Home-Grown Ideological Terrorism

Montreal police take cover during the shooting. Photograph: Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press/AP

 

"Behind the uniform was an exceptional and a dedicated police officer, a loyal friend, a loving partner, and an extraordinary father. Today, he leaves behind a pregnant partner who was preparing to build a future with him, and a young child of only 3 years old who will grow up without his father."

"[...While no amount of money can fill this immense void [it hopes to] ease the burden now on [Benredouane's] family and offer some support during this heartbreaking ordeal."

"It is with immense sadness and heavy hearts that we launch this fundraising campaign to support the family of our friend, colleague, and brother-in-arms who tragically died in the line of duty."

Montreal Police Brotherhood, GoFundMe campaign 

Residents of the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood are mourning the death of 34-year-old Montreal police officer Mohamed Lamine Benredouane who was killed in a shooting Monday. A civilian and the suspect also died that day.  CBC

 

"Born in Lebanon, Michel eventually made his home in Israel before settling in Montreal. He remained deeply devoted to Israel throughout his life, maintaining close ties to his children and family there. Almost every year on the anniversary of his father's death he travelled to Israel."

"It is therefore especially heartbreaking that violence would ultimately claim Michel's own life here in Montreal. Having already borne the pain of losing loved ones to conflict overseas, he himself became the victim of senseless violence in the city he called home. His passing is a reminder that hatred, wherever it appears, knows no borders and spares no innocent."

Beryl P. Wajsman, president, Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal

Sixty-eight-year-old Michel Mizrahi is being remembered as a generous and committed community member, especially at his synagogue in a Montreal suburb. Mizrahi was killed Monday in the shooting that also took the life of a Montreal police officer.  CBC

 

Michel Mizrahi, 68, a Montreal businessman, was the lone civilian killed by a gunman who suddenly appeared Monday morning in a newly developed commercial hub in Cote-des-Neiges, central Montreal, an area known as a Jewish district. The shooter, dressed in military fatigues and carrying a long gun, opened fire, shooting in all directions, while the busy thoroughfare quickly relinquished its many passerby to a desperate rush to shelter from the gunfire. A 911 call to police saw a response within minutes, police squads on the scene swiftly become the target of the shooter.

 

As a passerby, Mr. Mizrahi was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Born in Lebanon, he was remembered by those who knew him well, as a kind and gentle man. A man who had suffered his own losses in the near past, when his father was killed in a missile attack during the Gulf War, in 1991, in Israel. Another staggering blow arrived on the news that one of his siblings' child had been slaughtered on October 7, 2023 at the Nova music festival during the Palestinian invasion comprised of thousands of terrorists, led by Hamas.

 

The police officer victimized by the gunman was 34 years of age, Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, a member of the Montreal Police Force since 2021. Not scheduled to work on Monday, he had decided to take an overtime shift. Benredouane went to school in the neighbourhood where he was killed. "You have someone that grew up in the neighbourhood and decided to serve his community in the way that he did, by ultimately losing his life. It was an act of heroism that I can't highlight further",  said Notre-Dame-deGrae borough Mayor Stephanie Valenzuela.

 

Montreal shooting leaves three dead including a police officer – video

Eyewitness videos posted to social media showed one police officer shot, as another, female officer crouched behind a waist-level concrete planter, exchanging fire with a man in camouflage. Another video showed the downed officer rolling on his back, then his stomach, in an effort to crawl away from the direct fire, where at least 30 shots were later documented. That officer in the end, died of his wounds; Mohamed Lamine Benredouane. And with him, Michel Mizrahi who had been standing beside the female officer who was also shot in the exchange, but survived her wounds in hospital.

 

The attack had taken place at the Hilton Hotel on the corner of De Courtrai and Trans Island avenues. On the arrival of police a lockdown was ordered, people warned to remain in their apartments, doors locked, nearby stores with shoppers the same. Police were uncertain whether there was a lone shooter, or another with him close by. The lockdown with people sheltering in place lasted in fear and confusion for hours before it was lifted with the assurance that one shooter only was involved, and he had been lethally shot by police at the scene.

 

Seth Hatfield, 25 years of age, from Alberta who had attended Lethbridge University, recognized as an outstanding student, who had set out to put into action a plan of vengeance against capitalists, the elite, and Zionists and Jews who were behind all manner of nefarious social constructs he set out in a lengthy manifesto which also extolled the virtues of communism and the evils of "high capitalist" societies, urging readers of his screed who shared his grievances to "Be unflinching, go forth, and KILL THEM ALL!"

 

The document this class-action terrorist left behind listed "valid potential class A targets", that included international real-estate brokerages, private equity firms, elite bankers and politicians, influential Zionists, private health and oil CEOs, plastic surgeons, cryptocurrency leaders, the headquarters of all corporations with ties to Zionism (IBM, Microsoft, Boeing) and "pick-up artists", as well as pornographers. Among other targets: "the headquarters of international pornography companies", and those who "actively promote pornography to the public".

 

Montreal police work the scene of a shooting, June 22, 2026. CHRISTOPHER KATSAROV / CHRISTOPHER KATSAROV/THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP

  

The Source of His Discomfiture ... Raw Antisemitism

"The health system issues that may have played a role in Manny Moss deciding to leave, they didn't just arise last week or last month or last year."

"The problems with the health system have existed for years, and he could have left at any time before."

"So what it comes down to is the antisemitism and the feeling that this [city] has become an increasingly dangerous or unrecognizable place to live [for Canadian Jewish Montrealers]."

Anonymous source

 

"[Dr. Moss's departure is a blow to the already perilous state of cardiac surgery in Quebec]."

"He's 45 and he's ultra specialized in robotic surgery."

"He's in the prime of his career and he's leaving for personal reasons and obviously for resources reasons."

Dr. Louis Perrault, president, Association des chirurgiens cardio-vasculaires et thoraciques du Quebec 

Dr. Emmanuel Moss sits at the controls as he performs robotic cardiac surgery at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal on Monday May 28, 2018. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazett

 

Canadian Jews, although proud of their citizenship have been shocked in the past several years by a sudden upheaval in civic life in Canada where groups of anti-Israel -- and by extension anti-Jewish-presence -- protesters led by Palestinian student groups throughout Canadian universities alongside incitement and funding from foreign sources have called for a 'final solution', chanting for Jews to 'go back to Poland', railing against Israeli 'genocide' while calling for a 'global Intifada' and the establishment of a sovereign Palestine 'from the river to the sea'. All of which is doublespeak for the destruction of the state of Israel, and a yearning for another Holocaust.

 

Dr. Emmanuel Moss, Institut de cardiologie de Montréal)

That their government, under Liberal party leadership, has done nothing whatever to put a stop to the constant harassment of Canadian Jews -- the malicious marches, the university campus 'Palestinian' tent camps where Jewish students and staff were mercilessly threatened and harassed, Canadian-Jewish-owned businesses vandalized, marches taking place in areas of cities comprising Jewish neighbourhoods -- leaving the Jewish community confused, abandoned, isolated and beyond troubled, wondering how safe they and their families are now in the country they call home.

 

Aside from random Canadian Jews  now and again deciding they've had enough, and preparing to abandon their Canadian roots for other places where they feel safe and secure, there have been high-profile departures, such as that of Professor Gad Saad, formerly of Concordia University, leaving to take up residence in the United States. "I'm now leaving in large part because it became difficult for me, if not impossible, to be a high-profile Jewish professor who supports the right of Israel to exist", he explained. Not did the death threats he received convince him to remain in Canada.

 

Now, the Jewish community in Montreal has been made aware that the chief of cardiac surgery at the Jewish General Hospital tendered his resignation, with plans to move his family to Atlanta. He has cited both rising antisemitism in Montreal, as well as the deteriorating health-care system in the province.  

After working out of the Jewish General Hospital for the past decade, Dr. Emmanuel Moss informed his patients and his synagogue of his impending move to the United States. Although Dr. Moss declined to offer a statement to the press, close sources confirmed the background of disillusionment with rampant antisemitism and the lack of action by authorities to crack down on serious incidents of Jew-hate.

Montreal4Palestine posted this image to Instagram on Wednesday in response to the public outcry, clarifying that the three figures hanging in effigy at a rally on Saturday in Montreal were directed specifically at political figures. (mtl4pal/Instagram)

 

Images that circulated recently of masked anti-Zionist protesters in Montreal staging a mock hanging of an effigy of a kippah-clad man that appeared to depict Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, added its weight of concern over anti-Jew extremism to the incidents of physical assaults, vandalism of Jewish-owned businesses and firebombing of synagogues and bullets fired at a Jewish girls' school.   Incidents too numerous, frustrating and worrying that in total represented a complete rejection of Jewish life in Canada, with no response from the federal government for the years these events have been carried out in the wake of the mass Palestinian terrorist atrocities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

 

On a more personal, professional level, Dr. Moss's frustration  with limited resources for heart patients in vital need of heart surgery in Quebec, all played on his sensibilities. Obviously, for  him in his professional capacity layered over with his personal reaction in alarm over rising antisemitism played their critical role in his difficult decision to leave Canada. Just recently, Dr. Moss sounded the alarm over a shortage of perfusionists at the Jewish General, with the warning that the scarcity of technicians operating heart-lung machines placed the hospital's cardiac surgery program in jeopardy.

 

Jewish General Hospital, Montreal    Photo: Adama Diop

"From a strategic planning perspective, we have been aware that Dr. Moss could leave at a time of his choosing, for personal reasons, and we have been working on contingencies for some time."

"When he departs, we will have a plan in place to offset any potential negative impact to our cardiac surgery program, with a view of maintaining timely access to high-quality care."

Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, chief executive officer, west-central Montreal health authority 

Disturbing the Public Peace

"The multiplication of prayers in the street is a serious and sensitive issue in Quebec."

"Last December our government expressed its malaise in the face of this phenomenon, which is more and more present in Montreal."

"The premier of Quebec gave me a mandate to reinforce laicity and I have the firm intention of fulfilling this mandate with diligence."

"This fall we will table legislation to reinforce laicity in Quebec, including the banning of prayers in the streets." 

Jean-Francois Roberge, Minister Responsible for Laicity, Quebec Legislature

 

"To see people praying in the street, in public parks, this is not something we want in Quebec."

"When you want to pray, you go in a church, or a mosque, not in a public place."

Quebec Premier Ferancois Legault 

Muslims pray outside McGill University during an anti-Israel protest in Montreal on October 7, 2024 — the one year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel.  John Mahoney/Postmedia/File

 

Legislation is in the planning stages in the Quebec Assembly so that repeats of the frequent calls to public prayer by pro-Palestinian protest organizers with their tendency to block traffic while insisting on their human rights and free speech entitlements to assemble and pray en masse in public parks, at traffic intersections, in front of churches, such as has become common in front of Montreal's Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica. These organized theatrical displays of Muslim contempt for churches have not sat well with Quebecers who are now signalling their grievance against the main organizer, Montreal4Palestine.

 

A government advisory committee tasked by the government of Quebec to study the situation and to arrive at solutions and recommendations on how to handle the disruptions caused by those claiming to represent the interests of Palestinians while demonizing Israel, claiming it is responsible for a 'genocide' against Palestinians in Gaza, following the terrorist Hamas group's October 7 border infiltration and  assault by thousands of Hamas operatives, alongside opportunistic Palestinian civilians wreaking savage atrocities against women and children and the elderly in southern Israel. 

 

The advisory committee recommended, among its 50 other suggestions, that the matter of how best to handle the outpourings of condemnation of Israel -- and support of Gaza's Hamas terror group as having stood  up to the 'brutal occupiers of Palestinian land' -- by leaving the issue to the discretion of involved municipalities. That hands-off recommendation to the Quebec government was, however, not well received, leading to the decision to handle it directly for the  entire province.

 

The news of impending legislation saw a response from the Canadian Muslim Forum, stating its deep concern with the situation. "A blanket ban would stigmatize communities, fuel exclusion, and undermine Quebec's social cohesion", their statement thundered, without a hint of concession over the fact that this is precisely what the Muslim groups in Canada have been doing to the lives of Canadian Jews over the space of several years with their frequent and ongoing protest campaigns...stigmatizing the Jewish community, fuelling exclusion, and undermining civil social cohesion. 

 

Protesters gather in front of Notre-Dame Basilica in Old Montreal on July 20, 2025 in response to Muslim prayer gatherings that happened outside the basilica on Sundays.

 

 The report of the investigative committee made it clear that their scenario recommendation on the state of secularism in the province would be best accomplished leaving the matter on public prayers to the cities themselves to solve. Drafting a policy that would create a framework for the use of public spaces by religious groups. The advisory committee made clear their efforts to strike a balance between upholding Quebec's collective values and "the preservation of religious practices that do not unduly harm public order". 

 

However, the Coalition Avenir Quebec caucus of the ruling provincial government, which had met several weeks earlier to discuss the laicity issue had made their decision. That their reflections on the issue had already become "quite advanced" was made clear. Whether the ban would cover places off limits to group prayers other than in front of churches, to include parks or even, for that matter, specifying which faiths would be specifically included by the ban was left to conjecture. 

 

Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal. Bells at the church ring on the hour between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

How to Make Sense of the Insensible

"They thought about calling 911, but they didn’t because they were scared of the victim’s family."

"They put a blanket over the corpse of Mrs. Tukkiapik. They used air spray for the odour. "

"[Francesco] stayed six months in the house with his brother and the body of Mrs. Tukkiapik."

"They explained to the police that during the week of Sept. 12 [2023] at three different times, people went to see her at the house, but that Frank refused to let them inside the house."

"Immediately upon entering, the officers noticed the strong smell of a dead body. The house was a complete mess and was in unsanitary conditions."

"Inside the living room, they noticed a human silhouette on the couch underneath a blanket with the feet sticking out. Underneath the blanket, the officers found the corpse of Mrs. Tukkiapik, who was in a mummified state."
Prosecutor's statement to the Court

 

"She is there on the couch [to police]. She [has been] laying on the couch for the last six months."
"l should have called to let you guys [police] know. But my brother Frank didn’t want me to call you and he ran away a few weeks ago."

"He left me alone with her. She died around Feb. 12. I wish l could go back in time."

Nicodemo Sansalome

Francesco Sansalone, left, and Nicodemo Sansalone, centre, have pleaded guilty to leaving the body of Alasie Tukkiapik, right, on their couch for six months in 2023. Montreal Gazette/Facebook

Pleading guilty to committing an indignity to a corpse, Prosecutor Simon Lapierre confirmed that brothers Nicodemo and Francisco Sansalone had admitted guilt in the death of Alasie Tukkiapik, an Inuk woman who was an intimate partner to Francesco/Frank. The indignity in question was their having left the body of the Indigenous woman lying on a sofa in their home for six months. When the Inuk woman, 41, died after an illness for which they explained she had refused to seek medical treatment, they simply carried her to the sofa, covered her with a blanket and left her to slowly decompose for six months.

 

The woman's family had reported her missing in the Inuit village of Kangiqusujuaq in September 2023, following their inability to contact her for a period of several months. They knew she had a boyfriend, that his name was Frank, and that she was living in Montreal. They relayed that information to police. When Montreal police showed up at the address they were given, Nicodemo Sansalone informed them that she had been dead for  six months. "She is there on the couch ... she is laying on the couch for the last six months", he informed the police officers. 

The statement of facts provided to the court described Tukkiapik's relationship with Francesco Sansalone; that the two lived off and on with Nicodemo Sansalone. Testifying that his girlfriend had become fragile and was bleeding but refused to see a doctor or go to hospital, Francesco Sansalone emphasized he had encouraged her to seek medical assistance, but she had refused. "She was my girlfriend. It was her choice [to not be taken to a hospital]."

According to the statement of facts, Francesco Sansalone failed to call 911 when his partner died, owing to his fear of her family and what they might possibly be inclined to do to him. The brothers ended  up leaving the body of Alasie Tukkiapik where it rested, where she had been placed, when she died. They made use of a fragrant spray to cover the odour of her decomposing body. A few of Tukkiapik's family members had attempted to reach her, visiting the home on a few occasions, but were refused entry.

The court statement went on to report: "He [Francesco Sansalone] is sorry and he wishes to change things. He says that he is already dead inside, that he died at the same [time] as Tukkiapik". The cause of the woman's death could not be determined by a pathologist; the autopsy failed to show any evidence of fracture or significant traumatic injuries.

The day that Tukkiapik's body was found Nicodemo Sansalone was arrested. His brother Francesco was arrested the following month when he was finally located. May 9 has been set for their sentencing.

Terminating Fascist Threats

"We found out at around 2 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. We actually talked to her as well. We basically said: 'Listen, we cannot allow this to happen. We spoke to our lawyers, and we prepared a press release. We could not send out the press release for a few hours, until the lawyers actually sent her a termination letter."

"[The company stands against such] violent and hateful [remarks]. Political views are up to individuals, but things like this? We can't tolerate that."

"Were going to figure out a way to reopen the stores quickly."

Foodtastic (Second Cup) CEO Peter Mammas

"This video is related to a franchisee of Second Cup, one of the private tenants operating within the Jewish General Hospital. We fully support Second Cup's decision to take swift and decisive action in this matter by shutting down the franchisee's cafes and terminating their lease agreement."

"Our CIUSSS [Integrated Health and Social Services Centres] is deeply committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and stands firmly against antisemitism and any other form of discrimination or hate speech."

Carl Theriault, spokesperson, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal

The Jewish General Hospital is seen in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

 

On Thursday, in Montreal, a series of pro-Palestinian/hate-Israel groups conducted their usual peaceful marches with the good humour and attention to moral civility that is their hallmark  in Canada with a little different twist. Outside Concordia University a protest took place against the existence of the State of Israel and Jewish existence in particular. A woman, later identified by employees of a Second Cup shop located at the Jewish General Hospital as a franchisee, exercised her hateful spleen by exhibiting her prowess in giving a Nazi salute, aimed at the presence of counter-protesters.

To the Israel supporters and Jews standing there, as the event was being videoed, she addressed another type of salute, this one in reference to the Nazi Germany World War II Final Solution involved in the extermination of European Jewry. "The final solution is coming your way -- the final solution. You know what the final solution is?" A familiar phrase indeed to Jews still reeling from the most horribly despicable descent of humanity into the hellscape of genocide.

The revealing video swiftly made its way onto social media and the outcry was predictably outraged. Eventually, the incident, boiling away on social media, made its introduction to the awareness of Second Cup's corporate headquarters chief executive officer of the parent company. Clearly not very good public relations for the respected coffee chain. According to Foodtastic's Peter Mammas, after he confronted the  woman identified as Mai Abdulhadi over her incendiary remarks she did not deny being the author of the remarks.

 

The now-closed Second Cup cafe at the Jewish General Hospital

 

Following her termination, which includes her family, all of whom are linked to two Second Cup franchises at the Jewish General Hospital, she has busied herself seeking out legal counsel for herself and her family members, listed as Quebec business owners of two coffee counters. With the termination of the franchise leases for the family of Ms. Abdulhadi, the 12 employees in the two shops are set to continue being paid during a transition period when new licensees will take over the now-shuttered two Second Cup counters. 

 Students marched through downtown Montreal on Thursday in their tens of thousands to protest Israel's military activities in Gaza, claiming their universities are complicit with Israel's conflict against the terrorist Hamas group in Gaza. The following day, an anti-Israel, anti-NATO protest became violent when protesters, including 'outside agitators' clashed with police. Cars were torched, and windows were smashed in the Palais de Congres Montreal where the NATO meeting was taking place. Businesses alongside the conference centre also had their windows smashed.

In total three people were arrested. Protest attendees were mostly masked to avoid identification. Montreal Police stated that they anticipate that facial recognition techniques will aid in identifying others who will also be arrested for their violent contributions to 'peaceful' gatherings. They also noted that there are no plans to launch a hate crime investigation over the Nazi salute and other societal disrupting incidents since "we have not received any complaints yet". One can only hope that will soon be remedied.

The CEO of Foodtastic said the company's operations team reviewed footage from last Thursday's pro-Palestinian protest outside Concordia University. He says the person seen making the gesture is Mai Abdulhadi. The company says Abdulhadi owned and operated two of its Second Cup locations inside the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. (thestartupnation.ca/Instagram)

Canada Cosseting Extremist Islamists

"When officers were chasing some protesters, two Molotov cocktails were thrown in the direction of police."

"They didn't hit them."

Jean-Pierre Brabant, Montreal Police spokesman

"A demo for Palestine attacked Concordia University Sunday evening. Many windows of luxury stores on Sainte-Catherine street were also broken."

"The police were kept at a distance with the help of molotov cocktails."

Clash MTL anarchist group

Maintenance workers board up broken windows at Concordia University's Hall Building in Montreal Monday Sept. 30, 2024. The windows were smashed during a pro-Palestinian demonstration Sunday evening. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette

"We express our deepest mourning & our highest salutes to the great leader, the martyr, inspiration of so many around the world, symbol & strategist of resistance, tireless anti-imperialist, anti-colonial liberator, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah."

Samidoun statement

In Windsor, Ontario, the Ahlul Bayt Mosque advertised an event for Sunday to "commemorate the martyrdom" of "The Great Martyr Sayed Hassan Nasrallah". This is the broken Canada of today where, although the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, just like the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, clients of the Islamic Republic of Iran, are officially listed as proscribed terror groups, their flags are flown in Canadian cities where pro-Palestinian protests take place, and Canadian Islamists mourn the passing of arch-terrorists as 'martyrs' of 'resistance'.  

Contrast that with the news of this arch-terrorist's death coming as a profound relief -- leading to hope for a new day to dawn without the malicious threats of psychopaths that roil the world order as they scheme to destroy Israel and set out on missions to slaughter Jews both in the Jewish state, and elsewhere across the globe -- to many Arabs in Syria and Lebanon who suffered from Nasrallah's malign agenda, and above all, to Persians in Iran for whom their theocratic government is a despised dictatorship.

 

Smashed windows in downtown Montreal on Sept. 30, 2024, a day after a protest. (Martin Daigle, CityNews)

 

But in Canada, given the inaction of the government of Justin Trudeau, the pro-Islamist, anti-Israel protest contingent, having suffered no lawful penalties of any substance, continue to feel emboldened to use louder, more violent tactics in their persecution of Canadian Jews. Extremist Islamists and their enthusiastic supporters for whom antisemitism is a cause they revel in, the lack of lawful intervention in their chaotic and threatening rallies has served predictably, to convince them there will never be any penalties for their unlawful, anti-human-rights bedlam.

They have graduated to attacking police as they wave the flags of terror organizations while promoting the destruction not only of Israel, but Canada, as well. Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante condemned "unacceptable" behaviour of yet another anti-Israel protest on Sunday when protest thugs took to breaking windows and tossing firebombs at police attempting to restore order.

Montreal's central core saw a group of some 60 protesters setting off fireworks, breaking shop windows, spray-painting graffiti on buildings. Saturday saw downtown Toronto facing a demonstration with thugs there hoisting the flag of Hezbollah, listed by Canada as a terror entity. The English-language state media outlet of the Islamic Republic of Iran carried the Toronto protest live on Press TV. Its correspondent Firas Al-Najim stated it is only as a result of the "Zionist lobby's" influence that Hezbollah is labeled a terrorist group.

 

Protestor waving smoke at protest on Saturday in Toronto. (OTR/Laviza Syed)

 

Mask-wearing protesters carried portraits of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, assassinated the day before by an Israeli airstrike, some wearing green headbands reflecting Hamas. A banner read Long Live Legal Armed Resistance to Occupation, an inverted red triangle on the banner; the triangle associated with Hamas which has popularized it as symbolic of its intentions as a marker identifying Israeli targets. 

Samidoun, based in Vancouver as a non-profit, has direct ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, yet another and even older active Gaza terrorist group, which on October 7 of 2023 took part in the Hamas-led surge of terrorists into southern Israel bound on a mission of savage atrocities. Samidoun issued a mourning message for the death of Hezbollah's Nasrallah; unsurprisingly since its co-founder refers to members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad as 'friends and brothers'; yet the Liberal government takes no steps to outlaw it in Canada, much less withdraw its charitable status.

A masked speaker in front of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill tells a cheering crowd that they will fight until "this country crumbles to the ground." Photo by X.com/@l3v1at4an

Jewish Montreal No More

"As in France itself, these immigrants have brought a deep, historically rooted contempt for European cosmopolitanism and heavy doses of antisemitism."

"Those apprehended by the Montreal police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for involvement in the dozen or so attacks on Jewish institutions in the city during the past five years -- which included the firebombings of a synagogue and a Jewish day school -- were all Quebecers of North African descent."

Drew University professor of Jewish Studies, Allan Nadler

People take part in a pro-Palestinian rally in Montreal on Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023. Photo by Graham Hughes /The Canadian Press

Quebec, uniquely among Canadian provinces, is permitted to control its own immigration levels and their countries of origin. Its focus is on increasing the prominence of the French language in French-Canadian majority Quebec. As such it strongly favours welcoming immigrants and refugees whose mother tongue is French or who are fully conversant with the French language, spoken, read and written. Authorities in Quebec, and certainly successive governments express a fear of English overwhelming French.

 

Provincial legislation ensures that English is kept to an absolute minimum. To the extent that there are significant fines for signage reading in English, and attendance at public schools must be predominantly French public schools, specific 'qualifications' must be demonstrated for the freedom to send children in Quebec to English schools. That being said, the province is eager to bring in all the fluent French-speakers as it can.

 

Which meant that former French colonies such as Haiti and Vietnam have been favoured.  But so have immigrants from volatile Middle East and North African countries where the culture includes suspicion and strong dislike of Jews and where enmity expressed by antisemitism is prevalent. The largest Lebanese community outside of Beirut lives in Montreal. The second-largest Moroccan and Algerian diaspora after Paris and Marseille also resides in Montreal.

 

Gunfire hit the school for the second time early on Sunday, November 12.

 

In the last few decades a handful of Montreal Muslims have been implicated in terrorist plots. Among them Algerian Ahmed Ressam, the "Millennium Bomber" who had al-Qaeda terrorist training in Afghanistan. Morocco-born Montrealer Abdeliah Ouzghar was convicted in absentia of abetting terrorism in France and was finally extradited in 2009 to face justice in France, before ultimately returning to Canada.

At the present time, Moroccan-Canadian imam Adil Charkouai called for the eradication of all "Zionist aggressors" in a public address at an October 28 Montreal Free Palestine rally. Years ago he had been arrested on a security certificate, said to be a sleeping al-Qaeda agent by Canada's intelligence network; representing a danger to Canadian society.

In 2007 Fabrice de Pierrebourg, a leading Quebec journalist focusing on terrorism, published Montrealistan where he wrote of the route to Islamist extremism in creating young Muslim radicals in Montreal. According to the journalist's studies and investigation following hardline jihadists, along with trips to Lebanon and North Africa, sermons in mosques attended by recruits was one of the major sources of radicalization.

Internet chat rooms another, where young Muslim men endlessly surf to immerse themselves in seductive Islamist thought. They are sought by and swiftly radicalized by Islamists, interested now in participating in the vocal and violent rallies and marches that have materialized in the wake of the Hamas terrorist incursion into southern Israel on October 7. International Islamist groups organize and call for harassment and violence meted out to Jews.

The response has been harassment and threats, young Montreal Jews attending universities singled out by Arab and Muslim students for loud shouting matches and physical encounters. A synagogue and a Jewish community centre were firebombed since the Hamas slaughter of Israeli civilians and the abduction of 240 Israeli children, women and elderly, along with a group of soldiers. Two Jewish day schools had bullets discovered fired overnight at their front doors. 

 

The marches and protests that have taken place by 'pro-Palestinians', call for 'Palestine to be free from the river to the sea'; a genocidal call. The Montreal that was once a comfortable home for generation after generation of Jewish Canadians has changed -- radically.

 

Adil Charkaoui's speech has drawn broad condemnation from politicians like Premier François Legault and groups like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. (Adil Charkaoui/X)

 

What 'Massacre'? (yawn)

"The anti-racism commissioner's silence and inaction after a historic week of antisemitic terrorism in Montreal is shocking."

"Manai's response to the Molotov cocktails tossed at Jewish institutions: silence. Her response to the bullets fired at Jewish schools: silence again."

"[Instead of speaking out about the attacks, Manai] chose to share content on social networks from groups that celebrated the October 7 massacre committed by Hamas, including a group that celebrated with candy at a rally immediately after the massacre."

"We are at a crucial moment in Montreal's history. The Jewish community is under attack. [Montreal needs a commissioner] who respects our collective principles and exercises sound judgement."

Eta Yudin, Quebec vice-president, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

"We are all extremely worried about the increase in incidents and hate crimes, Islamophobic and antisemitic, which are exacerbated by the daily atrocity seen over more than thirty days in Palestine and Israel."

Bochra Manai, Montreal commissioner on racism and systemic discrimination

Bochra Manaï is seen in 2021, after she was appointed Montreal's commissioner on racism and systemic discrimination. Photo by Allen McInnis /Montreal Gazette

Montreal's commissioner on racism and systemic discrimination is being called upon to resign, her exercise of the authority vested in her position called out as "inexcusable and disqualifying behaviour" in recent weeks. The commissioner herself appears unmoved by the criticism. And Mayor Valerie Plante initially declined the opportunity to comment on the controversy over her appointed commissioner. Finally the mayor did respond: 

"Municipal officials and commissioners have a duty of discretion and it is expected that it will be respected."  

"This message was delivered [to Manaï, who] will meet all the communities affected by the conflict. There is clearly a bond of trust to be strengthened."

Office of the Mayor

The antisemitic vandalism that has taken place at the city's Jewish schools and synagogues, along with Jewish-owned businesses in the city, while shocking the Jewish community and denounced by many of the province's politicians, have brought no condemnatory remarks made publicly by Montreal's commissioner Bochra Manai, whose position of trust and authority on the issue calls upon her to do just that.

The advocacy arm of Jewish federations country-wide, representing the interests of roughly 150,000 Jewish Canadians has been brought to bear on the matter. B'nai Brith Canada separately made no call for Manai to leave her position, characterizing instead her attitude to be "outrageous and unacceptable", recommending that she "bear the authority of her office to help combat the contemptible events in Montreal".

 

Reportedly, the commissioner participated in pro-Palestinian protests. Manai, given screenshots shared on social media, has been posting regularly on Instagram, on the Israel-Hamas war. She is, quite evidently, not unbiased. Since criticism for her public silence surfaced, Manai defended herself without responding directly to the calls for her to leave the post.

"As some have noticed on my social networks, I recently took part in demonstrations in Montreal in support of a request for a ceasefire", she wrote. As "a woman committed to peace, saddened by the horror of this situation", she had a duty to do so, she stated, since she is "deeply concerned" about the rise in hate crimes.

"The Islamophobic and antisemitic acts and behaviours that have been committed in recent weeks are all unacceptable and must be strongly condemned."

"Targeting Jewish schools and children with bullets is a crime that must be punished and has no place in a metropolis like Montreal. The same goes for the targeting of Muslim places of worship."

"My role as a civil servant concerns internal change and I do not have a role of public representation. I was appointed to work with the entire municipal apparatus to accelerate the transformation to an administration free of racism and systemic discrimination."

"]As such she is] committed to meeting representatives of the Arab-Muslim and Jewish communities."

When the Legault government refused two weeks ago to support a motion calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Quebec solidaire MNA Haroun Bouazzi broke down in tears.

"[Montreal has witnessed] with horror an increase of acts of incredible violence against the Jewish communities."

"The exploitation of these antisemitic acts by pro-Israel lobbies to silence the voices protesting against the ongoing genocide in Gaza is despicable."

Quebec solidaire MNA Haroun Bouazzi

"The position of commissioner calls for [someone who can] bring together and consult Montreal communities, not divide them."

"[Montreal mayor Valerie Plante must ask herself whether Manai] still has the legitimacy and moral authority to occupy this position."

Aref Salem, leader, Ensemble Montreal, city hall opposition party

People take part in a pro-Palestinian rally in Montreal on Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023. Photo by Graham Hughes /The Canadian Press

Turning Your Back in a Classroom

"Physically I'd say I'm pretty much back to normal. The only difference is that, because they cut my sternum open, I have metal wiring they put in to hold it together while it was healing. That's still in there."

"So there are a few spots that are still sensitive. There's a spot in particular where I can feel the metal. It hasn't happened yet, but I know it's going to hook on to something and it's going to hurt."

"When I drive the car, the seatbelt rubs on it sometimes. I wouldn't say it's super painful, but it's annoying."

"There was a point in the ambulance where I was like: 'Well, I don't want to die, but if I'm going to die I have to accept it, I guess'. I did accept it at that point, but thankfully that didn't happen."

"It's the one environment [a school] where you don't expect something like this and it's the place where I was almost murdered. It's just surreal and jarring. Now I have to consider that a teenager could possibly attack me and kill me and not for any rational reason."

"I've been seeing mental health specialists and psychiatrists every once in a while. Hopefully some of this can get sorted out and back to normal -- hopefully sooner than later."

"We'll see. I haven't been depressed and I'm fairly optimistic. Out of all of these horrible things that happened to me, ultimately I'm alive and I'm happy to be alive."

"It was kind of like this weird moment where I could almost see the words, or hear the words, 'if you panic, you die'."

"I took safety lessons when I was a kid until I was 12 or 13, and all the safety techniques, like how to resuscitate people."

"I hadn’t thought about that in years, but at that moment, everything I knew about that came into play. I knew I had to compress my shoulder, and I knew I had to slow my breathing and slow my heart rate."

Maxime Canuel, visual arts teacher, John F. Kennedy High School, Montreal

Maxime Canuel, an art teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in Montreal, was stabbed by a student on Dec. 9, 2021. (Submitted photo)

When a student at a school in a suburb of Montreal approached the visual arts teacher during a break between classes, other students were present in the classroom, reporting afterward that they witnessed the attacker entering the room, while teacher Canuel's back was turned. They saw the student twice stab the teacher and then run out of the room. The teacher had been stabbed in the shoulder and then in his heart. 

He was so taken by surprise, he was initially unable to comprehend what had happened. What he had felt was that someone had hit him in the shoulder. He was unaware that he had been stabbed; stabbed twice, the second time in his chest. He felt nothing. Nothing in his experience at the school might have led him to think such a thing might ever happen. 

Maxime Canuel, seen here at his home in Montreal on Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, got a new tattoo after he recovered from being stabbed in the heart by a student while teaching class at John F. Kennedy High School last December. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette

Maxime Canuel was rushed to hospital to undergo emergency surgery. It was only when paramedics arrived and cut his shirt away that he realized his condition; he saw blood "bubble and pour out" of his chest. He is now, a year later -- the length of time it has taken him to recover from the injuries done him --  reminded at times by the extreme discomfort and soreness he experiences when he sleeps the wrong way on his arm. 

 

The metal wiring he describes akin to a twist tie, is permanent. His sternum will host that tie for as long as he lives."It felt like someone was punching me in the ribs", for the first month of recovery, whenever he took in a breath. He would often wake at night from the pain. Finally, his recovery therapy came complete with months of breathing exercises. Last week at the Montreal youth courthouse, the teacher of the 17-year-old youth who pleaded guilty to attempted murder, described his recovery process.

The sentencing for the youth amounted to two years at an institution for minors. According to the lawyer for the attacker, it was autism that was responsible in large part for the sentencing. In addressing the court, Mr. Canuel said the stabbing was the first time "that I had to consider my death". The psychological trauma he experienced has led to his inability to return to the school to resume his teaching career. A career of 15 years' duration to that point.

And nor does he believe that autism had anything to do with what had occurred. Before the  youth was sentenced there were other factors mentioned. Teacher Canuel was later informed he might be the only teacher at the school who had never sent this teen to the principal's office or filled out an incident report on him. He did find he had to watch the youth in class. And on the one occasion when his back was turned, that is when he was almost killed.

"People have asked me if I think [the sentence] is enough. First of all, it's not up to me to decide that. But I don't know any outcome that would be satisfying after [being stabbed in the heart]. I'm super thankful to be alive, so there is that."

"I've taught autistic children my whole career. I've never heard of another situation where an autistic student tried to murder someone."

"Personally, I don't think that explains [the stabbing]."

Montreal police deployed a large number of officers to the scene following the stabbing of an art teacher at John F. Kennedy High School last December. (Simon-Marc Charron/Radio-Canada)

The Penalties for Defrauding and Victimizing an Elderly Woman?

"[The lawyer's actions] were a direct infringement of Mrs. Piela's fundamental rights."
"She was deprived of her freedom, forced to leave her home and taken by force into a private seniors' residence."
Quebec Bar Association, disciplinary committee

"[The subsequent medical report found] that she was totally capable of taking care of herself, she had an excellent memory, [and] she didn't have Alzheimer's."
"The police officers came to the house, they entered by the back door, so she started to scream and so the police officers called an ambulance and covered her mouth."
Igor Dogaru,lawyer for Veronika Piela, 94

Veronika Piela, 92, in December 2016. She says people took control of her life with a forged mandate and had her placed into a residence with no access to a phone or visitors. Phil Carpenter / Montreal Gazette

Imagine you've reached beyond 90 years of life, are a capable individual with a home of your own and manage all your own affairs. Age has done nothing to impair your memory, your facility with looking after yourself. You value your independence, and treasure your lifestyle, including your enjoyment in continuing to live in your home. You have a healthy bank account and decide to advertise for someone to come in from time to time to help manage some of the aspects of living independently, so you hire a woman and trust her and then everything goes wrong.

Veronika Piela who had immigrated to Canada after the Second World War, was most comfortable speaking Polish or Ukrainian. While she was still physically active, her knees were becoming a problem getting around, and she needed some help. She knew someone from the church she attended, and it was that person's daughter, in her 50s, whom she hired for general help in 2013. She paid Anita Obodzinski to help in her apartment, a bit of cleaning, shopping for groceries, feeding the cats. With no relatives close by much less children of her own, she relied on this woman to aid in her independence.

Anita Obodzinski prepared a mandate that gave her control of Veronika Piela’s personal protection and belongings if Piela were ever to become incapacitated. She later claimed she was Piela’s niece.

One day when she discovered money was missing, Veronika confronted Anita and dismissed her, informing the younger woman her services were no longer required. Six months passed, when suddenly Anita appeared at her apartment, accompanied by her husband ArthurTrzciakowski, demanding that she sign some papers, and she refused. The two rough-handled the elderly woman, who sustained cuts to her arms, insisting she sign the documents, until she relented: "I said 'Please, take everything. Please, leave me alone. Leave me alive. I need that'."

As soon as the two left, Veronika called the only two people she knew well in Montreal; her pastor and a notary, who referred her to lawyer Igor Dogaru who responded by sending a formal notice for Obodzinski to refrain from contacting her former employer at any future time. Unknown to both was that Obodzinski had prepared a mandate to give her control of Piela's personal protection and belongings should Piela ever become incapacitated, claiming she was Piela's niece, in a later affidavit.

She then proceeded to hire a social worker, Alissa Kerner, who just happens to be lawyer Gelber's wife. and advised her to prepare a psychosocial report, to state that Piela was incapable of looking to her affairs, impaired by ill health, both physical and psychological, which would accompany a medical report by Dr. Lindsay Goldsmith stating that Piela suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Obodzinski's plan was to have Piela declared mentally unfit to result in Obodzinski being placed in charge of Piela's affairs.

The report claimed Piela not only had irreversible Alzheimer's and dementia such that she was unable to take personal care of herself, was living in squalid conditions with cats, and that alcohol abuse made it additionally risky for her to continue to live on her own. "Mrs. Piela is unable to express herself within reason as her memory, insight and judgment are all severely impaired", wrote private social worker Alissa Kerner in her psychosocial report. Gelber, holding Piela's savings in trust, transferred $100,000 from Piela's account to Obodzinski.

The disciplinary committee of the Quebec Bar Association found that lawyer Charles Gelber, in acting for Obodzinski hadn't bothered to inform Piela or her lawyer that a court judgement had declared her legally incompetent. It found as well that he had failed to advise Igor Dogaru, lawyer for Piela that a request had been made to remove Piela from her home and into a residence for seniors. As well, Gelber's action in transferring substantial sums of Piela's savings to Obodzinski was clearly a criminal act, since reimbursed.

Obodzinski and her husband Arthur Trzciakowski both pleaded guilty in their roles plotting a scheme to defraud her former employer, with Obodzinski sentenced to two years house arrest and her husband, a conditional discharge. After pleading guilty to mischief and being unlawfully in Piela's home, Gelber's wife, social worker Alissa Kerner, received a conditional discharge, but was suspended by Quebec's order of social workers.

And the lawyer who used his legal know-how to underhandedly scheme with Piela's former employee to defraud the elderly woman who only managed to get a hearing in a court of law establishing her complete mental competence and outlining the manner in which all five people schemed to criminally defraud her -- has been suspended from practice, citing his role in forcing an elderly woman from her home by having her declared mentally unfit -- will serve an 18-month suspension after pleading guilty to seven disciplinary infractions.

A virtual slap on the wrist for all who were involved in his mendacious scheme to deprive an elderly woman of all she held dear, and take possession of her life savings in the process. A slap on the wrist for terrorizing an old woman, forcing her to live in a freezing basement where she was denied access to a telephone or any way in which she might contact the outside world. In the dead of a Montreal winter, she escaped, was found by police on a street without a coat and taken into custody. She asked for someone who could speak Polish and to that police officer described all that had occurred. The wheels of justice, as bitterly inadequate in this case as they proved to be, turned into action:

"A judge had ordered the curator to take charge of her file while the suit worked its way through the court system. It had been a long two years, but the personal documents that had been taken from her — her will, marriage papers, family photos, and more — were to be returned. A physical manifestation, of sorts, that she’s fully capable of taking care of herself."
"She’s also gotten most of her money back: Nearly $300,000 that had been transferred to the public curator from the in-trust account has been returned. Cheques for another $100,000 were sent to her last week. Another roughly $46,000 is gone, spent, and Piela’s lawyer says he is still trying to get it back. Ordered by a judge to account for the money spent from the in-trust account, Gelber wrote that $20,000 went to Obodzinski for items and services for Piela. Kerner was paid about $5,000 for her social work. Gelber was paid roughly $12,000 in legal fees. The rest went to Piela’s rent and a company to clean her apartment."
Montreal Gazette

Veronika Piela feels safe in her new residence, though her trust in people is shaken and a toll has been taken on her health.