Cultural Human Trafficking in Child-Sex Predation

(Peel Regional Police)

"It's very surprising when you have an adolescent performing this. Whether it is an adult or a child, it's appalling."

"Human trafficking is such a psychologically and physically violent offence. I think it's one of the most harmful offences that's being perpetrated because of the trauma that survivors endure, sometimes for months or years."

"There is a demand. There is an interest in the community for people wanting to have  sex with children. We are doing proactive initiatives to prevent that."

"It takes a lot of guts for victims to come forward. We want them to come forward. They don't necessarily have to come forward to police, but talking to social services and getting themselves out of the place they've found themselves."

"Traffickers are using social media, like Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, to communicate with young people to engage them and then offer opportunities to meet. And once they meet, they groom them."

"They provide them with gifts, they shower them with compliments, make them feel good about themselves and show them the good life."

"Then things change. The trafficker might say 'you owe me, and you have to do this to pay it back', or they might say, 'hey, can you do me this favour because I've been so good to you? And the favour might be to have sex with an older person for money."

"It is very much a psychological offence. They don't understand what they are getting themselves into. they think they're getting into a relationship with someone who loves them, but unfortunately, it is not true."

Det.-Sgt. Bob Hackenbrook, Peel Police Service Vice and Human Trafficking Unit 

 

This is happening. And what is  happening is not a reflection of what could be identified as 'Canadian values' in the sense that this type of social offence is not a common ingredient of the conventional Canadian psyche. It is also not a common occurrence within Canadian society. While predators exist everywhere that psychopaths can be found, the practise of stalking, grooming and trafficking young girls is a fairly recent phenomenon. And it is one that has a definite cultural background with racial dimensions. 

 

The men in northern England were sentenced to jail terms from 12 to 35 years after sexually abusing and raping two girls from the age of 13.  AP Photo

 

Grooming gangs are a common phenomenon in Britain, for example. Their prevalence and their tactics, their countless victims forced into the sex trade by unscrupulous monsters are acknowledged. Yet very little police action has taken place and the reason that this occurs is simple enough; an  unwillingness to confront the traffickers for fear of risk of being called out for racism. And that would be because this is a favoured tactic of 'racialized' people, for some of whom the practise has become business as usual.

 

Mohammed Shahzad, Mushtaq Ahmed and Kasir Bashir denied the offence charges brought against them in Britain   GMP/BBC

 

In the Toronto-area Peel Region, a 15-year-old boy has been accused of operating a child sex trafficking operation in and about the Toronto Metropolitan area, with girls as young as 11 years of age. Also arrested were three customers who Peel Regional Police have taken into custody to face sex charges. The police investigation revealed that girls aged 11 to 14 had been trafficked and sexually exploited. 

 

The suspects made use of coercion, manipulation and physical violence threats to influence and control the victims where violations of their human rights resulted in financial benefits to their exploiters. Peel Police found 32 victims under the age of 15, victimized through sex trafficking since 2022. Interest in child sexual abuse is a real and dangerous problem in Canadian communities, pointed out Det.-Sgt. Bob Hackenbrook, in charge of the Human Trafficking Unit. 

 

In an undercover operation last year dubbed project Juno,Peel police posted an advertisement offering sex with an underage teen that resulted in investigators facing a flood of eager calls amounting to an average of 100 such calls daily for several weeks. Police made 35 arrests on that occasion, on charges of communications for the purpose of having sex with a person under 18, by the time the operation was shut down. 

Peel has the highest percentage of racialized people in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). 

• 69% of people in Peel identify with a racialized group.
• By comparison, just 34% of Ontarians and 27% of Canadians overall identify with a racialized group.
• Since 2006, the racialized population in Peel increased 72%. 

"The demographics were astounding" said Officer Hackenbrook. From several Ontario cities and towns, businessmen, students, construction workers, retirees and a college teacher were among those responding. "It was very alarming. And a lot them were married, so their families got a rude awakening when they went to bail court the next day."  

The 15-year-old male offender in the current arrest, cannot be identified by law due to his age, despite that he is charged with two counts of trafficking in persons under age 18, three counts of procuring a person under age 18, two counts of receiving a benefit from human trafficking, two counts of material benefit from sexual services by a person under age 18, and three counts of exercise control, direction, or influence.

 

Three of his clients, Mohamad Omar Al-Saleh, 21, from Toronto, Mustafa Abdo 22, from Toronto, and Yousif Al-Gburi, 20 from Mississauga, each stand charged with sexual assault of a female under age 16, sexual interference, and obtaining sexual services of a person under the age of 18 for consideration. It is the minor who recruited/induced young girls into the sex trade, profiting from them, while the adult males were clients whose indecent contact violated the young girls' human rights. 

 

Mohamad Omar Al-Saleh, 21, from Toronto; Mustafa Abdo, 22, from Toronto; and Yousif Al-Gburi, 20, from Mississauga have all been arrested and charged in connection with a human trafficking investigation. (Peel Regional Police handouts)

 

Photographs of the three adults were released by police, but the Youth Criminal Justice Act forbids identifying a minor charged with a crime, leaving name and likeness out of the public eye. One of the young victims two years earlier had reached out for help, leading police to open an investigation. That there are additional victims seems likely to investigators who have reached out to anyone with information to contact police. 

 

Part of the modus operandi of these human smuggling operatives is to move their victims frequently to other locales, and to keep them from having any contact with friends and family. The situation of the growing prevalence of sexual predators and their abused victims has impelled Peel Police to host a provincial human trafficking symposium with the expectation that survivors, victim services providers, police, justice and social services officials, and politicians across Ontario will attend to discuss experiences and help to coordinate greater efforts to disrupt human trafficking.

 

There is in fact, a toll-free, around-the-clock Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-833-900-1010 

 

 

Hargeisa, Republic of Somaliland

The flag of Somaliland seen at a fruit farm between the capital city of Hargeisa and Port city of Berbera, Somaliland, on February 19, 2026. (Tony KARUMBA / AFP)

"The recent recognition of Somaliland as a sovereign state by Israel, the first and only country to have done so in 34 years, has reignited international debate, drawing attention not only to a long-standing post-colonial anomaly but to the lived reality of the people of Somaliland. Too often reduced to a geopolitical abstraction, Somaliland is first and foremost a society that has spent more than three decades building stability, democratic institutions, and a shared civic identity despite lacking formal statehood."

"This unresolved status is inseparable from the legacy of colonialism. The modern borders of the Horn of Africa, like those of much of the continent, were drawn in European capitals with little understanding of, or regard for, the peoples who inhabited those territories. This externally imposed cartography fractured historical communities, fused incompatible ones, and laid the foundations for conflicts that persist to this day. Africa is not the empty reservoir of resources or the passive geopolitical playground it has been treated as throughout colonial, Cold War, and neo-colonial eras alike. It is a continent of diverse societies, rich histories, and deeply rooted cultural identities that have long been constrained by the political frameworks imposed from outside and by the continued influence of external powers."

"In this context, Somaliland’s situation is emblematic of what it means to be an unrepresented state today: functioning governance without recognition, democratic legitimacy without a seat at the table, and a population whose political will is acknowledged at home but ignored internationally. In a region marked by protracted conflict and chronic insecurity, Somaliland stands out not as a legal anomaly but as a community that has demonstrated resilience, coherence, and the capacity to govern, despite an international system still shaped by the colonial legacy that once defined it."

Elena Artibani, Academy Analyst Assistant, UNP Academy (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization)

Hargeisa, capital of Republic of Somaliland

 

 Somaliland is an authentically sovereign nation, not part of Somalia, and awaiting world recognition for its democratic credentials, its peaceful existence in the Horn of Africa surrounded by nations embroiled in conflict -- most particularly Somalia, a functionally unstable, violence-prone state. The Islamist groups that hunt down and kill other Muslims who reject the fundamentalist demands of Sharia law are a plague in Somalia, but are non-existent in Somaliland. The U.S. military recently conducted  an aggressive bombing campaign in Somalia against the world-threatening presence of jihadist-Islamist predators.

 

The U.S. Africa Command targeted 150 hits in Somalia to eradicate the presence of those dangerously militant terrorist groups. U.S. President Donald Trump is less than convinced of Somaliland's presence as a completely separate nation, aspiring to be recognized as the African continent's 55th sovereign country.

For its part, the state of Israel had no problem recognizing Somaliland as an independent sovereign nation, sharing democratic values of freedom and rule of law. Both countries use their natural resources and their people-power to meet their prosperous futures. 

 

And when Israel formally recognized Somaliland in response to its search for recognition from the global community, emphasizing its independence from Somalia, Israel was the first nation in the world to form an alliance with Somaliland, in full recognition. Almost instantaneously, the world responded, with China, France, Britain, Denmark, Russia and the African Union criticizing Israel's move of diplomatically legitimizing Somaliland's independence. Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt made it clear that they deplored Israel's action verifying the Republic of Somaliland's right to declare itself independent of Somalia.

 

Hargeisa's street markets where large quantities of money that money changers stack around them without fear of theft.

Regional countries in the Horn are concerned with access to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, considered among the most vital waterways worldwide for global shipping trade. Yemen's Houthi rebels linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran in its global Shiite jihad, have been particularly troublesome for global shipping in their hijacking of shipping vessels, in particular targeting any shipping that may have an Israeli component, linked to the Tehran-led Shiite terrorist axis supporting the Hamas invasion of October 7, 2023 in southern Israel where sadistic barbarism and mass slaughter led Israel to invade Gaza to eradicate Hamas terrorists.

 

According to analysts, Israel's recognition of Somaliland is being interpreted as a measure whereby the conflict with the Houthis can be mitigated. Israeli foreign policy expert Asher Lubotzky at the University of Houston in Texas, stated his interpretation that a greater Israeli footprint in Somaliland could assist in the deterrence of weapons smuggling by the Houthis into Yemen. Israel and Somaliland in their mutual recognition, however, are looking toward agreements in security, trade, technology and agricultural techniques.

 

According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the agreement with Somaliland reflected the spirit of the Abraham Accords, that series of agreements since 2020 that have established amicable relations between the Jewish state and Muslim-majority countries that include Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. Just as Israel defends Somaliland's right as a sovereign state conducting diplomacy, so too does the United States defend Israel's right to do likewise, even as the U.S. itself holds back yet from recognizing the Republic of Somaliland.  

 

Afar tribe cultural show in Hargeisa

 

Somaliland is a federal republic with a series of  semiautonomous regions. The country broke from Mogadishu in 1991 following a war of independence, during which Hargeisa, Somaliland's capital, and other cities were bombed by the Barre regime. Since then, support by the United Arab Emirates, and relations with Ethiopia and Taiwan have buoyed Somaliland's prospects for future prosperity. The UAE invested in the development of a modern port in Berbera on the Gulf of Aden in recent years. In response, Somalia retaliated by canceling all contracts with the UAE, a move in which it is Somalia that loses. 

 

China is enraged over Hargeisa's decision to maintain ties with Taiwan. Ethiopia, on the other  hand, signed a 2024 deal to build a naval facility on Somaliland's coastline, in exchange for recognition. 

 

Formalities and diplomacy have moved apace between Israel and Somaliland, with Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Saar, visiting Hargeisa in January. And according to Mohamed Hagi, Somaliland's minister of state for foreign affairs, Somaliland would soon join the Abraham Accords. Reciprocal embassies are shortly to be opened and business leaders in Israel are viewing investment possibilities with the Somaliland government.

 

On the cusp between rural tradition and urban modernity, donkey carts can still be seen on Hargeisa streets amidst vehicular traffic.

 

Reducing the Nature of Nuclear Proliferation to the Status of State Profit

"[The documents raise] concerns that the Trump administration has not carefully considered the proliferation risks posed by the proposed nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia or the precedent this agreement may set." 

"[The document contends that reaching a deal with the kingdom] will advance the national security interests of the United States, breaking with the failed policies of inaction and indecision that our competitors have capitalized on to disadvantage American industry and diminish the United States standing globally in this critical sector."

"Nuclear cooperation can be a positive mechanism for upholding nonproliferation norms and increasing transparency, but the devil is in the details."

"This suggests that once the bilateral safeguards agreement is in place, it will open the door for Saudi Arabia to acquire uranium enrichment technology or capabilities — possibly even from the United States."

"Even with restrictions and limits, it seems likely that Saudi Arabia will have a path to some type of uranium enrichment or access to knowledge about enrichment."

"It behooves Congress [to provide a check on the administration's power to strike an agreement with the kingdom and] consider not just the implications for Saudi Arabia, but also the precedent that this deal will set, and vigorously examine the terms of the proposed 123 Agreement." 

Kelsey Davenport, director for non-proliferation policy, Arms Control Association, Washington 

 

"[If Iran obtains the bomb], we will have to get one".

[A weapon would be necessary] for security reasons, and for balancing power in the Middle East, but we don't want to see that." 

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmon

President Donald Trump (R) shows Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia the "Presidential Walk of Fame" as they walk on the colonnade at the White House on November 18, 2025 in Washington, DC   Getty Images

 

It could be done differently. There is the example of the United Arab Emirates neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which signed a '123 agreement' with the United States. With that agreement by the UAE and the U.S., with South Korean assistance the Barakah nuclear power plant will be built. The United Arab Emirates however, unlike Saudi Arabia, expressed no interest in achieving enrichment as part of its agreement. Instead it chose to opt for nuclear power generation for energy use, signing an agreement considered to be the 'gold standard' for nations seeking atomic power, according to nonproliferation experts. 

 

However, it seems the Trump administration has decided that Saudi Arabia could after all have some form of uranium enrichment under the proposed agreement with the U.S. as suggested by congressional documents. Raising proliferation concerns by arms control groups, in the midst of an atomic standoff between the Islamic Republic of Iran which has always denied its nuclear program would have a military component, now facing off against an American ultimatum to surrender all current and future prospects of nuclear research and production.

Any spinning centrifuges within Saudi Arabia, warn non-proliferation experts, could lead to a potential weapons program for the kingdom. A certain likelihood, given past assertions by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince whose past statements were emphatic that should Tehran achieve the production of atomic bombs, he would pursue a similar program for Saudi Arabia. As it is, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a mutual defence pact last year following Israel's attack on Qatar targeting Hamas officials.

Pakistan's own expertise in producing atomic bombs for its own arsenal could certainly ensure that under that mutual defence pact, a sharing of nuclear know-how could consolidate that pact. At the time of the signing, Pakistan's defence minister said as much when he declared that his country's nuclear program "will be made available" to Saudi Arabia should it be required. A declaration that some view as a threat meant to draw Israel's attention that it will not long remain the Middle East's sole nuclear-armed state.

 

The Trump administration, it seems, is aspiring for 20 nuclear business deals with world nations, one that includes Saudi Arabia, a deal that could be valued in billions for U.S. coffers. Perhaps the administration is that short-sighted it is incapable of looking beyond the wealth it could accrue to itself, to the situation as it appears to the non-proliferation crowd; lighting a match in the gas-saturated environment of the Middle East where conflicts are constant and a conflagration of immense significance could be enabled in an area where tribal and sectarian conflict and bloodshed are business as usual.

 

The United States views with its jaundiced eye competitors such as China, France, Russia and South Korea among those leading nations selling nuclear power plant technology. While the draft deal            would in theory have the U.S. and Saudi Arabia enter safeguard agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency to include oversight of the "most proliferation-sensitive areas of potential nuclear co-operation", listing enrichment, fuel fabrication and reprocessing as potential areas of concern, there is the sobering example of years of fruitless negotiation with Tehran. 

 

Workers on a construction site at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant in November 2019. Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

 

Brain Talk

"So then for example, even if you're sitting in front of a You Tube video that's a 20-minute tutorial, you're going to be uncomfortable."

"Because it's just longer, and it needs more of your attention."

"What we measured [in our research] is called functional brain connectivity. It doesn't measure laziness or IQ or anything of the sort, but it actually measures, in layperson terms, which regions of the brain talk to each other." 

"Out brains do love shortcuts, but if you don't use a skill, you will lose it." 

Natalyia Kos'myna, MIT research scientist

 

"We do know that there are certain parts of the brain, certain connections between regions of the brain, that look like they are differentiated in people who are online more, who spend more time on social media, who are more attached to their phones."

Jason Chein, professor of psychology and neuroscience, Temple University 

 

"The No.1 reason why kids are not getting the recommended eight hours of sleep a night is that they're using screens too much. They're often using them in bed." 

"So an interesting study showed that across every single measure of cognitive functioning whether it was impulsivity or reading comprehension or vocabulary, it was all lower among the highest screen users."

"Are we choosing how much time we spend on our screens, or are the platforms influencing that choice?"

"We need a little friction, we need a little struggle, we need a little challenge. That's part of learning." 

Mitch Prinstein, senior science adviser, American Psychological Association

Studies are increasingly finding associations between heavy consumption of short-form video and challenges with focus and self-control.  Justine Goode / NBC News; Getty Images

 

Dr. Kos'myna was inspired to launch a study on the effects of constant screening of short videos when she began noticing her students' use of chatbots to aid them in completing assignments. Curious whether or  how that use affected the learning capabilities of the students, she and her colleagues designed a study geared to measure what effects were being experienced. 

 

The study was initiated by giving essay prompts to students. Among the students, some used their own brainpower to respond to questions; others were allowed the use of a search engine, the AI summaries turned off. And a third group made use of an AI Chatbot without restrictions. The resulting brain activity was recorded for all the students in the experiment. Following the experiment the students were asked questions of what it was that they wrote.

 

Potsdam

Of the 54 students involved, striking results were seen. Those students who made use of the chatbot were unable to retain the sense of what they wrote evidenced in an inability to quote from their own essays, even within a few moments of the essay completion. Their brains were not actively involved during the experiment. 

 

In the journal Translational Psychology researchers studied over 7,000 children across the United States in a 2025 study, finding reduced cortical thickness in certain areas of the brain to be associated with more screen use. The outer layer cortex, sitting above the more primitive brain structures is associated with higher-level thinking, memory and decision-making. "We really need it for things like inhibitory control or not being so impulsive", explained professor of psychology Mitch Prinstein of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

 

According to research, what which can become habitual for many people; scrolling through short videos on TikTok, Instagram or You-Tube Shorts affects attention, memory and mental health. Increased use of short-form video, according to a recent meta-analysis of the scientific literature, was linked to poorer cognition and increased anxiety. Naturally distractible, our brains are wired to respond to unusual background interruptions. 

 

image: iStock/tommaso79

Frequent switching from topic to topic in scrolling is the fragmentation of attention that makes it difficult to remain focused for longer attention-requiring tasks, just as constant interruptions like continual telephone ringing or children nagging for attention interrupting mind focusing. Whether long-term complications may arise from these interrupted interactions is not known.

 

The cortex being vital for controlling addictive behaviours, bypassing its normal function through greater screen use for short, distracting videos results in impulsivity prompting users to seek out dopamine hits from social media, leading to greater screen time presenting with incidents of attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. Insufficient sleep particularly in the adolescent years, over time reduces white matter in the brain, a fatty substance that coats neurons and accelerates brain signals.

 

In Putin's Rapacious Territorial Sights

"To prevent the Ukrainian national movement from growing, the Russian state also banned Ukrainian organizations from 'both civil society and the body politic ... as a guarantee against political instability'."

"In 1876, Tsar Alexander II issued a decree outlawing Ukrainian books and periodicals and prohibiting the use of Ukrainian in theatres, even in musical libretti. He also discouraged or banned the new voluntary organizations and provided subsidies to pro-Russian newspapers and pro-Russian organizations instead."

"The sharp hostility to Ukrainian media and Ukrainian civil society later espoused by the Soviet regime -- and, much later, by the post-Soviet Russian government as well -- thus had a clear precedent in the second half of the nineteenth century.:

"Industrialization deepened the pressure for Russification as well, since the construction of factories brought outsiders to Ukrainian cities from elsewhere in the Russian empire. By 1917 only one-fifth of the inhabitants of Kyiv spoke Ukrainian."

"The discovery of coal and the rapid development of heavy industry had a particularly dramatic impact on Donbas, the mining and manufacturing region on the eastern edge of Ukraine. The leading industrialists in the region were mostly Russians, with a few notable foreigners mixed in: John Hughes, a Welshman, founded the city now known as Donetsk, originally called 'Yuzivka' in his honour. Russian became the working language of the Donetsk factories. Conflicts often broke out between Russian and Ukrainian workers, sometimes taking the 'most wild forms of knife fights' and pitched battles."

The Ukrainian Quest, Red Famine, Anne Applebaum 

Mass starvation, Holodomor history, Holodomor Museum

 

Ukraine, as far as Russia has always been concerned, is merely a suburb of Russia. Russia's 'little brother' as it were. And Russia never hesitated to exploit the richness of Ukraine's natural resources for its own use, as it did during the dreadful period of the famine now known as the Holodomor, considered by modern historians to represent an early 20th century genocide. Ukraine was exploited by Russia, by Poland, by Germany, none of which considered it a nation, much less one that had any right or reason to be sovereign.

 

In 2014, Moscow indulged Russian-speaking Ukrainian separatists, aiding them in armed hostilities against the government in Kyiv in their claims that the Donbas belonged to them, and as such remained an integral part of Russia. Russian troops disguised as separatists took the opportunity to occupy coveted Crimea and annexed it from Ukraine. Vladimir Putin waited another few years before embarking on a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.  

 

Since then, Russian troops have attacked and fought Ukrainian defenders of the Ukrainian homeland. The Kremlin is fond of stating that its missiles only target military sites, when in fact, over a period of four years, missile and drone attacks have targeted civilian sites, from hospitals and schools, domestic energy stations to apartment blocks, killing thousands of civilians.  Ukrainian cities and towns have been devastated by these massive night-time attacks, there are ruined and empty towns throughout the country with millions internally displaced and many millions more made refugees.

 

“I expect the war to continue until there is some sort of clear winner and loser on the battlefield,” says Oxana Shevel. Ukrainian artillerymen shooting 122 mm howitzer D-30 into Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Photo: Shutterstock 

"As long as there is an armed anti-Russia on Ukrainian territory, there can be no peace."

"I don't think anyone had any big hopes that the talks would end in success. The positions are very, very far from each other."

"The idea of territorial swaps for peace is not Russia's idea. It is Trump's."

Sergei Markov, pro-Kremlin political analyst  

Russian President Vladimir Putin's stated reason for invading Ukraine was the Russian obligation to save Ukraine from the neo-Nazi government in Kyiv that was planning to attack Russia. Internationally law-abiding Russia was embarked on a mission to rescue Ukrainians from the sinister bosom of their fascist government. Vladimir Putin's territorial-grab-lust has inspired Ukrainian pride in their nation. Rather than surrendering to the much larger, better-equipped military that Russia dispatched to an assumed month-long 'special military operation' to restore Ukraine to a Russian satellite, Kyiv and the Ukrainian military girded themselves and began their courageous response that moved from defense to counter-offense.

 

Now that U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to end the war with the use of his diplomatic skills after having insulted and verbally assaulted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the purported instigator of the conflict, ongoing 'peace talks' have gone nowhere, much to the dismay of the European powers that have stood foursquare in Ukraine's defense, supplying that doughty nation with war materiel, funding and political backing. The talks stall because Moscow demands that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the Donbas, not all of which Russia has conquered. Kyiv has no intention of doing so.

 

Ukrainian servicemen working drones   Photo source: Smoliyenko Dmytro/Ukrinform/ABACA 

 

Those who support the prospect of territorial exchanges imagine Russia could withdraw from some areas its troops occupies in exchange for Ukraine withdrawing its military from portions of the heavily fortified Donbas areas. During four years of full-scale war, Russia has failed in its determination to capture the entire area. For its part, Ukraine has become expert in the creation of sophisticated, relatively inexpensive-to-produce military drones, and has been able to send them, along with the medium-range ballistic missiles the former U.S. administration and its European allies have provided into Russia, hitting as far as Moscow.

 

While Vladimir Putin characterizes its bloody invasion costing tens of thousands of lives of Ukrainian servicemen and even greater numbers of his own military as sacrifices to his overweening territorial ambition as a noble enterprise, he speaks scathingly of Ukraine's 'terrorism' which successfully targets Russian maritime assets and bridges as well as penetrating inside Russian borders and hitting Russian oil assets close to Moscow. 

 

For his part, embattled Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains ever optimistic, his faith in his own people's resolve not to surrender their country to the rapacious whims of a bloody dictator, and his own steady steering of his nation's fortunes toward an end to the nightmare that Russia has engulfed them in, earns the admiration and the support of his neighbours who know that should Putin succeed in Ukraine, it will be only a matter of time that countries like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland will be in Putin's sights.

 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, congratulating his Ukrainian soldiers. Brookings Institute

  

Palestinian-Canadian Slander of Jewish-Canadian Zionists

"We have identified at least 17 overnight summer camps throughout Canada that support the State of Israel in some way."

"These camps are not problematic because they encourage connection to Jewish identity."

"Rather, they pose a problem because they encourage support for a genocidal, settler-colonial state."

"[Protesters should demand that the OCA board, the Quebec and Nova Scotia camp associations revoke accreditation of] camps that hire, host, or support [current or former] Israeli military personnel". 

Palestinian Anti-Israel Coalition  

 

"In recent days, the Ontario Camps Association (OCA) Board of Directors became aware of correspondence circulating online related to the current conflict in the Middle East." 

"That correspondence contains statements and expressions that the Board finds deeply concerning, and in certain characterizations and claims, we believe reflect rhetoric that is discriminatory and antisemitic in nature. The accusations, aimed at our Executive Director, members of the OCA team, and several member camps, draw directly on stereotyped libels and tropes related to Israel, Zionism, and Jewish people—including “genocide” and “colonizers,” symbolic categories that are so often spread with specifically malicious intent." 

"We welcome respectful dialogue, discussion, and even disagreement but will not tolerate harassment, intimidation, antisemitism, or discrimination."

Ontario Camps Association 

Campers gather at a Jewish overnight summer camp in Canada. Jewish community leaders and provincial camp associations have warned that coordinated anti-Israel campaigns targeting camp accreditation and visibility risk impacting youth institutions central to Jewish identity and communal life. (Image: TheJ.Ca.)

 

The Ontario Camps Association board of directors, in response to a campaign targeting over a dozen Jewish camps throughout Canada that support Israel, issued a statement that it will not tolerate "harassment, intimidation, antisemitism or discrimination".  Accusations levied against its executive director Joy Levy, staff and a number of member camps in the province are clearly offensively despicable, and do not align with the Association's values.

 

In its support of the Jewish camps among its extended camp memberships, the board of the OCA clarified their position that campaigns such as this are recognized for their role within a broader, co-ordinated effort to harm Jewish communities and their children; to weaken the credibility of Jewish camp leaders and "Canadian Jewish life in general", as well as imposing a discriminatory test of which Jews are considered to be "acceptable". 

 

Its role, pointed out the Ontario Camps Association, is not to "evaluate member camps based on their religious or cultural identity. Camps must be places where children, staff, volunteers, and families feel safe, respected, and protected. That includes our Jewish community, without exception." Concluding their statement with an expression of complete faith in their executive director and staff which had come under fire by the campaign to discredit them.

 

Titled "When children's camps support a  genocidal state, it's time for a gigantic change", the slanderous campaign is led by the groups Just Peace Advocates, the Palestinian Canadian Congress, the Canadian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Coalition, Ontario Palestinian Rights Association, and Palestinian and Jewish Unity. The coalition of anti-Zionists compiled a list of 17 other Jewish-Canadian camps in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia that they charge "support the State of Israel in some way".

 

That 'some way' identified more precisely as promoting a love and appreciation of Israel, supporting the Israeli military or giving employment to former IDF members. "This is not an abstract possibility. Multiple camps proudly and publicly share their staff connections to the Israeli military", they wrote, naming a few individuals with ties to Israel working at various camps. All citizens of Israel serve a mandatory conscription term in the military. The anti-Israel ensemble urged the OCA to hold its executive director, Joy Levy, accountable for 'racism' and support of 'a genocidal military'.

 

It also condemned B'nai Brith, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center "all of which espouse pro-Israel, Zionist perspectives". Posting a collection of Instagram screenshots from Levy's account of her attendance at pro-Israel protests occasionally holding an Israeli flag in a display of loyalty to the Jewish state.  

"We support our community's efforts at Jewish continuity, and Zionist expression, an integral part of Jewish identity, through a strong network of summer camp experiences for children and youth."

"We won't let the bigots and haters win. Ever!"

"[We stand with the OCA in its] tough, immediate and courageous response." 

Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation 

This coalition of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish conspirators of antisemitic tropes are of course, responsible for years of ongoing protests, encampments, threats against the Canadian Jewish community, harassment, calling for a 'Final Solution', to 'Globalize the Intifada', chorusing 'From the river to the sea Palestine will be free', as code for the elimination of Israel. They have poisoned the atmosphere for Jewish life in Canada. Their numbers and reach into Canadian politics have gained them tolerance from authorities for their constant outbursts of antisemitic vitriol.  

 

Their own children's camps are known as hotbeds of hateful propaganda. Palestinian school curricula infamously teach their children to hate and to view Jews as their enemy, and to aspire toward martyrdom in the killing of Jews. The little dramas encouraged by Palestinian leaders and teachers where children act out their roles in confronting and attacking Jews imbue the children with a sense of nobility and heroism. In summer camps Palestinian children are taught warfare and to aspire to a time when they join the terror groups outlawed in Canada. 

 

Camp Massad on the shores of Lake Winnipeg     Ethan Cairns/Free Press

The Undocumented Non-Deaths

Rosanne Casimir, chief, Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc

"While we want facts and answers as quickly as possible, we face significant challenges in accessing government and Catholic Church records for the 88-year-period the school operated. Our progress has been hindered by government restrictions on certain records and slow response."

"Indigenous communities place deep importance on honouring and protecting ancestral remains, and with 38 affected Nations involved, we must seek consensus on any future outcome."

"No interviews will be granted at this time, and Tk'emlups te Secwepemc will continue to provide updates as the investigation develops." 

Tk'emlups Chief Rosanne Casimir

The Ahousaht First Nation released findings on April 10 from their ground-penetrating radar search for possible graves of missing residential school children. (Chris Corday/CBC)

 

The history of the particular residential school that Chief Casimir focuses on may reflect 88 years of abuse of aboriginal children in her opinion when religious institutions in Canada -- primarily Catholic -- in agreement with the federal government of the time instituted elementary schools on and around traditional Indigenous land for the purpose of exposing children from nearby reservations to an education system reflecting the European roots of the mainstream Canadian population, to prepare the children to take their place within the greater Canadian population. But five years on from her declaration of unmarked graves no proof of her claim has surfaced despite millions provided for that purpose.

 

At that time and in those places, most Indigenous families were supportive of having their children receive a formal education. It was, unfortunately, an educational system unsupportive in its focus, of Indigenous history, tradition, language and values, exchanging them for a European style of education focusing on the elementals of education with the perspective entirely that of a Europe-centered ideological bent, meant to ignore and deliberately downplay the students' origins. Its intention was to prepare the children to go on to higher education and some did, exposed to the professions whose purpose they entered and took advantage of.

 

The modern perspective of the residential school system was that it erred in separating and alienating Indigenous children from their heritage, language and customs, which the schools substituted with the intention of preparing students to disown their own and adapt to the colonialist views of education leading to a participatory workforce. Well intentioned for the most part, but oblivious to the harm being perpetrated even while endowing the children with knowledge relating to the world outside the confines of the cloistered communities in which they came from. Which the outer world disdained, leading to societal prejudice. 

 

Firefighters inspect the damage at the burned-out Roman Catholic St Jean Baptiste church in Morinville, Alberta, Canada. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

 

In 2021 Canada awoke to the startling news that a ground-penetrating radar survey of the Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds had revealed that unmarked graves were identified, holding the remains of bodies of hundreds of aboriginal children. "Ground-penetrating radar primarily detects changes in the soil and we want to emphasize that we do not see any bodies or bones using this particular technique. This does not work like an X-ray" an explainer published by the Canadian Archaelogical Association stated. 

 

That explanation followed directly on the statement in May of 2021 announcing "confirmation of the remains of 215 children" at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, by the local Tk'emlups te Secwepemc tribe. The announcement spoke of "lost children" whose remains were discovered as "lost loved ones", including ages of those buried: "Some were as young as three years old", added Tk'emlups Chief Rosanne Casimir who sponsored a resolution that year at the Assembly of First Nations that referred to a "mass grave". 

 

No one questioned the details and the accuracy of the charges, and the Trudeau government immediately ordered the lowering of the Canadian flag for six months of mourning. Stories appeared in all news media mourning the unspeakable discovery of undocumented, unidentified remains of Indigenous children who attended the school and never returned home. The shocking news was picked up by the international press, and the Liberal government under Trudeau labelled the news as proof of a 'genocide' carried out against Canada's First Nations.

 

Crowfoot St.Joseph's Residential School 

 

From the aboriginal communities the reaction was incendiary -- literally. Churches, mostly on aboriginal land, were burned down and destroyed. There was no government action, little effort at investigation, much less taking any perpetrators into custody. Demands from aboriginal groups and their supporters that Canada's Prime Minister at the time of the residential school inauguration be censured, statues memorializing Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister be taken down, as well as that of Queen Victoria, along with others that were vandalized with no consequences for those besmirching the reputations of people who in actual fact were concerned for the future welfare of the aboriginal communities.

 

Following the initial declaration of the discovery of a "mass grave", when doubts began to set in, Chief Casimir walked back the definite nature of her revelations, to begin referring to 'anomalies' revealed by the ground-penetrating radar; disturbances in the earth, and not verification of bodies buried in those areas. Funding was given to the Kamloops area First Nations as well as others across Canada, to dig in the suspected burial areas at the discredited schools and disinter any possible body remnants to affirm the reality -- or not -- of  the allegations. Five years later, no First Nation group has used that funding to prove the accusation levied of 'genocide'.

 

Now, Tk'emlups te Secwepemc claims no exhumations would be performed in the absence of unanimous agreement from every other First Nation whose ancestors were known to have attended the Kamloops Indian Residential School.  But they still speak darkly of the sinister intent of the non-aboriginal community whose agenda was clearly to destroy First Nations dignity, heritage, culture, language and the next generation. There is, said Chief Casimir "a knowing in our community that we were able to verify" in the "undocumented deaths".

 

St.Anthony's Sacred Heart Residential School

 

Canada's Opioid Crisis and Compassionate Forgiveness for Fentanyl Trafficker

"Given [Kassar's] medical vulnerability, and given his dependence on uninterrupted treatment to avoid morbidity and potential mortality, I am satisfied that [he] has provided clear, convincing, and non-speculative evidence of the harm that he would experience if his removal is not deferred."

"I do not take this fact lightly. The opioid crisis in this country is real, and it has harmed many people."

"In most circumstances, the balance of convenience would favour the strong public interest in removing non-citizens who have played a role in that crisis."

"He [Kassar] was sentenced to 36 months imprisonment for the fentanyl conviction, and nine months for the hydromorphone conviction, to be served consecutively. He was released on parole in June 2021." 

Federal Court Justice Angus Grant, February 11, removal stayed 

A federal judge has paused the deportation of convicted fentanyl trafficker Mohamad Kassar after medical evidence suggested he may have lung cancer.Winnipeg Sun File Photo

Ordered deported from Canada in December 2019 following his conviction for possession of fentanyl and hyrdomorphone as a trafficker in illegal street drugs, Lebanese immigrant Mohamad Kassar who had arrived in Canada about 35 years ago on a permanent resident visa, was to have been removed to Lebanon on February 13, as an undesirable in Canada due to his serious criminal record.

 

However, on the basis of a preliminary medial diagnosis Federal Court Justice Angus Grant studied, that the man may have a tumour on his lung, his removal from Canada was stayed on compassionate grounds. As it happens, over recent years Canada has experienced huge social problems of drug overdoses leading to death linked to the availability of the powerful drug fentanyl. Originally manufactured as an opioid in China and brought into Canada through internet orders, more latterly the precursor chemicals for the production of fentanyl have entered Canada supplying illicit labs set up to produce fentanyl domestically.

 

As an enabler through Kassar's illegal drug trafficking, there can be little doubt that the drugs made available by his enterprising illegal activities added in no small measure to the menace on the streets of Canada and the inevitable overdose deaths of many drug users. His own pecuniary interests obviously took precedent over any residual feelings of ordinary human compassion that may have pranged  his conscience, but not to the extent that he took responsibility for the damage he wrought on people's lives.

 

His own medical-health vulnerabilities on the other hand, have played an outsized role in the man's efforts to remain in Canada rather than be returned to the violence-wracked Middle East country of his birth. The Canadian taxpayer will pay for this man's cost-lofty medical treatments as a perpetrator of criminal activity impacting the lives of Canadians consigning them to an early death. Thousands of lives have been lost in Canada with the proliferation of fentanyl as the dominant street drug afflicting people addicted to drug use.

 

Kassar submitted an application to remain in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, along with an application for a temporary resident permit and subsequently requested a deferral of his  removal while he waits for a response to his applications. Kassar's pre-removal risk assessment representing his final bid to remain in Canada was rejected by an inland enforcement officer. "I am convinced that a serious issue arises as to whether the officer adequately considered whether Mr. Kassar's medical conditions, when considered in light of the health care system in Lebanon, posed an immediate impediment to removal", commented Justice Grant.  

"Kassar is presently stable, but [that] this stability is tied to his current treatment, without which, his condition may deteriorate significantly."

"If unable to access medication, the doctor stated that Mr. Kassar was at risk not only for morbidity, but also of mortality."

Justice Grant  

Kassar had been convicted in 2018 of possession of fentanyl and hydromorphone for the purposes of trafficking. Given his convictions, the order was launched to have him deported in December of 2019. Canada Border Services Agency did not immediately respond to the order to deport the man, and in April of 2025, Kassar applied for permanent residence on humanitarian grounds. Then in January he applied for a temporary resident permit. No official decisions have yet been made with respect to the status of the applications.

 

Kassar turned to the Federal Court when an inland enforcement officer turned down his request to put his deportation off until the decisions on the applications were received. The officer, contended, the Judge, concluded that Kassar's "claim that he would be unable to obtain treatment in Lebanon was speculative", claiming "that the health care system is imperfect but also noting that health care remains available". Leading the Judge to the opinion that a serious health care crisis exists in Lebanon, and as a result, the Toronto court ordered a stay in the drug trafficker's deportation.

 

A Lebanese immigrant ordered deported in December 2019 after he was convicted for possession of fentanyl and hydromorphone for the purposes of trafficking has seen his deportation delayed by a Federal Court judge due to a possible lung cancer diagnosis. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

 

"[There are concerns over the Canada Border Services Agency officer's] consideration of the evidence on the health care system in Lebanon."

"The overwhelming thrust of this evidence is that the Lebanese health are system is in a state of acute crisis, that it struggles to provide routine treatment for chronic diseases, and that it is essentially on the verge of collapse."

"Instead of grappling with this evidence, the officer quoted isolated passages from the reports of two emergency relief organizations indicating that they do everything in their power to offer care to those in need [in Lebanon]."

Justice Angus Grant 

Vladimir Putin's Disposal of Influential Critics

"I was certain from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof: Putin killed Alexei with [a] chemical weapon."

"I am grateful to the European states for the meticulous work they carried out over two years and for uncovering the truth."

"Vladimir Putin is a murderer. He must be held accountable for all his crimes."

"It's difficult for me to say that it's good news because my husband was killed. And of course, I knew that he was killed. He spent his last years in very torturing conditions." 

Yulia Navalnaya 

 

"[The five nations were] confident that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin [identified through analysis of samples that confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a toxicant of poison dart frogs from South America]."

"Given the toxicity of epibatidine and reported symptoms, poisoning was highly likely the cause of his death. Navalny died while held in prison, meaning Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him."

Joint statement: United Kingdom, Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Germany

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny speaks to the media in front of security officers standing guard at the Foundation for Fighting Corruption office in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2019.  Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP 

Five European nations issued a statement affirming that biological samples taken from Russian political activist, and the staunchest opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin, prove on laboratory analysis that the anti-corruption crusader was the victim of a poison attack which was analyzed as a deadly venom used to murder him. Russia, they stated baldly had the "means, motive and opportunity" whereby to administer the deadly dose in an Arctic prison two years earlier. 

 

Despite an official Russian statement to the effect that Navalny had died from 'natural causes', this discovery of his death having been caused by a substance not found naturally in Russia refutes that claim. Maria Zakharova, spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry responded that the statement's intent was to "distract attention from the pressing problems of the West". However, once details of the tests involved in the investigation are released, Russian officials planned to comment further.

 

As Vladimir Putin's nemesis, the anti-corruption crusader and champion of  democracy was  arrested immediately he returned to Russia in 2021 from Germany where he had recuperated after being close to death, with the assistance of German medical facilities, from an earlier attempt to kill him by a different poison application, identified in a German laboratory as a banned nerve agent of a type developed in Russia. Then-Chancellor Angela Merkel had personally announced the German findings.

 

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny looks at a camera while speaking from a prison via a video link, provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, during a court session in January 2022. He died in prison on Feb. 16, 2024. Photo by Denis Kaminev /AP

 

Yulia Navalnaya had been in attendance at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday when the statement of revelation was released by the five members of NATO. Following the release of the statement, Navalnaya stated that many people felt it would be 'impossible' to prove her husband's death resulted from poisoning, despite which, she now had 'certainty'. "I think it is right to say I am satisfied with the investigation", she said. 

 

Following her husband's death, his family struggled against Russian authorities in their bid to reclaim his body. Authorities kept providing conflicting reasons as they continued to put off surrendering his body to the family. Which Navalny's family and supporters interpreted as the Russian government being anxious to destroy any evidence that might be uncovered that would explain the death of a man who had been seen only days earlier via video link to a court hearing, who appeared in good health. 

 

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny appears in a Russian court via video link from the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, in Russia's far northern Yamal-Nenets region, Feb. 15, 2024, a day before prison authorities said he had died after going for a walk at the prison. SOTAVISION/Reuters