Sons of Jacob Synagogue, Belleville, Ontario

"There has been some trauma from this [Yom Kippur eve attack on Sons of Jacob Synagogue, Belleville, Ontario]. But we're going to pick up the pieces and we're going to start over and we're going to carry on."

"We will not be stopped by this person, or anyone else."

"We always have police protection. Every synagogue in North America on the high holidays has police protection. We've been doing it for years."

"Whenever there's a large gathering of Jews in a synagogue, there's police protection. That's just a sign of the times."

"For Jews, it's kind of like, who's going in the bad book? Who will not live through this year?"

"I guess we were all in the good book [congregants present during the attack], because we survived." 

Norman Weddum, president, Sons of Jacob Synagogue 

 

"When you're Jewish, you look to the history of your people."

"The people who came here were Holocaust survivors. They escaped Czarist Russia."

"They came to make a better life in this country, just as every Jewish community across this country." 

Shima Viggoda, vice-president, Sons of Jacob Synagogue 

 

"We're resilient, that's why we keep going. We have to fight."

"There was a time when we couldn't have services and we didn't have the people."

"But again, we built ourselves up, and we are standing on our feet now."

Mary Cohen, Sons of Jacob Synagogue board member

Police stand in front of the Son of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario Ontario on Monday Sept. 21, 2026. Ian MacAlpine - The Canadian Press

 

The small congregation of the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario at sundown, Sunday had gathered for Yom Kippur services only to hear gunfire erupt outside. First thoughts were that the sounds were anything but shots; a vehicle backfiring, firecrackers, but no.  When it was fully understood that shots were being fired at the synagogue the doors were locked and everyone looked for shelter as bullets flew over the heads of those sheltering on the floor. 

 

The member of the Belleville Police Service, Corporal Jeffrey Smith, seated in an unmarked vehicle outside the synagogue heard someone shout at him "You're going to die for the Jews!" before he was shot twice, in the neck and back. He emerged though wounded, from the vehicle and engaged with the attacker, as shots rang back and forth until two minutes on another constable appeared and his subsequent shots fully disarmed the shooter, a discharged soldier from the Canadian Armed Forces who had armed himself with a shotgun fully intending to enter the synagogue and murder as many there as he could.

 

That shooter whose plan had gone awry, almost killed Constable Smith, now in recovery though remaining in critical condition, while none of the Jewish congregants were harmed physically. The terrorist attacker, taken to Kingston General Hospital as was Corporal Smith, died the following day. The carnage he  hoped to carry out in a bloody shoot-out at a place of worship during the most holy day in the Judaic religious calendar was not to be. And the heroic action of a severely wounded police officer saved many lives, while endangering his own.

 

In Canada from 2023 to 2026, dozens of reports of gunfire, arson, window breaking, threats and vandalism have taken place at synagogues, parochial schools, community centres, Jewish-owned businesses and Jewish neighbourhoods, with expressions of condolences from the federal, provincial and municipal governments, but little-to-no effort made to enact real solutions through laws already in existence against the promotion of hate in ethnic communities.

 

The Sons of Jacob Synagogue is shown in Belleville, Ontario on Monday Sept. 21, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sharif Hassan

 

"The rabbi had just started to call us into the sanctuary. We were stepping inside, and we heard this loud bang, and we all stopped. It sounded like someone was banging the window or the door."

"We knew this was going to happen. We’ve been saying as Jews that we’re very concerned with the rise of antisemitism. What did you think was going to happen? People weren’t taking it seriously."

"Some people suggested we should go to the basement, others said we should go out the back door. At the same time, you’re just frozen because you don’t know what’s going on or what to do. Eventually the shots stopped."

"This guy’s a hero. I can tell you the gunman was coming for us inside, and he was trying to take out our armed protection first. We’re praying for [Police Constable Jeffrey Smith’s] recovery."

Doug Warren, 56, Kol Nidre services, Sons of Jacob Synagogue 

 

The tiny Jewish community in Belleville has existed for a century and a half. Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe found their way to the town in the late 1800s, located halfway between the major cities of Toronto and Montreal. In 1905, religious ceremonies were held at a rooming house in service to Jewish workers; representing the earliest appearance of what would become in time the Sons of Jacob congregation. The synagogue was finally built and open for services in 1956, on a residential street astride the small Jewish community when sufficient funding had been raised for the project.

 

Some 55 families comprised the congregation which by then had opened its own Hebrew school, and services were planned by a rabbi; a shochet to ensure ritual kashrut was employed, and the synagogue became a hub for fundraising through organized bazaars dances, lectures  -- where it hosted area  marriages and Bar Mitzvah ceremonies. The congregation dwindled in time as the community's younger generation left to pursue their futures in larger cities. The synagogue no longer had its own rabbi, but yearly for that solemn occasion, raised the funds required to fly in an Israeli rabbi to officiate. 

 

The congregants throughout the years had their random experiences with local  antisemitism, with Jewish children attending public schools exposed to it from within the general population. In 1925, the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland who became a local prominent businessman, found a large cross on fire on his front lawn one morning. Now, recovering from the most recent traumatic event, synagogue leaders plan to reopen its doors shortly and carry on the traditions of their forefathers in this small Ontario town. 

 

Police Officers at the scene of a shooting where a police officer was shot outside a Yom Kippur gathering at Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, September 21, 2026.

(photo credit: REUTERS/PATRICK DOYLE)

 

"We’re still in a state of shock. How could this happen, especially in Belleville? It’s insulting on top of it all."

"It’s bad enough when you read it in the news, but when you hear about it from somebody directly affected that you know, it was very distracting. Yom Kippur is a day of atonement, so you think back on how you can make yourself better and how you’re going to improve and move on. It’s a very contemplative day."

"How sick is it that you need armed police to enter your place of worship? But it’s a fact of life."

Debbie Fitzerman, president, Kingston Jewish Council 

 

"This is what we’ve been experiencing for the last, at least three years, but definitely has been compounded since October seventh." 

"Most of the coverage about Israel is negative and spreading lies and libels about Israel and Jews, and people are getting radicalized because of it."

"I’d like to see Hamas people being called terrorists, not combatants or warriors. I’d like to see true accounts of the humanitarian efforts that are being waged and have been waged for the benefit of the Palestinian people by the Israeli army, and not only unfortunate statements that some very right-wing members of the Israeli government have uttered, which do not represent the philosophy or the policies of the Israeli government or the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]."

"The Jewish people have survived thousands of years with similar opposition and similar attacks and we’re still here. This is one of the miracles of the Jewish people is that we’re survivors. We’re not going to let anybody take our traditions away from us."

"What starts with the Jews doesn’t end with the Jews. We are the canary in the coal mine. We’re the first ones to be hated and vilified, but then it extends to others and the ball keeps rolling until everybody is finding a scapegoat that’s not them and pointing fingers at others. That’s how society in a democracy disappears and disintegrates."

Rabbi Erin Polansky, Beth Israel Congregation, Kingston

 

Titled Institutional Failures and Child Murder in Canada

"[Alienation claims] are systematically used as a litigation strategy to deflect attention from abuse, undermine the child's disclosure of fear, and portray a protective mother as hostile, irrational or manipulative."

"Rather than asking why a child is frightened or resistant to contact, the system can wrongly assume the child has been influenced or brainwashed."

"[Even when there is documented family violence or other concerns, in a pro-contact culture] a father-child relationship can be treated as the overriding goal." 

"The Carney government has committed to keeping Canadians safe as one of its key priorities – this must include children. The federal government and Justice Minister Fraser need to commit to supporting the Bill. Parliament cannot bring these children back, but it can act to help prevent the next death."

Suzanne Zaccour, director, legal affairs, National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) 

Director of legal affairs at the National Association of Women and the Law Suzanne Zaccour, left, speaks at a press conference in Ottawa on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, as gun control advocate Nathalie Provost listens. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle

 

"[A court] shall not take into consideration [any allegation that one parent has deliberately encouraged a child to become estranged from the other. Judges would not be permitted to order] reunification therapy [or, in extreme cases, reverse custody]."

Keeping Children Safe -- proposed bill

 

"The legislation reflects a profound distrust of the Canadian family justice system."

"As tragic and concerning as child homicides are, and they have to be dealt with more effectively, the legislation does not address that issue in a meaningful way [risking exploiting child murders that have no relation to alienation]."

"[The bill] doesn't deal with the child protection system at all."

"It's very unfair, and very contra in the interests of the children, to decide cases on an absolute rule that says], 'We can never hear this evidence'."

"There are some people, a very small number who, in the midst of a custody battle, are so unbalanced they decide to kill their children. That's a terrible tragedy."

"The issue of parents killing their children is a huge concern [but the proposed bill is not the appropriate response]."

Law Professor Nicholas Bala, family and children's law expert, Queen's University

"Keira's Law" is a private members bill tabled in the House of Commons named after 4-year-old Keira Kagan. (Jennifer Kagan-Viater)

 

Deadly incidents of 'fillicide' are addressed in a new paper linking a "pro contact culture" and accusations of "parental alienation" to the murders of eight children by their fathers in Ontario and Quebec, representing five disparate families. Authors of a private member's bill before Parliament that has raised some controversy, claim these findings support their bill, introduced by Liberal MP Lisa Hepfner, proposing to amend the Divorce Act to prohibit courts from considering evidence that one parent actively attempts to 'alienate' the other parent through manipulation of a child, coaching that child to resist contact.

 

Under the proposed bill, judges would be prevented from restricting one parent's time with a child "to whom the child has a close connection" for the purpose of improving the relationship with the other parent. Courts would be prevented from forcing children to attend "reunification therapy". Now before the justice and human rights committee, the proposed legislation has passed second reading. 

 

According to the bill's proponents, in instances involving allegations of domestic violence, alienation claims are weaponized to be used as a legal tactic by parents -- in most instances fathers, accused of abuse -- to discredit the opposite parent. "They run the risk of being perceived as an uncooperative alienating parent" if a parent, must often mothers, insists a child is in danger. Most child homicides involve cases where child protection services failed children. 

 

Queen's University law professor Nicholas Bala supports amendments to require lawyers to screen for risks of family violence and allow courts to interview children. He objects to his interpretation of the bill that would prevent lawyers from presenting evidence that one or both parents are actively engaged in undermining the child's relationship with the other. Dr. Bala points out that in over one-third of cases it is the mother who has been alienated from her children by an abusive husband.

 

In five cases which NAWL used as examples for their proposed legislation, with the help of the faculty of law at University of Sherbrook, the deaths of children had been foreshadowed by warnings subsequently downplayed or dismissed by family courts or child protection services. Cases were selected on three criteria: murders occurring during custody disputes; institutions such as police, child protection services and family courts intervening prior to the child's death; and sufficient public information available to reconstruct details of the case. 

 

Children, in three of five cases were killed within days of a scheduled court hearing -- two days after a mother asked her lawyer about seeking sole custody in one case, fearing for the safety of her two boys, two and five years of age, their father killed them both. Titled Institutional Failures and Child Murder in Canada, the report describes the case of Keira Kagan whose parents separated when she was still in infancy. The parents' legal disputes had spanned four years, involving ten judges and 53 court orders.

 

Mother Jennifer Kagan whose husband Robin Brown had subjected her to years of domestic violence that included physical and sexual assault, filed an urgent motion to suspend or restrict him to supervised visits "due to his increasingly erratic behaviour". According to the report "The judge ruled the matter non-urgent and scheduled a hearing for two weeks later". Keira, twelve days later, was found dead at the bottom of a cliff.  

Keira Kagan is shown in this undated family handout photo. The four-year-old girl was found dead next to her father's body at the base of a cliff in Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area in Milton, Ont., in February 2020. Now the girl's name will be enshrined in federal and provincial laws designed to help other children avoid her fatal fate. (The Canadian Press Handout)

 

"[No judge took the added step of restricting his parenting rights [despite serious red flags]."

"[The] mere suggestion [of alienation shifts the focus from allegations of safety concerns] to whether the protective parent is actually doing enough to preserve the relationship."

 "[A child protection agency two days before the murder, called to warn that behaviour consistent with fathers who harm or kill their children was being displayed]."

"Yet they did not act. We were forced and directed to permit Keira to be in her biological father's care unsupervised."

Philip Viater, family law practitioner, Keira's stepfather 

Early Detection Cancer Screening in Blood

"If we can find more Stage 1 or more early stage cancers in a population that we can't screen for currently, then that will end up having benefit."

"But I don't know that that's been proven yet. So perhaps my 'yes' is a hopeful [vote] rather than an accurate one."

Victor van Berkel, division chief of thoracic surgery, University of Louisville

 

"There's no proof that this is going to reduce your risk of dying from cancer."

"If you have a negative test, you should not feel reassured [and] continue with [cancer screenings] that have been proven."

Scott Ramsey, physician/researcher, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center 

 

"I would still view it as an encouraging step rather than the final word on the clinical value of this type of testing." 

"Galleri has shown that we can detect signals from many different cancers with very high specificity using a simple blood test, including cancers for which we currently have no routine screening. That is an important advance.”

"[But the] real goal [is not just to find more cancers]. It is to find them early enough to change what happens to the patient."

"We still need longer-term evidence showing that this leads to fewer advanced cancers and ultimately fewer cancer deaths."

Professor Ajay Goel, chair, department of molecular diagnostics and experimental therapeutics, City of Hope  

Galleri is a blood test from California-based biotech company Grail, Inc. that screens for unique fragments of DNA shed by cancer cells. (Turgut Yeter/CBC)

 

A panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has backed a controversial blood-based cancer test, but just barely, among some members of the panel who have their doubts about its reliability and others who feel that any new method that advances the detection of cancer can be useful in the arsenal of medical science's ongoing search for more and more accurate diagnostic tools. The emerging field of cancer screenings offering less invasive detection methods of the presence of a range of cancers before the appearance of symptoms, is steadily advancing.

 

In the United States the test, named Galleri, has been available for the past five years, albeit not FDA- approved. Galleri tests for DNA fragments in blood samples to indicate the presence of cancer. The manufacturer of the test, Grail, claims their product is able to detect over 50 types of cancer, inclusive of stomach, bladder, colorectal, skin and breast cancer. According to advocates the test, through early detection of cancers, has saved lives. Pointing out it can detect cancers currently not screened for, making testing more accessible. 

 

Critics on the other hand, question the efficacy of the test. A significant reduction in late-stage cancer diagnoses for patients who took the Galleri test in a major trial conducted woth the British National Health Service, failed. The Medical Device Advisory Committee of the FDA voted 6-4 on the ten-person panel just barely affirming the effectiveness of Galleri. Additionally with a 7-2 vote (one abstention) agreeing that the benefits of the test outweigh its risks. As for safety, all 10 members voted in favour.

 

As far as some members of the committee were concerned, the potential of the test to detect cancers that cannot be screened for currently, presents promise enough to support the test. Others, though voting in favour of Galleri, felt not enough data to firmly establish the test's effectiveness has been produced. The FDA will produce its own decision whether to approve the test, even as it often makes use of the  committee's guidance.

 

Galleri's manufacturer states its product should not replace existing cancer screenings, but complement them, in use for adults aged 50 and older. In February, Grail applied for pre-market approval of Galleri. According to the company the FDA is expected to render its final decision shortly. A class of multi-cancer early detection tests whose purpose is to detect a wide range of cancers before symptoms occur, has been joined by Galleri, representing a more advanced test in that category. 

 

The U.K. National Health Service is conducting a research trial to see if using the Galleri blood test can help find cancer early. (NHS-Galleri)

 

At the committee meeting William Dahut, chief scientific officer of the American Cancer Society explained that multi-cancer early detection tests offer a more efficient path in improving cancer screening than would the development of more cancer-specific-dedicated tests. "No screening test is perfect. But if we sit in a room for the next 20 years trying to find the perfect test, we have a large possibility we're going to lead to more cancer deaths."

 

According to Emil Lou, oncologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, research has improved our understanding of cancer signals and how to locate them in blood tests; the tests hold promise, in his opinion. The risk, however, of false-positive results and false-negative results remain, he cautioned. Patients would suffer undue stress with false positives leading to unneeded additional tests and procedures; false negatives on the other hand risk creating a false sense of security. 

 

"People might see this (and think): 'Well, I can just go do a one-time test. If it comes back negative, I have no cancers, and I don't have to do a colonoscopy'." A first-of-its-kind trial of a multi-cancer early-detection test involving over 140,000 participants through the NHS trial, found testing failed to decrease the rate of Stage 3 and 4 diagnoses of 12 cancers; the trial's main goal. 

 

A principal investigator in a separate multi-cancer early-detection trial, Scott Ramsey, physician and researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, said the Galleri trial's failure, funded by the National Cancer Institute, to reduce late-stage diagnoses called into question the test's effectiveness at early detection. "There's no proof that this is going to reduce your risk of dying from cancer. If you have a negative test, you should not feel reassured (and) continue with (cancer screenings) that have been proven."

 

Wellness Haus, a  private clinic in Toronto is the first in Canada to offer a new cancer screening blood test called Galleri, but questions remain about the effectiveness of the $2,100 test. CBC

 

"The Galleri test has been on my radar for years because I've had several patients go to the U.S. to get it done there."

"The test is still in its infancy. [Researchers are] still doing studies on it. So it's not something that I go and tell everybody to go do."  

Dr. Melissa Hershberg, medical director, Wellness Haus, private health clinic, Toronto

 

Dr. Eddy Lang is a professor at the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine and a member of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. (Submitted by Dr. Eddy Lang)

 

"The problem as I see it is that the test has not yet been proven to improve patient outcomes."

"Until we have studies that show that people actually live longer as a result of getting the test, I think we need to be very apprehensive about using it." 

"I think a healthy consumer skepticism is the way to go."  

Dr. Eddy Lang, University of Calgary medical school 

 

Requiem for the Victims of a Suicide Enabler

"We are two people trying to survive the same loss while watching each other suffer. It terrifies me to think what would happen if we both collapse at the same time."

"We are two people clinging to each other because neither of us knows how to stand up on our own. The future we had imagined as a family disappeared."

"I saw my daughter pale, bruised and cold. That image became part of me."

"The place she went for understanding led her to greater danger [to a man who] paves a path to death..."

"How was I supposed to protect my daughter from something I didn't even know I was supposed to protect her from?"

Leonardo Bedoya Forero, Maria Lopez, parents of 18-year-old Jeshennia Bedoya-Lopez 

Families of poison seller Kenneth Law's alleged U.K. victims are sharing their anger and frustration that British authorities have chosen not to charge Law for dozens of deaths there because it's unlikely he'd be extradited. CBC

 

Justice Michelle Fuerst is presiding over family member testimony of people whose death by suicide was enabled by having ordered a poison advertised online and paid for through PayPal and Shopify by Kenneth Law who became known as the suicide poison merchant. The Ontario Crown wanted this man to be charged with murder and given a life sentence. Because of an unexpected legal complication a plea arrangement was agreed to; assistance for 14 suicides was all the Crown could manage in the criminal prosecution of a man who held the belief he was being of help to suicidal people. 

 

Facing sentencing for his crimes with the prospect of a 14-year maximum sentence, the potential of additional penalties related to his 14 admitted offences could see the 60-year-old facing consecutive sentences. Some of those present in the courtroom in Newmarket, Ontario -- there as family members of the deceased Kenneth Law is charged with providing the means for them to end their lives -- walked past his prisoner's box, their eyes averted, while others looked him in the eye, as they moved past.  

"There was a before, and then there is an after when we have gained membership in a club that nobody wants to be part of."

"I still write to Ashley, message here, in the hopes there's a small corner of the universe where she has written a system that is able to receive them."

"We all feel we should have been able to prevent Ashley's death, or to intervene in a way that would have changed the course of events."

Norson Harris, father of 26-year-old Ashley Harris  

This, only the first day of a hearing that will likely last for several weeks, as people read their victim impact statements, saw the convicted man sitting immobile, eyes cast downward, looking at no one. As they spoke, people emphasized the alteration that has taken place within, since the death of their loved ones, of their health, their emotions, their finances, their values and their responses to the stresses of life; their self-agency crushed, confidence in their capacity to face a world absent those they loved hampered by their bereft emotions.

 

It would not have endeared the enabler of their loved one's death to them, to know that he was not troubled by the act of assisting vulnerable people's suicidal intentions, even as he denied murdering anyone. A journalist had surreptitiously recorded his admissions during an interview that, when reviewed by authorities, led to his arrest. He appeared pleased that he had the solution to people's death wishes by offering a service he felt people had a right to. That he profited relatively modestly from providing the means by which they would die, was a source of pride.

 

Maria Lopez, mother of the late Jeshennia Bedoya-Lopez, speaks to members of the media outside the Superior Court of Justice building, in Newmarket, Ont. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

There were in total 14 Ontario victims, whereas 79 people died with his assistance in Britain. In the United States, another number of people died, leaving it likely that well over a hundred people were aided in achieving their deaths through Kenneth Law's intervention. He is known to have sent 431 packages to the U.S., 330 to the U.K., and within Canada another 157, between 2021 to 2023. An international search to intercept those packages was undertaken.  

"My son is dead, he is gone, I am empty, hollow. If it hadn't been for your offence, perhaps Clayton [Choquette, 32] may still be here..."

"Your actions caused me to have no desire to live any longer, because Clayton is not here to share with."

"It is pointless. He was everything to me."

Cindy MacMinn 

Most of the deaths linked to this man's sale of assistive devices online were through poison dissolved in water and ingested, which went for $100, although he also sold more costly kits to enable asphyxiation by gas. He was estimated to have profited altogether in the amount of $300,000 for his little enterprise. As he sat through the proceedings impassively, the Crown began its proceedings on the basis of 74 victim impact statements, some of which were read out by their authors, others by prosecutors.

 

The father of Ashley Norton expressed the "small consolation" felt that Kenneth Law admitted responsibility, stating his own hope that the man recognizes the response he should have offered his customers would have preferentially been "that they were loved, they were not alone, and that help is available". Dozens more victim impact statements will be heard as the hearings continue to proceed in the weeks ahead.  

"There are things you do not realize you are memorizing while your child is still alive."

"[Like the sound of his] gallop [down the stairs to ask if the chicken and rice is ready]."

"Now it's one of the most precious memories of my life."
Sarjit Kaur Rana, Mother of Amrit Rana, 21  

The Superior Court of Justice building, in Newmarket, Ont., is pictured on Wednesday. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

Privileged Access for Private Gain, Otherwise Known as Presidential Corruption

 

Umar Kremlev, a businessman with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, paid for a fireworks display and rented a private island for Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson’s wedding this year.

Mireya Acierto via Getty Images

 

"A toaster is a wedding gift. A private-island party paid for by a Putin-connected oligarch is something else."

"Republicans nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden's foreign relationships. We should not unplug it now."

"The country should not have to accept one standard for the family of a Republican president and another for the family of a Democratic president."

"It's corruption. I don't like it." 

Utah Senator John Curtis 

Hasn't this always been done? Perhaps a little more discreetly, not to bring it to public notice. Remember former President Bill Clinton and his Clinton Foundation being found out when he had taken donations to his charity from questionable sources that it was intimated wanted to have access to his wife in her influential post in the Obama administration as Secretary of State? Were Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Algeria passing out millions just out of the goodness of their hearts, and not for access and influence? 

 

The Trump family, despite their own wealth, are impressed with the palatial digs of Middle Eastern nobility. And if one such country decides to gift Donald J. Trump with a token of his admiration and appreciation through presenting him with a sumptuously-outfitted mega-jet, it's unlikely the gift was anything but a token that could lead the way to preferential treatment. Or not. Say, the casual ability to overlook the fact that Qatar is a leading sponsor of jihad-addicted terrorist groups. 

 

 The discovery that a Russian oligarch, a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had made friendly overtures to the son of the President of the United States, to secure an amicable relationship well-oiled by a generous, costly gift is interesting for what it can reveal of a semblance of warm feelings between Mr. Trump the president and Mr. Putin the president. The Trump family is widely recognized for having ethics-questionable business interests. And that the U.S. president  uses his office to enrich himself and his family is not really classified information. 

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Umar Kremlev during an event in Moscow in September 2022. (Gavriil Grigorov/Pool/Sputnik/Reuters)

 

The situation, revealed by the news outlet PropPublica, that Donald Trump Jr. had a friendly relationship with a wealthy Russian that resulted in an opulent gift from that Russian to the American president's son, grates on the principles and sense of ethical responsibility that should sit with the White House, as far as Utah Senator John Curtis is concerned. The Republican senator wants Donald Trump Jr. to be subpoenaed over the bankrolling by Umar Kremlev of a lavish wedding ceremony enjoyed by the president's son and daughter-in-law and their guests.

 

He has approached the Senate Judiciary Committee for an investigation into the issue of presidential families using their political connections for their own financial interests. Umar Kremlev may be spoken of fondly as a good friend, by the two younger Trumps, Donald Jr. and his wife Bettina, but theirs is an acquaintanceship not long in the tooth. When U.S. President Trump reacted initially to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine by sanctioning a number of Russians close to Putin, including some oligarchs, Mr. Kremley feared he would be among them. Befriending the Trumps would obviously make that less likely.

 

Senator Curtis's request, based on the ProPublica investigation that reported hundreds of thousands were paid by Umar Kremlev toward the three-day wedding celebrations in the Bahamas -- including rental of a private island and a fireworks display that took place in May -- further distances some members of the 
Republican party from the president. That two nights of celebration was "very generously hosted" by their Russian friend was not denied by Trump Jr. and his wife.

 

Donald Trump Jr.'s secret wedding benefactor    Pro Publica

 

In a spirit of all-inclusive rancor, Senator Curtis included Hunter Biden to also be subpoenaed, that Congress should rightfully apply the same standards to families of presidents, irrespective of which party they represented. Trump Jr.'s cryptocurrency ventures, international real estate dealings, defence investments and ties to prediction markets were all to be investigated, according to the letter addressed to Republican judiciary committee chair Chuck Grassley, and Dick Durbin, the committee's top Democrat. 

 

The committee was asked to study closely whether ethics and anti-corruption laws currently existing are adequate for the prevention of the presidency becoming "a vehicle for private enrichment by those closest to it". The wedding revelations, he stated unequivocally, represented an issue that "just stinks".  

 

Kremlev hosted Trump Jr. at an event in Istanbul in September 2025. International Boxing Association

 

 

You Buy Them, We Control Them

"In June 2024, the Joint Strike Fighter Program Office conduced an assessment of the interim operations plan to determine  how ready National Defence was to support the first aircraft arrival in Cold Lake in December 2028."

"The overall rating for this assessment was "RED", meaning that significant issues remained unresolved and required senior leadership action."

Auditor General Karen Hogan, Ottawa

U.S. President Donald Trump announces on March 21 the F-47, the sixth-generation high-tech air force fighter jet to succeed the F-22 Raptor. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

 

Usually when a sales transaction takes place, the "you buy it, you own it" expectation normally occurs. You paid for it, take it home with you, and as its owner it's entirely up to you what you do with it. The only interest the manufacturer has in its product thereafter is the prospect of the buyer considering acquiring more of the same. Canada is prepared to  take possession of eight of the U.S.built F-35 fighter jets it years ago committed to acquiring. Costs have escalated substantially since the original agreement.

 

And then there's the little inconvenience of a trade war having erupted between the buyer and the seller. The Trump White House administration has imposed sky-high tariffs on Canadian goods entering the United States, with the claim that Canada -- and other trade partners from Europe to the Far East have  too long hung onto American coattails, and what's more taken the U.S. and its generosity for granted, so much so that President Donald J. Trump is displeased and quite fed up with having his nation 'cheated' out of its due. So, tariffs all around, folks. Don't like it lump it -- alternatively agree to swallowing tariffs and retaining entry to the U.S. market.

 

Those constrained circumstances led to the Canadian government rethinking its original plan of acquiring 80 of the fighter jets. That it would accept the 16 now being prepared for delivery and place the remainder on hold, while it considers the feasibility of purchasing advanced jets elsewhere for a mixed force of jets, despite the warning of the American Ambassador to Canada that should that decision not go in American manufacturers' favour there would be dire consequences for scofflaw Canada.

 

Presumably worse than forcing vehicle manufacturing out of Canada, to relocate to the United States, putting thousands of Canadian auto workers out of employment. The initial purchase is proceeding. But not without hiccoughs of another kind. The U.S. makes the sale, and the U.S. mandates specifications required both pre- and post-sale.

 

Members of the Canadian Forces visit a US Air Force base in Alaska in March 2025 to get briefed on the F-35. (US Air Force photo) Photo by Airman 1st Class Carson Jeney /354TH FIGHTER WING

 

Specialized aircraft hangars must be built to U.S. specifications, along with placing specific security protectionist rules for the planes. F-35 parts remain the property of the United States while warehoused in Canada, until installation on the aircraft. All critical software upgrades are controlled by the United States. Canada's Royal Canadian Air Force is relaxed about all this, while establishing a new military occupation, Security Forces (SecFor). "The new occupation will help support the RCAF as it introduces advanced air and space systems that require higher levels of security".

 

Personnel of the new union are to begin October training in the U.S. The new unit is to receive U.S.-built P-8  surveillance aircraft and MQ-9 drones as well as the new F-35s. Reports are circulating that there have been security breaches for the F-35, in that sensitive F-35 technology has fallen into the hands of the Chinese government. The Royal Canadian Air Force generals advocate openly for Canada to purchase only the US. F-35 fighter jets. 

 

In the face of uncertainty whether the Liberal government will decide not to commit to receiving more than the expected 18 planes, the Trump administration has warned its neighbour Canada of fierce consequences that would ensue if it continued to sit on the decision to commit to the further 72 jets, preferring to swerve to purchasing Swedish Gripen fighter jets instead.

 

Quite apart from the $27 billion cost plus $5.5 billion for full operational capabilities, this is a costly proposition. Warning that Canada lacks the proper facilities to house the F-35s forced a redesign of the buildings and additional costs entailed for the Canadian taxpayer. Ongoing concerns in Canada's plans to support the arrival of the first  planes are also being expressed by the US. Canada just can't win for losing. 

 

RCAF Lt.-Gen. Jamie Speiser-Blanchet travelled to Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth, Texas, facility on Feb. 2 for a ceremony to mark a production milestone for Canada's first F-35. Photo by CANADIAN FORCES 

 

Tensions Rising in Europe as Russian Threat Increases

"There is a real risk that drones or other types of missiles may fly into the territory of one or more NATO countries on the eastern flank, even cause destruction."

"[Russia's] official narrative will be that this is an accident and that there is no reason for anyone to think about any response from NATO."

"Sustained, very frequent and intense attacks are expected on six major Ukrainian cities, including the destruction of warehouses, all types of products essential for the country's defence, and, as we have witnessed very strongly in recent weeks, the railway infrastructure." 

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk

 

"[The security situation has never been] so serious and so tense." 

"Can anyone imagine that we're told to prepare 5,000 soldiers, 10,000 soldiers? And they'll go to fight somewhere we don't even know with whom, why or for what?"

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico 

Lithuanian soldiers secure the area where Italian fighter jets shot down a drone during NATO's Baltic Air Policing Mission near Pratkunai village, north of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, September 15.  AP

 

Addressing parliament, Prime Minister Tusk spoke of the Kremlin's plans to destroy the economy and logistics of Ukraine, a conclusion supported by evidence intelligence services have gathered. Russia's plans extend to NATO's resolve, which it has focused on weakening by attacking the coalition's member states; in effect challenging them to respond. By launching 'hybrid style' drones and missile strikes against countries that are in support of Ukraine, NATO is being tested, even as the conflict launched by Vladimir Putin enters its debilitating fifth year.

 

As a key transit passage for Ukraine aid, Poland has undergone a number of suspicious incidents; multiple cyberattacks on public utilities. Critical domestic water, energy infrastructure and hospitals have been affected in Poland. The railway linking Warsaw to the Ukrainian border sustained damage that had all the hallmarks of Russian sabotage. Late July  saw a Russian missile crash in eastern Poland. Other NATO nations close to Ukraine have experienced similar, albeit fewer such 'warnings' related to Mr. Putin's 'special military operation'.

 

At a time when Moscow has intensified its attacks against Ukraine, inclusive of targets adjacent the Polish border, NATO jets responded by shooting down a drone of Russian origin over Lithuania a week earlier. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico made it clear that Slovakia, while taking its commitments to NATO seriously, he is prepared to do whatever he can to ensure that his country not be pulled into a conflict of uncertain value and outcome, in his opinion.

 

The fact is that Mr. Fico speaking for Slovakia does not regard Russia as posing a security threat. Advocating rapprochement with Moscow, he clearly diverges from other NATO members' concerns regarding the threat to their security posed by Russian President Vladimir Putin's territorial ambitions, pining for a return to the Soviet era with eastern Europe appendages of Greater Russia. The consequences of invoking NATO's Article 5, requiring all coalition members to act in defence of one another are unthinkable in Mr. Fico's considered opinion.

 

Military personnel from Poland, Lithuania, and France take part in training exercises during Operation Brave Boar 26 at the Orzysz Land Forces Training Center near the Suwalki Gap in Poland, on June 17.

Damian Lemanski/Bloomberg/Getty Images

 

"The path the world is on leads straight to the gates of hell. It is leading  us to World War Three", added Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, another critic of the European mainstream, at the IISS Prague Defence Summit. On the opposite side of the equation, the "rapidly worsening" situation concerning security and energy supplies in the face of conflicts afflicting Ukraine and the Middle East, motivates French President Emmanuel Macon to meet with government, party leaders and military and security officials to address the issues.

 

The oncoming, inevitable difficult winter ahead has Kyiv's full focus, along with that of its western allies. In meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Mr. Tusk spoke of the potential of co-operation through the "anti-ballistic coalition", and to fully address Ukraine's energy infrastructure, once again in Putin's crosshairs in the coming months. 

 

It is not only Eastern Europe that has become alarmed over gathering dark clouds of war. In the United Kingdom, its government has given notice that people should prepare to stockpile canned food and drinking water in preparation for the possibility of war as Britain faces the 'most dangerous' threat in decades. Hospitals in Germany are preparing for the possibility of an attack by Russia, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz warning of "decisive moments, defending the freedom and peace of our continent". Switzerland too issued calls for resilience and preparations to defend itself against an armed attack. 

  

Russian soldiers who participated in the military invasion of Ukraine march through the Victory Day parade in Moscow, May 9th. Getty Images

"[The Kremlin isn't ready for] any serious talks about a ceasefire, not to mention peace without -- de facto -- Ukraine's capitulation."

"They [the Russians] are convinced the winter will be tragically critical for Ukraine."

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk