout the country and made millions refugees, while killing thousands, the world looks on as a struggle not only to regain sovereignty and repossession of territory proceeds, but one where a proud people have little option but to appeal to their Western and European backers to continue funding its war and supplying it with critical hardware enabling its continued counteroffensive.

 

A screenshot from footage released Sept. 24 showing the recaptured aggregate plant in the town of Vovchansk in Kharkiv Oblast. (Ukraine's intelligence military/Telegram)

 

Driving Russian forces out of the town of Vovchansk in the northeast of Ukraine necessitated hand-to-hand combat. The town had been occupied for months, with Russian troops using a huge processing plant as an operation base and weapons storage facility.The plant was valuable to Russia, considered a stronghold in the Kharkiv border region. The plant was recaptured by the Ukrainian units following fierce fighting "in densely built-up conditions". 

This was Ukraine's military demonstrating in real time that it has no intention of withdrawing from the conflict. Coincidentally. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy set off on a trip for the purpose of ensuring ongoing foreign practical support. He was prepared to present his "victory plan" to end the conflict, and plans to ask the U.S. to support another attempt by Ukraine to join the NATO alliance. The U.S. is also urged by Mr. Zelenskyy to commit to a sustained advanced weapons supply.

There is no variation expected to be revealed in the much-rumoured victory plan beyond what has already taken place, and it is expected that with the concept of the 'victory plan' will arrive yet another rationale aimed at Western supporters of Ukraine's battle, that more generous commitments of aid and military hardware be forthcoming, to achieve that 'victory'. 

A pervasive sense of fatigue and pessimism has set in among allied nations, while the conflict continues to drag through past its third year. A dilution of support for Ukraine will certainly see the ebullient atmosphere in Ukraine over the 'victory plan' as wearisome and simply put, more of the same. Russian threats in light of the fact that Moscow is set to increase its defence spending to historic highs, are sobering.

 

And then, of course, there is the imponderable of the potential of Donald Trump returning to the presidency after the November U.S. general election, and Russia's plans for its three-year budget proposals in committing 13.2 trillion rubles (US$142 billion) for 2025. And the clincher in the dooms department; Donald Trump's stated disinterest in continuing aid to Ukraine, presumably in favour of 'America first' policies and a neutral stance on problems in Europe. 

Ukrainian Troops take Vovchansk in intense battle    Newser

Educating Canadian Children in Toronto

"We are DONE with the constant Jew hate! You have until the end of the day on Monday to fire every single teacher involved in this. They should be charged with Criminal Negligence [s219]."

"If you don't fire them all, we will be at your offices on Tuesday!"

"Fire them now!"

Tafsik Organization, Jewish advocacy group

"We can't allow TDSB [Toronto and District School Board) to do whatever they want with our children, abuse them, humiliate them, without any consequences."

"We're hoping that the teachers responsible will be fired. We're hoping that their teaching licence is taken away."

"They're not to be trusted around children, as their primary duty is to protect our children, not to expose them to danger."

Amir Epstein, executive director, Tafsik Organization

"The #TDSB's recent apology under pressure from CIJA (Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs] and the Friends of SimonWiesenthal Center is a prime example of anti-Palestinian racism."

"The Board has chosen to bow to organizations spreading misinformation and spying on our children. This is not leadership -- it's complicity."

Nigel Barriffe, teacher, vice-president Elementary Teachers of Toronto chapter of Ontario union

 

 

The recent school field trip comprised of students from 18 different schools from within the Toronto District School Board, which happens to be the largest such board in Canada, when students from Grade 3 to High Schoolers were bused to Grange Park in downtown Toronto ostensibly as a learning experience focused on Indigenous issues in Canada; specifically to learn of the Grassy Narrows First Nation's historical battle over a pulp mill that operated in the 1960s, responsible for contaminating its drinking water with carcinogenic mercury. 

Antennae should have been raised among the parents who were advised of the upcoming trip that would take their student-children to a protest. For there is no protest of any type at all these days that does not attract the attention and opportunistic presence of 'pro-Palestinian' groups. All the more so when the focus of a protest is environment or Indigenous peoples where invariably 'colonialism' and 'human rights' are entangled; an absolutely perfect environment for Palestinian grievances and victimhood.

 

According to screenshots of emails posted to social media, parents were informed their children would be merely observing, not taking part in the protest. The organizers of the field trip, however, had different priorities and had planned and executed an event where the students were props on the one hand, and recipients of a 'pro-Palestinian' 'educational' opportunity to be exposed to that very special 'truth' of Israel as a destroyer of Palestinian dreams of nationhood, intending to execute a genocide on Arab Palestinians.

 

 

And so, the students marched among other people committed to championing Palestinian terrorism and Israeli slander, urging the students to shout out anti-Israel slogans like "from Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime". In one malicious statement, slurring both Canada as a settler-colonial entity that robbed Canada's aboriginal populations of their ancestral heritage -- and Israel as a settler-colonial entity that has taken land Arab Palestinians earmarked for their future state. Despite the land that both Israel and the Palestinians claim is in actual fact, ancient ancestral Judean geography.

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies characterized the event as an "egregious violation of parental trust" over which they "expressed outrage" for "the harm caused to students". For one thing before setting out on the jaunt at the protest students were told to wear blue shirts which would identify them as 'settlers'. Blue, of course, is the colour of the Israeli flag. The students were made complicit without their realization, of identifying themselves as colonizers, stealers of land. A child who expressed discomfort over the situation was told by her teacher that she would "get used to it".

 

 

The schoolchildren marched along while a chant of "From Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime" repeatedly rang out, the students encouraged to chant along. Students held political signs. Some brought home with them stickers reading "Zionism kills". To which, when outrage was expressed through social media and contact with the school board, the board responded with its boilerplate statement: 

"This excursion was organized as an educational experience for students to hear from Indigenous voices about the ongoing challenges faced by the people of Grassy Narrows."

"[The Board apologizes for the harm] some students may have experienced [as a result of the event]"

"[An investigation was launched and the TDSB will review] field trip and relevant procedures with our staff and reiterate our expectations."

Toronto and District School Board

Disentitling Israel at the International Level

"Given the current circumstances on the ground, we believe that this resolution is not a step in the right direction, as it risks potentially sowing further divisions."

"[The resolution] fails to address the immense security challenges Israel faces, including Hamas's use of the Gaza Strip as a launching pad for its rampage of killing of Israelis, while systematically using the Palestinian civilians as human shields."

"[This] assembly has once again failed to acknowledge this issue with today's vote."

Czech Republic Ambassador to the UN Jakub Kulhanek

The final result of a vote during the emergency session on the legal consequences of Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories is shown at United Nations Headquarters in New York on Sept 18, 2024. (PHOTO / AFP)

Israel, that tiny sliver of land that the world community gave its permission to allow Jews to call its homeland, representing a fraction of its historical ancestral land base and which has been forced by its neighbours -- furious at its presence in land they claim is consecrated to a divine entity of a much later entry to the pantheon of the world's religions -- to militarily respond whenever a neighbouring country or irregular terrorist militia feels impelled to challenge its presence, suffers the ongoing indignity of UN accusations of human rights abuses.

 

It has been made manifestly evident that any time Israel responds to the never-ending violent assaults from its neighbours by militarily protecting itself and its citizens from their deadly force, the international community takes umbrage at the most technologically sophisticated, moral armed force in the world daring to project its determination to foil every such attack's purpose; its destruction. Israel's drubbing of its enemies when it has been provoked beyond endurance is never applauded as just, but consequentially condemned as 'just too much'. 

Israel, unique enough as the homeland of the world's great dispersal of Jews throughout history, and a modern giant of technology and innovation whose inventiveness in every sphere of human endeavour gifts itself and the world at large with forward looking human enterprise -- enriching science, medicine, agriculture, technology and education -- still becomes an object of accusatory slander; that classic syndrome of doing everything right, interpreted as disproportionately engaged in defending itself.

The United Nations General Assembly saw fit to pass 14 resolutions in condemnation of the Jewish state, fully double the entire number of condemnations of all other countries combined, in 2023 alone. Global human rights violators barely register for a chiding by the UN. Rather, countries like Iran, Venezuela, China, Saudi Arabia, North Korea and Syria are either entirely bypassed for censure for their human rights violations, or face a single resolution of condemnation in an entire year.

There were 140 resolutions raised against Israel between 2015 and 2022 where the General Assembly focused on Israel; a number more than double passed against all other countries in the world combined. That states committing human rights violations barely risk a nod from the UN is commonplace. For the second time in the year that is moving toward the anniversary date of October 7 reflecting a sadistically savage pogrom by Islamist terrorists against Israel, 124 countries of the General Assembly voted in favour of the latest resolution, with 14 against and 43 abstaining.

The call was for Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza in its pursuit of the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered over a thousand Israeli civilians, raped and mutilated Israeli girls and women before murdering them relentlessly, destroyed farming villages, setting homes on fire with entire families burning to death, and taking 240 infants, elderly, women, men, soldiers hostage back to Gaza. Many of the hostages were tortured, many murdered, and all have been kept in inhumane conditions and subjected to violations of humanity.

At no time has a resolution been tabled before the General Assembly demanding the dismantling of Palestinian terrorist groups, requiring their weapons to be set aside, that the hostages be released back to Israel, and that hostilities on the part of the terrorists cease and desist. Israel only, in its resolve to destroy the death cult that continues to ravage Israel with the clear intention of murdering as many Jews as possible -- anywhere, is held to account and judged inadequate in its response to the nonsensical and obviously biased opinion of the UN. A UN which would never impose retaliatory restrictions on any other country that had suffered such a massive loss.

Conflicts of massive offence are treated as inconvenient incidents, but Israel's right of self-defense is placed under the microscope of special 'contexts'. Terrorist entities calling openly for the destruction of Israel and the concurrent death of Jews are given no notice; it is Israel which must withdraw and make reparations. Countries like Canada which at one time could be relied upon to vote against such unjust resolutions now prefer to withhold their vote as though a national morality of 'neutrality' reigned.

Whereas a handful of courageous and morally decisive countries like the Czech Republic, clearly understanding the level of deception and hypocrisy involved will have none of it, and hold the United Nations and its anti-Israel cliques to account for their jaundiced hateful interpretation of a situation they cannot bring themselves to condemn, to the point of supporting the right of existence of a member nation which has endured the unendurable by those who wish it ill.

 

"In my speech at the General Assembly, I condemned the hypocrisy and bias in the United Nations, which since October 7 has passed two resolutions that failed to mention Hamas and its responsibility for the massacre last October."

"I reiterated that anyone who supports this circus is a collaborator. Every vote you cast in support of this circus fuels the violence."

"This empty show is not just an insult to the victims of October 7. It is an insult to the hostages."

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon

Canada's Dystopian MultiFactional Society Under Justin Trudeau

"[A] toxic environment was allowed to build [at the school]."

"This action is for assault, humiliation, discrimination, and other aspects to be named requiring compensation of general damages, declaratory judgement."

Mike Murphy, lawyer representing Shaked Tsurkan, Israeli-Jewish schoolgirl

 

"The plaintiff states the first attack and second attack happened because she is Israeli and/or Jewish."

"Since October 7, 2023, the date of the Hamas-led attack on Israel, the plaintiff has experienced blatant antisemitism at LHHS [Leo Hayes High School, Fredericton, New Brunswick]."

Statement of Claim 

Shaked Tsurkan suffered black eyes, scratches, cuts and bruises after being attacked near her Fredericton high school on April 30, 2024, in what the family claims was an antisemitic assault sparked by the Israel-Gaza war. (Photo courtesy of the Tsurkan family)

 

A Fredericton domiciled family is taking a high-school student to court. The sued student's family is included in the claim, as is the district education council, reflecting an assault that occurred in April when their daughter -- another student at the high school -- was assaulted and beaten by the student they've brought a lawsuit against, solely for her Jewishness in a high school where an "antisemitic environment" exists.

Filed in the Court of King's Bench on September 6, the lawsuit lists Shaked Tsurkan as the plaintiff, represented by her father and litigation guardian, Eli Tsurkan. The family had discussed the situation in May, the month following the assault that took place on April 30 when they met with the provincial premier Blaine Higgs over the incident.

The Anglophone School District West District Education Council, along with the student, as well as another student who witnessed the assault and two "unknown parties", identified as the alleged assailant's parents and a third unknown party who witnessed the assault have all been named in the lawsuit. The complainant, Shaked Tsurkin, was 14 years of age at the time of the assault.

Shaked was aggressively confronted by the other student who grabbed her arms while they were in the school hallway, and when the plaintiff pushed the defendant in self-defence, it caused her hijab to become loose. The principal intervened in the physical altercation, ordering the two to separate. Shortly afterward, the plaintiff and her boyfriend left the school and walked to a nearby store.

 

There the girl was confronted again, and attacked by the other student "repeatedly battering her" in the parking lot of a sports complex, resulting in injuries occurring. "Unknown Party 3" witnessed the attack and accosted the plaintiff soon after. A video of the resulting altercation was then shared widely online, causing the girl to be humiliated, states the claim.

 

Video taken by a student bystander shows Israeli teenager Shaked Tsurkan, 14, being beaten near her Fredericton N.B. high school on April 30 while the assailant, wearing a pink hoodie, punches her about the head and face. (Submitted photo)

The video, shot by another student and then widely circulated, shows Tsurkan being jumped from behind by another student, thrown to the ground, and punched repeatedly by an attacker whom the Jewish girl identified as an older female Muslim student wearing a pink hoodie that Tsurkan said hid her hijab.

 

As injuries were caused, resulting in fear of returning to school, the Jewish girl missed five days of school attendance. When she did return, school staff advised here to use the teachers' washroom, to arrive late for classes, not to walk alone in the school hallways, and not to leave the building for the duration of the day. The aggressor-student was suspended for five days.

"We were kind of scared because I had already moved to high school, and there was a bigger community of Muslim people, that I know they’re pro-Palestinians, and they support them, and they tried to talk to school [staff] and ask them what can they do because… it’s a big deal."

"It’s not like middle school where they are still young there. In high school, they are like Grade 12 and they support Palestine, and I’m just in Grade 9, and I’m new in this school, and I’m the only one (Israeli), so I was really careful at first."

"I don’t want anything like this to happen again, because it’s just terrible. I want the school to understand that it’s not okay, because they are still saying it was my fault that I went outside, and I should have not gone outside… so they are blaming me about what happened at the school."

Shaked Tsurkan

Fredericton parents Eli and Michal Tsurkan speak with Premier Blaine Higgs at the New Brunswick legislature in May. Photo by Andrew Waugh/Brunswick News /pmc

Becoming the subject of antisemitic rumours linked to political issues reflecting the Gaza conflict had an understandably deleterious psychological effect on the young Jewish high school student. She was also profoundly affected that a homemade Israeli flag she brought to school as part of a class assignment was destroyed by other students. Additionally students and a teacher took part in a pro-Palestinian walkout at the school.

All of which, pointed out the lawsuit, had the effect of causing other Jewish or Israeli students to conceal their Jewish identities in the hope of avoiding similar persecution. In May, a 16-year-old girl was arrested, linked to the April 30 altercation, according to Fredericton Police. Police spokesperson stated that charges of assault and uttering threats were recommended.

"They were sent to the Crown who would decide to the next course of action, which could be diversion", spokesperson Sonya Gilks clarified.

"[The school is making this out to have nothing to do with antisemitism, claiming it to be a] run-of-the-mill high school dispute."

"The school doesn’t want problems. They want everything to be kept quiet. Maybe they’re afraid of the larger Arab population who would cause problems."

"They don’t want us to talk about it. They want us to drop it. But we won’t stay quiet. We can’t. We don’t accept it."

Michal Tsurkan

Leo Hayes High School in Fredericton, N.B. Photo by Twitter

Canadian Arctic -- Defend It Or Lose it

"I look forward to seeing those actions [Canadian Liberal government promises of new fighter jets and submarines] but there's not a history of [Canada] taking those actions."

"There is no sense of urgency, for the most part, from the leadership of the government of Canada. It is easy to say we're going to buy F-35 [fighter jets], we're going to buy submarines. But with that comes a lot of requirements to build infrastructure, set up logistics pipelines, set up training pipelines."

"And my question is, is Canada ready to do that?"

U.S. (ret) General Glen Vanherck, former commander NORAD

 

"[Alliances like NORAD and NATO are particularly important with authoritarian leaders like Russia's Vladimir Putin] on the prowl [but Canada's part in those groups is] sorely lacking."

"You have to contribute your fair share and, quite frankly, Canada, over the last nine to ten years has not done so."

"There's one issue that seems to galvanize and unify [U.S.] Republicans and Democrats, both in the House of Representatives and the Senate. That is their concern and dismay over Canada's paltry contributions to international peace and security and the unacceptable -- and I'll use that word again, unacceptable -- levels of money spent on defence capabilities."

"[The Army is short 16,000 personnel, while] 70 percent of the army's vehicles don't work because they're either waiting for spare parts or they don't have the mechanics to fix them."

"Half our Navy's fleet, their ships can't actually set sail because they don't have the sailors or the spare parts to get them out of port."

Retired Canadian General Andrew Leslie, former Liberal MP

 

"[The U.S. Defense Department] is focused on fighting the away game, hamstringing the commander of NORAD, U.S. Northern Command [USNORTHCOM], and belying the vulnerability of our homeland."

"As the Middle East missions evolved -- ISIS, al Qaeda, the Taliban, whatever it was -- Russia began flexing its muscles with each and every incursion into the air defence identification zones of Canada and the United States."

"They approach our coastlines from all sides. They still do. And the most recent incursions -- include Chinese aircraft along with them."

"I have long said, where you see the intersection of Russian and Chinese interests, especially in military cooperation, we should be worried."

Retired Major General Scott Clancy, formerly NORAD director of operations

A Canadian part-time military volunteer drives over the frozen sea past an abandoned landing craft off Cornwallis Island, Nunavut on April 9, 2006. (David Ljunggren/Reuters)

 

A Mackenzie Institute forum on security in the Arctic taking place in Toronto brought together speakers all of whom contended Canada has a requirement to expeditiously increase lagging investment in defence, or risk seeing its control slip away of the Canadian Far North, leaving it in the hands of foreign adversaries. The Canadian Arctic comprises about 40 percent of Canada's geography. A military presence along with transportation infrastructure and resource development benefiting local Indigenous populations would counter increasing incursions by Russia and China. 

Alison LeClaire, one-time Canadian ambassador to Moscow, and before that one of the country's recognized Arctic officials, feels that Russian interest is primarily an ambition to exploit the Arctic for economic gain, to take command of its natural resources. While Canada derives less than one percent of its GDP from its Arctic, Russia counts upon 20 percent of the GDP from its part of the Arctic: "The reality is that everybody wants into the Arctic, and it's ours to protect. We need to stand up for ourselves and be present."

If there was one thing that all present agreed upon, it was that the current Liberal government under Justin Trudeau as prime minister will commit to nothing more than lip service. Stating that in its spring defence policy the government would acquire new fighter jets and submarines, yet no one has any expectation that these are any more than vague promises. 

Leona Alleslev, a former air force officer, former MP, felt that Canadian citizens, companies and think tanks have an obligation to strenuously support "nation building" in the country's north to protect it. Concerns that as climate change makes the Arctic more navigable for ships move countries like Russia with its recently rebuilt Arctic bases, and China, which represents itself as a "near-arctic" nation, albeit thousands of kilometres' distance, send military vessels and aircraft into the region. Incursions meant to deliver a message provocative challenging North America.

American airspace in Alaska can be reached within a half-hour by Russian planes, while in reverse the closest F-22 Raptor American fighter jet, would take two hours to arrive full-speed, at the same spot. The idea that Russia is a "paper tiger" given its long attrition-type conflict with Ukraine is misguided, according to General Vanherck. "In my three and a half years in command of NORAD and NORTHCOM, what I saw was exactly the opposite."

"Strategically, they deplored more, they deployed more bombers, they deployed more submarines.  They're still very capable, with the world's largest nuclear arsenal and hypersonic weapons." Others argued that Russia or China would actually attempt to invade the Canadian Arctic or otherwise attack North America, to be unlikely. Given that their goal is canted toward imposing themselves in the region with resource development and infrastructure such as ports and roads. 

Narratives from Indigenous organizations and other authorities in the North, report being offered major funding from Chinese interests, commented Mackenzie president Brian Hay.

 

A Finnish icebreaker sails through sea ice floating on the Victoria Strait along the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, July 21, 2017. The U.S., Canada and Finland on July 11, 2024, announced they will build up their icebreaker fleets.

 

"The actions that are ongoing are for influence -- Russian influence, Chinese influence."

"They're seeking to change international haw norms, get after resources through claims that put them in a better position globally, economically, diplomatically, than they are today."

"This is about influence and changing the world order."

General Glen Vanherck

In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on September 16, Russian Borei-class ballistic missile submarine Imperator Aleksandr III sails toward the Rybachiy submarine base on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Russian defense ministry