The Passions Unleashed by Dominating Hatred

"[The Al Quds Day rally has] long been a venue for antisemitism, hatred, intimidation and the glorification of terrorism."

"While the judge cited Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, when we talk about rights we need to be clear that every person has the right to safety and security."

"We need to be clear that no one in Canada has the right to incite violence or free licence to intimidate and hate."

"I won't stop working to put an end to the hatred and division that runs too rampant on Canada's streets." "I won't stop working to protect the greatest province in the greatest country in the world."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford 

 

"The Attorney General has known for at least a year that the Al Quds rally would take place around this time. The Attorney General relies on statements made by protest organizers that date back to 2016. The province of Ontario did not pass any laws or regulations to deal with this event. It did not invoke the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. E.9."

"Even allowing for rapidly moving current events, the Attorney General should not have come to court mere hours before the rally was set to start. There was no possibility of cross-examination on any of the affidavits and the oral argument was necessarily truncated. Such a compressed timetable puts the court in a difficult position."

"There is no evidence that participants at last year’s rally incited hatred or engaged in hate speech. There is no evidence before me of any criminality arising out of this rally in the past, much less evidence that could satisfy me that there is a ‘strong case’ that there will be criminal activity this year."

Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Centa 

Protesters and counter-protesters demonstrate by the U.S. Consulate during a rally for Al-Quds Day in Toronto, on Saturday, March 14, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan

 

"It was a political show by Ford. He doesn't need any court order. He's a premier and he has a duty, he has power and full authority to implement the law."

"If Ford, [Prime Minister] Mark Carney, Toronto police, [Toronto] Mayor [Olivia] Chow, they don't want to do their job, we the people ... have the duty to stand."

Salmon Sima, Iranian refugee, Canadian activist  

The Premier of Ontario tasked his attorney general to seek a court injunction against the annually ritualized Al Quds Day taking place in Toronto. The injunction application stated: "There is a serious risk of violence arising from or occurring at the rally", including mischief, intimidation and in the process ignoring Criminal Code hate laws that include public incitement of hatred, or wilful promotion of antisemitism. Rally organizers along with the Al-Quds Committee, the Palestinian Youth Movement, Lebanese4Palestine and the Canada-banned terrorist group Samidoun linked with the PFLP were sued by the Province.

Al-Quds Day is a creation of the  Islamic Republic of Iran, dating from the 1979 revolution when the Palestinian 'cause' was taken up by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Quds, the Arabic name for Jerusalem, the contested ancient city of Judean ancestral heritage claimed by the nascent state of Arabic 'Palestine' as their capital, championed by the Iranian regime, became the purpose of the annual rally, a disguised scheme to invalidate Israel's claim to the city and to portray Israel as an interloper, not the rightful claimant through ancient indigeneity. 

Wherever Islamists have settled in the West they subscribe to this historical revisionism and mount such an infamous rally in world capitals.

On Saturday, 14 March, in Toronto, an estimated 4,500 people turned out to the pro-Palestinian rally with a double purpose this year, a protest against the U.S.-Israel bombardment of the Islamic Republic, that very regime that two months earlier slaughtered tens of thousands of Iranian protesters who marched for the end of the regime in cities across Iran, only to be met with armed police action shooting protesters to death, arresting untold numbers to be tortured in Iran's hated prisons. 

 

This is the country that has the Middle East and the West on edge over their nuclear program and medium-to-long-range missiles.

 

A counter-protest also took place outside the U.S. Consulate in Toronto Saturday. (Mercedes Gaztambide/CBC)

 

A counter-rally was staged by Iranian Canadians opposed to the Islamic theocracy that has transformed their country of origin into a pariah in the Middle East and abroad for its broad range of human rights crimes, its well-known support for terrorism and its control of terrorist groups in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian Territories. Both supporters of Israel, Canadians of Jewish extraction carrying Israeli flags and Iranian Canadians carrying the original flag of Iran under its dynastic Shahs were present to wave their Canadian flags in allegiance to the country which under the Liberal government appears to be signalling that allegiance is now misplaced.

 

Mere days following shots being fired at the U.S. Consulate at University Avenue and Armour Street, the Al-Quds rally attendees made their presence known. They stood on the south side of Armoury Street, holding up Palestinian flags and calling for an end to the war in Iran. On the opposite, north side, counter-demonstrators waved Israeli, pre-Revolutionary Iranian and Trump 2028 flags, along with Canadian flags. 

 

The Al-Quds crowd held up large banners with the insignia of the Islamic Republic of Iran. On this occasion, Iranian regime flags outnumbered those of the Palestinian flags, mourners carried portraits of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and protesters urged support of retaliatory attacks on Israel from the Islamic Republic that has always outwardly threatened to destroy the Jewish state. 

 

This display of pure, unadulterated hatred for Israel's right of existence, inflamed by the support of terror against 'colonialism' and 'unjust wars', aiming directly at Israel's right to defend itself from existential threats represents the sole purpose of such events. And Iranian Canadians will have none of it, knowing all too well that it is that state theocratic regime that has destroyed their country.

Unit: Hate Crime Unit

Case #: 2026-538606

Published: Sunday, March 15, 2026, 10:32 AM

The Toronto Police Service is making the public aware of two arrests made at the Al-Quds Day demonstration. 

On Saturday, March 14, 2026, the Al-Quds Day demonstration took place in the University Avenue and Armoury Street area. In addition to those attending the Al-Quds Day demonstration, counter-demonstrators were also present. During two unrelated incidents, two men were arrested. 

It is alleged that:

• the accused, a male participating in the counter-demonstration, engaged with the victim, a participant in the Al-Quds demonstration, who was holding a stick with an Islamic Republic of Iran flag attached
• the accused began swinging his arms and fists at the victim, breaking the stick and causing pieces of it to strike the victim in the head

Mostafa Shabanian Bashmandoost, 39, of Toronto, was arrested and charged with:

1. Assault
2. Criminal Harassment
3. Theft Under $5000
4. Possession of Property Obtained by Crime Under $5000
5. Public Incitement of Hatred

He is scheduled to appear in court at the Toronto Regional Bail Centre, 2201 Finch Avenue West, on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at 10 a.m., in room 105.

These investigations are being treated as suspected hate-motivated offences.

 

Farshid McVandifar, 56, of Toronto, was arrested and charged with:

1. Mischief – Damage Property Under $5000
2. Assault

He is scheduled to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice, 10 Armoury Street, on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at 11 a.m., in room 203.

It is further alleged that:

• the second accused, a male participating in the counter demonstration, followed the victim, a participant of the Al-Quds demonstration, who was wearing an Islamic Republic of Iran flag on their back
• the accused spat on the victim and ripped the flag off their back
• the accused returned into the crowd and was later located among the counter demonstration group
• the accused was then observed to be lighting an Islamic Republic of Iran flag on fire and wearing Islamic Republic of Iran flags attached to the soles of his shoes.

As usual, when police attend to these events, it is those who are victimized, threatened through the intimidation of double-speak that are driven to respond with action that reflects their outrage at the malice directed against those who subscribe to liberty and the defence of  human rights, who are held accountable for disturbances, rarely those who mount such radicalized pure-hate events whose purpose is achieved through the police applied courtesy of enablement... 

Toronto police said Thursday they planned to increase their presence in the area of the rally. (Mercedes Gaztambide/CBC)

 

 

Striking Tehran for Al Quds Day

"These attacks are out of fear, out of desperation. One who is strong wouldn't bomb demonstrations at all. It's clear that it has failed."

"[The American leader underestimated Iran’s resolve.] He doesn't understand that the Iranian people are a brave nation, a strong nation, a determined nation."

"The more he presses, the stronger the nation's determination will become."

Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council 

 

"The optics are devastating."

"Israel just bombed a Ramadan gathering dedicated to Jerusalem. Every government in the Muslim world will face domestic pressure to respond."

Gulf-based anonymous diplomat  

Blasts strike Tehran’s Al-Quds day rally amid escalating US-Israeli strikes   Daily Jang

 

Israel issued a warning to Iranians on a Farsi-language X account. That warning was clear; that people should not attend the annual Al Quds Day rally to which the Iranian regime had urged all Iranians to turn out to demonstrate their loyalty to the Republic and its aims, even and most particularly during a time of great tension and danger, with air strikes over Iran and Tehran's military and weapons-storage and nuclear plants struck by the U.S. and Israel on a daily basis. The warning urged Iranians to clear the area, shortly before a planned attack on Tehran's central square.

 

It is doubtful that many Iranians received the message, since the regime had shut down all internet communications. Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian in a social media post urged Iranian citizens to "disappoint Iran's enemies by taking to the streets in greater numbers than ever before". When Iranians in January 'took to the streets' all across the nation, they numbered in the tens of thousands in city after city, and not at the behest of their government. Their impetus to rally and demonstrate, despite the inherent dangers was to protest against the government.

 

The risks they took, in a regime known to be dismissive of human rights and which had in the past attacked its own people when they peacefully assembled to protest against the anti-human rights excesses of the  regime, was not unknown to the courageous civilians who faced off against the Basij police who used live ammunition to fire on protesters. An estimated 30,000 of whom were killed, many tens of thousands wounded and countless others arrested and tortured as opponents of the regime.  

 

Shiite Muslims stand over the representation of US and Israeli flags with pictures of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu during an annual Al-Quds Day rally in Peshawar, Pakistan, on March 13. NDTV

 

Gathered on Friday, ostensibly to support Palestinian claims to statehood on ancient Judean ancestral land, and to chant calls for the destruction of Israel, Iranians faithful to the regime gathered in Ferdowski Square in Tehran for the annual state-organized rally. The yearly rally, meant to take place on the last Friday of Ramadan, takes place when Iran loyalists globally remain faithful to the call, and arrange for similar ceremonial al-Quds rallies to take place throughout Europe and North America.

 

This year Israel targeted the area, as warned, but that warning did nothing to stop the mass demonstration, attended by a smattering of senor government officials. The bombing of the square is part and parcel of Israel's decision to destroy the infrastructure and leadership of the Iranian theocratic regime. Despite the combined daily aerial bombardment of both Israel and the United States -- and in fact, because of it -- Iran has responded by launching widespread missile and drone attacks not only on Israel, but at neighbouring Gulf states. 

PBS News

 

The midday explosion that rocked the Ferdowski Square area where crowds chanted "Death to Israel", "Death to America", sent crowds scrambling. No reports of casualties were immediately given. Following the strike, footage from the scene saw people chanting "God is greatest" in the fervour of divine belief, even as smoke billowed high in the area. 

 

A second message was posted in Farsi by the Israeli military criticizing Iran for blocking people from seeing their pre-strike warning. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei who leads the Iranian judiciary, was giving an interview on state television while at the demonstration, as the strike took place. He stated that Iran, "under this rain [of] missiles will never withdraw", as his bodyguards protectively surrounded him. 

 

Black smoke rises following an explosion in Tehran, as Iranians take part in the Al-Quds Day rally, a commemoration in support of the Palestinian people held on the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. (Elaheh Asiabi/Fars News Agency/AFP/Getty)

 

 

 

What a Tangled Web is Woven

"{Iraq is increasingly bearing the economic and security costs of the widening conflict between Iran and a U.S.-Israel alliance, as attacks and shipping disruptions threaten the country’s vital oil sector and broader stability."

"Despite the close ties between Baghdad and Tehran, the conflict has intensified pressure on Iraq, trapping energy infrastructure, tanker routes, and military sites in the escalating regional hostilities."

"Shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and attacks linked to Iran-aligned militias have strained Iraq’s oil exports, the country’s main source of government revenue and the backbone of its economy.

Analysts warn that damage to Iraq’s oil and gas sector could have long-term consequences for investment, particularly after years of effort to attract foreign companies following periods of conflict and instability."

"Major international energy firms, including BP, TotalEnergies and Chevron, have invested heavily in Iraq’s energy industry, while companies such as ExxonMobil previously withdrew after spending billions of dollars on projects in the country."

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) 

IraqiNews.com

  

"Iraq is getting caught in the crossfire of the Iran war as the only country facing strikes from both sides, and that threatens to drag the nation that has so far avoided two years of regional turmoil into a full-blown crisis."

"As the war nears two full weeks, Iraq’s situation is growing more desperate. Disruptions to Gulf shipping and strikes on oil fields and infrastructure have all but halted exports, jeopardizing a state that relies on such trade for the bulk of its revenue."

The Canadian Press 

Funeral procession in Iraq from Iranian bombardments, Canadian Press

Caught in the crossfire of this conflict where the Islamic Republic of Iran is being bombed by a U.S.-Israel coalition, Iraq is now the sole country in the region that has the dismal distinction of being hit with strikes from both the IRGC and Israel/U.S. bombing, even as Iraq has been desperate to avoid being pulled into a conflict at a time when regional turmoil, blown into full crisis mode hits a nation that is struggling to overcome the results of its own protracted internal tribal-sectarian crises. 

 

Its  high dependence on oil exports sees a dramatic cut with new disruptions to Gulf shipping and oilfield and infrastructure strikes. The bulk of Iraq's state revenues is derived from exports; that interruption threatens its revenue stream alarmingly, to the point should the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz continue, Baghdad's oversized public-sector payroll could be threatened. A feared prelude to a country-wide risk of destabilizing civil strikes. 

 

In desperation the Iraqi federal government turned to northern Kurdish leadership in hopes of persuading them to resume exports through a pipeline to Turkey. Kurds and Turkey are like vinegar in milk; Recep Tayyip Erdogan's relentless war against Kurds make it hugely unlikely that the Iraqi Kurds could ever sign on to a expedient that flies in the face of their own interests. 

 

The Iraqi Shiite militias loyal to the Islamic Republic and at their beck and call have long threatened U.S. interests in Iraq. With the attack on Iran, the Iraqi militias have stepped up their targeting of U.S. bases leading to the U.S. mounting retaliatory strikes in defence of its troops stationed in Iraq. Drone and missile attacks now target American interests in Iraq as a response to the February 28-initiated strikes in Iran, with military bases in the Baghdad and Irbil airports and American diplomatic facilities becoming targets.

 

Members of the Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah hold flags during the funeral of their members, who were killed in an airstrike amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Baghdad, March 2, 2026. The Arab Weekly

 

Oilfields and energy infrastructure in the country have also been purposefully struck by Iran and the militias, to escalate the toll taken by the wider war in the region. Iraq is unique in the region for hosting, however unwillingly, the Iran-aligned forces that have entrenched themselves in the country, as well as significant U.S. interests. Disruptions to production of exports of oil through the Strait of Hormuz create an unsustainable sharp cut in government revenue even as a political transition takes place.

 

Near-daily drone attacks target Irbil, capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, even as Iran and allied groups send drone and rocket strikes throughout Iraq. In Irbil, beyond strikes at U.S. military bases, strikes aim as well for commercial sites, including hotels. Kurdish groups in northern Iraq are also being struck by the Shiite militias following reports that the Kurds signalled interest in mounting cross-border operations into Iran, should the U.S. support them. 

 

With one of the global community's largest public-sector workforces and pensioner contingents in Iraq, concerns that delays on payment of salaries due to the government's shrinking revenues leading to public  unrest, have reached anxiety proportions of high magnitude of the restive population. The war has also complicated a transition from a caretaker administration, since the U.S. opposed the nomination of former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. 

 

Members of the Popular Mobilization Forces attend a funeral in Najaf, Iraq, Friday, March 13, 2026 for colleagues who were killed in an airstrike in Qaim. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil) The Associated Press

 

On Offer In Canada -- Death In A Hurry

"Canada is now noted as the fastest growing assisted dying program in the world."

"Although many participants [in MAID deaths] experienced respectful, caring and compassionate interactions with health-care professionals involved in the [Medical Assistance in Dying] process, others did not, adding to already stressful and intense emotional pain."

University of Alberta researchers

 

"It was just like a series of losses, right."

"You lose the ability to work. You lose the ability to play. You lose the ability to eat, to sleep, to do everything."

"So, the loss was already there."

"The final, the MAID, was just like the grand finale of the loss journey."

Relative of a MAID participant 

 

"My mom needed psychiatric help. My mom was a victim of a broken health-care system."

"My mom had been trying to see specialists for months and months and months [for a brain injury]. It got to the point she lost all hope."

"And so my mom ended her life because of desperation, not anything to do with dignity."

Transcribed research interview 

(Thomas Northcut/Getty Images)

 

A new study out of the University of Alberta and published in the  journal BMO Palliative Care, once again sheds light on the  experiences of families dealing with doctor-assisted death.  Some of the study's interviewees were satisfied with the care their loved one was given to the end of their life under Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying protocol, and many others complained that the process was too rushed, too impersonal and traumatic, not the least bit helped in facing cheerfully smiling assisted-suicide providers under the program.

 

The purpose of the law that came into effect in June of 2016, with strict parameters that had to be considered before consent would be given for MAID, was to  focus on the rights and autonomy of individuals to make the decision when their lives should be ended in a program envisioned as 'dying with dignity'. Death would have to be foreseeable in the near future, the result of all medical measures having been taken to deal with disease, injury and illness. 

 

In the years that followed, the law was amended to permit entry to the program of a greater number of people, those whose pain and misery failed to respond to medical intervention, whose quality of life was utterly abysmal and in their personal opinion, unlivable. Applications for MAID consideration would have to be made when an individual was of sound mind to be able to do so; relaxed rules allowed for applications to be honoured prior to an applicant's health descent to the point of no longer being in possession of their full mental awareness.

 

Two independent medical assessments must be made for those deemed eligible for MAID. An individual whose suffering cannot be medically ameliorated and who voluntarily makes application must also give a final assent on the day of the procedure, unless the use of an advance consent has been accepted. During the University of Alberta's researchers' outreach study, many families felt that family members should be involved in a profound decision of such a nature as voluntary life-cessation. 

"I got a phone call on June 1st from her family doctor that I had never met. She said, 'I'm sorry to inform you that your mother has passed away'."

"And I literally told the doctor, I said, 'No, no, no, you've got the wrong person, like you've called the wrong person."

Interviewee 

In another instance, despite having been denied assisted death through previous requests in Ontario, 26-year-old Kiano Vafaeian died by MAID in a Vancouver funeral home after experiencing vision loss from diabetes; his constant state of deep depression led him to seek an assisted death. When informed that her son was no longer living, his mother immediately thought this was someone's idea of a bad joke.

 

Between legalizing MAID in the Criminal Code in 2016 and December of 2024, there had been 76,475 MAID deaths reported in the country. That number is expected to rise to 100,000 by the summer of 2025.  

Euthanasia has now become the fifth leading cause of death in Canada. Another amendment to the MAID law is being deliberated on by a special joint parliamentary committee, to extend 'dignity with dying' to people whose only condition is that of a mental illness; to come into effect in March of 2027.

 

The study funded by Health Canada, saw researchers inviting families from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec to discuss their experiences -- in support of 35 Canadian family members who received Medical Assistance in Dying -- through one-on-one virtual interviews. The decision to apply for MAID in some instances could be triggered by "unmanageable or unbearable symptoms"; severe shortness of breath, or unmitigated pain.

 

Some were driven to seek out MAID fearing loss of personal agency, having to rely on others for bathing or toileting; even the possibility of having little option but to move into a nursing home. For some, lack of adequate home care led to the final decision. Hasty assessments, lack of deep discussions of alternative options and advice on how families  could help relieve distress "led to their loved ones choosing MAID sooner than they may have", concluded the researchers.

 

The observation was also made that on occasion a second assessor appeared to 'rubber stamp' the first assessor's eligibility agreement. Health issues rated concerns of not having been fully addressed. "Booking our MAID date was like booking a dinner reservation, So, it's just all very, very, very impersonal." The cheerfulness of one assessor was profoundly off-putting for another family. Although either a doctor or a nurse could perform the final MAID injection some families found it a struggle to find a willing provider.

 

"It was an absolutely brutal contradiction of trying to fight for somebody to be able to die when you don't want them to die", explained one family member. 

 

Dr. Cheryl Rowe a Toronto psychiatrist, says she believes patients have a right to die a dignified death. ”Who am I to say you’re suffering, it’s too bad, you just have to find a way to live like this?” Nick Lachance

"MAID policy is often framed as purely about autonomy. But health care has never treated autonomy as absolute."

"Most families are not asking for veto power. They are asking to share information, to be involved and to know that all safeguards and care options were meaningfully considered."

Dr. Ramona Coelho, family physician, member Office of the Chief Coroner MAID death review committee, Ontario  

Murder While Black : Exemption

"As I have indicated, Mr. Downey has a substantial criminal record involving violence and firearms. I recognize, however, that the aggravating effect of his criminal record is offset in part by the mitigating circumstances of his background, as detailed in the IRCA."

"He grew up in Toronto in predominantly Black and racially diverse neighbourhoods and attended racially diverse schools, and felt that he did not experience overt racism."

"Mr. Downey explained to Dr. Duhaney that his experience living in communities which normalized racial diversity shaped his early sense of identity and belonging."

British Columbia Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes 

Downey's lawyers unsuccessfully argued he should be found not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder. (Shane MacKichan)

 

Impact of Race and Culture Assessments (IRCAs) are a construct for court use in Canada to "Help criminal justice professionals better understand the effects of poverty, marginalization, racism, and social exclusion on Black and racialized offenders and their experiences", according to the Canadian Department of Justice. They are a counterpart to the more well-known Gladue reports used to lighten sentences for Indigenous offenders. And both appear to be beloved by Canada's justice system, where in meting out punishment for grave crimes, lighter sentences always prevail for these categories of criminal offenders.

 

In the latest case to gain some notoriety in news reportage, 35-year-old Everton Javaun Downey, a known criminal, stabbed his girlfriend, 15 times on December 19, 2021, fleeing the scene of the carnage, then later turning himself in to police. He was convicted of second-degree murder for taking the life of 25-year-old Melissa Blimkie for reasons known only to himself. Sentenced to life in prison, Crown prosecutors sought no chance for parole for 15 years, while the presiding Justice Holmes decided on 12 years; a discount for the man because he is Black.

 

"[While Downey had] a significant criminal record that includes serious offences of violence, the IRCA submission made] clear that broader systemic, structural, and community factors relating to Mr. Downey's experience as a Black person have played a part in his life experience, bringing various types of trauma, negative peer influences, and mental health challenges."

"[Under] mitigating circumstances [in the IRCA report] early exposure to violence, chronic instability, poverty, systemic anti-Black racism, and untreated mental health symptoms, such as hypervigilance, that may be trauma related."

"The aggravating effect of his criminal record is offset in part by the mitigating circumstances of his background, as detailed in the IRCA."

Justice Heather Holmes 

University of Calgary social work professor Patrina Duhaney wrote up Downey's case for the IRCA through interviews with the man, prior to  his sentencing. She described him as a Black man of African Nova Scotian, African-American and Jamaican ancestry, noting that in his early life he did not experience 'overt racism'. After moving in 2016 to British Columbia he drifted about in a small Black population with cultural norms he was unfamiliar with, leading to feelings of disconnect and isolation, summed up Justice Holmes, studying the IRCA. 

 

He was familiar with poverty in his early background, a background that included an absent father. At home there had been domestic violence.  The neighbourhood he lived in as a developing child was one that was no stranger to shootings. Leading to a 'lasting sense of danger and mistrust', with mental health effects gained from  previous prison incarcerations and feelings of lonely pique over his separation from the comforting familiarity of his Ontario community.

 

Taking into account the bleak reality of a beloved family member, the friends and family of the murdered woman whom he killed in a stairwell at the Metrotown Shopping Centre in Burnaby, whose grief at her loss must surely have been given fresh impetus with the news that her killer was given a special dispensation of mercy in view of the colour of his skin. While B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Holmes had compassion for a life-criminal-turned-murderer, and she spoke softly of the pain the family was left in, she still gave the man a three-year free pass to freedom. Betrayed by Canadian justice.

 

Murder victim Melissa Blimkie. Photo by Handout/IHIT

"The victims have suffered an almost unbearable loss that affects them profoundly, and, for some, in almost every aspect of their lives."

"The family members feel the loss all the more deeply because they had no opportunity to say goodbye to Ms. Blimkie or to give her comfort in her final moments."

"They also feel betrayed by Mr. Downey, who they welcomed into their homes."

Justice Heather Holmes  

"Following several weeks of investigation, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) attained sufficient evidence for charges.  On January 19, 2022, the BC Prosecution Service approved a charge of second-degree degree murder against 31-year-old Everton Downey. The two had been in a relationship for some time prior to the homicide."

"On August 21, 2025, Everton Downey was found guilty of second-degree murder after a trial in Supreme Court in relation to the homicide of Melissa Blimkie. On February 13, 2026, Mr. Downey, now 35 years old, was sentenced by Associate Chief Justice Holmes to life in prison, with a parole ineligibility period of 12 years. The court also imposed a lifetime firearms prohibition and a DNA order." 

“This was a tragic instance of intimate partner violence that has had a devastating impact on Melissa’s family and her community”, says IHIT spokesperson Corporal Esther Tupper. “IHIT would like to thank the Burnaby RCMP, the BC Coroners Service, and the BC Prosecution Service for their work throughout this investigation. Our thoughts are with Melissa’s family and friends at this time.” 

B.C. Integrated Homicide Investigation Team 

Canada's DND Procurement Efficiency

"The C19 Ranger Rifle remains an effective and accurate weapon, and it continues to be used by the Canadian Rangers without any safety issues."

Cheryl Forrest, DND spokesperson 

 

"The performance requirements detailed performance against specific environmental conditions [cold, wet, etc.], and the C19 met these criteria."

"Therefore, Colt Canada fulfilled its contractual requirements, based on what was asked. There are no warranties that addresses the current issue being faced."

"[The issue] only became apparent and reported after extended field usage in extreme climatic conditions leading to cycles of expansion and contraction in the stock."

"This was not observed during Initial Operational Capability training; it only became apparent in the last two months before the end of deliveries."

DND spokesperson Alex Tetreault

A Canadian Ranger handles the military's new C-19 rifle. Photo by CORPORAL MARC-ANDRÉ LECLERC /CANADIAN ARMED FORCES

 

The Canadian Department of National Defence signed a contract with Colt Canada for $32.8 million in cost for 7,000 C-19 rifles to be provided to the Canadian Rangers; servicemen/women of aboriginal stock living in remote, isolated coast communities across Canada, and operating as a component of the Canadian Armed Forces. They have specific assigned tasks to fulfill, including:

 

Canadian Rangers conduct and provide support to sovereignty operations such as reporting suspicious and unusual activities as well as collecting local information of military significance.

Canadian Rangers conduct and provide assistance to CAF domestic operations such as providing local knowledge and expertise (i.e. advice and guides) or participating in search and rescue operations.

Canadian Rangers maintain a CAF presence in the local community through instruction, mentoring, and supervision of youth in the Junior Canadian Rangers Program.

 

The arms they had originally been supplied with were long outdated and badly in need of replacement. With their usual lack of efficiency in defence procurement, the 7,000 C-19 rifles supplied to the Rangers by National Defence turned out to be defective. Distributed to the Ranger units in 2018, reports from the Rangers indicated that the stocks on the rifles were incapable of surmounting problems with moisture, with the wood stock laminations not only bleeding colour but peeling off their lamination.

 

Canadian Rangers Training Course  DND

In handling the new rifles it became almost immediately apparent that their use in rain caused military personnel to see their hands lathered in red dye. The original contract stipulated that the rifles had to withstand extreme Arctic cold, including moderate-to-high humidity in coastal and forested areas of the country, where in fact the Rangers are tasked to operate. The one-year warranty that came with the bolt-action rifles has long since expired.

 

Despite which, the procurement arm of the Department of National Defence has turned to Colt Canada to expedite repairs to the weapon ... at additional taxpayers' cost. The original contract was for a weapon that was meant to be an improved version of the SAKO Finland, Tika T3 rifle. Which itself replaced the Lee Enfield .303 rifle, the mainstay weapon used since 1947 by the Canadian Rangers.

 

Now, after having been in circulation and use by the Rangers since 2018, replacement stocks for the C-19 will start to be delivered by the end of this year, when installation of the new stocks replacing the substandard originals will take place. So, if Ukraine has not taken up the offer to take possession of the 1947-era Lee Enfields, presumably they will be returned in the interim to the Rangers, while awaiting rectification of their brand-new, faulty replacements. 

 

DND records, obtained under the 'freedom of information' act, reveal through internal documents that Rangers had issued complaints during Initial Operational Capability training of the C-19s that failed to live up to its contract specifications, despite the disclaimer by DND spokesperson Tetreault. After a brief exposure to moisture, the problems with the faulty stocks were identified. Problems with the main firing component on the rifles were also documented at that time.

 

"Obviously from a health and safety perspective having dye released onto the skin is not a good situation", remarked Arthur Hall in 2018, with the Department's small arms program, in respect to the faulty C-19, making it obvious that issues with the rifle saw discussions occurring among DND officials. Complaints continued to arrive from Ranger units when the stocks began cracking. One officer assigned to the Rangers made note of having taken the new rifle out in the rain for a mere five minutes, then returning indoors.

 

"I held the weapon for approximately for 5 - 10 minutes and it started to stain my hand", wrote Capt. T.N. Collier, after noticing the new weapon was dripping red dye after his return indoors. Soldiers were vocal about the problem they were faced with, believing the Canadian Army and DND leadership had been misleading the public about the weapon's worthiness and how well taxpayer funding was being allocated in needed updates to Armed Forces weapons usefulness.

 

The Canadian military will be receiving new stocks for its ranger rifles after the old ones bled red dye. (Photo submitted by Canadian Forces) Photo by CANADIAN FORCES

"The issue is that when exposed to moisture the red dye in the stock will run, and will discolour the hands of the user."

"This is also an indication that the stocks are not properly protected from the elements."

Luke Foster, Directorate of Soldier Systems Program Management 

Despite Danger, the Irresistible Draw of Country and Family

"Australia made the offer because we are so impressed by these women as individuals. The choice that Australia gave, the choice of government officials standing in front of you and saying it is up to you, is a choice that every individual should be entitled to."

"Everything was about ensuring the dignity for those individuals to make a choice. We couldn’t take away the pressure of the context for these individuals, of what might have been said to them beforehand, what pressures they might have felt there were on other family members."

"When those players were silent at the start of their first match in Australia, that silence was heard as a roar all around the world. We responded by saying, the invitation is there. In Australia you can be safe."

"Australia’s objective here was not to force people to make a particular decision. We’re not that sort of nation.” 

"They were given a choice. In that situation what we made sure of was that there was no rushing, there was no pressure." 

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke

 

"Iran welcomes its children with open arms and the government guarantees their security."

"No one has the right to interfere in the family affairs of the Iranian nation and play the role of a nanny who is kinder than a mother."

Iranian first Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref    

A player and staffer with the Iranian women's soccer team, not pictured, sought asylum Tuesday before their teammates flew home where war began on Feb. 28. (Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images)

 

"I want to say about the Iranian women's team that it has between really moving for Australians to see them in Australia."

"I don't want to get into commentary about the Iranian women's team."

"Obviously, this is a regime that we know has brutally cracked down on its people."

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong  

The Iranian women's soccer team left Iran to take part in the Women's Asian Cup match last week, on the Gold Coast, before the February 28th joint U.S.-Israeli aerial attacks on the Islamic Republic. From Australia, while competing, news coming out of Iran briefed them on what was happening in their home country. And the team members, without a doubt, were concerned not only for their country, but for the  safety and security of their family members.

 

During the Second World War, when Britain gave haven to French soldiers and members of the French resistance to the Vichy government under Nazi occupation, many of the French although appreciating the generosity of Britain and their personal safety there, decided, regardless of the dangers they would be exposed to (arrest on arrival in France by the SS where young Frenchmen were shipped to Germany to serve as slave labour) for love of country and concern about their families' welfare.

 

And so, no doubt, it was pretty much the same for the young Iranians in their Australian sojourn, when most members of the team made the self-conscious decision that they would return to their home country and share with their families whatever danger the short-term assaults staged by the U.S. and Israel to destroy the Islamic Republic's missiles, launching sites, nuclear facilities and weapons depots, while also targeting key members of the Islamic Republican Guard Corps, the Basij police, and elite Iranian government figures including the Grand Ayatollah.

 

Iran players standing silent during anthems ahead of their opener against South Korea on March 2.

Albert Perez/Getty Images

 

It was not only the pressure of concern over the potential collective punishment their families might face were they not to return to Iran that created stress for the  young Iranians. Their group commitment over their decision not to sing the Iranian national anthem last week was condemned as a lack of loyalty to their country. Without a doubt their loyalty to the country was undimmed, but their unwillingness to sing along with the anthem reflected their rejection of the theocratic regime that had unleashed violent mass punishment against the massive protests on the streets of Iran by Iranian citizens calling for an end to the regime.

 

For their troubles, they were labelled traitors by an Iranian state TV presenter for remaining silent during the playing of the national anthem on March 2 before an opening loss to South Korea. In later matches, the players did sing the anthem and saluted. Given the circumstances and the possible less-than-warm reception the players may receive on their return to Iran,  the Australian Iranian Council has called on the government to offer their protection, permitting them to  remain in Australia.

 

An online petition launched by the Council garnered over 61,000 signatures on Monday, where Australian authorities were urged to "ensure that no members of Iran's women's national soccer team is to depart Australia while credible fears for their safety remain". The centre-left government was also urged to provide asylum to the Iranian team by Australia's shadow attorney general, on Sunday. 

 

A plea was made by the exiled son of Iran's last shaw, Reza Pahlavi, who called on the Australian government to protect the team "and give them any and all needed support". In the end, most of the team made the decision to return to what was, after all, their home and their families, flying out of Australia on Tuesday. In total, seven members of the women's soccer team asked for, and received permission to  remain in Australia.  

 

There was a precedent for this kind of humanitarian gesture, as it happens. Humanitarian visas were granted by Australia to over 20 members of the Afghanistan women's cricket team at a time when the Taliban in 2021 returned to power, and banned women's sport, among many other bans that severely reduced girls' and women's futures in the Islamist nation.  

 

Police officers clear the road for a departing bus transporting members of the Iranian Women's Asia Cup football team to the airport outside the Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast on Tuesday, March 10.

Patrick Hamilton/AFP/Getty Images

 

 

Vladimir V. Putin's Deadly Obsession

"As Russia’s war economy strains under growing pressure from sanctions and slumping revenues, even businesses in regions that have benefited from massive increases in military spending are feeling the pain and turning to officials for help."

"A survey of more than 10,000 companies published by the the central Bank of Russia in February showed that businesses nationwide reported weaker demand and tighter financial conditions, and were cautious about investment and hiring."

"Some of the country’s largest businesses are asking the government for aid to ease pressures from high borrowing costs and weaker demand, even as the state budget deficit is expanding amid declining oil and gas revenues."

"Many of Russia’s more than 80 regions face widening budget shortfalls that will force them to depend even more on Kremlin funding at a time when Moscow is prioritizing spending on the war that’s now in its fifth year."

"The combined deficit of regional budgets increased by more than one trillion rubles last year to 1.48 trillion rubles, more than triple the shortfall in 2024, Kommersant newspaper reported Thursday, citing calculations by the Analytical Credit Rating Agency in Moscow."

Alberto Nardelli, Bloomberg News

While predictions of Russia’s economic collapse “are not without grounds,” Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine is driven by profound mistrust of the West and will continue until that’s resolved. Photo by ALEXEY DRUZHININ/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images

 

"Four years after Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s economy has entered a 'death zone'."

"Russia’s economy is stuck in what might be described as negative equilibrium: holding itself together while steadily destroying its own future capacity."

"The most dangerous feature of this new structure is the fuel it burns. Russia’s economy now runs on what might be called ‘military rent’: budget transfers to defense enterprises that generate wages and economic activity."

"The body is metabolizing its own muscle tissue for energy."

"[Unlike a cyclical downturn such as a recession, what Russia is suffering from is more akin to altitude sickness] —the longer you stay, the worse it gets, regardless of rest."

"Russia can probably continue waging war for the foreseeable future. But no climber can survive the death zone indefinitely—and not all climbers who attempt the descent survive it." 

Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center 

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin is entirely fixated on his 'special military operation' in Ukraine, determined to see it through, irrespective of the sacrifices, and there have been many sacrifices; in human life, in political capital; in strained relations with most of Europe; in isolation as a war-mongering outcast; in a conflict-made economic downtown; in resorting to extraordinary wartime measures at home to silence his critics. The single-mindedness of his fixation is in fact, a pathology.

 

Mr. Putin's war, which really began in 2014 but was formalized in February of 2022 with a full invasion of Ukraine that the Russian president felt confident would result in no more than a few months of  combat as Ukraine, with its much smaller, much less-well equipped military would simply fold, allowing the Kremlin to see a quick victory and a Ukraine subdued to the point of subservience which in Russia's opinion, is how it has always been and always will be, despite Ukraine's historical push-back to its neighbour's aggressive occupation.

 

Prior to the war, warning signals of economic stagnation loomed in long-term prospects for the country, with an economy dominated by extraction of natural resources leading to a situation where a need to diversify was never acknowledged as a priority for future prosperity. Now, for the past four years and counting, Russia has poured vast state resources into its president's war that has bogged down alarmingly, draining ever greater resources and forcing a move for higher taxation and prospects of rationing. 

 

Volunteers depart for positions with the Akhmat battalion in Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, at an airport in Grozny, Russia.  Reuters

 

The financial cushion built over the years with oil and gas revenues, the National Wealth Fund that stood at $112 billion pre-war, has now been reduced to $55 billion even as 40 percent of the national budget is devoted to the military campaign and national security. Interest payments on the debt required to finance the war eats up another 9 percent of the federal budget. Technical innovation looking into the future of artificial intelligence is ignored while the two world powers, China and the U.S. compete, while Russia remains focused on weapons production. 

 

Foreign investment is Russia is a thing of the past. High interest rates to tame inflation has crimped domestic investment. Up to an estimated 1.2 million Russians have been killed or wounded. Some 325,000 Russian troops, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, have died on the battlefield. There are predictions that the Russian population could plummet under 100-million, from a pre-war population of 145-million. Hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled abroad to escape wartime legal crackdowns on dissent.

 

A Ukrainian serviceman fires a Bohdana howitzer toward Russian troops at the frontline at Donetsk region. Reuters

 

Chronicles, an independent Russian polling group, found 59 percent of Russians age 18 to 29 support withdrawal from Ukraine in the absence of Mr. Putin's goals being achieved, as opposed to 42 percent of all surveyed Russians; younger Russians are not enamoured of this war. Russia's oil and gas revenues experienced a steep drop as global prices fell and sanctions struck to impose Russian crude discounts. While businesses related to the military have profited, Russia's other businesses are struggling. Manufacturing has dropped, while higher taxes and costly loans are taking their toll. 

"You have lots of money spent on tanks, shells, bombs, military benefits and other things -- no long-lasting value, nothing that works on what we call development."

"This is a structural change of the Russian economy, of the design of the Russian economy, which is not easy to turn back."

Alexandra Prokopenko, Carnegie Russian Eurasia Center, Berlin