Protection for Toronto's Jewish Community from Rabid Islamists

"Due to the changing security landscape in Toronto in recent weeks, including increased volatility and heightened fear in our communities, demonstrations  moving into residential neighbourhoods in the Bathurst and Sheppard area presents an unacceptable risk to public safety."

"As a result, demonstrators will not be permitted to enter residential streets in this area."

"[This is a] measured step to reduce the risk of escalation and maintain public safety." 

Toronto Police Service spokesperson Stephanie Sayer

A pro-Palestine march makes its way through Toronto, Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

 

The issue of Toronto's Jewish community forced by disinterest from Toronto's mayor to 'notice' the ebbing lack of  safety and security imposed on that demographic by gangs of roving 'pro-Palestinian' demonstrators and the inaction of the Toronto Police Service to rein in the verbal insults and assaults ranging from 'Final Solution!' to 'Globalize the Intifada!' -- and other not-so-veiled threats that arose in the wake of the Palestinian Hamas terrorists governing Gaza committing an unspeakable mass atrocity in southern Israel -- had to wait over two years for action. And the Jewish community is supposed to be grateful that their distress under constant threat from openly-celebrating Islamist violence is finally being partially addressed.

 

Ostensibly the move to finally act to put an end to the mob incursion into streets housing Jewish Torontonians was the result of Jewish community group lobbying. In very fact those community groups pleaded with the municipality, the police, the province, to act in the face of intimidation and threats when the demonstrations first emerged and that was directly after the shocking massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023. The inaction of authorities at all levels to restore order and security from the federal government on down, was undoubtedly responsible for the kind of escalation that took place with synagogues, Jewish schools and community centres, along with privately owned Jewish businesses being shot at, firebombed and vandalized. 

A  protest at Bathurst Street and Sheppard Ave. West, a Jewish neighbourhood, featured one protester dressed as Yahya Al-Sinwar, the Hamas leader behind the October 7th massacre.  MSN

 

Each time violence erupted, authorities were quick to condemn the events, expressing solidarity with the Jewish community, piously declaiming that 'this (antisemitism and violence) is not Canada'. Yet it is what Canada has become under the watch of the decade-long reign of the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, followed by Mark Carney. Both of whom have a penchant for bemoaning antisemitism, and never failing to link it with the (to them) equally troubling 'Islamophobia', which in itself is rather absurd, since most of the antisemitic attacks come courtesy of the Canadian Muslim population.

 

The Toronto Police spokesperson explained that legal protests on main streets in the area where the Jewish community in the city is located will be permitted to continue. The same protests that have taken place regularly since the day following the October7, 2023 slaughter of Israelis by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the PLO's Fatah contingents, led by the master-class terrorist group Hamas, whose charter is dedicated to the destruction of Israel.  

"Our community has consistently refused to accept the normalization of intimidation on residential streets in the heart of a heavily Jewish neighbourhood."

"Around Bathurst and Sheppard, residents, families, seniors, students and community institutions have been forced to contend with repeated demonstrations in spaces where people should be able to live, walk, pray, and gather in peace."

B'nai Brith Canada 

Another Jewish group that had called upon the city and police for attention to the plight of the Toronto Jewish community, stated that the announcement by the Toronto Police Service represented "a meaningful step -- but it must be matched with consistent enforcement and protection for our community." 

"At protests at Bathurst & Sheppard, extremists openly made threats of violence, glorified terrorism, and depicted Jews as sub-human — yet no arrests have been announced. After multiple attacks on our community, many are asking why the law is not being enforced."

"We’re calling on TPS to investigate and lay charges, declare assemblies unlawful when there are activities that promote and incite hate, and make the necessary and critical changes to protect our city."

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs  

Images of antisemitic signage shared by X user Leviathan (@l3v1at4an) during an anti-Israel protest Bathurst St. and Sheppard Ave. West in Toronto on Sunday, March 15. (Credit: @l3v1at4an/X)

 

There is much to be concerned about.  Days following the U.S.-Israel launch of the joint aerial bombardment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to destroy its nuclear ambitions by targeting its powerful missile caches, its launch sites, nuclear enrichment sites, leading government authorities and chiefs of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in an effort to hasten  regime change and rescue the Iranian people from their persecutors while neutralizing Iran's capacity to train, arm and fund its proxy terrorist groups in the Middle East, synagogues were again hit by gunfire in Toronto.

 

Jewish-owned businesses and the U.S. consulate in Toronto were also shot at in demonstrations of Islamist targeting of associates and allies of the State of Israel. In addressing these and allied issues, the Toronto Police spokesperson stated that police officers would provide "clear direction". That anyone who fails to comply with them would face possible arrest for obstructing police.  

"The Toronto Police Service facilitates lawful demonstrations while balancing the rights of participants with the safety of the broader public."

Stephanie Sayer  

Toronto police stand watch near the Al-Quds day protest in Toronto, Ontario, on March 14, 2026.

(photo credit: Geoff Robins / AFP via Getty Images)

 

Welcome to Canadian Academia

"About 41 percent of these cases could not be closed because of a lack of response from students."

"Another 50 cases were identified as non-compliant and requiring further follow-up by the [immigration] department."

"[An increase in the number of study permit extensions relative to new study permits] ...due in part to the number of international students with post-secondary study permits who were in Canada, which, according to the [immigration] department, totalled 675,070 as of September 2025."

Auditor General of Canada report 

Over the past year, international students have protested in major provinces across Canada, opposing the myriad of policy changes. Photo: Mehakdeep Singh

"We are protesting on behalf of everyone because we want fair pathways to permanent residency and PGWPs [post-graduate work permits]."

"The protests have been going on for the last couple of months, led by various support organizations in Canada." 

Bikram Gill, former international student, Brampton, Ontario 

International students in Canada gather for a protest to call for support. PHOTO: OMNI News

 

Out of a total of 153,000 cases flagged for potential non-compliance under Canada's international student program, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada managed to conduct 4,057 investigations in 2023 and 2024, according to a recently released report by the Auditor General of Canada, which pointed out that almost 93 percent of 700 Canadian teaching institutions had submitted reports between the years 2023 and 2025 flagging the 153,000 cases. 

 

The reality of the situation is a scarcity of departmental operational funding to enable investigation. Leading to a situation where funding is available for only 2,000 cases to be investigated annually. The immigration department took 'limited action', according to the  report, in confirming non-compliance beyond contacting the investigated student for additional information, and few responded. The audit also undertook a study to determine how the immigration department worked around the cap of international students set into motion in 2024.

 

The approval rate for new study permits was found to be lower than initial projections foresaw. The forecasted approval in 2024 of 248,900 permits prior to the announcement of the cap, pivoted to 149,559 approvals for new study permits, a 57 percent reduction in comparison to 2023.  That trend continued in 2025, when 50,370 new study permits were approved rather than the departmental forecast for 2025 of 255,360 study permits. 

*Between 2023 and 2024, the department identified over 153,000 students as potentially non compliant with study permit conditions.

*However, IRCC had funding to investigate only 2,000 cases each year. This means more than 98% of flagged cases went uninvestigated due to processing backlogs.

*The audit also uncovered 800 confirmed fraud cases where applicants used fake documents or misrepresented information to enter Canada between 2018 and 2023.

*The department took no action in any of these cases even after discovering the fraud.

Auditor General Report  

The report noted larger-than-anticipated declines in new study permits for all provinces, as well as an increase in the number of extensions for study permits, relative to new study permits. Two-thirds of approved study permits were identified by the report for extensions of existing study permits, totalling 77,295 to last September, with an additional 50,547 unprocessed extension applications.

 

The immigration department failed to monitor which students were expected to leave each year,  and which students had voluntarily exited Canada. The auditor general's office confirmed with the Canada Border Services Agency that 15,000 students had left the country of the 39,500 individuals who should have left. Needless to say, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has no idea where the foreign students who no longer have a valid study permit, might be and how they may be disposing themselves in Canada.

 

 

Corrupted Canadian Justice -- Encouraging Black Criminalization as "Normalized"

"[Brandon Caleb's] life experiences flowing from his societal disadvantage and anti-Black racism normalized gun possession in his mind. This somewhat attenuates his moral responsibility."

"I am satisfied on a balance of probabilities that factors in Mr. Caleb's life played a significant role in his criminal activity and which diminish his moral culpability."

"They include his history and experience of anti-Black racism; challenges at school; the absence of Black role models; growing up in a community where criminal activity, specifically drug trafficking and gun violence were normalized; and a desire to fit in and belong." 

Justice Mohan Sharma, Ontario Superior Court of Justice 

 

"He was exposed to drug users, dealers, and addicts at a young age. He also recalls police surveillance of the community and being stopped several times by the police. He reported knowing friends and others in the community who were shot and killed by gun violence, and an inability to get away from it."

"That exposure to criminal activity can be impactful on youth in this community, especially Black males who internalize it as normal. This increases an individual's susceptibility toward criminality."

"Mr. Caleb normalized the accounts of gun violence and killings he experienced as routine occurrences."

Colleen Sparks, forensic cultural assessor/social worker: Impact of Race and Culture Assessment (IRCA) 

 

 

In May of 2022 the Toronto Police Service searched a car and a home, warrants in hand, and information they had gleaned by tapping now-39-year-old Brandon Caleb' mobile phone, informed the sentencing judge at the young Black man's criminal trial. This was part of a drug investigation called Project Venom. The search of the home revealed a measuring cup "with white powdery residue in it", two black digital scales, and two phones "located on the living room floor where Mr. Caleb was found sleeping on a mattress with his infant child".

 

Ultimately Judge Sharma sentenced Brandon Caleb for trafficking and possession of a loaded handgun while under a court-ordered firearm prohibition following an earlier arrest. Justice Sharma's decision was further fortified by the fact that Ontario Provincial Police "officers also found a loaded firearm in the pocket of men's jeans in a dresser shelf in a bedroom closet". Furthermore, intercepted calls also led the judge to the conviction that Mr. Caleb made a series of drug transactions.

 

The  wiretap evidence obtained in March and April of 2022 convinced the judge "that the substances in these calls were controlled substances -- either cocaine, crack cocaine, or fentanyl", and that the man in custody lived at the home that was searched, and "that he had knowledge and control of the firearm". He had also defied an order banning him from possessing a firearm.

 

Brandon Caleb “was exposed to drug users, dealers, and addicts at a young age,” his Impact of Race and Culture Assessment said. Photo by Alex_Schmidt /Getty Images/iStockphoto

 

Additional information provided to Judge Sharma emanated from a pre-sentence report and an Impact of Race and Culture Assessment, along with the man's criminal record. According to the Impact Assessment prepared and written by forensic cultural assessor Colleen Sparks, the Lawrence Heights neighbourhood in which Brandon Caleb was brought up was low income, densely populated, disadvantaged and marginalized, with significant exposure to criminality. Tenants of the housing complex are fifty percent comprised of West Indian and African descent, with annual incomes approximating $15,000.

 

Introduced to marijuana at age 15, "By grade 10, his marijuana use increased from weekly to daily". Before dropping out of Grade 12, he began selling pot. According to Ms. Sparks's analysis and interpretation of the details of Caleb's life, those circumstances "set a trajectory for Mr. Caleb, like other similarly situated young Black men, to internalize a need for belonging, and a diminished sense or hope for a positive future".  These very same sentiments are also seen in a  preponderance of young White males, but they don't turn to crime in the numbers that young Blacks do; fair to term this 'cultural'.

 

Perhaps more logically, it could have been postulated with reason, that seeing other young Black men gunned down by their peers in a community atmosphere of gangs, drug dealing, weapons possessions and everyday violence impacting the community, a choice could be made to leave the community, complete an education, find reasonable employment and settle down to a meaningful life. The choices of free agency are always there, including the choices to make 'easy money' by dealing drugs, by joining a gang, by accepting violence and gun ownership as a way of life.

 

In excusing or finding reasons to overlook anti-social, sociopathic choices by attributing them to social environmental familiarity, the entire Black community is infantalized, in a state of inability to rationalize their choices, just blindly following a calamitous journey to criminality, accepted as 'normal' for underprivileged  societies whose status is partially self-inflicted. In the sympathy extended to young Black men, it is a forgiving, empathetic move  that serves to validate those poor choices and in effect 'normalize' them for a community for which nothing better is expected by the justice system. 

 

While the Crown argued for nine years in prison, Mr. Caleb's lawyer recommended two years of house arrest,  and probation based on mitigating factors. "These include his reduced moral blameworthiness, based on factors Ms. Sparks identified in the IRCA Report". In the end, Judge Sharma sentenced Caleb to four years and 150 days in prison. 

 

 

Coming Home to Odaka, Fukushima Prefecture

Tomoko Kobayashi serves miso soup during breakfast service at Futabaya Ryokan in Odaka, Fukushima Prefecture, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, Louise Delmotte/AP 

"These empty lots used to be filled with shops. There used to be businesses, community activity and children playing. We used to live our ordinary daily lives here, and I hope to see that again."

"The town was destroyed, and we need to rebuild it. It's a time-consuming process that cannot be accomplished in just a couple of decades."

"But I hope to see the progress, with new people and new development added to what this town used to be." 

Tomoko Kobayashi, Odaka, northeastern Fukushima, Japan 

Fifteen years have passed since Japan's 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant, after a tsunami followed an earthquake to turn Japan's sense of security over energy derived from nuclear inside out and upside down. In Odaka, a town nearby the nuclear plant, the Kobayashi family still operate the family inn, the Futabaya Ryokan, in the near-deserted town. Tomoko Kobayashi, dedicated to rebuild the town to what it once was, conducts radiation surveys. She did just that before the family reopened their inn in 2016.

 

She and other monitors obsessed with recovering the town and its environs, share radiation data in their efforts to reconstitute the town once known as a textile hub. The magnitude 9.0 quake off Japan's northwestern coast in 2011 is a memory that Tomoko will not ever forget; that of long, violent shaking of the inn's walls. Then, an hour later the tsunami struck and water surged into the inn's kitchen "like a river". A far more destructive wave hit the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, destroying key cooling systems and causing a meltdown at three reactors. 

"I had to understand what the nuclear accident was about. I thought someone had to go back and keep an eye out. Now it has become my lifetime mission."

"We are not professional scientists, but we can measure and show the data. What's important is to keep measuring, because the government maintains that it's safe, as if radiation no longer exists."

"But we know for a fact that it's still there."

Tomoko Kobayashi 

Guests from near and far at Futabaya Ryokan   Fukushima Fieldwork Report

 

A day later, the No. 1 reactor building suffered a hydrogen explosion and two days after that, the Unit 3 reactor building exploded, followed by the No. 4 reactor building spewing radioactive particles contaminating the surroundings, causing hundreds of thousands of residents to flee their homes and all that was familiar to them. Tomoko and her husband, after two years of living in Nagoya, returned to the area in 2012, to live nearby in temporary housing accommodation.  

 

Since then the town had recovered somewhat. The operated their inn and at the same time continued to measure the radiation levels in the soil, as they do now, a decade later. Twice yearly, Tomoko and others like her interested in returning to the town and opening new businesses, set aside two weeks to measure the air at hundreds of locations to enable them to produce colour-coded maps that reflect the radiation data in the areas they measure. They've set up a lab where local produce is tested to ensure that what they eat is safe.

 

Tomoko Kobayashi looks at a color-coded map of radiation levels created by local residents during an interview near a radiation monitoring lab in Odaka. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte) 

 

The nuclear plant has seawalls built around it for the purpose of withstanding another massive tsunami. All of the plant's reactor buildings have enclosed rooftops. "Our decommissioning work at the plant is about how to reduce risks of radiation", explains head of decommissioning, Akira Ono from Tokyo Electric Power Holdings Company, the plant operator. Between them the three reactors contain some 880 tons of melted fuel debris whose radiation levels remain dangerously high. 

 

Fukushima prefecture says all farm, fisheries and dairy products in stores are safe, having tested thousands of predistribution samples annually. At the same time harvests of fruits, mushrooms, river fish in former no-go zones remain restricted. "Radiation levels have come down significantly over the past 15 years, but I wouldn't use the word 'safe', just yet", former decontamination and radiation survey at Fukushima Dai-ichi, Yukio Shirahige, added. In testing wild boar meat it was found to be 100 times over the safety limit of contamination.

 

Getting a close look at Unit 2 and Unit 3 at Daiichi NPP  Fukushima Fieldwork Report

 

Now, since 2022, Japan has new plans to accelerate reactor restarts to bolster nuclear power as a stable energy source.  

Iranian Sponsored Social Media Propaganda

"You've got one end of the spectrum that's at zero and you've got that other group that's disproportionately probably more and more susceptible to following direction from influencers on selected social media, which is probably what this is attributable to."

"Medium to long term, there may be some unlearning that needs to be done amongst persons that are adopting such positions that clearly are not well informed if they think the majority of Iranians are  supporting the Iranian regime. That's incorrect." 

Jack Jedwab, President and CEO, Association for Canadian Studies

 

"[Scores of fake online accounts that were] coming from Iranians inside Iran linked to the regime and fuelling the campus protests at McGill [University, Montreal]."

"A massive, funded, co-ordinated and organized [effort by Iran designed to influence public opinion and government policy]."

Canadian investigative journalist Nagar Mojahedi

 

"As the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, 2023, Iran immediately surged support to Hamas with its now well-honed technique of combining targeted hacks with influence operations amplified on social media, what we refer to as cyber-enabled influence operations."

"By late October, nearly all of Iran's influence and major cyber actors focused on Israel in an increasingly targeted, coordinated, and destructive manner, making for a seemingly boundless 'all-hands-on-deck' campaign against Israel."

Microsoft Threat Analysis team

While most prefer neutrality in the Iran war, many in the Gen Z cohort think Canada should support the Iranian regime, according a new poll. Photo by Peter J Thompson/National Post

 

A  new Leger poll highlights that a significant portion of Canada's youngest adults subscribe to the belief that Canada should be supporting the Iranian regime in defence against the U.S. and Israel's aerial onslaught against the Islamic Republic. One-fifth (20 percent) of respondents between the ages of 18 to 24 felt that Ottawa should 'politically support' the Iranian regime's leadership. Among that age cohort only eight percent think the United States, Israel and other allied nations in the three-week-old war should receive Canada's backing. 

 

In contrast, results for older Canadians are the reverse to the youth contingent. Among Canadians aged 45 to 54, three percent support the Iranian regime; among the age group 55 to 64, one percent, and zero percent among Canadians aged 65 and older. A quarter of these older Canadian groups feel that Canada should be in support of its historic allies; at the rate of 23, 25 and 26 percent respectively.

 

The Islamic Republic of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps has been listed on the Canadian government terrorist list for the past two years. Jack Jedwab, whose group commissioned the poll, felt that the response by young Canadians reflected the fact of misinformation that has been disseminated by malign foreign interests among the gen Z cohort -- among whom 32 percent believe that Iranian-Canadians do not support the U.S.-Israel military actions against Islamic Republic of Iran. 

 

Despite the demonstrations by Iranian-Canadians celebrating in support of the U.S.-Israeli actions in Iran on the streets of Canada in jubilation that this may see the end of that violently repressive regime, over half of all respondents said they don't know.

 

Across all age groups, half of the poll's respondents felt that Canada should remain neutral in the escalating conflict, while one-fifth said they don't know are aren't certain. "It's a combination also of our own sort of self-evaluation or assessment of ourselves as the nation that is seeking or desires peaceful solutions and outcomes", was Mr. Jedwab's interpretation of the poll results, highlighting a November 2024 ASC poll finding that Canadians are 92 percent for peace with all nations, yet still felt that war could not be avoided even if one side stood down.

 

"Things are going to be more complex than that. I think some of that thinking underlies part of the neutrality view." In his view, Mr. Jedwab stated it appears that the Liberal government is attempting to balance neutrality with some Canadians' expectation that Canada should aid its allies. "That's a challenging position to take and we'll see what types of pressure are exerted in the coming days and weeks on the part of the U.S. and its allies for middle powers like Canada to become engaged, and assist those who prefer greater disengagement to better understand what the stakes are." 

 

The youth cohort, Mr. Jedwab observed, is especially drawn by anti-Trump sentiment, despite the fact that the IRGC is a terrorist entity, and the Islamic Republic itself is universally acknowledged to be a regime that encourages and supports and funds terrorist groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and the Yemeni Houthis, as well as Iraqi Shiite terror groups. 

 

"That is not something that can be taken lightly at all in trying to see one's way clearer in this war."

"It's something one needs to consider carefully in terms of drawing conclusions about where Canada should stand on this." 

 

Al-Quds Day protesters, right, were met with a sizeable counter protest near the U.S. Consulate in Toronto, Ontario, on March 14, 2026. Photo by GEOFF ROBINS /AFP via Getty Images

 

"In late 2024, Meta -- the company that owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp -- shut down a sophisticated Iranian influence operation run by the dictatorship's Islamic Revolutionary Guard."

"Meta's Threat Disruption Center revealed that Iran, aided and abetted by Hezbollah, was running multiple fake accounts across Meta's platforms as well as on TikTok, X, and others."

"Iran-supported Hezbollah created fake sites and purchased thousands of dollars of advertising on Facebook and Instagram."

Warren Kinsella, The Hidden Hand: The Information War and the Rise of Antisemitic Propaganda 

Vital Global Shipping Route --- Strait of Hormuz

"[Iran has managed to profit from oil sales and also] preserve its own export artery [by using control over the choke point]."

"[The latest passages through the Strait of Hormuz show the Strait was not simply] closed. It is better understood as closed selectively against some traffic, while still functioning for Iranian exports and a narrow set of tolerated non-Iranian movements."

Kun Cao, client director, Reddal consulting 

 

"[The risks of transiting Hormuz have raised] insurance costs for cargo and ships while increasing logistics costs for shippers choosing alternate routes."

"[Supply chain disruptions] would begin to affect production in Turkey earlier than in other areas." [Turkey is a major supplier of light commercial vehicles to the European market]." 

"[If the conflict persists], production cost inflation would become more entrenched."

Stephanie Brinley, analyst S&P Global Mobility 

 Liberia-flagged tanker Shenlong Suezmax, carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia, that cleared the Strait of Hormuz and was seen in port in Mumbai, India on March 12. Photo: AP

"Rerouting shipments around the Strait of Hormuz will add days or weeks to travel time, adding to freight costs and causing a backlog from the slower cargo turnover."

"And that’s before any increase in the cost of ‘war risk' insurance premiums."

"Though Iran itself isn’t a semiconductor producer, the conflict’s disruption to global shipping will cause chip deliveries to be delayed or stranded at ports in Asia, reducing availability for assembly lines. Given that modern vehicles may contain as many as 3,000 chips each, and the industry hasn’t completely recovered from a number of supply chain issues over the last half decade, another disruption magnifies the ongoing vulnerability."

"Automotive manufacturers operate on very thin margins compared to many high tech sectors. There’s just no room to absorb dramatic changes in input costs such as steel, plastics, and freight, and, ultimately, prices to the consumer rise."

AutoForecast Solutions manufacturing expert Sam Fiorani   

The Liberia-flagged tanker Shenlong Suezmax managed to cross the strait last Friday, one of the few vessels that have done so since the war broke out. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters

 

Since the onset of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, some 90 ships, including oil tankers, have managed to cross the Strait of Hormuz. Iran itself continues to export millions of barrels of oil, despite the waterway having been effectively closed, a revelation owing to tracking by maritime and trade data platforms. The difference is that many of these vessels passing through the strait represent 'dark' transits that evade western government sanctions and oversights, with ties to Iran according to Lloyd's List intelligence.

 

As governments step up negotiations with Iran, vessels linked to India and Pakistan also have successfully crossed the strait recently. While crude oil prices leaped above US$100 a barrel, Western allies and trade partners were being pressured by U.S. President Donald Trump to send warships to the region to help reopen the strait in the hopes of bringing prices back to a semblance of normal. His request was met with a decided lack of enthusiasm in Europe.

 

The Strait of Hormuz, long a waterway for global oil and gas transport famously supplying one-fifth of global crude oil, has been closed to shipping  traffic since early March, following the start of the conflict. Since then, some 20 vessels were attacked in the area, targeted by Iran. Which hasn't stopped Iran itself from exporting above 15 million barrels of oil during that same time period, according to trade data and estimates by analytics platform Kpler.

China, in the face of Western sanctions, is the largest buyer of Iranian oil. Even so, some transit of ships linked to China have also been blocked from using the Strait. However, data show that between March 1 and 15, including 15 oil tankers, at least 89 ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz, according to Lloyd's List Intelligence, greatly diminished in numbers from the normal 100 to 135 daily vessel passages prior to the war's outbreak.      

                                                                                       

Of the 89 vessels that transited the waterway, over a fifth were thought to be affiliated with Iran; Chinese and Greece affiliated ships were among the rest, even as other vessels also have been managing the transit, some turning off their transponders to avoid detection. According to Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of Lloyd's List, vessels may be transiting "with at least some level of diplomatic intervention. In other words, the Iranian regime may have effectively created a safe corridor" allowing some ships to pass close to the coast of Iran. 

 

Marine Traffic ship tracking platform revealed that some vessels near or within the strait declared themselves to be linked with China, or they had all Chinese crew to reduce risks of being attacked. Military sites on Kharg Island off the coast of Iran were bombed by the United States. The island is vital for Iran's oil network and exports, but the bombing was confined to military sites, leaving Iran's oil infrastructure intact, for the present. 

"The thinkers within the Islamic establishment, they recommended that if there is a next time [following last summer's 12-day war] — and a good half of them actually believed that the next round would be coming at some point in the near future — pressure should be put on the world or oil markets."

"And, if the United States is involved, on the US companies involved in the Middle East oil and gas market and also on the Gulf countries because they house those air bases. "

"This particular body of water is one of the most important, strategic choke points in the world."

"[Iran] no longer allows any ship to use the international shipping corridors in the Strait of Hormuz using Omani waters. They actually reroute them north of the Larek Island, completely inside Iranian waters, and then they’re turned all the way back in toward the Gulf of Oman."

"I think [the rerouting is] part of the psychology of this whole thing, they want to show that they have full control, and they want to prevent or dissuade or deter the Americans from interfering with this kind of controlling operation."

"They are making the transit too dangerous and, without actually mining the Strait, they [have] effectively stopped all shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz." 

Farzin Nadimi, Iran military analyst, senior fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy

 

"Each country, according to international law and the law of the sea, has got about 12 nautical miles [approximately 22km] of territorial sea, which is part of the land of the coastal state."

"That means that the narrowest part of the Strait of Hormuz is shared between Oman and Iran as their territorial waters."

"This means every vessel which passes through this strait, whether military vessels, ships, oil tankers ... they pass through either the Iranian territorial waters or Oman territorial waters."

"[Under the law of the sea, while either nation might put regulations or checks in place], they cannot hamper innocent passage of vessels, including military vessels."

International law expert, Hossein Esmaili, Flinders University  

Ships line up in the Strait of Hormuz as seen from Mina Al Fajer, United Arab Emirates, on March 11. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) · ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

 

Transgenderism in British Columbia Schools

"We need to suspend SOGI [Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity] provincewide until an examination is done on its impact, if any, on the perpetrator of the tragedy in Tumbler Ridge."

"[There is a need for a] full public inquiry [on the impact of SOGI in schools in British Columbia]." 

"A school board trustee is technically an employer, and any one of 2,500+ District employees could claim discrimination in the workplace if I made a remark about gender. [I could face a] huge penalty [for speaking freely while serving on the board]."

"As the disastrous recent Human Rights Tribunal ruling made clear, the bar to prove workplace discrimination is low." 

"I can no longer do my job. All democratically-elected officials must feel comfortable to speak their mind without worrying about accusations of workplace discrimination. Since I no longer feel safe in expressing myself on the board in legitimate ways, the only proper course is to resign."
"[My freedom to speak to board issues going forward has been] obstructed. [While the B.C. Human Right Tribunal decision expresses support for freedom of speech], there is a fine line between speech that falls afoul of the Human Rights Code and speech that doesn’t."

Laurie Throness, British Columbia school trustee, Chilliwack, B.C.

Laurie Throness has resigned from his role as school trustee on the Chilliwack School Board citing the Barry Neufeld hate-speech decision as a reason on Feb. 26, 2026. (Submitted)

"The Board is committed to reducing and where possible eliminating, the practice of segregating students based on sex and/or gender in order to ensure the full inclusion of transgender and/or gender non-conforming students."

Sooke School District School Board, British Columbia 

Six people at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School were murdered; five children and a teacher on February 10, 2025 when 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, a former pupil at the school, entered the school premises and began shooting people. The teen was a biological male who began transitioning to female a few years previous to the tragedy. Before embarking on his murder spree at the school, he had killed his mother and younger half-brother. Reports of the shocking tragedy spoke of the gun-toting intruder as a dress-garbed woman.

 

A month ago, another former member of the Chilliwack School Board who had fulminated in public and through social media postings over the normalization in the school district of transgenderism as a harmful ideology being forced on schoolchildren through mandated policies such as SOGI. Transgender teaching staff at the school he had represented filed a human rights grievance against Barry Neufeld. The B.C. Human Rights Commission found him guilty of expressing hatred against LGBTQ groups and fined him a ruinous $750,000 to be paid out to the grieving transgender teaching staff.

 

In the wake of that spectacular miscarriage of justice in a province that venerates progressive social justice, a second school trustee, Laurie Throness, decided to resign before calling out the malign influence of gender ideology practised in schools across the province. Formerly a provincial Liberal MLA, Mr. Throness takes full issue with the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity curriculum imposed upon the province's schools.

The first set of temporary classrooms have arrived in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. They are being set up on the grounds of Tumbler Ridge Elementary School to support the students displaced by the Feb. 10, 2026, mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. (Matt Preprost/CBC)

 

Under SOGI "rainbow displays" find prominent place on school property, alongside a policy of "affirming self-stated gender identity" claimed by students, while enforcing among the student body respectful observation of personalized gender identity. A move  toward "gender neutral washrooms and change rooms", and girls' and boys' sports to be recognized in absolute respect for student-self-identified gender preferences rule the day. 

 

In the instance of the Tribunal's ruling against Barry Neufeld's refusal to accept gender distinct from biology...the ruling read in part: "...to accept that a person is transgender, one must accept that their gender identity is different than their sex assigned at birth". The Tribunal premised their ruling on Mr. Neufeld's comments having created a discriminatory work environment for transgender teachers in the district, while Mr. Neufeld was still a sitting trustee.

 

Mr. Throness, by resigning his post as trustee, seeks to defend himself from a similar ruling, while he disputes the gender ideology that has taken root in the provincial school system. Mr. Throness references a "pattern of similar events in the States", with transgender students mounting school massacres. A 23-year-old biological man identifying as female in Minneapolis killing two young students, a female alumnus of a Nashville, Tennessee school murdering three children and three adult school employees. 

 

"Significantly higher" rates of suicide, suicide attempts and "suicide-unrelated mortality among transgender individuals" was identified in a 2023 Danish study. Among trans adolescents, found a research review published in the Journal of Psychiatry Treatment and Research in 2021, that among trans adolescents, up to 45 percent "have some type of psychiatric comorbidity". 

 

Hundreds gathered to leave candles, flowers, and other items for a vigil held in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., on Feb. 13, 2026. The next day, friends, family, and neighbours were still visiting the steps outside town hall to pay their respects to those who were lost. (Tom Summer/CBC)

 

Significantly, the Tumbler Ridge mass murderer had a history of being taken into custody under the Mental Health Act. He was not to be given access to guns. His mother, however, was a gun aficionado, and despite her son's mental breakdowns from time to time, encouraged his interest in guns. He repaid her by using one of her own long guns to shoot her and another of her sons to death. 

 

The office which houses the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal is seen in Vancouver, B.C., Monday, March 28, 2023. The Tribunal ordered former Chilliwack school trustee Barry Neufeld to pay $750,000 after a complaint about workplace discrimination. Chilliwack trustee Laurie Throness says he's resigned his seat in wake of the decision against Neufeld. (Nono Shen/The Canadian Press)