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 

The 'Creative Destruction' of Artificial Intelligence

"Having some boom-bust in a sector is normal. Maybe even how it has to be. [But as companies go under it can create wider risks, particularly when failed businesses borrowed big funding]."

"What  you don't want is to infect the credit, and  you definitely don't want to get inside the banking system."

Simon Johnson, MIT, Nobel laureate in economics

 

"The key difference from the 1990s is that the internet only disrupted information distribution."

"AI disrupts cognitive production at large. That's a much bigger economic surface area."

Anton Korinek, AI expert, University of Virginia 

 

"[Management] was like, ‘Okay, this is a nice tool that you can use to make your job easier’."

"It felt like the rug was being pulled out from under me."

Devin Marsh, 36, senior agent handling customer support and sales for telecom giant Rogers through a third-party company, Foundever

 

"Our AI policy in Canada is really being focused primarily on the priority of stimulating the industry in Canada … with almost no attention to the impact on work and preparing workers to navigate the changing nature of work."

"That's a real frustration."

 "It’s very hard to disentangle the incredible disruption that’s going on in the Canadian economy generally from these longer-term technological changes that are also beginning to ripple through the economy more slowly."

Chris Roberts, director, Social & Economic Policy department, Canadian Labour Congress

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

 

It seems not that long ago that ultra-computer-literate ambitious young people entering university chose programs like web development and areas of computer science to distinguish themselves as job applicants whose expertise would be in demand in a job market hungry for good, reliable coding workers as cybersecurity and cloud systems, along with machine learning dominated the field, along with upcoming artificial intelligence. Now, it's suddenly all artificial intelligence and those with secure employment suddenly begin to wonder, for how long?

 

A shadow of uncertainty now looms over companies in the field of internet and computer science  technology as creeping concerns enter their minds at future prospects of ongoing prosperity linked to IT technology. Will they still be in business, will they need their current stable of employees, or will they just harness AI to their programs and manage to cope? The expectation is that artificial intelligence will be the ultimate source of higher productivity. 

 

There was a disruption of the status  quo with the IT revolution that made some industries redundant; classified advertising and newspapers, video rental stores, travel agents, stockbrokers to name a few. There is growing nervousness about what will change in the wake of rising AI development and use, and the potential of disruptions on a much larger scale than what occurred with the IT revolution. 

 

"Is this time bigger? Yes"; perhaps by a factor of ten, mused Anton Korinek, AI expert at University of Virginia. Yes, most certainly AI though still an untested technology, holds the promise to enable more productivity from workers using it. But then, what happens when AI itself, no longer requires a human mind to direct it toward its functional capabilities? Productivity, a measure of worker output using available tools, has surged upward since 2023.

 

While it remains as yet uncertain how much this productivity acceleration owes to AI, analysts believe AI efficiency has had a large part to play in the productivity rise. Since the release of Chat GPT in 2022, capital markets have risen spectacularly; gains driven by surging value of AI companies and their suppliers; Meta Platforms, Nvidia Corp. The concern is the continued rise of productivity to the point where white-collar layoffs and company irrelevance means both will become inevitable.

Jack Dorsey. Photo: Richard Drew/AP

 

Businesses begin to cut payroll costs when technology enables them to produce more with fewer employees resulting in more profit for shareholders. The fintech firm that Jack Dorsey, Twitter founder runs, announced the halving of its staff, while depending on AI productivity, and saw its shares rise over 15 percent. Columbia Business School Daniel Keum studying automation technologies change the balance within companies found employees being referred to as 'costs'. 

 

He concludes that even if jobs and wages are not yet being cut, areas like health care, remote work and freebies are being trimmed. "These side benefits are what the companies go after first, before they go after reducing your paycheque." Businesses fall by the wayside in response to advanced technologies, like Kodak and the Blockbuster chain, left behind by the internet. What the economist Joseph Schumpeter refers to as the "creative destruction" leading to progress.

Illustration by Stephan Dybus

 

"That's been happening for hundreds of years in this country. It's part of the essence of capitalism", stated Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond president Tom Barkin when asked if the Fed should attempt to counter disruption to business and the labour market by AI disruption.  

"Eventually, the disruption will extend to any firm whose competitive advantage lies in human expertise that AI can replicate."

"The transition period may involve stranded assets, debt overhang and the potential for sharp market corrections."

Anton Korinek 

Jewish Children in Canada Outcasts of the Public School System That Will Not Protect Them

"He literally doesn't go to school anymore. He has absolutely no desire to be in school."

"I've pulled him out completely. He's got no desire to learn."

"He has no faith in any of the school[s], the systems or anything of that sort." 

"I was at my wits' end. I was like, 'If they're [police] not going to do anything, then goddammit, I'm doing something. [However], the only thing that I could do was put the kids through restorative justice."

"The fact that my son does not go to school anymore just tells you he's petrified. He doesn't want to go to school; he doesn't want to be around these kids. He knows he's just going to be bullied again."

"We could move, but why am I forced to move out of an area that I lived in for over 23 years? You want me to pick up and move because of what's going on with the demographics in my area?"

"Guess what. I'm staying here. It is my house." 

Aviva Rubin-Schneider, Halifax 

 

"Three youths were referred to the Restorative Justice process, which is led by Coverdale Justice Society."

"Restorative justice is tailored to each individual situation, but in some cases it could involve police and/or the victim attending meetings with the participant so that all involved can speak to how the incident affected each person and the community."

Halifax police spokesman Martin Cromwell 

 

"All schools in the Halifax Regional Centre for Education are committed to providing safe, welcoming and inclusive learning environments for students and staff."

"Antisemitism -- including the use of slurs or symbols of hate -- is unacceptable and addressed as discriminatory or racist behaviour under Nova Scotia's Provincial Code of Conduct."

"Behaviour of this nature is taken seriously and addressed consistently in accordance with policy."

Kelly Connors, spokesperson, Halifax Regional Centre for Education 

 

 

At age 14, a Halifax school student after undergoing years of harassment and antisemitic slurs, now pursues his school studies online, no longer willing to submit himself to more of the same and worse, by physically attending Park West School in Halifax. Where classmates called  him 'Jewseph' and 'Jewboy' and when passing him in the school hallways, executed the Nazi salute in his direction. Brought to the attention time and again of the school authorities, nothing was ever done to put a stop to the bullying antisemitism.

 

And then, things became even more dire for the boy following October 7, 2023, when Palestinian terrorists flooded into southern Israel, headed by thousands of Hamas operatives as well as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to execute a barbaric sweep of Israeli farming communities, raping girls and women, shooting and stabbing people to death, immolating families sheltering in their safe rooms by setting fire to their homes, savagely torturing women, then abducting children, the elderly, men, women, and foreign farm workers.

 

This event spurred an immediate reaction among Palestinian-Canadians and other Muslim groups, when they assembled in large numbers at demonstrations in the streets of Canadian cities against Israel, defending Hamas's atrocities as a response to Israeli 'occupation', which constrains Palestinians from carrying out their incessant 'martyrdom' attacks on Jews in Israel, incited by their leadership as a 'struggle' against the 'occupiers', who convince Palestinian youth that there is no greater glory than to become a martyr.

 

From Palestinians encouraged to use any means at their disposal to kill Jews, to Muslim and leftist sympathizers in Canada taking up the challenge to harass, intimidate, and threaten Canadian Jews, moving on to firebomb and shoot up synagogues and Jewish schools while propagandizing Israel as 'genocidal' and 'apartheid', the world changed for Jews in Canada. And 14-year-old Joseph Rubin-Schneider was one of many victims. 

 

Wall/Instagram

Matters changed for the worse for the boy when in January of 2024 several of his fellow students assaulted him on school grounds, punching, kicking, throwing him to the ground while he was being name-called by watching students. "My son didn't throw a punch", his mother said later. The school authority continued to fail to provide the boy with a safe learning environment. He is now in therapy while conducting studies online through the public school system. 

 

When Aviva Rubin-Schneider contacted the Halifax Regional Police and their hate crime unit in 2023, a plainclothes police officer met with the principal and vice-principal of the Park West  elementary and middle school following which a police officer delivered a few lectures on racism, intolerance and hate crimes to students between grades 6 and 9. This intervention failed to produce a safe learning environment for her son; the harassment simply continued.  

"More antisemitic incidents were documented last year in physical spaces than the year before. These included street assaults, attacks on synagogues, targeted harassment of Jewish communities, and repeated harm to Jewish institutions."

"Antisemitism in Nova Scotia Schools is a concerning issue, and we get many complaints from students and parents every year."

Atlantic Jewish Council 

 Many Jewish-Canadians now wonder, as the country they were born in, where their parents were born and raised them has become unfamiliar, whether this is no longer their country in equal measure with all other Canadians. The house that Aviva Rubin-Schneider claims as her own, her neighbourhood, her city, her province and her country has been invaded by a culture, a social system, a religion and an ideology completely adverse to the values and social mores she grew up with and valued, trusted and loved. Leaving behind, beside, and before Canadian Jews the confrontational question: Is Canada still their 'house'? 

In All Decency and Fairness, Mr. Trump!

"We're at the point where we're saying enough is enough."

"If we're going to have a delay [in opening] the Gordie Howe bridge, great, then you know what the city wants? We want to make sure that we're collecting enough money to help refill our coffers, make taxpayers whole, and not leave taxpayers on the hook for these expenses, which are atypical for any municipality to have to deal with."

"It's just another chapter in the saga of seeing this new bridge built, where you have the president of the United States saying 'We're not going to open it'. He throws out some arbitrary conditions. And then two days later, it's reported that Mr. Moroun met with Secretary Lutnick, who called the president. And several minutes later, a Truth Social post was put out. And it just picks at the scab that's there."

Windsor, Ontario Mayor Drew Dilkins 

Traffic on Huron Church Road heads away from the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023. Photo by Taylor Campbell /Windsor Star

 

The privately owned Ambassador Bridge linking Canada to the United States for travel and trade to and from each country has operated a monopoly for decades. The Lebanese-American family that owns the bridge had spent a fortune in unsuccessfully opposing the building of a new bridge that would cut into its profits. Plans for a new bridge, entirely funded by Canadian taxpayers proceeded for the purpose of a second traffic link between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan. The bridge, named after Canada's hockey legend, Gordie Howe, was funded entirely by Canada, although both Canadian and American labour and steel went into its building.

 

Underhanded activity on the part of the private-interest Ambassador Bridge failed to stop the Gordie Howe Bridge from being built, posing a competitor in the collection of traffic tolls. Whereas the tolls charged by the Ambassador Bridge company is destined for the bank accounts of the bridge owner, Matthew Moroun, all tolls collected when the new bridge opens will pay for the astronomical $6.4 billion cost of the bridge. After which, toll proceeds are to be divided between Windsor and Detroit, with a joint ownership agreement.

 

On February 9, President Trump threatened to block the bridge opening, until the U.S. "is fully compensated for everything it has given Canada". Well, in this particular instance, the U.S. gave Canada nothing; it was the reverse that was the reality. The Ambassador Bridge is North America's busiest and as a result, most toll-lucrative crossing for commercial truck traffic. For every day that the new bridge remains closed Windsor is exposed to and liable for traffic congestion and damage to roads for which repairs come at a cost to Windsor taxpayers. 

"Windsor is the auto capital of Canada. Detroit is the Motor City. We've built some great things together. We want to keep that ball rolling and make sure that we create good jobs in both countries for the benefit of both of our economies, and we hope that we never get to a point where tolling is required."

"But if the Gordie Howe Bridge isn't going to open as a result of a decision by President Trump, all options are on the table on our side."

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens 

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens is shown near the Ambassador Bridge on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. Photo by Dan Janisse /The Windsor Star

 

Which has led to the Windsor mayor asking the province of Ontario for an exemption to section 40 of the Municipal Act, preventing municipalities from imposing their own tolls on highways, bridges or tunnels unless they have specific provincial approval. This would be a temporary assist to Windsor, until the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge on May 1. The city of Windsor spends millions annually on the main thoroughfare leading from the Ambassador Bridge, a result of some 10,000 trucks using it each and every day in cross-border traffic. 

 

The city has had to contend with the owner of the Ambassador Bridge expecting Windsor to repair roads  that its own bridge traffic wears out, while it retains the revenues it collects from their use of the bridge. "It's several million dollars to repair that roadway. It's a concrete roadway. It supports heavy trucks, and again, another few million dollars to fix that roadway", on top of the millions to fix other parts of the road as well as millions spent in other disputes with the Ambassador Bridge company.

 

According to a report in The New York Times, the post that President Trump put out on his social media site came in the immediate wake of a meeting between U.S. secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick, and Matthew Moroun, owner of the Ambassador Bridge. Also reported by The Times was that Moroun had donated $1 million in January to the MAGA Inc. super PAC.

  

Ontario Premier Doug Ford will 'consider' Windsor's request to levy tolls on trucks coming from and going to the Ambassador Bridge along Huron Church Road during any delays in opening Gordie Howe International Bridge. Shown here, a truck carrying Windsor-built Chrysler Pacifica minivans is shown among traffic on Huron Church Road in Windsor heading to the Ambassador Bridge on Thursday, March 5, 2026. Photo by Dan Janisse /The Windsor Star

"Why are we continuing to spend millions of dollars in support of these endeavours [pressed by the American private owners of the Ambassador Bridge company to repair Windsor-area roads for their profit] at municipal expense when we have no revenue coming in from it?"

"There's no revenue stream derived from this. It's all expense to municipal taxpayers." 

Mayor Drew Dilkins 

 

Locked Out Shipping in the Strait of Hormuz

"Our candidates are worried. And they are not worried about the Middle East. They're worried about [the] United States and Israel ... There seems to be a lot of rules being broken, and that is a scary place to be. The candidates, they're sending pictures and posting stuff about fires. Some people are overly concerned. The rest of the people know that it's a fairly safe country in general. But again, the fear is not coming from the Middle East. The fear is coming from the U.S. and Israel and how far they're going to take it."

"It's small wonder why many of the employees feel like sitting ducks. We work in oil and gas only, and all of our clients are the national oil companies. So they're government-owned companies for oil and gas, LNG production, and all of the employees have just been told to wait for it [the situation] to stabilize."

"There's a lot of fear and desire to leave the area. And they're not able to. There's no way in or out. So if you're a Canadian citizen, the Government of Canada and the U.S. government aren't able to really do anything for the citizens who are living and working there, but the national countries' governments over there are doing quite a bit. The UAE is covering all the costs for hotels and whatnot, for stranded people and the people who are living there just being told to stay home."

Anisa Rosvold, regional vice-president Arabian Gulf region, Petro Staff International 

A general view shows the Saudi Aramco oil facility in Dammam City, 450 kilometres east of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Photo by Hassan Ammar /AFP/Getty Images

 

"Insurance companies are cancelling war risk coverage ​for vessels in the Middle East Gulf as the widening Iran conflict disrupts shipping, leaving tankers damaged or stranded and at least two people dead."

"Shipping through the Strait of ‌Hormuz between Iran and Oman, which carries around one-fifth of oil consumed globally as well as large quantities of gas, has ground to a near halt after vessels in the area were hit as Iran retaliated against US and Israeli strikes."

"One tanker in the region was ablaze on Monday, at least four others were damaged and about 150 ships were stranded."

Business Recorder 

Iran announced navigation has been  closed through the Strait of Hormuz and waters surrounding it, from Sunday, the day following the first aerial attacks on the country by Israel and the United States. While defending its territory from the combined attacks that have targeted its military and nuclear installations, flattened government buildings, killed Iran's Supreme Leader and much of the government and Islamic Republican Guard Corps elite, Iran has also focused on causing total disruption and chaos within the Middle East in a surprising move that has alienated its neighbours, including those in support of Iran, like Qatar and Oman.

Birds fly near the boat in the Strait of Hormuz amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from Musandam, Oman, March 2, 2026.  REUTERS/Amr Alfiky

 

While Iran's plans to foment a wider war, using its military resources to send out thousands of drones and missiles over Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman, numbers greater in total than they launch to strike Israeli targets, what is left of the Iranian military command has not yet called on the services of its Houthi proxies in Yemen which has up to the present been striking international shipping in the Strait, upending normal international shipping. 

 

In the last few days 150 ships including tankers for oil and liquefied natural gas where 10% of the world's container ships pass through, have dropped anchor, unable to venture any further. 

The ships have been ensnared in backups, cargo soon to begin  accumulating at ports and transshipment hubs in Europe and Asia. Asian governments and refiners have been forced to assess their oil stockpiles in this aura of uncertainty where no one knows how extensive it will become or how long it will be before normal shipping passage can resume with safety.

With the threat issued by the IRGC commander that any ship attempting transit of the 21-mile-wide (34-km-wide) maritime chokepoint, tankers remain clustered in open waters off the coasts of Gulf oil producers, including Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and LNG giant Qatar. While berthed in the Middle East Gulf, one U.S.-flagged tanker was damaged by 'aerial impacts' while a Honduras-flagged tanker was burning in the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by IRGC drones.

 

Photo Reuters

 

Contracted oil workers, thousands from Canada the United States and other western countries, have been stranded at work sites throughout Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait. Several hundred Canadian workers out of Calgary dispatched by Petro Staff International are now stranded across the Gulf States and are fearful of the effects of the conflict exploding in the region. Their vulnerability to vengeance attacks by Iranian forces convince many that once they escape their nightmare they plan never to return to the Middle East.

 

Many of the Petro agency's workers are asking to be repatriated, to be stationed elsewhere -- anywhere that is safe in comparison to the conflict surrounding and threatening them. All these employees have been  assured they will be safe as long as they follow local authorities' orders. And that to leave the region is currently just not possible until such time as it has become stabilized once again. No flights are able to get through, so all these employees must wait out the conflict where they are, for the time being.

 

Rumaila oil field, Basra, Iraq   Reuters

 

Operations have, in any event, been shut down temporarily with measures being taken by the Petro group to "minimize becoming targets", according to Anisa Rosvold of Petro Staff International.  

 

Canada: Haven for Islamic Republic Agents

"This happened exactly one hour after people had gathered here to deliberate the death of the oppressive leader of the Islamic Republic."

"Imagine, if families and children had still been here when those shots were fired. The consequences could have been catastrophic." 

"It shows that it's no longer safe here for Canadians themselves, it's not just about Iranians. They've created a place where Canadian citizens cannot live comfortably."

"According to the Supreme Leader ... they had said this themselves before, that we will punish those who organize rallies and demonstrations abroad, and this is part of the IRGC policies."

"It’s concerning because the gym was hit with 17 bullets, which means it was meant for 17 bodies. [Intimidation of Iran’s critics] could become a real problem for Canada … and they are going to have to stop that." 

Salar Gholami, business owner, anti-Iranian regime activist 

Broken glass and bullet holes in the window of Saliwan boxing gym, draped with an Iranian lion and sun flag. The flag is outlawed in Iran by the Islamic Republic. Supplied photo

"We've had to re-prioritize our operations to counter the actions of Iranian intelligence services and their proxies who have targeted individuals they perceive as threats to their regime."

"In more than one case, this involved detecting, investigating and disrupting potentially lethal threats against individuals in Canada."

Daniel Rogers, director, Canadian Security Intelligence Service

 

"The motive behind the shooting is unknown and there is no suspect information at this time."

"Investigators from our Firearms Investigations Team continue to canvass the area for any security camera footage around the time of the shooting."

"The premise shows evidence of gunfire directed at the building. The building was unoccupied at the time of the incident. There were no reported injuries. Damage is limited to property."

York Regional Police

 

"The motive behind the shooting is unknown and there is no suspect information at this time."

"Investigators from our firearms investigations team continue to canvass the area for any security camera footage around the time of the shooting."

Const. Kevin Nebrija, York Regional Police 

In fact, it is not all that difficult to put two-and-two together and come up with four. It is well known that IRGC operatives are in Canada. Some of their identities are known to Canada's intelligence services. Yet little is done to remove them, despite that the Islamic Republican Guard Corps is listed as a terrorist organization in Canada. Canadian Iranians have reported to police the presence of IRGC- and Iranian-government operatives living openly in Canada. Elite Iranian government officials have sent their families to live in Canada as a safe haven.

 

While the two disparate Iranian groups live in the country; Iranian-Canadian citizens increasingly uneasily in the known presence of agents of Iran, their lives complicated by harassment by those agents, the Liberal government does nothing to deport those living illegally in Canada, as a presence of the Islamic Republic in a country with which there are no diplomatic relations. 

 

Since the aerial invasion of Iran by the Israeli and American militaries in response to Iran's governing body's intransigence over demands it abandon its nuclear program, amidst concerns that its increasingly sophisticated ballistic missiles that are more powerful and reach intermediate distances pose a direct threat to Israel, and to U.S. military bases in the Gulf States, exacerbated by the brutality of the regime in dealing with internal dissent by Iranians attempting to free themselves from the regime's oppressive hold on their lives when the IRGC and the Basij police outright murdered thousands civilians taking to the streets, Iranians in Canada have organized massive demonstrations.

 

A bullet hole is seen in the door of Saliwan Boxing at 7027 Yonge St. in Thornhill. (Simon Sheehan/CP24)

 

The owner of the Thornhill, Ontario boxing gym targeted by gunfire on Sunday, Salar Gholami, has been key in organizing those demonstrations across the Greater Toronto area. His business was riddled with bullet holes at the gym's entrance. And while investigators are of the opinion that the shooting was targeted, no 'motive' has yet been established. Mr. Gholami has no problem identifying the motive. It is related directly to his activism. And behind the shooting up of his establishment was a warning by agents of the Islamist regime.

 

There were two massive protests organized in recent months in Toronto; on February 1st, downtown Toronto saw 150,000 protesters peacefully march in a gathering meant to highlight the plight of Iranian protesters across Iran whose protests erupted in all the country's cities only to be met with gunfire from the regime. Tens of thousands were arrested, thousands injured in the violence committed against the civilians, and the figure of those killed by regime forces range from 3,000 to 30,000 people.

 

Toronto police said the Global Day of Action Rally in Toronto saw crowds estimated at 350,000. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press)

 

A follow-up February 14 solidarity for Iran protest saw over 350,000 people attending the event. The date and the immense size of the protest was not confined to Canada; this was an internationally-organized event with protesters coming out in droves in Canada, the United States, Germany and elsewhere across the globe in a well-publicized Global Day of Action. The Toronto rally, which brought out 350,000 people was the largest of all the rallies.

 

A Persian restaurant in Melbourne Australia where an Iranian flag with the lion and sun -- a symbol outlawed in the Islamic Republic -- was displayed in its window was sprayed by gunfire, quite like the situation in the boxing gym's window in Toronto. Its window too was shattered. Sunday morning two people were killed, 14 others injured when a gunman attacked at a bar in Austin, Texas, wearing a sweatshirt with the legend e. 

 

In Richmond Hill, Salar Gholami, despite the threats he and others within the Canadian-Iranian community face, is determined to continue his activism. "The police told me not to go there (his business that had just been vandalized) , but I was the first person there this morning. I'm a Kurdish-Iranian, and I would be proud to die for my country". 

 

Repairs continue after a shooting that damaged the building housing Saliwan Boxing Club in Richmond Hill, Ont., on Sunday, March 1, 2026. Photo by Supplied