Adampol Slave Labour/Death Camp, Poland

"We never had the opportunity to lay a flower for any of our beloved ones who died here. But we will mourn them today. Their souls in heaven will always be with us."

"He [his father Jack Pomeranc] had tremendous anxiety and regrets and fear. [He was] crying and apologizing to his family that he wished he [had] saved them, and he could have but he didn't and should have."

"And at that time, I understood very well that this was something I needed to put closure to for him, since he was traumatized all his life from it."

Today we bring closure to this chapter in our lives."

Michael Pomeranc, son of Holocaust survivor

 

After many long years of planning, Michael Pomeranc and his close relatives fulfilled a personal mission when they took part in a ceremony to unveil memorials to murdered Jews during the Second World War. The venue was a forest in Poland. And the memorial was to honour the Jews murdered by German forces. Dozens of Michael Pomeranc's relatives among them, at a little-known German labour camp named Adampol.

During the dedication ceremony, Pomeranc spoke of his childhood in the United States. Where there were no cemeteries that held the remains of his family members, no graves to visit that held the remains of his predecessors in his family tree. Jews were forced to work as slave labourers in fields nearby the Nazi labour camp. Once their usefulness was over, when they became too weak, too ill to continue labouring, they were murdered, in 1943.

Poland, under Nazi German occupation, was the site of many such labour and death camps where Jews had value as slave labourers and when they could no longer perform the labours assigned to them they were scheduled for mass extermination in the death camps. Auschwitz is the most well-known of all such death camps, but it was only one of many, although it was responsible for the extermination of over a million Jews of all ages.

 

Women in the barracks at Auschwitz, Poland, January 1945. Photo taken by a Russian photographer shortly after the liberation of the camp.

 

The event was attended by local schoolchildren in the presence of descendants of Holocaust survivors who witnessed it far from Poland, via livestream. Two living survivors of Adampol are left to contemplate their living hell during that time. Too old and frail to make the trip to Poland. New York city hotelier Pomeranc visited the site 25 years earlier with his father Jack Pomeranc. His father had been imprisoned there but was able to escape, to join Jewish partisans and took part in blowing up Nazi-occupied buildings and train tracks in efforts at war sabotage.

Jack, whose Yiddish name back then was Jankiel, along with a brother and two sisters managed to survive, but his parents and two little sisters, age 3 and 4, along with aunts,  uncles and cousins were all murdered. At the commemoration a memorial with the names of 73 of over 600 victims were included; the only identification so far of those who perished. The organizers' goal is the restoration of identities of as many victims as possible to preserve their memories.

The event is part of a more expansive effort by the Polish Jewish community to commemorate sites of mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust, neglected and unmarked a lifetime after the Second World War. Of the 3.3 million Jews who lived in Poland before the 1939 German invasion, most wee murdered. Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich along with a group named Zapomniane (Forgotten) aided by non-invasive technologies have succeeded in systematically locating sites of mass burials to mark them for posterity.

So far, witness testimony of local people and technology have aided researchers in identifying over 20 possible mass grave sites in Adampol, verified by a forensic archaeologist who has carried out years of research at the site.

Illustrative photo of electric fences with concrete posts and insulators surrounding the barracks where deportees where held at the Auschwitz concentration and death camp established by the Nazis. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Afghanistan's Virtue and Vices Administration

"Even when an adult female prays and another female passes by, she must not pray loudly enough for them to hear."

"How could they be allowed to sing if they aren’t even permitted to hear [each other’s] voices while praying, let alone for anything else."

"[These are] new rules and will be gradually implemented, and God will be helping us in each step we take."

Afghan Minister of Vice and Virtue, Mohammed Khalid Hanafi

Taliban minister Khalid Hanafi said: “God will be helping us in each step we take” Credit: AHMAD SAHEL ARMAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

"Whatever he says is a form of mental torture for us."

"Living in Afghanistan is incredibly painful for us as women. Afghanistan is forgotten, and that’s why they are suppressing us – they are torturing us on a daily basis."

"They say we cannot hear other women’s voices, and I do not understand where these views come from."

Afghan woman, Kabul

The Afghan regime has banned women from working outside the home or attending school and university Credit: MOHSEN KARIMI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Women and girls in Afghanistan have suffered yet another blow to their human rights. There does not appear to be anything left of their civic, civilian and feminine rights as human beings to be withdrawn from them. The Taliban minister of vice and virtue (shades of the Islamic Republic of Iran) issued a directive in the last week. Women must now no longer recite the Qur'an aloud in the presence of other women, for it is haram for their voices to be heard. "If a woman is not permitted to perform Takbit (reading from the Islamic holy book), then how could she be allowed to sing?" So singing is out as well.

According to strict Islam, the voice of a woman is considered awrah; that which must be covered and should not be heard in public, not heard even by other women, according to Minister Mohammad Khalid Hanafi. Known for his Islamist piety in the West, Hanafi is blacklisted by the United Nations (for what that's worth) and sanctioned by the European Union (which is doubtless of zero concern to the man, attuned to the sub-humanity of females).

From August 2021 when Western powers decamped from Afghanistan with their diplomats, their militaries and their human rights groups, and the Taliban moved from the hinterlands of Afghanistan into governing control of the entire country, a series of restrictions have been restored in reflection of how the Taliban ruled that poverty-stricken, benighted, backward country before 2001. Afghan girls are once again barred from attending middle and high schools and universities. They may not work in government and international non-governmental organizations, since 2021.

Social restrictions have been imposed such as the closure of beauty salons; women are prohibited from leaving their homes other than in the presence of a male guardian. When they do exit their home, they must cover their entire bodies and faces. 

"They [the Taliban] are waging an all-out war against us, and we have no one in the world to hear our voices."

"The world has abandoned us. They left us to the Taliban, and whatever happens to us now is a result of Western government policies."

"I feel depressed. The world is advancing in technology and having fun with their lives, but here we cannot even hear each other’s voices."

"They want us not to exist at all, and there’s nothing we can do about it."

"They may succeed at some point, as many are taking their lives due to the pressure."

"They think ruling Afghanistan is only about suppressing women – we didn’t commit a crime by being born as women."

Former female civil servant under previous Western-supported Afghan government

An Afghan woman searches for recyclable materials at a garbage dump on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif     Credit: ATIF ARYAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

 

Taliban restrictions intensified in the past two months, recounted Samira, a midwife who traditionally goes by one name. Working in remote villages in western Herat province for eight years, she said female health workers are now forbidden by the Taliban from meeting with the male companions of female patients, complicating health services. "They don't even allow us to speak at checkpoints when we go to work. And in the clinics, we're told not to discuss medical maters with male relatives."

The United Nations special rapporteur of human rights in Afghanistan released a new report where the human rights situation in Afghanistan for women, children and minorities is detailed. A litany of edicts, rules and policies have been imposed, restricting virtually all aspects of women's and girls' lives. They are prevented from exercising fundamental rights; freedom of movement, education, work, health care, freedom of expression and access to justice.

"Other provisions further cement Taliban control over the lives, bodies and behaviour of women and girls."

"Women can be punished for singing or speaking outside their homes, while Muslim women are instructed to cover themselves in front of 'non-believing' women."

"Adult women and men who are not related are forbidden from looking at each other's bodies and faces."

Report, Richard Bennet, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan

Armed Taliban security personnel ride motorcycles during a street patrol   Credit: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Flirting Dangerously With Prospects of World War III

"Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region."

"[The move represents] a significant escalation [in North Korea's involvement in the conflict and marks] a dangerous expansion of Russia's war."

"[NATO is] actively consulting within the alliance, with Ukraine, and with our Indo-Pacific partners [on developments]."

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte

 

"This is our sovereign decision."

"Whether we use it or not, where, how, or whether we engage in exercises, training, or transfer some experience. "

"It’s our business."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

 

"North Korean soldiers are deployed to support Russia’s war of aggression. It's a grave escalation in this war and a threat to global peace."

"[The EU would] respond together with our like-minded partners."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen  

"[A] portion [of those soldiers had already moved closer to Ukraine."

"The US is increasingly concerned that Russia would use these soldiers] in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk oblast [region]."

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh

The Ukrainian spy agency released video that it says was intercepted from Russian soldiers complaining about North Korean troops and the language barrier. Reuters

A high-level South Korean delegation, along with top intelligence and military officials as well as senior diplomats briefed NATO's 32 national ambassadors at NATO headquarters in Brussels on what is known at this time respecting the deployment of North Korean soldiers to Russia for training to take part in the Russian conflict against Ukraine.

Sergey Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister pointed out that Pyongyang and Moscow had signed a joint security pact in June. Although he was responding to the statement by NATO's Mark Rutte, he confined himself to that single remark, side-stepping any confirmation that North Korean soldiers were actually in Russia at this point. On the other hand, he pointed out, Western military instructors have been deployed covertly to Ukraine to train its military in the use of long-range weapons supplied to Ukraine by its Western partners.

NATO has confirmation that troops from North Korea have been dispatched to Russia to aid its war against Ukraine, elaborating with the additional confirmation received that some troops have already been deployed in the Kursk border region where significantly, the Russian military has been attempting to push back a Ukrainian incursion into Russia well beyond the border between the two that appears to be well dug in.

Thousands of North Korean soldiers -- an estimated total of 10,000 -- would represent a significant boon to Russia in Europe's largest conflict since the Second World War. In the process the situation will place greater pressure on Ukraine's overstretched military and underarmed, war-weary soldiers. On Monday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that about 650,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded. "They [Russians] are not collecting the bodies... their people are rotting on the ground." 

 

Geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the greater Indo-Pacific region including Japan and Australia are being stoked, according to Western officials. The more complex the situation becomes, the more heated the conflict and wider in its implications, drawing in sympathetic supporters on either side -- East and West -- the likelier it is that the embers of a greater and more widespread conflict can accelerate the flames of war; that World War III hovers on the horizon.

 

It is obvious that Vladimir Putin's end-game is the goal of reshaping of global power dynamics, seeking a counterbalance to Western influence during a summit of BRICS countries where the leaders of China and India visited Russia a week ago. Direct assistance for his war was sought from Iran, whose supply of drones has been most useful to the Kremlin, alongside North Korea's contribution of ammunition to Russia's war machinery.

• NATO says N.Korean troops may be headed to front line
• South Korea and Ukraine vow to step up cooperation
• North Korea's foreign minister arrives in Russia for talks
• Kremlin doesn't deny reports of N.Korean troops in Russia
  

"This war is becoming internationalized, extending beyond two countries."

"We agreed to strengthen intelligence and expertise exchange, intensify contacts at all levels, especially the highest, in order to develop an action strategy and countermeasures to address this escalation."                                                                                                             Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

A news broadcast in Seoul showing a satellite image of Russia's Ussuriysk military facility, where intelligence agencies said North Korean personnel were gathered within the training ground. Photograph: Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

 

 

Samidoun: Offended It is Recognized as a Terrorist Group

"[Between the three politicians [Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre] recklessly and maliciously [accusing Samidoun as a terrorist entity owing a retraction and apology, a lawsuit has gone forward]."

"The suit will force the biggest mouths in government to actually show proof of the allegation of terrorist activity."

"It is very dangerous if we allow a government to decide who gets to enjoy full rights and who doesn't without showing actual proof."

Toronto lawyer Stephen Ellis

 

"The Liberals cannot legislate away our right to free speech."

"If they contend we are terrorists, let them prove it in court."

Charlotte Kates, co founder, Samidoun

 

"Samidoun does not have any material or organizational ties to entities listed on the terrorist lists of the United States, Canada or the European Union."

Samidoun statement

Anti-Israel demonstrators march in Ottawa on March 9, 2024. Samidoun, a group listed in Israel as a terror organization and banned outright in Germany, is one of the main groups organizing pro-Palestinian protests in Canada. Photo by Ashley Fraser / Postmedia

 

Vancouver-based Samidoun established a global network of support branches to which they give direction in the promulgation of 'public relations' announcements and protests in support of Palestinian 'rights' and entitlements in a world where Palestinian terrorism wreaks havoc as it mounts terrorist assaults against Jews universally and within Israel in particular, exacting a penalty of murder as the price it feels Israel must pay for its insistence that it has a right to exist on its own ancestral land. 

Palestinian terrorism is geared toward penalizing Israel and Jews through a never-ending devotion to lethal assaults against their 'oppressor'. Portraying themselves as victims seeking restitution of land they claim as theirs despite that it is historically Judean land, and Jews the original inhabitants native to the land, those identifying themselves as 'Palestinians' are in fact looting from the indigenous Jewish population the heritage that was never theirs.

There is, and never has been, a shortage of militant terrorism among the Arab Palestinian population. Among the earliest and most barbaric has been the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, involved in plane and sea-going vessel hijacking, hostage-taking and murderous assaults. Samidoun is a later, public-relations manifestation of Palestinian terrorism's realization of what can be accomplished when slanderous lies are repeated frequently enough to seem believable to the history-ignorant West.

Samidoun, ostensibly created to speak for the rights of Palestinians in Israeli prisons serving sentences for violent crimes against Israelis -- to agitate for their recognition as 'freedom fighters' eligible for release by virtue of the fact that whatever crimes were committed were in defense of their right to 'struggle against' their colonialist oppressors -- is committed to portraying violent criminals as merely asserting their humanitarian right to free themselves from imperialist colonizers.

 

Protesters from the Samidoun organization gather in front of the Muelheim train station in Cologne, Germany, on April 15, 2023, to commemorate Palestinian Prisoners' Day (Ying Tang / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

 

Those like Charlotte Kates preach to a public in the West for whom antisemitism is not unknown, that there is a connection between colonizers of the past and those of the present, as despised, indigenous-injurious exploiters of original, authentic territorial populations. Not only do they promote chants of 'death to Israel', but also 'death to Canada', tarred with the same colonizing brush as Israel. Samidoun portrays itself as a human-rights group seeking justice for all disentitled people, with a special emphasis on Jews and Israel, its first and foremost agenda.

Its links with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are obvious enough, not least since the other of its co-founders, Kates's husband Khaled Barakat, is a prominent leader in the PFLP. Kates has run afoul of Canada's hate-speech prohibitions in law, with Vancouver Police leading an investigation following on her having fulsomely praised the savage Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Jewish groups in Canada have identified Samidoun for what it is, lobbying government to have it recognized as a hate group and enabler of terrorism; linked in its formation and purpose with an already-listed terror group, the PFLP.

Several weeks back, no longer able to ignore the reality of Samidoun's purpose, linkages and incitements the federal government finally relented and announced its decision to place Samidoun on the country's terror list. With the kind of impudent, defiant arrogance recognizable as a hallmark of Samidoun, it now portrays itself as ill done by, a victim of government over-reach, and should apologies not be forthcoming, a full-scale lawsuit is to be mounted.

The leader of the official opposition in Parliament, Pierre Poilievre, had called on the Liberals to designate Samidoun as a terror entity, emphasizing that the group had "clear and direct ties" to designated terror groups abroad. Mr. Poilievre stated, before the official announcement of its designation, that prime minister Trudeau and the federal New Democratic Party "have allowed terrorist organizations to operate freely across Canada", which qualified him a place alongside Canada's public safety minister and prime minister in the pending lawsuit.

A screenshot of the Samidoun-led anti-Israel protest outside the Vancouver Art Gallery where Charlotte Kates was arrested, April 26, 2024. Photo by freepalestinetricitiesbc/Instagram

MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) Canada

"Amongst his multiple specialists, no unifying diagnosis was confirmed. [However, his MAID assessors [felt that the most reasonable diagnosis for Mr. A's clinical presentation [severe functional decline] was a post-vaccine syndrome, in keeping with chronic fatigue syndrome."

"[In the case of] Non-reasonably foreseeable death [patients  were more likely to live in the most maginalized areas in the province, more likely to require disability supports, more likely to be female and more likely to live alone at all ages]."

MAID death review medical report

"I think we have gone so far over the line with Track 2 that people cannot even see the line that we've crossed."

"It's pretty clear that some providers are going up to that line and maybe beyond it. This is actually suicide facilitation in some cases."

"[In the case of Mr. A.] even separate and apart from whether post-vaccine syndrome is a valid entry, it's very clear that even [the MAID assessors] weren't sure of it"

"There was repeated discussion about 'no determinant diagnostic results', no unifying diagnosis. It was really just the MAID assessors who ended up saying the most reasonable diagnosis is post-vaccine syndrome completely ignoring the fact that the symptoms of depression, trauma and addictions can cause a whole slew of symptoms, including physical ones."

Dr. Sonu Gaind, psychiatrist, professor of medicine, University of Toronto 

Some members of the MAID death review panel questioned whether “post-vaccine syndrome” — a condition "previously unrecognized in medicine" — could be considered incurable. Photo by Getty Images

 

Euthanasia was extended to a man in his late 40s who had a background of mental illness. His assisted death assessors had decided the most reasonable explanation for his severe physical decline had to be a post-COVID-19 'vaccination syndrome'. 'Post-vaccine syndrome' is not included within Canada's current vaccine report system for adverse effects. Many specialists who had been consulted prior to his assisted death were not able to agree on a diagnosis, which left unanswered the question whether the man's medical condition even met the criteria for "irremediable", the cornerstone of MAID accessibility.

'This particular case is but one of several addressed in a number of reports by a MAID death review committee struck at the behest of the chief coroner's office of Ontario. 'Mr. A' had suffered functional decline in the wake of three SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations. Depression, PTSD, anxiety and personality disorders were also issues that the man suffered from. He was twice admitted to hospital with suicidal ideation "while navigating his physical symptoms".

 

Nonetheless no "pathological findings" were identified at a post-mortem that could pinpoint the presence of any underlying physiological diagnoses.  The report brings to light difficulties in granting euthanasia for those whose medical conditions are not recognized as terminal, those whose natural deaths are not reasonably foreseeable, placed into a "Track 2" category. People suffering from a multitude of medical conditions who are actively seeking approval for MAID, fall into that category.

 

There are troubling instances when a medical care provider will broach the topic of medical assistance in dying, ostensibly as a gentle reminder that the protocol exists whereby an seriously untenable life can be ended with medical intervention under certain qualifying conditions. Those qualifying conditions have departed from the original regulations safeguarding the system from abuse. Simply by casually mentioning MAID, and handing out pamphlets explaining it as an optional solution is a  tendency to guide patients toward requesting that solution to their intractable medical condition.

 

Mental illness in and of itself is not an ultimate qualifying condition for MAID. An individual with mental illness alone "wouldn't suffice" in qualifying for MAID, since it cannot be viewed as the sole underlying condition in seeking out MAID.  According to statistics, over 13 billion COVID vaccine doses have been given globally, saving millions of lives. A study involving over 99 million vaccinated people from eight countries discovered that known side-effects are rare.

 

Yet, according to Immunologist Dawn Bowdish with McMaster University, following vaccination rare conditions can occur that have the potential for 'life-altering consequences'. The immune system attacks the nerves of the spinal cord with transverse myelitis leading to a condition resembling multiple sclerosis; Guillain-Barre system can occur when someone's immune system attacks their nerves causing muscle weakness and occasionally weakness that turns in rare cases to paralysis. 

Still, a chronic post-vaccine syndrome is a controversial issue. A workers' compensation company WorkSafeBC, found no published data supporting the development of chronic fatigue syndrome, following a mRNA COVID vaccination. In responses to an online survey, 241 adults reported continuing symptoms following a COVID vaccination, symptoms including excessive fatigue, brain fog and pain, numbness and tingling.

"So, now we have to say, 'Well, here's what we think is a likely medical diagnosis. And then, on top of it, with the clear diagnostic uncertainty they're able to say, 'Oh, plus this is now irremediable'."

"Because if  they don't say that, obviously you don't qualify for MAID."

Dr. Sonu Gaind

Israel's War Objectives

 

"The attempt by Iran's proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife today was a grave mistake."

"This will not deter me or the State of Israel from continuing our just war against our enemies in order to secure our future."

"I say to Iran and its proxies in its axis of evil: Anyone who tries to harm Israel's citizens will pay a heavy price."

"We will continue to eliminate the terrorists and those who dispatch them. We will bring our hostages home from Gaza. And we will return our citizens who live on our Northern border safely to their homes."

"Israel is determined to achieve all our war objectives and change the security reality in our region for generations to come."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives statements to the media inside The Kirya, which houses the Israeli Defence Ministry. (Jacquelyn Martin/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

In Israel, security measures for government ministers along with other officials -- in the wake of a drone attack launched from Lebanon by Iranian proxy Hezbollah in an attempt to assassinate the Israeli prime minister -- have been reinforced significantly. The October 19 targeting of Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence in Caesaria resulted in a direct hit on the home. In a photograph released several days ago, a bedroom window of the holiday home can be seen, smashed, the trees standing before the second-story window, scorched, their top portion torn off by the blast.

As it happened, neither the Prime Minister nor his wife Sara happened to be in residence at the time. Ultimately, although the drones fired at the Caesaria home came courtesy of the terrorist Hezbollah group, the responsibility is shared primarily with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the puppetmaster pulling the strings of its terrorist militias. Iran, in fact, was quick to deny it had any part whatever in the scheme to murder the Israeli Prime Minister, fearful of exacerbating an already-fraught landscape whereby it awaits an Israeli response to its own latest salvo of missiles dispatched into Israel.

Damage to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home in Caesarea following a Hezbollah drone attack, Oct. 19, 2024.  JNS

One of three drones succeeded in striking the home. Hezbollah's Mohammed Afif representing the group's media arm, declared from Beirut during a press conference, that the organization takes "full, complete and exclusive responsibility for the Caesarea operation. If we did not reach you this time, then we will reach  you the next time. Between us lie the days, nights and the battlefield." That declaration of no-holds-barred will come back to haunt the terrorist group, as it most certainly will the Islamic Republic, who cast the die.

Al-Hadath television news (Saudi state-owned) channel reported that diplomatic officials at the Iranian embassy in Lebanon had been directly involved in the attempt to take Israel's Netanyahu's life in a high-stakes gamble that served as a warning the Islamists are willing to risk all, while at the same time catapulting both the terrorist group and the terrorist Republic into the steely eyes of resolve to continue the mission Israel has undertaken to destroy its Islamist enemies that have earned that goal through their incessant slavering to destroy the Jewish State.

 

Flames and smoke rises from buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburb of Beirut, October 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken several days later happened to have embarked on his 11th trip to the region since the Israel-Hamas war broke out a year ago. Hours previous to his landing, a barrage of rockets was launched by Hezbollah into central Israel, air raid sirens blaring in the country's most populated areas, and residents hurrying into bomb shelters. Before he left, en route to talks in Saudi Arabia, the hotel in which he stayed sat below plumes of smoke from other missiles sent into Israel, that had been intercepted and broken apart.

Israel lost no time in returning the compliment; in the process of which it is clear that Hezbollah, like Hamas, feels ordinary Lebanese citizens are expendable to their larger plans of conflict with Israel for their purpose of destroying its presence in the geography amongst Islamic nations. The history of the region makes it clear that were Israel to disappear, constant conflict would not evaporate and all the various Muslim nations would lapse to peace, for this is not the scenario of reality; tribal, clan and sectarian violence and conflict in the Middle East has been a constant, most particularly reflected in Lebanon itself.

A missile launched from an Israeli jet hits a building in Ghobeiri, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Canada, Security Intelligence Violent Risk Assessment

"Although this incident [Trump assassination attempt] will embolden violent rhetoric toward Canadian public officials, an inspired attack against an office holder is unlikely at this time."

"Individuals contributing to hatred and harassment against Canadian public officials will likely cite the attempted assassination in conspiracy theories and rhetoric."

"Threats to public officials in Canada could intensify over the next 12 - 16 months in the lead-up to provincial and federal elections."

Canadian Security Intelligence Service, (CSIS) integrated terrorism assessment centre report

 

"[Threat assessments are based] on classified and open-source information [aiming to provide senior government officials with the most recent information on threats to protect against] violent extremism [with efforts underway  to develop] unclassified assessments [to increase general awareness]."

"Incidents such as the assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump ... could incite individuals to contribute to hatred and harassment toward Canadian public officials."

"The threat environment facing elected officials is growing increasingly complex [and the service] will not hesitate [to advise the government how to reduce risks]."

"Violent rhetoric toward Canadian public officials will increase during the next election campaign."

"Prominent attacks against public officials in the U.S. and Europe suggest that such violence is becoming increasingly normalized and accepted within mainstream political and social spheres."

Intelligence service CSIS spokesman, John Townsend 

In Ottawa, questions are being raised about whether cabinet ministers and members of Parliament need tighter security measures after the verbal attack on Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland in Alberta.

 

According to the latest assessment by Canada's federal organization authorized to assess terrorism threats, the potential for violence against Canadian leaders following the attempt on former President Trump's life in Pennsylvania at a July13 rally, led intelligence officials to conclude through their analysis a heightened risk of danger had not resulted despite that "extremists in this country could use the event to justify violence against Parliamentarians" in Canada.

The lead-up to the next election scheduled to take place on October 2025 is seen as an event precipitating violent incitement, although conceivably, given the minority Liberal government and the strength of the official opposition, a general election could occur at a sooner date. Decisions respecting protection of federal elected officials, noted the spokesman for the intelligence service, fall under the assigned jurisdiction of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which CSIS works in close collaboration with.

The intelligence brief nonetheless reached the conclusion that an act of violent extremism remains a "realistic probability". Based in the reality that attacks against elected officials have become more predictable against politicians in both Europe and the United States. Aside from the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in the United States, another attempt was made against Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico, shot while greeting supporters back in May. These speak to the "vulnerabilities to low-sophistication threat actors even for officials with security measures" in place.

 

Electronic panic buttons have been made available to MPs, and some are already carrying them, as serious threats against politicians have increased.

 

American lawmakers characterized the shooting of the Republican candidate a failure of dependability  on the part of the Secret Service, given the inescapable fact that the gunman had been able to access the roof of a building in close proximity to where the podium where former president Trump spoke, at the Pennsylvania rally, bringing him an advantage of site and sight, culminating in the shooter's near-success through accessing a position that enabled him to wound, but not kill the former president.

Though the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was finally shot on site soon after firing at Trump, one of his bullets grazed the former president's ear, and tragically another volley of shots killed an individual at the rally, and injured two others. Security measures in Canada for prominent politicians, pointed out the report, would "mitigate most threats", since those at potential risk are "well protected" by security measures. Which, in fact, would have been the assessment conclusion of American intelligence prior to the assassination attempt respecting protection of their own elected officials.

"This incident will resonate with individuals and groups who do not believe that the democratic process will produce the changes they desire", intelligence officials noted in the report. In the past year, RCMP commissioner Mike Duheme repeatedly raised concerns over the rise in threats against elected officials in the belief that a change to the Criminal Code is needed to allow police to lay charges more easily against individuals uttering threats, including online.

 

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside the fenced in area of an encampment on the University of Toronto campus on May 2, 2024, in Canada. Photo by Cole Burston/AFP via Getty Images.

 

The commissioner stated that police agencies in Canada have faced new challenges in laying hate speech charges against protesters accused of making hateful and antisemitic statements. Similar challenges are faced when tackling threats against politicians. "A lot of the things that we're seeing in the social media space does not always necessarily meet the threshhold for a criminal offence when it comes to hate speech or a type of crime", he observed. "When it comes to protecting elected officials and government officials ... there's more work that can be done."

When demonstrators appeared at the home of Justice Minister Arif Virani, to protest the Liberal government's response to the Israel-Hamas war, the minister spoke out publicly. No arrests were made on that occasion, although Toronto police said they were aware of the incident. Toronto municipal authorities have hesitated to authorize the Toronto Police Service to respond to countless and ongoing incidents of threatening hate crimes expressed at anti-Israel, pro-Hamas hate rallies. 

 

There is an obvious gap between concern over hate-filled rhetoric aimed at an ethnic/religious/cultural/social minority in Canada about which nothing has been done to stop the harassment that is certainly in the violent, racist category of threats. Simply because nothing has been done to address the threats, and socially disruptive activities of hate-mongers espousing 'pro-Palestinian' support, lack of authorized action has encouraged the mobs to more vociferous threats, greater intrusions into peoples' lives, and outright criminal acts for which no law and order remedy has yet been seen.

Anti-Israeli demonstrators wave Palestinian flags during a protest in Toronto (Cole Burston / AFP)

Canada's Rushed Population Growth Through Immigration

"It's quite a significant shift over the past two years in [people's] sense about the numbers and their confidence in the system, and the way in which immigration is being managed."

"I think, fairly or unfairly, many Canadians are looking at newcomers and saying, 'Well they are adding to a problem. Suddenly all these new people need a new place to live, and we are competing with them'."

"[Immigration is] certainly not the primary cause of the  housing crisis, but I think people are making the connection."

"[The public's concerns linked to immigration were more about] who is being admitted, from where and how they were fitting in."

Keith Newman, senior associate, Environics 

Passengers arrive at Pearson Airport in Mississauga, Ont. on March 14, 2023.  Chris Young

There has been a notable decline in public support for the number of immigrants arriving in Canada in the past several years, according to a new national survey. Close to six in ten Canadians share the belief that Canada accepts far too many immigrants, according to the results of a survey conducted in September of about 2,000 people. "For the first time in a quarter-century, a clear majority of Canadians say there is too much immigration", the report established published by research group Environics Institute along with Toronto Metropolitan University's Diversity Institute, supported by the charity Century Initiative.

This is a wholesale change of attitude within a two-year period, representing the largest proportion of Canadians since 1998 who declare too much immigration is harming Canada. Immigration Minister Marc Miller stated he was exploring the option of reducing the number under the current plan of accepting 500,000 newcomers in 2025 and 2026. "There is certainly a world now in which we see reductions", he assured his critics.

A cap was announced for the first time in March, the goal to cut the number to five percent of the overall population by 2026, from the current 6.5 percent. Canada is dependent on immigration for its economy; newcomers accounting for over one-third of the workforce in industries like accommodation and food services, transportation and warehousing. Along with the professional stream of scientific and technical sectors, according to Statistics Canada. As well, the aging population represents another reason for a high government reliance on immigrants. Of respondents to the Environics survey, 68 percent felt that immigration while having a positive impact on the economy, is six and 5 percentage points lower than in 2023 and 2022

Environics senior associate Keith Neuman links the attitudinal change to several factors; how Canadians perceive the impacts of newcomers on economic concerns such as the housing shortage and the steadily rising cost of living in Canada. According to Neuman, Canadians haven't turned away from immigration unlike other countries where the sentiment is more negative. The issue for Canadians is about how the system is being managed. 

 

Canada's population as of July 1, 2024 was seen to be 41.2 million, according to Statistics Canada.

The total population increased by a whopping 1.2 million people in the last year, representing a rate of about three percent, due primarily to immigration (reflecting a growth rate similar in the past two years). 250,229 people were added between April and July of 2024, a quarterly growth rate of 0.6 percent; high yet lower than the 334,606 and 253,510 people during the same quarters in 2023 and 2022.

Preserving Children's Mental Health in a War Situation

"Mental health is a cornerstone of everything we do, and our programs are designed not only to teach tennis skills but also to nurture resilience, confidence and hope."

"Together, we are building a brighter future for these children."

Ilan Allal, Israel Tennis and Educational Center (ITEC), Beersheba branch

"Now, the situation in the north has worsened, and the tennis centres there [in Haifa] are closed. I told the ITEC management that we would be happy to have those kids over and do something special for them."

"Sure they still get air-raid alarms on their phones. You can't run from it. But when they are active, whether it's playing tennis or watching a movie, it clears their heads a bit."

"This is what we try to do -- give them a feeling of safety for three days."

Yaniv Sakira, manager, Beersheba tennis centre

 

"It's very challenging to keep them focused and in a relaxed mood for an extended period. Our sessions are about 45 minutes long. It's difficult for them to sit and concentrate throughout the course."

"The kids keep a lot of their feelings inside. You have to be very patient and compassionate. We can sometimes see a switch in their emotions within a split second."

"They can go from being calm to very upset."

"It's all about building confidence and believing in themselves. they are under a lot of stress and they don't show it."

"I think in a few years all the stress will start popping out and I don't know that we are ready for it."

Asaf Barel, mental health coach

Children at Israel Tennis and Education Center's "Home Away From Home" camp. Photo by ITEC/Facebook

Fifty children arrived at the Israel Tennis and Education Centre (ITEC) branch located in Beersheba to enjoy a three-day tennis camp. These were children from communities in northern Israel, vacated with their families from their homes as a result of Hezbollah bombing from Lebanon into Israel. Their dislocation has been of a long duration, almost a year. The Hezbollah terrorist group that has Lebanon in its talons began lobbing bombs into northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas whose invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in a wholesale bloodbath of Israelis of all ages, mass rape of girls and women, and the abduction of 250 Israeli infants, the elderly, entire families, woman and soldiers.

 

While the Israel Defense Forces have been fully engaged in Gaza, rooting out Hamas terrorists to entirely negate their ability to continue murdering Israelis, their search for the terror operatives who conceal themselves in the vast tunnel network under Gaza, and among the civilian population, in tunnel shafts under hospitals and schools and UNRWA administrative buildings, it has been forced to deal with the attacks from Lebanon hitting its northern flank. Some 60,000 Israelis have been evacuated from the north, living in temporary quarters in more secure areas of Israel.

 

The children bused to Beersheba for a three-day holiday to distract them from the trauma of constant sirens, the sound of bombs, the uncertainty and the fear, the total disruption of anything approximating their normal lives, the routine of attending school, taking part in games activities are all in abeyance while the Israeli military responds to the Hezbollah assaults which UNIFIL the UN body tasked with ensuring that Hezbollah not rearm itself or send missiles into Israel after a previous conflict decades earlier, has entirely failed to do; intimidated by the terror group they were dispatched to control.

 

Their attendance as a group saw children from Acre, Nahariya and the Druze town of Sajur; Jewish, Druze, Muslim and Christian children, interact with one another, participate in the opportunities to engage in sports, take lessons, communicate between them, and be exposed to sessions meant to alleviate, however temporarily, the tensions they are under ordinarily during this fraught time for Israelis. They are being taught methods by which they can better understand their emotions and how to deal with them.

 

Travelling by bus with selected coaches, the children were put up at a Beersheba Hotel. There, along with tennis sessions, activities such as attending a movie theatre, taking part in bowling and video games, the children were totally immersed in a child-centric atmosphere, altogether unlike what has become of their normal lives. One of the games they were introduced to functioned both as a game and a learning session. The children were instructed to pop balloons for a prize. Within each balloon were questions questioning their state of mind and feelings.

"They were eager to pop the balloons and answer questions to get the prize. They were very cooperative and shared their thoughts", explained mental health coach Barel. "Sometimes I ask them how many times they think they can jump on one leg. Most of the time, they underestimate themselves and we show them that the ceiling, if there is one, is  higher than they think. It's all about building confidence and believing in themselves."

The Druze manager, Alam Ibrahim, referenced the Druze town of Majdal Shams on the Golan Heights that was hit by a Hezbollah missile when 12 children were killed in July when the missile struck a soccer field popular with the town's children. "Some of the children that were murdered played tennis with us. Twelve worlds ended because terrorists decided to shoot a missile. We re all in the same boat. We are in rough seas, we either gather together and bring the ship to safer waters or we lose hope", he said.

 

Israeli police officers and firefighters work at the site of a rocket attack in Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, Saturday, July 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Gil Eliyahu)

"We wanted to take these kids away from the alarms, the shelling and the atmosphere of war, enhance their resilience and share with them on the tennis field."

"While the cultures are different, we know how to unite the kids through sport, especially on the tennis field."

"Our vision does not differentiate between skin or hair colour. We are all together. It warms the heart to see a religious Jewish kid play with an Arab girl, there is hope in that."

Alam Ibrahim, Druze manager of ITEC's Sajur branch

He Ran and He Hid, but He Couldn't Escape

IDF soldiers standing over Sinwar's body Ynet

 

"Pretty rich after a year of undermining Netanyahu, saying he MUST go to a ceasefire, MUST deescalate, trying to stop Israel from going into Rafah WHERE SINWAR WAS KILLED, and Kamala boycotting his joint address to Congress - now Biden & Harris have the nerve to congratulate him for setting the path to peace."

"I'm sure the phone call sounds something like 'You were right Bibi [Netanyahu], we apologize'." 

US Rep. Mike Waltz, X 

"Sinwar died while beaten, persecuted and on the run -- he didn't die as a commander, but as someone who only cared for himself."

"This is a clear message to all of our enemies."

Israeli Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant

 

"Those prisoners [Israeli hostages] will not return to you before the end of the aggression on Gaza and the withdrawal from Gaza."

Khalil al-Hayya, Qatar-based Hamas Sinwar deputy

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explains the importance of Rafah's Philadelphi corridor during a press conference in Jerusalem on September 4, 2024. (Photo by Abir Sultan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

It took years to plan, a large, shocking event, an ambitious plan for a dedicated terrorist group to embark upon, knowing it would be entering the lair of a lion whose wrath, once provoked, would eclipse in numbers any death-dealing the terrorist group, even when tasking 6,000 of its operatives to enter Israel at the Gaza border with instructions to plunder, destroy, rape, mutilate and murder would achieve. The plan was explicit in its dedication to death-dealing for Israelis, another mini-Holocaust they could be proud of. A mission their leader sent them to fulfill and to document. Grisly scenarios they would be proud of and circulate as a demonstration of just how courageous men armed with total disregard for life, utterly devoid of compassion, using all the weapons of war on a civilian population.

And just as it took years in careful, precision planning by a man whose purpose for existence was a laser focus on destroying Israel, in the process terrorizing an entire population of Israelis never knowing when or where the next strike would come from, this man himself, steeped deep in his vision of 'liberation' and conquest became very familiar with the dread he had inspired in his potential victims. For a year since he dispatched those thousands of terrorists eager to do credit to Yahya Sinwar's shock and awe demonstration of Palestinian inhumanity, the architect of the October 7 slaughter became a desperate fugitive.

Sinwar, after 23 years in an Israeli prison for terrorism as a member of the Israel-destroying Hamas breakaway group from the Muslim Brotherhood, believed he knew the ethos and dearest-held emotional attachments of Jews; care and solicitation for the welfare of fellow Jews. And he meant to exploit that to its full potential. After all, hadn't he benefited from that Jewish reaction himself, when  in exchange for the return of one lone abducted Israeli soldier, over a thousand Palestinian prisoners were traded, himself included, and enabled to carry on with their pet project of threat, destabilization, violence and mayhem against Israel.

The pinnacle therefore, of that infamous October 7 day of sadistic savagery was to round up Israeli children, the elderly and infirm, women and soldiers to be held for their guaranteed ransom potential in freeing up more Palestinians who languish in Israeli prisons after having been arrested and placed on trial, found guilty of the crimes of threatening, attacking and murdering Jews. Maltreatment of the age-and-gender vulnerable abductees, their humiliation, punishing living arrangements, sexual predation and starvation would do nothing to diminish their value as exchange objects.

 

IDF soldiers evacuating Sinwar's body on a stretcher

 

Thursday was the turning point in the Israel Defense Forces' search for the whereabouts of the October 7 mastermind. He had spent the year since the slaughter in southern Israel, deep in the bowels of Gaza, with him six Israeli hostages as living shields. When those six were too weak and emaciated, suffering from torture and privation, their usefulness was ended and they too were murdered. Israeli intelligence was certain he had moved to the tunnels of Rafah, where several Hamas divisions remained intact after the bulk of the Hamas militias elsewhere within the Gaza Strip had been neutered. On that day, he and  his bodyguards were cornered following a gunfight with Israeli troops, who called in a tank to fire a shell on a building that Sinwar had taken shelter in.

A drone had verified the presence of a terrorist in the previously bombed building. He was found later, partially buried in the rubble that had resulted from tank-fire, dead. The building's collapse had sent a wooden stake, not through the heart of that death zombie; his brain was impaled by it, a fitting end for a human monster. Tal al-Sultan in Gaza's southern Rafah city, hard by the border with Egypt, through which arms and ammunition had been smuggled into Gaza for years, was the scene of his death. When the "dead man walking" was found, he had with him, a gun, a knife, a flak jacket and 40,000 Israeli shekels.