World War I With Drones

"Four years since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia still occupies roughly 20 percent of the country after gaining almost five thousand square kilometers of territory in 2025." 

"Russia continues to bombard Ukrainian cities, while Ukraine maintains drone attacks on Russian oil infrastructure and military sites."

"Since January 2022, Ukraine has received about $188 billion in aid from the United States and $197 billion from the European Union."

"Fighting and air strikes have inflicted nearly 56,000 civilian casualties, while 3.7 million people are internally displaced, and 5.9 million are registered as refugees. 10.8 million people need humanitarian assistance."

Global Conflict Tracker 

 

"In many respects, this war in Ukraine is the one that most closely resembles World War I."

"[In both wars it was the intensity of firepower that forced armies to turn to trenches]: You bury yourself to protect yourself."
Michel Goya, former French colonel, historian 

People visit the graves of their relatives, who were killed during Russia's attack on Ukraine, as a large-scale light installation illuminates the Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine, on Feb. 23, 2026, marking the fourth anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion. (Roman Baluk/Reuters)

 

The heavy casualty counts and brutal infantry assaults of the ongoing war in Ukraine strikes some war historian as comparable to conflict conditions experienced during World War I. By June 11, the war in Ukraine -- Vladimir Putin's 'special military operation' -- saw a point in time where it has been prolonged for four years and three months, its duration outlasting World War I's epic conflict. 

 

Mr. Putin's expectation that his large operational full-on incursion of February 2022 would swiftly see Ukraine surrendering, his goal accomplished in a mere matter of months if not weeks. The Ukrainian counter offensive which saw Russia effectively opposed and the conflict became a war of attrition, it would have seemed inconceivable to any strategists, much less servicemen fighting for their lives on either side of the hostilities that the war would drag on for so many weeks, months and years. 

 

Yet the war has a life of its own, reflecting the level of determination on both sides; Moscow's to achieve its objective; Kyiv to sustain its sovereign rights and push its aggressor entirely out of its geography, including from Crimea and Donetsk, both of which fell to Russia in 2014. 

 

Ukrainian servicemen of the 33rd separate assault regiment participate in a training at an undisclosed location in Zaporizhzhia region on Jan. 30, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP via Getty Images

 

Recent polls indicate that almost fifty percent of Ukrainians feel the war will not end before 2027. Among Ukrainians many are prepared to argue that the war's beginning in reality was 2014 when Russian troops with the assistance of Russian-Ukrainian rebels swept Crimea to seize it for Greater Russia, complementing Vladimir Putin's yearning for the days of firm control of eastern Europe during the Soviet Union, and he a modern-day Czar. 

 

According to Ukrainian historian Yaroslav Hrytsak, the conflict that Russia imposed upon Ukraine will rank in historical accounts as among the most consequential in modern European history. Alluding to both wars, having altered geopolitics in Europe through the reshaping of military alliances, driving a feverish defense buildup through NATO, unseen since the end of the Cold War. 

 

The war in Ukraine has now exceeded the first world war in duration. And while the comparison between these two conflicts is imperfect, it is becoming difficult to ignore.

 

 A century earlier, point out military analysts, it was the new technologies of warplanes and tanks that drove the fighting antagonists, while today advances in unmanned aerial war machines have taken centre stage in an increasingly brutal onslaught against humans more attuned to conventional warfare. As in 1914, so too in 2024, where a frozen front line maintains a status quo and where neither attacker nor defender can claim the upper hand. 

 

Historians see World War I trench warfare repeated in the trenches and bunkers that Ukrainian soldiers have been using where assaults with artillery barrages followed by storming enemy trenches by infantry squads were the elemental formulaic schemes brought to play in the early years of the current war, echoing what had been current a hundred years earlier. 

 

Once drones were brought into play, trench-like networks became outdated as unsafe, where drones monitored the battlefield, striking with precision greater than that of artillery shells. Survival now depends on smaller, more discreet and deeper trenches to outfox the drones; shelters now house a handful of soldiers in dugouts. As for the fearsome tanks of WWI, they have become targets for drones, and have been largely retired. 

 

According to Admiral Pierre Vandier, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation in NATO, the Ukrainian front has been lethalized by drones. And the strategy that Ukraine relies upon to use drones to strike deep into Russia to hit its oil assets, strikes at its very economy which funds Putin's special military operation. The battlefield has been flooded with small attack drones of Ukrainian design and forward technology. "This is World War I, but with drones", said historian Yaroslav Hrytsak.  

 

Disregard For The Rule of Law

"It's a symbol of the short-sighted damage that this administration is doing to the world's most important bilateral trading relationship."

"Businesses in Ontario are angry. My American business friends and partners, they say the same thing. They're angry about unacceptable delays in the opening of infrastructure that is essential to their economy and to ours."

"It yet again appears the private interest is being prioritized over the public interest of both 
Americans and Canadians."

"What will be really sad here is if there is any significant delay in getting this infrastructure open at the exact time that businesses in both countries are struggling and trying to invest in their own growth." 

Daniel Tisch, president, Ontario chamber of Commerce

The Gordie Howe International Bridge is silhouetted against an orange sky over the Detroit River between Windsor and Detroit. (Pratyush Dayal/CBC)

 

Ottawa and Michigan signed an agreement in 2012 over plans to build a new bridge linking Michigan with Ontario for transport purposes. It was mutually agreed that Canada would have sole responsibility for the design, construction and financing of the project, the new international trade crossing bridge to be named in memory of storied Canadian hockey player Gordie Howe. Toll revenues from the Gordie Howe International Bridge, it was agreed, would be evenly shared between Canada and the State of Michigan, once Canada had recovered construction costs through initial revenues.

 

The bridge's time had come. The existing bridge, the almost-century-old Ambassador Bridge, no longer has the capacity to handle the volume of trade between Canada and the U.S. "If you think about all the automotive parts that come from Canadian plants, the border should not be a bottleneck in the transportation process", explained supply chain expert Professor Fraser Johnson of the Ivey Business School, Western University. 

 

The Ambassador Bridge stretches between Windsor, Ont. and Detroit. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)

 

Each day, the Ambassador Bridge sees over $390 million of trade passing through between the two trading partners, which represents 26 percent of Canadian exports by road, according to Transport Canada's 2021 data. Built in 1929, the bridge lacks the handling capacity relative to the volume of trade between Canada and the United States. "Everybody gets hurt whenever there's a disruption" of the supply chain that links Windsor and Detroit, reflecting the level of integration, remarked mechanical engineering professor Peter Frise at the University of Windsor.

 

Truckers have good reason to look forward to new efficiencies with the bridge opening, alleviating congestion and diverting Ontario's Highway 401 and Interstate 75 heavy truck traffic away from city streets in Windsor. Truckers and businesses making use of the existing corridor means higher toll costs for each day of delay, time lost in congestion on the limited four-lane width of the Ambassador Bridge. Bridge crews place orange traffic cones by hand to change traffic direction before the evening traffic rush.

 

The six-lane deck of the Gordie Howe International Bridge stretches across the Detroit River between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit. A federal briefing note obtained by CBC News says the crossing has been 'essentially complete' since February. (Submitted by the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority)

 

A level of frustrated controversy erupted in February when Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the bridge would not be opened until the U.S. was "fully compensated". Just a week ago, Michigan Republican House Speaker Matt Hall stated that the U.S. should receive half of the new bridge's toll revenue, presumably even before Canada recouped the $6.4 billion it spend building the bridge. Leading Daniel Tisch to observe this would be a "disregard for the rule of law" to place an agreement already signed back on the table.

 

The Ambassador Bridge owners, the Moroun family, spent years through lawsuits fighting the construction of another bridge to take traffic between the two countries, which would disturb their monopoly. They had been major contributors to President Trump's election campaign, and had his ear, lobbying for some kind of intervention. And so, Mr. Trump listened, and he made his position known, evidently believing that Canada owed the U.S. something for having built a bridge with Canadian tax funding, as though this entitles him to belittle the enterprise and extract financial concessions over an imagined imbalance. 

 

U.S. President Donald Trump said Canada would not be permitted to proceed with the Gordie Howe International Bridge 'unless America got a piece of it, too,' despite the bridge being financed and built by Canada. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

 

The Endless Flywheel of Nature's Designs

"[Advances made in modeling these tides over the last 15 years have enabled the study's authors to show that] the dissipation is lower than previously expected."

"A better understanding of tidal physics and the most advanced constraints we have on mass loss allow us to say that -- in the current state of knowledge -- Earth could move away from the Sun, contrary to what was predicted before."

Stephane Mathis, astrophysicist, Paris-Saclay centre, France 

 

"Earth's fate depends on a delicate balance between these two effects [increased size of sun's gravitational force pulling Earth closer to the Sun, compounded by oceanic tidal energy pushing the Moon further from Earth]."

"If tidal interactions predominate, Earth is engulfed by the sun. If the sun's mass loss predominates, Earth escapes into an orbit larger than the radius of its star." 

Mats Esseldeurs, astrophysicist, University of Leuven, Belgium 

A new lease of life: Our planet may escape a fatal spiral into the exploding fireball of the Sun. Phys.Org

 

Up to the present time, and until the publication of a study published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, of which Mats Esseldeurs was lead author, it was thought among astrophysicists that Earth's distant fate into the far future would be its absorption into the sun and thus complete annihilation. An almost-similar fate that has obliterated many stars in the firmament of the heavens over millions of years, as their stars became giants, then red dwarfs and then black holes vacuuming all that surrounded them into the nothingness of their depths. 

 

As huge as our sun is in comparison to the planets in its orbit, its size does not qualify it in that direction. It will ultimately, in the space of five billion years, become a white dwarf, a fireball of a dying star which it was assumed would consume Earth in its quest for energy to sustain itself before expiring. First the Sun must burn through all the hydrogen in its core, following which two immense expansion phases occur; becoming a red giant, and then an AGB star when it has spent all its helium.

 

An Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) star is a late stage in the evolution of low-to-intermediate mass stars (about 0.8 to 8 times the mass of the Sun). It represents the final bloated phase of a star's life before it sheds its outer layers and collapses into a dense white dwarf.

 

Will the Sun become a black hole? No, it's too small for that! The Sun would need to be about 20 times more massive to end its life as a black hole.   NASA

 

As the Sun expands there will be significant effects seen on Earth as the Sun's increasing gravitational forces pull the Earth toward it. This force creates the push and pull of ocean tides on the Earth, energy from which dissipates at the ocean bottoms, which in turn slows Earth's rotation, while gradually moving the Moon further from Earth.  Intense tidal waves stir within the Sun as it expands and its blistering surface moves closer to Earth. It is when those tides dissipate that Earth would be pulled into the Sun's dying embrace.  

 

On the other hand, due to stellar wind, the growing Sun will also lose much of its mass, pushing planet Earth further distant. The new calculations reached by the authors of the newly-published study, places the initial hypothesis of the Earth being swallowed by the dying Sun in question. These are calculations reliant on relatively simple descriptions of tidal dissipation within giant stars. 

 

The study's authors took advantage of advances in modelling tides over the last 15 years to demonstrate "the dissipation is lower than previously expected", as explained by Dr. Mathis of the CEA Paris-Saclay centre. Mars is also affected by escaping, like Earth a death spiral into the Sun, according to the new modelling. Mercury and Venus, closest to the Sun, are less fortunate. Their fate will be that the expanding fireball will inexorably swallow them both. 

 

Of course, nature's plans can be inscrutable, and even while scientists feel they have achieved a fuller understanding of her formulated designs and the unfolding of the universe as it continues to age into eternity, new discoveries will emerge that will add layers on to what has already been surmised, hypothesized, synthesized and 'proven'. None of us, regardless, need spend sleepless nights concerned over how our lives will change as these forces of nature unfold, other than to marvel at the wonders of a universe that is vast and for the most part unknowable. 

 

A view of the sunrise from Earth's horizon.    Zelch Csaba/Pexels

 

 

Indigenous Sentencing Reports

"[Dennis] inflicted the worst form of violence on an Indigenous woman and young man and tore apart an Indigenous family."

"Mr. Dennis's wife and son should have been safe in their home and protected by Mr. Dennis as a husband and father."

"Instead, he put them to a violent death. The devastation from his actions goes far beyond that. He deprived his children of a mother and a brother."

"He deprived Dorian's partner of a husband and their son of a father." 

Justice Simon Coval, British Columbia Supreme Court

File photo of Tsay Keh Dene First Nation courtesy of Wikipedia

 

A member of the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation, comprised of around 235 members, Orlan Marcel Dennis in 2024 shot his wife and teenage son to death. His sentencing hearing took place recently, after the man's personal history had been studied through a mandatory Indigenous Sentencing report. Dennis's wife and daughters had suffered years of violent assaults from the husband and father who was doubly addicted -- both to alcohol and to drugs. When the reviews were complete and presented to the court, they influenced the sitting justice to the extent that he was convinced the double murderer's sentence could be adjusted in his favour.

 

The sentence was for a ten-year incarceration, and it was adjusted to enable Orlan Marcel Dennis to apply for early parole prior to completion of his already-lenient-for-the-crime prison sentence. Judge Coval had made use of an Indigenous sentencing report in arriving at his sentencing decision. He read in the report that Dennis claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a member of his Indigenous reserve as a youngster. At age seven he was placed in foster care. One of his brothers had died violently; his sister and cousin from drug overdoses.

 

In its decision-making over the gruesome details of the double murder, the court relied on "the connection between Mr. Dennis's crimes and the Indigenous sentencing factors present in his upbringing", while looking to spare the family of the afflicted the additional emotional strain of a trial, making note of a submission by both the Crown and defence that one of Dennis's sons "need not testify about the horrific events which he witnessed" in the family home during his father's psychotic act of double murder.

 

The courthouse in Prince George, B.C. where an Indigenous man was only sentenced to the minimum for second-degree murder despite the 'horrific' murder of his wife and son. (Photo credit: Government of B.C.)

 

"[Both Denis's parents were residential school survivors and he] grew up poor in a remote environment of violence and drug and alcohol abuse."

Justice Simon Coval 

Initially admitting that he killed his wife and son, pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in 2024, he attempted to withdraw that plea, arguing the defence of intoxication in an effort to disown intent required for a murder conviction. That attempt was lost before the B.C. Supreme Court. The original plea carries a minimum 10 years' sentence before parole application can be entertained. The judge and Crown attorney noted at the sentencing that it "is materially below the normal range for cases with such extreme circumstances as this". 

 

Several family members had assembled at the Dennis home for dinner on April 9, 2024 when Orlan and his brother Tony began arguing. Orlan left the house, later to return, when he and Darlene began arguing, and he accused her of having relations with another man. He retrieved a .22-calibre rifle from their bedroom gun safe, returned to the living room and shot his wife directly in her face. Dorian, downstairs, heard the gunshot, and Orlan shot his son as he came up the stairs.

 

Burnaby House.com

 

Marshall, another son, exited his bedroom and saw Dorian covered in blood at the bottom of the stairs. Helping Dorian to the stairs leading to the basement back door, and finding it wouldn't open, he left his brother, escaped through his bedroom window and ran to his grandmother's house across the street to call police. Orlan, meanwhile left his house and approached his mother's house with the gun and when police arrived they found him on the steps and informed him he was under arrest, drop the gun, but he refused.   

"He was waving the rifle frantically, trying to get inside [his mother's home]. He was swearing and clearly intoxicated, slurring his words and staggering."

"He told the crisis negotiator that he had killed his wife and son. He said they were planning to kill him, and that his wife was cheating on him."

"He said he did not mean to do that to his son, but Dorian came up on him too fast and by the time he realized it was him, it was too late." 

Sentencing decision facts  

When Orlan was permitted to enter his mother's home, one police officer on guard, others went to the Dennis home where Darlene and Dorian's bodies lay. A standoff ensued between Orlan and police for several hours until an RCMP crisis negotiator called the house and Orlan responded. Eventually police forced Orlan out with tear gas, and as he emerged with the loaded rifle, police shot him in the hip and arm, and arrested the man.

 

Although Judge Coval made note of the fact that Dennis had a lengthy criminal record that included convictions for multiple assaults against his wife and daughters, he took into account the sentencing report that made mention of depression, anxiety and possible fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Also noted were family deaths and a support group closing during OVID-19. "As a result of all, [Dennis] stopped working and turned to drugs". And that was good enough for the judge, as he 'adjusted' the severity of the sentence. 

 

In a sentencing decision made public this week, a B.C. Supreme Court sentenced a Tsay Keh Dene man to 'life in prison' after he pleaded guilty to killing his wife and son in April 2024. (Peter Scobie/CBC)

 

Criminally Enterprising Middle Easterners in Canada

"This operation involved non-Indigenous criminal networks exploiting Indigenous lands, with profits that did not benefit our community."

"Criminal activity of this nature does not reflect our values, and we will continue to work alongside our partners to take action against criminal activity that undermines the integrity of our territory."

Six Nations Police chief Darren Montour 

Illegal tobacco manufacturing facility in Six Nations of the Grand River territory. OPP

 

 A bootleg cigarette plant, staffed by thirteen people identified as foreign nationals was raided and shut down on a First Nation reserve where the enterprise was operated by non-Indigenous criminal networks who exploited the Indigenous setting as a means to shield their activities from police scrutiny. Ironically, the criminal enterprise was operated by several Middle Eastern men, resident in Hamilton, Ontario, close by the Six Nations of the Grand River territory in southern Ontario.

 

Infamously, there was chaotic tumult in Canada that arose over reaction among Canadians originating from the Middle East, particularly Palestinians when they took to the streets of Canadian cities condemning Israel for 'genocide' as it reacted to a Palestinian terrorist invasion of southern Israel when thousands of Palestinians went on a large-scale huntdown of Israeli civilians in farming towns and villages close to the Gaza border in a planned exercise of sadistic savagery that included mass rape, mutilation, murder and hostage-taking.

 

The Israeli response to the mass atrocity -- which took over 1,200 Israeli lives and the kidnapping of over 250 Jewish infants, children, elderly, women and men, was to invade Gaza, ruled by Hamas which had led the orchestration of bloodletting, joyously recording their atrocities to be posted on social media --  led to an immediate internationl Palestinian-orchestrated public relations push to portray Palestinians as victims of Israeli aggression and 'occupation'. 

 

To ingratiate themselves with 'progressive' left-wing Canadians, Palestinians and their supporters took to portraying themselves as people indigenous to 'Palestine', as opposed to Jews reclaiming their authentic indigenous ancestral land. Making comparison to aggrieved First Nations whom European colonialism had victimized in settling themselves on already-occupied land that became Canada, the anti-Israel, antisemitic link to Indigenous Canadians forged a partnership in opposing the very existence of the Jewish state. 

 

A handgun seized from a contraband tobacco manufacturing facility in Six Nations on June 11, 2026. (Source: OPP)

 

Working in tandem, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Six Nations Police Service seized five commercial-sized cigarette manufacturing machinery, a handgun and tobacco products holding an estimated street value of over $10 million. Over 40,000 kilograms of contraband tobacco and 300 kilograms of shisha tobacco -- typically made use of with a hookah or water pipe -- were seized altogether.

 

An operation named Project TRACK, that led to the raid was initiated when the Six Nations police requested support from the OPP when their own investigation revealed suspicious activity on the reserve. Police soon discovered that profits which the illegal tobacco production generated were channelled toward a criminal enterprise having nothing to do with the reserve itself, other than its illegal encroachment on reserve property. 

 

Following the enforced search warrants at a manufacturing facility of some considerable size at the Six Nations reserve, a heavy police presence was manifested. A home in Hamilton was also raided. Three stolen vehicles, a truck, $25,000 in Canadian currency, cellphones, assorted electronics and packaging material were seized as well. 

 

Boxes of contraband tobacco found inside a Six Nations facility on June 11, 2026. (Source: OPP)

 

Two men resident in Hamilton were arrested and charged with trafficking contraband tobacco, possession of tobacco manufacturing equipment, manufacturing tobacco products without a licence, and unlawful possession or sale of tobacco products. The men were identified by police as Andrew Besam Hadaddin, 34, and Mustafa Jaber, 45. 

 

As for the foreign nationals discovered when the facility was raided by police -- the thirteen individuals who were working at the factory -- Canada Border Services Agency officers were called in to deal with their presence. The operation has not been concluded with this raid, but remains an ongoing concern.  It would certainly be interesting to learn through that ongoing investigation whether the profits gained in this illegal operation ended up in the hands of terrorist groups in Gaza and Lebanon.

"This investigation highlights the significant role criminal networks play in the manufacturing and distribution of contraband tobacco in Ontario."

"These illegal operations not only undermine public safety but also exploit communities for profit."

"Through strong collaboration with our partners, we remain committed to disrupting these networks and holding those responsible accountable."

OPP Chief Superintendent Mike Stoddart of the Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau 

 

The Increasingly Vulnerable Place of Jewish-Canadians Within Canada

"The findings suggest that condemnation alone has not been enough."

"While many leaders have denounced antisemitism since October 7, the survey shows that a significant minority of Canadians still believe that events in the Middle East justify negative attitudes toward Jewish Canadians."

"It [new poll results] suggests that public education should not only focus on people who hold openly antisemitic views, but also on the much larger group that may not recognize when criticism about Israel becomes rhetoric that targets Jews and that presents a threat to Jewish Canadians' sense of safety and belonging." 

Jack Jedwab, president, Association for Canadian Studies  

 According to a newly-released Leger survey, almost a third of Canadians believe that anti-Jewish attitudes have become more acceptable. The highest level of agreement to that observation was among university students (37 percent), though altogether 31 percent of those questioned held that view. Among men (38 percent agreed) and (35 percent) held that view, ages 18  to 34. The survey found that among English speakers 35 percent agreed that antisemitism is now more socially acceptable, while among francophones that number was 16 percent.

 

"Israel's military actions in Gaza justify negative attitudes toward Jewish people in Canada", struck a chord with just over a fifth of respondents (22 percent), as opposed to the almost half (49 percent) who disagreed. Once again those aged 18 to 34 (26 percent) and men (29 percent) led the way in agreement with the statement. Of those Canadians surveyed, some one-sixth (17 percent) agreed they now have more negative emotions toward Jews since the October 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel, though a majority (62 percent) disagreed.

 

Women's opinion at (68 percent), college students (66 percent) and Canadians past age 55 (69 percent), were likelier to disagree even as those who were part of the survey and born outside Canada were likelier to agree (24 percent), than those respondents who were Canadian-born (16 percent). 

 

For the statement whether "Jews in Canada are responsible for the actions of the Israeli government", nine percent of all respondents, plus eight percent of those born in Canada were in agreement, even as twice the number of those born outside the country (15 percent) agreed. 73 percent of respondents born in Canada and 62 percent of those born elsewhere, were in disagreement with the statement.  

 

Over a third of respondents (39 percent) found agreement that calls for Israel to cease to exist are antisemitic, though slightly over a quarter (28 percent) disagreed -- with younger Canadians aged 18 to 34 being less likely (34 percent) than those over 55 years of age (47 percent) to agree over the antisemitic nature of such sentiments.

 

As for the question posed to English speakers and francophones -- 39 percent versus 40 percent revealed little difference between the groups. The variance between those born in Canada at (39 percent) and those born abroad (41 percent), also revealed minimal differences. 

 

Interestingly, slightly over a third of respondents (39 percent) were of the opinion that Prime Minister Mark Carney "should publicly condemn calls for Israel to cease to exist as a state", as opposed to just under a quarter (24 percent) disagreeing. The survey was conducted between June 5 and 7, questioning a total of 1,518 respondents.  

"The importance of the minority who don't think it is antisemitic to say that Israel should cease to exist as a state is very worrisome and I think speaks to some nefarious motivation on the one hand and a fair degree of confusion on the other and in either there is an important degree of unlearning that is needed."

"That, along with the share of the group that is uncertain about the issue, points to a glaring misunderstanding about where antisemitism begins."

"It reveals that many Canadians are unclear about the distinction between criticism of Israeli government policy and rhetoric that denies Jewish self-determination altogether."

Jack Jedwab, Association for Canadian Studies 

 

 

Toronto's Emergent Criminal Youth Element

"The driver attempted to flee and contact was made between the stolen car and an officer."

"In the course of the interaction, the officer shot his firearm multiple times at the driver."

"The driver took off and abandoned the car a short distance away and then was apprehended on foot a short time later."

Special Investigations Unit 

 

"There was contact made with a police officer and that vehicle, and then there were multiple shots fired at the vehicle."

"The injury could be from a bullet, could be a graze, could be glass from the vehicle, we don’t yet know that. But what we do know is it’s non-life-threatening injuries at this point."

"So, it’s not yet confirmed the nature of the boy’s injuries. Now the injury could be from a bullet, could be a graze, could be glass from the vehicle. We don’t yet know that, but what we do know is it’s non-life-threatening injuries at this point."

Special Investigations Unit (SIU) spokesperson Kristy Denette 

Toronto police cruisers are seen on the Leaside Bridge after an interaction with officers and a 12-year-old driver on the Leaside Bridge. (Beatrice Vaisman/CP24)

 

Charged with attempted murder after the stolen vehicle he was driving hit a Toronto police officer on Monday, the 12-year-old driver is in hospital, the result of police trying to stop the vehicle. There was another 12- and a 13-year-old boy in the vehicle along with the driver. Charges against the 12-year-old driver of the vehicle include theft of a motor vehicle, dangerous operation, failing to stop for police, assaulting a peace officer, and leaving the scene of an accident.

 

Under Canada's Youth Criminal Justice act the charged boy cannot be named. The incident began when police responded to a report of a vehicle theft near Donlands Avenue and O'Connor Drive just after 1:00 a.m. When two cruisers attempted to box in and apprehend the stolen vehicle on the Leaside Bridge, the driver as he sped off struck one of the officers standing outside his cruiser.

 

Multiple shots were fired by one of the officers in an attempt to stop the car. It is as yet unclear whether the shots were fired before or following the vehicle striking the police officer. One of the other occupants of the vehicle was caught and arrested, leaving police in search of the third boy. The driver had managed to elude the police but the vehicle was located soon afterward abandoned, while the driver who continued fleeing on foot, was arrested.

 

Both the wounded police officer and the young malefactor were taken to hospital with serious injuries -- albeit not life-threatening. The officer was released soon afterward, and the boy remains hospitalized for the time being. Speculating on the source of the boy's injuries, SIU spokeswoman Kristy Denette described multiple projectiles having hit the car, as well as bullets. 

 

"We don't want to use force on a child, clearly. But if your life is in danger, unfortunately you have no choice but to protect yourself and your colleagues", Clayton Campbell, president of the Toronto Police Service union explained. This, in the wake a week earlier of an 19-year-old suspect on an arrest warrant shooting 18-year-veteran Toronto Police Service officer Constable Marc Pinizzotto to death in the line of his duties.

 

Toronto police cruisers and an SIU vehicle are parked on the Leaside Bridge on Monday, June 15, 2026. (Beatrice Vaisman/CP24)