Palestinian-Canadian Slander of Jewish-Canadian Zionists

"We have identified at least 17 overnight summer camps throughout Canada that support the State of Israel in some way."

"These camps are not problematic because they encourage connection to Jewish identity."

"Rather, they pose a problem because they encourage support for a genocidal, settler-colonial state."

"[Protesters should demand that the OCA board, the Quebec and Nova Scotia camp associations revoke accreditation of] camps that hire, host, or support [current or former] Israeli military personnel". 

Palestinian Anti-Israel Coalition  

 

"In recent days, the Ontario Camps Association (OCA) Board of Directors became aware of correspondence circulating online related to the current conflict in the Middle East." 

"That correspondence contains statements and expressions that the Board finds deeply concerning, and in certain characterizations and claims, we believe reflect rhetoric that is discriminatory and antisemitic in nature. The accusations, aimed at our Executive Director, members of the OCA team, and several member camps, draw directly on stereotyped libels and tropes related to Israel, Zionism, and Jewish people—including “genocide” and “colonizers,” symbolic categories that are so often spread with specifically malicious intent." 

"We welcome respectful dialogue, discussion, and even disagreement but will not tolerate harassment, intimidation, antisemitism, or discrimination."

Ontario Camps Association 

Campers gather at a Jewish overnight summer camp in Canada. Jewish community leaders and provincial camp associations have warned that coordinated anti-Israel campaigns targeting camp accreditation and visibility risk impacting youth institutions central to Jewish identity and communal life. (Image: TheJ.Ca.)

 

The Ontario Camps Association board of directors, in response to a campaign targeting over a dozen Jewish camps throughout Canada that support Israel, issued a statement that it will not tolerate "harassment, intimidation, antisemitism or discrimination".  Accusations levied against its executive director Joy Levy, staff and a number of member camps in the province are clearly offensively despicable, and do not align with the Association's values.

 

In its support of the Jewish camps among its extended camp memberships, the board of the OCA clarified their position that campaigns such as this are recognized for their role within a broader, co-ordinated effort to harm Jewish communities and their children; to weaken the credibility of Jewish camp leaders and "Canadian Jewish life in general", as well as imposing a discriminatory test of which Jews are considered to be "acceptable". 

 

Its role, pointed out the Ontario Camps Association, is not to "evaluate member camps based on their religious or cultural identity. Camps must be places where children, staff, volunteers, and families feel safe, respected, and protected. That includes our Jewish community, without exception." Concluding their statement with an expression of complete faith in their executive director and staff which had come under fire by the campaign to discredit them.

 

Titled "When children's camps support a  genocidal state, it's time for a gigantic change", the slanderous campaign is led by the groups Just Peace Advocates, the Palestinian Canadian Congress, the Canadian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Coalition, Ontario Palestinian Rights Association, and Palestinian and Jewish Unity. The coalition of anti-Zionists compiled a list of 17 other Jewish-Canadian camps in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia that they charge "support the State of Israel in some way".

 

That 'some way' identified more precisely as promoting a love and appreciation of Israel, supporting the Israeli military or giving employment to former IDF members. "This is not an abstract possibility. Multiple camps proudly and publicly share their staff connections to the Israeli military", they wrote, naming a few individuals with ties to Israel working at various camps. All citizens of Israel serve a mandatory conscription term in the military. The anti-Israel ensemble urged the OCA to hold its executive director, Joy Levy, accountable for 'racism' and support of 'a genocidal military'.

 

It also condemned B'nai Brith, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center "all of which espouse pro-Israel, Zionist perspectives". Posting a collection of Instagram screenshots from Levy's account of her attendance at pro-Israel protests occasionally holding an Israeli flag in a display of loyalty to the Jewish state.  

"We support our community's efforts at Jewish continuity, and Zionist expression, an integral part of Jewish identity, through a strong network of summer camp experiences for children and youth."

"We won't let the bigots and haters win. Ever!"

"[We stand with the OCA in its] tough, immediate and courageous response." 

Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation 

This coalition of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish conspirators of antisemitic tropes are of course, responsible for years of ongoing protests, encampments, threats against the Canadian Jewish community, harassment, calling for a 'Final Solution', to 'Globalize the Intifada', chorusing 'From the river to the sea Palestine will be free', as code for the elimination of Israel. They have poisoned the atmosphere for Jewish life in Canada. Their numbers and reach into Canadian politics have gained them tolerance from authorities for their constant outbursts of antisemitic vitriol.  

 

Their own children's camps are known as hotbeds of hateful propaganda. Palestinian school curricula infamously teach their children to hate and to view Jews as their enemy, and to aspire toward martyrdom in the killing of Jews. The little dramas encouraged by Palestinian leaders and teachers where children act out their roles in confronting and attacking Jews imbue the children with a sense of nobility and heroism. In summer camps Palestinian children are taught warfare and to aspire to a time when they join the terror groups outlawed in Canada. 

 

Camp Massad on the shores of Lake Winnipeg     Ethan Cairns/Free Press

The Undocumented Non-Deaths

Rosanne Casimir, chief, Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc

"While we want facts and answers as quickly as possible, we face significant challenges in accessing government and Catholic Church records for the 88-year-period the school operated. Our progress has been hindered by government restrictions on certain records and slow response."

"Indigenous communities place deep importance on honouring and protecting ancestral remains, and with 38 affected Nations involved, we must seek consensus on any future outcome."

"No interviews will be granted at this time, and Tk'emlups te Secwepemc will continue to provide updates as the investigation develops." 

Tk'emlups Chief Rosanne Casimir

The Ahousaht First Nation released findings on April 10 from their ground-penetrating radar search for possible graves of missing residential school children. (Chris Corday/CBC)

 

The history of the particular residential school that Chief Casimir focuses on may reflect 88 years of abuse of aboriginal children in her opinion when religious institutions in Canada -- primarily Catholic -- in agreement with the federal government of the time instituted elementary schools on and around traditional Indigenous land for the purpose of exposing children from nearby reservations to an education system reflecting the European roots of the mainstream Canadian population, to prepare the children to take their place within the greater Canadian population. But five years on from her declaration of unmarked graves no proof of her claim has surfaced despite millions provided for that purpose.

 

At that time and in those places, most Indigenous families were supportive of having their children receive a formal education. It was, unfortunately, an educational system unsupportive in its focus, of Indigenous history, tradition, language and values, exchanging them for a European style of education focusing on the elementals of education with the perspective entirely that of a Europe-centered ideological bent, meant to ignore and deliberately downplay the students' origins. Its intention was to prepare the children to go on to higher education and some did, exposed to the professions whose purpose they entered and took advantage of.

 

The modern perspective of the residential school system was that it erred in separating and alienating Indigenous children from their heritage, language and customs, which the schools substituted with the intention of preparing students to disown their own and adapt to the colonialist views of education leading to a participatory workforce. Well intentioned for the most part, but oblivious to the harm being perpetrated even while endowing the children with knowledge relating to the world outside the confines of the cloistered communities in which they came from. Which the outer world disdained, leading to societal prejudice. 

 

Firefighters inspect the damage at the burned-out Roman Catholic St Jean Baptiste church in Morinville, Alberta, Canada. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

 

In 2021 Canada awoke to the startling news that a ground-penetrating radar survey of the Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds had revealed that unmarked graves were identified, holding the remains of bodies of hundreds of aboriginal children. "Ground-penetrating radar primarily detects changes in the soil and we want to emphasize that we do not see any bodies or bones using this particular technique. This does not work like an X-ray" an explainer published by the Canadian Archaelogical Association stated. 

 

That explanation followed directly on the statement in May of 2021 announcing "confirmation of the remains of 215 children" at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, by the local Tk'emlups te Secwepemc tribe. The announcement spoke of "lost children" whose remains were discovered as "lost loved ones", including ages of those buried: "Some were as young as three years old", added Tk'emlups Chief Rosanne Casimir who sponsored a resolution that year at the Assembly of First Nations that referred to a "mass grave". 

 

No one questioned the details and the accuracy of the charges, and the Trudeau government immediately ordered the lowering of the Canadian flag for six months of mourning. Stories appeared in all news media mourning the unspeakable discovery of undocumented, unidentified remains of Indigenous children who attended the school and never returned home. The shocking news was picked up by the international press, and the Liberal government under Trudeau labelled the news as proof of a 'genocide' carried out against Canada's First Nations.

 

Crowfoot St.Joseph's Residential School 

 

From the aboriginal communities the reaction was incendiary -- literally. Churches, mostly on aboriginal land, were burned down and destroyed. There was no government action, little effort at investigation, much less taking any perpetrators into custody. Demands from aboriginal groups and their supporters that Canada's Prime Minister at the time of the residential school inauguration be censured, statues memorializing Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister be taken down, as well as that of Queen Victoria, along with others that were vandalized with no consequences for those besmirching the reputations of people who in actual fact were concerned for the future welfare of the aboriginal communities.

 

Following the initial declaration of the discovery of a "mass grave", when doubts began to set in, Chief Casimir walked back the definite nature of her revelations, to begin referring to 'anomalies' revealed by the ground-penetrating radar; disturbances in the earth, and not verification of bodies buried in those areas. Funding was given to the Kamloops area First Nations as well as others across Canada, to dig in the suspected burial areas at the discredited schools and disinter any possible body remnants to affirm the reality -- or not -- of  the allegations. Five years later, no First Nation group has used that funding to prove the accusation levied of 'genocide'.

 

Now, Tk'emlups te Secwepemc claims no exhumations would be performed in the absence of unanimous agreement from every other First Nation whose ancestors were known to have attended the Kamloops Indian Residential School.  But they still speak darkly of the sinister intent of the non-aboriginal community whose agenda was clearly to destroy First Nations dignity, heritage, culture, language and the next generation. There is, said Chief Casimir "a knowing in our community that we were able to verify" in the "undocumented deaths".

 

St.Anthony's Sacred Heart Residential School

 

Canada's Opioid Crisis and Compassionate Forgiveness for Fentanyl Trafficker

"Given [Kassar's] medical vulnerability, and given his dependence on uninterrupted treatment to avoid morbidity and potential mortality, I am satisfied that [he] has provided clear, convincing, and non-speculative evidence of the harm that he would experience if his removal is not deferred."

"I do not take this fact lightly. The opioid crisis in this country is real, and it has harmed many people."

"In most circumstances, the balance of convenience would favour the strong public interest in removing non-citizens who have played a role in that crisis."

"He [Kassar] was sentenced to 36 months imprisonment for the fentanyl conviction, and nine months for the hydromorphone conviction, to be served consecutively. He was released on parole in June 2021." 

Federal Court Justice Angus Grant, February 11, removal stayed 

A federal judge has paused the deportation of convicted fentanyl trafficker Mohamad Kassar after medical evidence suggested he may have lung cancer.Winnipeg Sun File Photo

Ordered deported from Canada in December 2019 following his conviction for possession of fentanyl and hyrdomorphone as a trafficker in illegal street drugs, Lebanese immigrant Mohamad Kassar who had arrived in Canada about 35 years ago on a permanent resident visa, was to have been removed to Lebanon on February 13, as an undesirable in Canada due to his serious criminal record.

 

However, on the basis of a preliminary medial diagnosis Federal Court Justice Angus Grant studied, that the man may have a tumour on his lung, his removal from Canada was stayed on compassionate grounds. As it happens, over recent years Canada has experienced huge social problems of drug overdoses leading to death linked to the availability of the powerful drug fentanyl. Originally manufactured as an opioid in China and brought into Canada through internet orders, more latterly the precursor chemicals for the production of fentanyl have entered Canada supplying illicit labs set up to produce fentanyl domestically.

 

As an enabler through Kassar's illegal drug trafficking, there can be little doubt that the drugs made available by his enterprising illegal activities added in no small measure to the menace on the streets of Canada and the inevitable overdose deaths of many drug users. His own pecuniary interests obviously took precedent over any residual feelings of ordinary human compassion that may have pranged  his conscience, but not to the extent that he took responsibility for the damage he wrought on people's lives.

 

His own medical-health vulnerabilities on the other hand, have played an outsized role in the man's efforts to remain in Canada rather than be returned to the violence-wracked Middle East country of his birth. The Canadian taxpayer will pay for this man's cost-lofty medical treatments as a perpetrator of criminal activity impacting the lives of Canadians consigning them to an early death. Thousands of lives have been lost in Canada with the proliferation of fentanyl as the dominant street drug afflicting people addicted to drug use.

 

Kassar submitted an application to remain in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, along with an application for a temporary resident permit and subsequently requested a deferral of his  removal while he waits for a response to his applications. Kassar's pre-removal risk assessment representing his final bid to remain in Canada was rejected by an inland enforcement officer. "I am convinced that a serious issue arises as to whether the officer adequately considered whether Mr. Kassar's medical conditions, when considered in light of the health care system in Lebanon, posed an immediate impediment to removal", commented Justice Grant.  

"Kassar is presently stable, but [that] this stability is tied to his current treatment, without which, his condition may deteriorate significantly."

"If unable to access medication, the doctor stated that Mr. Kassar was at risk not only for morbidity, but also of mortality."

Justice Grant  

Kassar had been convicted in 2018 of possession of fentanyl and hydromorphone for the purposes of trafficking. Given his convictions, the order was launched to have him deported in December of 2019. Canada Border Services Agency did not immediately respond to the order to deport the man, and in April of 2025, Kassar applied for permanent residence on humanitarian grounds. Then in January he applied for a temporary resident permit. No official decisions have yet been made with respect to the status of the applications.

 

Kassar turned to the Federal Court when an inland enforcement officer turned down his request to put his deportation off until the decisions on the applications were received. The officer, contended, the Judge, concluded that Kassar's "claim that he would be unable to obtain treatment in Lebanon was speculative", claiming "that the health care system is imperfect but also noting that health care remains available". Leading the Judge to the opinion that a serious health care crisis exists in Lebanon, and as a result, the Toronto court ordered a stay in the drug trafficker's deportation.

 

A Lebanese immigrant ordered deported in December 2019 after he was convicted for possession of fentanyl and hydromorphone for the purposes of trafficking has seen his deportation delayed by a Federal Court judge due to a possible lung cancer diagnosis. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

 

"[There are concerns over the Canada Border Services Agency officer's] consideration of the evidence on the health care system in Lebanon."

"The overwhelming thrust of this evidence is that the Lebanese health are system is in a state of acute crisis, that it struggles to provide routine treatment for chronic diseases, and that it is essentially on the verge of collapse."

"Instead of grappling with this evidence, the officer quoted isolated passages from the reports of two emergency relief organizations indicating that they do everything in their power to offer care to those in need [in Lebanon]."

Justice Angus Grant 

Vladimir Putin's Disposal of Influential Critics

"I was certain from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof: Putin killed Alexei with [a] chemical weapon."

"I am grateful to the European states for the meticulous work they carried out over two years and for uncovering the truth."

"Vladimir Putin is a murderer. He must be held accountable for all his crimes."

"It's difficult for me to say that it's good news because my husband was killed. And of course, I knew that he was killed. He spent his last years in very torturing conditions." 

Yulia Navalnaya 

 

"[The five nations were] confident that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin [identified through analysis of samples that confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a toxicant of poison dart frogs from South America]."

"Given the toxicity of epibatidine and reported symptoms, poisoning was highly likely the cause of his death. Navalny died while held in prison, meaning Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him."

Joint statement: United Kingdom, Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Germany

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny speaks to the media in front of security officers standing guard at the Foundation for Fighting Corruption office in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2019.  Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP 

Five European nations issued a statement affirming that biological samples taken from Russian political activist, and the staunchest opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin, prove on laboratory analysis that the anti-corruption crusader was the victim of a poison attack which was analyzed as a deadly venom used to murder him. Russia, they stated baldly had the "means, motive and opportunity" whereby to administer the deadly dose in an Arctic prison two years earlier. 

 

Despite an official Russian statement to the effect that Navalny had died from 'natural causes', this discovery of his death having been caused by a substance not found naturally in Russia refutes that claim. Maria Zakharova, spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry responded that the statement's intent was to "distract attention from the pressing problems of the West". However, once details of the tests involved in the investigation are released, Russian officials planned to comment further.

 

As Vladimir Putin's nemesis, the anti-corruption crusader and champion of  democracy was  arrested immediately he returned to Russia in 2021 from Germany where he had recuperated after being close to death, with the assistance of German medical facilities, from an earlier attempt to kill him by a different poison application, identified in a German laboratory as a banned nerve agent of a type developed in Russia. Then-Chancellor Angela Merkel had personally announced the German findings.

 

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny looks at a camera while speaking from a prison via a video link, provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, during a court session in January 2022. He died in prison on Feb. 16, 2024. Photo by Denis Kaminev /AP

 

Yulia Navalnaya had been in attendance at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday when the statement of revelation was released by the five members of NATO. Following the release of the statement, Navalnaya stated that many people felt it would be 'impossible' to prove her husband's death resulted from poisoning, despite which, she now had 'certainty'. "I think it is right to say I am satisfied with the investigation", she said. 

 

Following her husband's death, his family struggled against Russian authorities in their bid to reclaim his body. Authorities kept providing conflicting reasons as they continued to put off surrendering his body to the family. Which Navalny's family and supporters interpreted as the Russian government being anxious to destroy any evidence that might be uncovered that would explain the death of a man who had been seen only days earlier via video link to a court hearing, who appeared in good health. 

 

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny appears in a Russian court via video link from the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, in Russia's far northern Yamal-Nenets region, Feb. 15, 2024, a day before prison authorities said he had died after going for a walk at the prison. SOTAVISION/Reuters

 

The Migration Route to Europe

"Deepest condolences [to the those who lost their lives; Italy will step up efforts to tackle migrant traffickers]."

"When a tragedy like today's occurs, with the deaths of dozens of people in the waters of the Mediterranean, a strong sense of dismay and compassion arises in all of us."

"And we find ourselves contemplating the inhumane cynicism with which human traffickers organize these sinister journeys." 

"[Stepping up rescue efforts is insufficient to tackle the scourge of trafficking; this could be done only by] preventing irregular departures and managing migration flows."

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni  

Italian Coast Guards officers carry a body bag on the dock of Lampedusa harbor on Wednesday, August 13, 2025, after a boat carrying nearly 100 migrants capsized off the Italian island. ELIO DEISDERIO / AP

 

In its geographic situation between the North African coasts of Libya and Tunisia and Italy, Lampedusa has  become the chosen route for illegal/irregular migration routes to Europe for  well over a decade. Even back in early 2010s, the passage of boats, people and bodies of those that perished on the way through by this most dangerous of sea routes, created pressure linked to growing numbers of arrivals on the island, striving to accommodate their needs.

 

Lampedusa is a small, rocky island in the middle of the Mediterranean. It became one of the busiest yet deadliest entry points to Europe through a crisis of migration from countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The year 2015 marked the most frantic challenges of Europe's efforts to deal with  huge waves of incoming migrants, with the European Union convincing its member-states that a fair apportionment of migrants between all would relieve the unbearable burden of stress that Italy found itself in.

 

A handful of Eastern European countries shunned the prospect of absorbing migrants whose culture, heritage, religion and values were often in opposition to their own. Western Europe answered the call, with Austria and Germany declaring their borders would be open to welcoming migrants. The result was not quite as salutary to the social order of those countries welcoming and making an effort to settle the migrants as their humanitarian gesture might assume.

 

Migrants wait in a boat during a search and rescue (SAR) operation in central Mediterranean Sea on August, 17, 2022 REUTERS/Juan Medina

 

Typically, when migrants landed in Lampedusa as their first step in achieving their goal to enter Europe, most migrants were transferred to Sicily or the Italian mainland then dispersed across centers for asylum seekers and migrants across Italy.  When the Italian coast guard failed to succeed in  locating and aiding a sea-unworthy vessel crammed tight with migrants and drownings occurred, the bodies were brought to cemeteries in Sicily to be interred in unmarked graves.

 

The Italian and European authorities, along with the Italian Red Cross, worked in tandem to produce an efficient system of dealing with the hundreds of thousands of migrants entering Italy through Lampedusa. Arrivals by land and sea have been greatly reduced from their 2015 high point of over a million, now averaging about 180,000 annually; each year producing 3,000 deaths in the perilous voyages. The Central Mediterranean route remains a primary passage used by migrants attempting to reach Europe, and one of the deadliest.

 

On that route alone in 2025 over 1,300 people were recorded as dead or missing; a number widely considered to represent a significant underestimate. Deadly illegal sea crossings on small                    unstable boats packed with people have become 'normalized', bringing in people leaving Bangladesh and Pakistan, Eritrea and Guinea among countless others. The passengers for the most part are young, working-age people who continue to aspire to reach Europe, gambling on success, despite widespread knowledge of the dangers involved. 

 

Once in Europe, and undocumented, many work at picking tomatoes, harvesting oranges, cleaning hotel rooms and caring for the elderly as personal support workers in overworked and understaffed health care systems or on farm fields short of workers, a form of labour unpopular with the youth of the home countries. Lampedusa's role, given its placement in the Mediterranean as an entranceway to Europe continues to be a critical entry point to the continent. 

 

Irregular migration from North Africa to Europe is on the rise again. This is particularly true along the Central Mediterranean route, which connects northern African countries (mainly Libya and Tunisia) to Italy.  Atlantic Council.org

 

 

New Zealand's Dilemma

"It's difficult to see what more could've been done. [Tarrant] is an unreliable witness and his narrative should be treated with caution."

"Pleading guilty to charges where his guilt is certain can't be seen to be irrational."

N.Z. Crown lawyer Barnaby Hawes 

"I very distinctly remember that I left court after the sentencing thinking 'Right, the trauma chapter is now closed, time to heal, time to focus on your own mental well-being', but then it pops up again and again,"

"It will be just an image [on-screen image of the mass murderer] that I am looking at, because he means absolutely nothing to me at this stage."

"I suspect one of his main motivations to do this is to open up traumas again and I won't let him succeed in doing that - he just wants his limelight and to be relevant again."

"He took the right of life of my brother and 50 others, and then we're going to sit through now and talk about the legal arguments of his right to appeal."

"When you place those two together, they are morally not comparable."

Aya al-Umari, who lost her older brother Hussein in the attack on Al Noor mosque  

Extraordinary arrangements are in place in Wellington as a convicted terrorist addresses the country's Court of Appeal. (ABC News: Che Chorley)

Brenton Tarrant, 35

"I did not have the mindframe or mental health required to be making informed decisions at that time."

"I think the issue is, did I really know what I wanted to do or what would be a good idea?"

"No, I didn't actually ... I was making choices, but they were not choices made ‍voluntarily and they were not choices made rationally due to the [prison] conditions."

Brenton Tarrant, white supremacist, New Zealand mass murderer  

Originally from Australia, the self-professed white nationalist of 35,went to New Zealand for an express purpose in 2019. He planned to acquire weapons and to attack mosques for the purpose of killing as many Muslims as he could manage. And he succeeded to a monstrous degree, taking the lives of 51 people at two mosques, including those of children, women, the elderly and an assortment of other New Zealand Muslims, some there to study or to pursue professions, others having arrived as refugees to settle in a place of haven where they thought they would be safe from violence.

 

At the time of his attacks of the two mosques in Christchurch, he livestreamed the massacre as it was ongoing, filmed his face as he proceeded to mow down people at prayer, leaving overwhelming evidence of his guilt. "Keeping this case alive is a source of immense distress" to the victims of the atrocity, pointed out Crown lawyer Madeleine Laracy. "It doesn't allow them to heal."

 

Serving life with no chance of parole, Tarrant is appealing his sentence earned by his cold-blooded, planned and prosecuted murder of 51 people, claiming that it was not his intention to plead guilty, having done so was "irrational", but circumstances induced him to do so by solitary and austere prison conditions. In response to his move to have a retrial, and despite that experts ruled Tarrant was fit to enter pleas, Crown lawyers opposed his appeal, given no evidence existed or claims he was seriously mentally ill.

 

Lawyers on either side, those who supported and those opposing his sentence appeal, studiously skirted making mention of his white supremacist views, the topic avoided during the week-long hearing where no mention was made of the hate motivating Tarrant's crimes that he cited as reason for committing the massacres.

 

New Zealand's courts were fully engaged in suppressing the racism that led Brenton Tarrant to commit mass murder. He had made reference to other massacres committed by perpetrators of mass murder that he admired and in fact emulated, before  his own horrendous attack. A legal ban was instituted on his racist manifesto as well as the video he livestreamed at the time of the shooting. 

 

In deciding to recant his guilty pleas, a three-judge panel in Wellington at the Court of Appeal hard final arguments by Crown lawyers opposed to the application to have his admissions to charges of terrorism, murder and attempted murder in 2020 discarded. Should he be allowed to revoke his guilty pleas, the case would return for a full trial in court.

 

The appeal bid was revealed before nine reporters, nine lawyers, a few court staff and an empty public gallery, with the intention of the court seeking to limit public exposure to Tarrant, his views and his motivation; no one permitted to view the evidence as the appeal bid unfolded. The incarcerant's image was not visible in the courtroom other than when he gave evidence while he watched the proceedings by video conference from Auckland Prison. 

"What happened in New Zealand, it was unprecedented and at every point we've had to create new methods to deal with the situation."

"We're learning as we go." 

"You do need to have some kind of objective transparency, where the person who is accused can be seen and some of what they are saying can be heard," he said.

"But at the same time, you've got to make sure that the platform they're given is not hijacked for other purposes."

Waikato University professor of law Alexander Gillespie  

 New Zealand mosque assaults victims BCC

 

Increasing Pressure on Iran With Threats of Strikes

"Aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), its escorts and embarked Carrier Air Wing 8 have been tasked from their current position in the Caribbean to the Middle East to support a U.S. naval buildup in the region, USNI News has learned."
"Ford, currently in the Caribbean Sea, will join the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group against the backdrop of the Iranian government’s lethal crackdown against protestors and nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and leadership in Tehran, a U.S. official confirmed to USNI News."

U.S. Naval Institute

 

"[Failure to reach a deal with my administration would be] very traumatic."

"I guess over the next month, something like that [timeline for striking a deal on the nuclear program]."

"It should happen quickly. They should agree very quickly."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

Sailors aboard aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) conduct routine flight operations on the flight deck, Sept. 26, 2025. US Navy photo

 

The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, scheduled for an overdue maintenance has been ordered by the Trump administration to instead extend its deployment despite having been at sea for close to eight months. Accordingly, the aircraft carrier and its escort ships are currently en route to the Middle East in response to Iran's defiance of the U.S. government's pressure for a new nuclear agreement. 

 

From its deployment in the Caribbean Sea, the USS Gerald R. Ford is now scheduled to sail across the Atlantic Ocean with its crew of 4,200 sailors. Whether the carrier's accompanying warships would be included in the orders to deploy to the Middle East or whether other destroyers and vessels would instead sail with the carrier has not yet been established. 

 

President Trump has threatened openly to attack the Islamic Republic should it not comply with his  demands, even as diplomatic overtures are ongoing with an aim to avert kinetic action, adding more violence on top of U.S. strikes hitting Iran's nuclear sites in June of 2025. The tension in the region between Iran, Israel and the United States is palpable and the outcome uncertain.

 

Admiral Daryl Caudle, head of the US. Navy publicly issued an alert last month that the Ford and other vessels comprising its carrier strike group are needful of maintenance and there would be 'some pushback' from him should an extension of the deployment -- which typically lasts about seven months to meet repair schedules -- be sought. "Let's see if there's something else I can do", he said publicly.  

"Extensions for East Coast carrier strike groups beyond the Navy’s planned seven-month deployments have become the norm over the years because of an overworked carrier force resulting from ongoing maintenance delays and combatant commander requirements."

"Since December 2021, CSGs have averaged almost nine-month deployments. The carriers often operated in the Mediterranean, but shifted to Middle East-centric deployments after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Southern Israel and the subsequent Houthi aggression in the Red Sea."

U.S. Naval Institute 

The USS Gerald R. Ford, seen here transiting the Strait of Gibraltar, is currently heading toward the Middle East. (MCS Alyssa Joy/U.S. Navy)

 

However, in the event, it appears the Pentagon and the navy reached an agreement that no better alternatives presented, and the carrier would be sent to the Middle East. The USS George H.W. Bush in the midst of an exercise, was not seen to be ready for an assignment, and the USS George Washington was discussed as alternatives, but the latter returned to port in Yokosuka Japan after a Pacific region six-month mission. The Ford had been  diverted to the Caribbean in October joining efforts to press Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro to step down and was directly involved in the Special Operations raid capturing the Venezuelan leader.

 

The massing of firepower in the Middle East will see the Ford joining the USS Abraham Lincoln. Despite last month seeing President Trump considering striking Iran, course was shifted as defence officials raised their concerns over the potential vulnerability of regional security deteriorating. The Pentagon's response to heightened tension with Iran led to assigning two carrier groups providing not merely dozens of fighter jets aboard, but as well the arsenal of missiles and air defence capabilities supplied by accompanying destroyers.