Normalizing Violent Antisemitism

"High levels of antisemitism have become a normalized feature in societies with large Jewish minorities."

"The data raise concern that a high level of antisemitic incidents is becoming a normalized reality." 

"The label of antisemitism is harsh and should be applied only after careful consideration and based on solid criteria."

"The peak in the number of incidents was recorded in the immediate aftermath of the 7 October attack, after which we began to see a downward trend. But unfortunately, that trend did not continue in 2025."  

Uriya Shavit, chief editor, Tel Aviv University annual report 

Survivor Saul Reichert, third from left, and his family light a candle at Toronto's Holocaust memorial event, April 13, 2026. (Credit: Shay Markowitz, for the Toronto Holocaust Museum)

"Offenders align with two main ideological orientations."

"They are predominantly Christian white supremacists or Muslims who apply antisemitism as a response to grievances about Middle Eastern political developments."

"[The] most worrying phenomenon [of the past year had been the] normalisation of antisemitic rhetoric in American political discourse."

"[US President Donald Trump had] tolerated, as no contemporary president has, deep-seated, loathsome antisemites within his camp, and continues to do so for cynical political reasons."

"The result is a new culture of everything-goes that is undermining the sense that Jews have had for decades that their future in America is secure."

Tel Aviv University annual report  

The attack at Sydney's Bondi Beach killed 15 members of the Jewish Community.  Getty Images

 

According to an annual study released on Monday, coinciding with the Shoah Day of Remembrance, 2025 distinguished itself as the most violent year in thirty, for Jews facing a resurgence of global antisemitism. The study pointed out that Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy and Australia had all posted notable increases in antisemitic incidents reported in 2025. In the United States and France, irrespective of notable physical attacks on Jewish targets, the report found the number of antisemitic incidents there declined.

 

Violence against Jews saw a spike beginning after the  Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel when an estimated 6 thousand terrorists flooded across from Gaza into Israel, followed by ordinary Palestinian citizens, all of whom committed barbaric, sadistic acts of rape, torture, burning entire families alive in their homes, slaughtering over a thousand civilians, foreign farm workers, children and the elderly, while taking infants, their parents and grandparents, women and men hostage into Gaza.

When Israel mobilized the Israel Defense Forces to enter Gaza to search for Hamas leaders, their operatives, and those of Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, all involved in the heinous bloodshed, the world -- initially shocked at the carnage committed in Israel -- turned against Israeli reprisal against the terrorists, despite the military doing its utmost to spare civilian lives through pre-strike alerts and organized population moves out of harm's way.

A sign reading "Jewish Lives Should Matter, Too" is seen at the floral tributes area outside Bondi Pavilion in Sydney on Dec. 18, 2025, to honour victims of the Bondi Beach shooting. The attack at Bondi Beach on Dec.14 was one of the deadliest in Australian history. Photo by DAVID GRAY / AFP via Getty Images 

 

In Sydney, Australia, a Muslim father and son duo launched a deadly attack on Bondi Beach, killing 15 members of the Jewish community that had gathered in December to celebrate Hannukah. Two antisemitic attacks in the United States in Washington, D.C. and Colorado were mounted, while in Britain two people were murdered at a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the most sacred day in Judaism's High Holy Days.

 

Tel Aviv University's Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, alongside the Irwin Cotler Institute for Democracy, Human Rights and Justice annually release their report on antisemitism, coinciding with Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day that serves as a national memorial for the six million Jewish children, women and men whose lives were systematically obliterated in a state mechanism deployed to destroy Europe's Jews. 

 

An increase in antisemitic attacks resulting in physical harm is tracked annually to produce each year's report. This report found that 2025 represented the deadliest year for such attacks since 1994, when a Jewish community centre in Argentina (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina),was bombed, where 85 people died and over 300 were wounded. A suicide-bombing attributed to Islamic Jihad/Hezbollah, the Islamic State of Iran's proxy terrorist groups in Lebanon. 

 

Since 2023, the incidents of viral antisemitism have soared, in comparison to those committed in 2022 Incidents that range from physical violence and vandalism to verbal threats and harassment on social media are all tracked by researchers who produce the final report. The report relies on statistics based on reports from police, national authorities, and local Jewish communities.

 

In Canada alone, to cite one country in isolation from others, the number of incidents rose from 6,219 committed in 2024, to 6,800 in 2025, representing a number over three times steeper than in 2022 -- pre-October 7's Palestinian terrorist horde attacking Israeli farming communities and a nearby musical festival where over 370 young festival-goers, men and women were raped and murdered. 

Some might question why the report failed to address the phenomenon of mass protests on the streets of Europe and North America by Palestinian and Muslim groups that immediately began accusing Israel of 'genocide' in its terrorist-seeking foray into Gaza, where masked, keffiyeh-clad 'protesters' issued threats against Israel and harassed, hounded and threatened diaspora-citizen Jews. Where in Canada, synagogues, Jewish parochial schools, and private businesses owned by Jews were vandalized and shot up.  

 

Rabbi Yossi Friedman speaks to people gathering at a flower memorial by the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, following Sunday’s shooting in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

 

 

That Critical Maritime Passage

"Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon."

"Additional U.S. forces, including underwater drones, will join the clearance effort in the coming days."

U.S. Central Command commander Admiral Brad Cooper 

 

"Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz. At some point, we will reach an “ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT” basis, but Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying, “There may be a mine out there somewhere,” that nobody knows about but them. THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION, and Leaders of Countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted. I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas. We will also begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the Straits. Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!"

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

A Navy destroyer in the U.S. Central Command area of operations transits the Strait of Hormuz, April 11, 2026.  Photo: U.S. War Department  

"The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. CENTCOM forces will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports."

"Additional information will be provided to commercial mariners through a formal notice prior to the start of the blockade. All mariners are advised to monitor Notice to Mariners broadcasts and contact U.S. naval forces on bridge-to-bridge channel 16 when operating in the Gulf of Oman and Strait of Hormuz approaches [per the release]."

Centcom press release  

The U.S. Department of War announced on its website that the USS Frank E. Peterson and the USS Michael Murphy are operating in the Persian Gulf, part of a broader mission to fully clear the Hormuz Strait -- an international sea passage and essential trade corridor -- of sea mines, laid courtesy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Underwater drones, along with  additional American forces, are set to join the clearance project in coming days.

 

US has deployed two Navy guided-missile destroyers to Hormuz (Representational Image)

"We're sweeping the strait. Whether we make a deal or not makes no difference to me", said President Trump, even as negotiations between U.S. and Iranian representatives -- alongside a Pakistani mediator -- on a potential ceasefire broke down. The Iranian preconditions were a non-starter, with Israel intent on continuing its strikes on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Iran's continued insistence on its right to continue with its nuclear program, its demand that the U.S. withdraw from bombing Iran and prepare to pay reparations, along with its refusal to put a stop to its support of proxy terrorist groups ensure the talks would go nowhere.

The Islamic Republic's 'red lines' expressed as demand for damage caused by U.S.-Israeli strikes compensation and the release of  Iran's frozen assets, are a reflection of the supreme arrogance of a ruling elite that refuses to acknowledge its position as a bludgeoned theistic hegemon that threatened its neighbours and launched terror attacks by proxy internationally whose beating is its just due for the further threat its nuclear ambition poses to the world at large. 

The country of 93 million people is deserving of relief from the tyranny of a regime that persecutes its own population, using vast oil reserves to fund global terrorism rather than investing in internal infrastructure of benefit to the country's future -- not as a conquering Islamist totalitarian state, but as a responsible government adhering to international norms of human rights standards. That its disregard for and abuse of its female population's right to equal treatment and respect given to their male counterparts is ignored by the United Nations where Iran was recently appointed to a human rights group is cynicism on steroids.

United Nations General Assembly, UN Watch

The 15-point proposal by the United States includes restrictions on Iran's nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran's 10-point proposal prior to the talks focused on a guaranteed end to the war and control over the Strait of Hormuz, where it plans to collect a maritime passage fee for each ship passing through, amounting to $1 million. An average of 100 to 130 ships passed through the strait daily, prior to the U.S.-Israel joint aerial assaults. 

That toll, if permitted to proceed, despite the deep objections of the other Gulf States that the IRGC has been bombing persistently since February 28, would enable the Islamic Republic to amass an astronomical fortune, far outstripping its revenues up to the conflict derived from its energy products. And all of it would be directed toward restoring its destroyed ballistic missile and drone stocks, along with other military assets that it has lost during the prosecution of the war, including warplanes and warships. 

"An integrated suite of unmanned maritime systems and sensors, the MCM MP counteracts mines in the littorals while increasing the host vessel’s standoff distance from the threat area."

"Embarked with the MCM MP, [a littoral combat ship] or a vessel of opportunity can conduct the full spectrum of detect-to-engage operations (hunt, neutralize, and sweep) against mine threats using sensors and weapons deployed from the MCM Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV), an MH-60S multi-mission helicopter, and associated support equipment."

U.S. Navy, new mine countermeasures mission package

Getty Images

 

Heart Health Connections to Brain Health

"There is a close interplay between heart and brain diseases."

"As a result, heart and brain conditions frequently co-occur and confer reciprocal increased risks."

"Almost no patients come through the door with only one thing."

"This guideline was motivated by a growing recognition of the important connections between brain and heart diseases as a critical source of multiple chronic diseases in aging populations."

"There is a close interplay between heart and brain diseases, with many comorbidities sharing overlapping risk factors, pathophysiological processes, and potential genetic and behavioural connections."

"As a result, heart and brain conditions frequently co-occur and confer reciprocal increased risks."

Dr. Jodi Edwards, director, Brain and Heart Nexus Research Program, University of Ottawa Heart Institute 

New diagnostic medical guidelines, the first of their kind in Canada, are being promoted, reflecting the strong connection identified between heart disease and brain disease, leading  to a recognition of the vital importance of screening an entire body rather than focusing on one isolated disease at a time. These new clinical guidelines reflect the latest evidence relating to how health providers should be focusing on the treatment of patience on recommendations based on new research findings.  

Among the 10 practical recommendations for primary care professionals, subspecialists, allied health teams, and patients with cardiovascular risk factors are:

• Screening people with atrial fibrillation for risk of cognitive decline
• Screening for depression in people with coronary artery disease and treating with evidence-based therapies when detected
• Intensive blood pressure lowering in people at increased cardiovascular risk to lower the risk of cognitive impairment
• Intensified cholesterol lowering to prevent heart attack in people with a history of stroke, and to prevent stroke in people following a heart attack
• Routinely offering influenza, pneumococcus and shingles vaccination, especially to people aged 65 and over, to help prevent stroke, heart attack, and vascular cognitive impairment
• Use decision aids to facilitate guideline implementation 

 Canadian Cardiovascular Harmonized National Guideline Endeavour (C-CHANGE) University of Ottawa Heart Institute

 Links between common cardiovascular diseases like atrial fibrillation and heart failure and cognitive impairment, including an increase in the risk of dementia have been found by a number of studies. These links have led to the new Canadian guidelines, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, aiming to encourage early diagnosis and prevention through -- where appropriate -- recommending vaccinations associated with diminishing risks of cardiovascular disease, stroke and potentially, dementia.

 

Reduced brain blood flow from heart disease through impaired mechanisms increases risk of cognitive issues, when normal blood flow fails to adequately reach the brain. The relationship between cardiac diseases and cognitive impairment have been studied in a number of research initiatives, one of which found atrial fibrillation to be associated with a 39 percent increased risk of cognitive impairment in the general population. A risk that may be responsible for an increase in early-onset dementia.

 

The most common type of sustained irregular heart rhythm, atrial fibrillation is related to electrical signal dysfunction which can lead to blood clots, strokes and heart failure. By age 80, this affects up to ten percent of the population; meaning that an estimated half million Canadians may be affected. Strong links have been established between heart disease and depression, with depression and anxiety considered under-recognized risk factors for women with cardiovascular disease.

 

At the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Dr. Jodi Edwards (left) and Dr. Peter Liu, stand in front of a PET/CT scanner, an important diagnostic imaging tool to detect brain and heart diseases.

 

Screening for patients diagnosed with certain cardiac conditions is among the recommendations contained in the guidelines, of which Dr. Edwards was the main author. Their purpose is to aid in informing health professionals whose patients have diagnoses related to cardiovascular disease, or risk factors. Screening people with atrial fibrillation for risk of cognitive decline; screening for depression in people with coronary artery disease, and treatment with evidence-based therapies if detected are among the recommendations. 

 

People with high blood pressure and increased cardiovascular risk are called on through the guidelines to be treated with intensive blood pressure-lowering treatment to reduce risk of cognitive impairment. "Intensive" cholesterol-lowering treatment is to be prescribed to those with a  history of stroke in prevention of heart attack; similarly to prevent stroke in patients who have undergone a heart attack. 

 

According to the guidelines, health providers are encouraged to routinely offer patients 65 and up vaccines for flu, pneumococcus and shingles for stroke, heart attack and vascular cognitive impairment prevention. A growing body of evidence related to the protective benefits of some vaccines against the risk of cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairment validate attention to these issues. Recent studies find that shingles vaccine is associated with significantly lower risk of dementia development.

 

Adults with heart disease who received shingles vaccine experienced fewer heart-related complications within a year as opposed to those who were  unvaccinated, according to a new study.  

 

New guidelines out of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute are encouraging doctors in Canada to screen and treat heart, brain and mental health conditions in an integrated way. CBC News

 

 

 

Canada's Social Crime Rate Soaring

New Toronto crime statistics revealed which neighbourhoods had the highest break-in rates last year. Christopher Eng Wong | Dreamstime 

"Incidents that were once rare, now frequently interrupt operations, put staff and customers at risk, and strain already limited resources."

"Many businesses have adopted informal safety protocols including having a buddy system, rules about who works late, who handles certain situations, and decisions about when to lock their doors." 

"In some cases, businesses keep their doors locked all day, allowing entry only by doorbell or appointment."

"[Nearly one-third of Canadian Federation of Independent Business members -- 29 percent -- informed poll surveyors] they do not report crimes because the process feels futile, time-consuming, or unlikely to result in meaningful followup."  

Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses crime survey 

Country-wide, there has been a steady increase, reported to police agencies, of incidents of organized shoplifting where  brazen groups of thieves stroll into stores  unmasked, take their time to fill baskets with thousands of dollars in merchandise, then calmly walk back out the door as though what they are doing is not unusual and there will be no penalties for outright theft. Often enough, they're right; such thefts are no longer unusual; their frequency and the panache and entitlement with which they're carried out, while leaving store personnel open-mouthed and customers scandalized, thieves fail to be apprehended.

 

The Your Independent Grocer on Bank Street in Ottawa's Centretown neighbourhood. Ottawa police say 12 people were arrested during 'Project Pantry' at the store in January. (Brad Quinn/CTV News Ottawa)

 

From store, laden down with stolen goods, to parking lot, to waiting vehicle and an orderly removal from shopping cart to open trunk, followed by a drive-away with pilfered goods. The CFIB report points out as well that retail staff are now increasingly exposed to personal threats, physical assaults and even confrontation with lethal weapons. Business employees, for their safety, are informed by their employers that it would be best not to confront the thieves, so they stand by, witness to thefts that defy the very essence of the social order.

 

The tragic, sobering encounter by Montreal depanneur owner Chong Woo Kim was a dangerously acute example of what outraged confrontation of a theft could lead to. Xavier Gellatly who stabbed the business owner to death, and held in his murder, was discovered to have committed an earlier murder in 2012, the result of a random stabbing. He was out of prison on full parole when his encounter with Chong Woo Kim made him a murderer two times over.

 

Handguns are pictured near recovered stolen cars during a Toronto Police Service press conference in Toronto, Ontario on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. Police say the surge in auto thefts has led to rises in home invasions, violent robberies and gun violence throughout the Greater Toronto Area. (Greg Bruce/CBC)

 

A January Angus Reid Institute poll concluded that businesses were the front lines of a broad apprehension among Canadians in general, of diminished security and safety in Canada. "For those working in retail, shoplifting, verbal abuse, and physical threats have become the norm", read the poll conclusion. 

 

This, in a criminal justice system where overworked police forces make arrests, and when trials eventually take place, they witness with exasperation the justice system using a Liberal-government penal formula that allows for lax bail conditions, leading to frequently charged serial offenders who are streamed through an equally overworked justice system, are given paltry sentences barely reflecting the gravity of the crime committed and early release means that offenders feel free to continue their criminal activity with no penalizing incentives to cease and desist.

 

Private security details are now a common sight at retailers, banks and any number of businesses on high alert either because they've already suffered theft, or because of the general aura of apprehension among businesses in recognition of the splurge among criminal elements exercising their modus operandi with the assurance that penalties that accrue will be manageable as balanced against their gain. Grocers across Canada are equipping staff with body-cameras to help crack down on shoplifting and identification of employee assailants. 

 

Corporate Protection and Investigative Services President Ken Vongkham showing the lawn signs that they provide for their clients. Photo by PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON /National Post

 

And nor are private homes exempt from these crime sprees. One of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in Toronto, Rosedale, has been experiencing a rash of property crimes in recent years, with cars stolen from driveways, armed home invasions, families disturbed at night by sounds of breaking glass and housebreaking men shouting their intentions along with threats of compliance. Armed home invasions have become common occurrences. Perhaps there's a kind of irony in the fact that these wealthy urban communities are solidly politically Liberal.

 

They've taken to paying for private security patrols at night. One security company specializes in private K9 patrols: "Our use of canine accompaniment for all daily foot patrols enhances crime prevention by creating an obvious and natural deterrent", the website promises. Spiking levels of crime and street disorder is not confined to Toronto. Canada has become a country of high walls, bars on windows, security cameras at every doorway and private security patrols.

 

Manitoba, through the course of a year, added 900 new licensed private security guards. The number of licensed private security guards surged in Ontario by75 percent in the last six years. 92,615 licensed Ontario security guards in 2020, swelled to 162,320 by 2025. In North Battleford, Saskatchewan, a plan to hire teams of private security to patrol the downtown was approved by city councillors. 

 

In Kelowna, British Columbia, according to a 2025 Statistics Canada report on crime severity, the city was ranked as the fifth-highest-crime city in the country. To which designation, the city produced a detailed analysis of 2024 crime figures finding that 1,335 police files had been opened for only 15 repeat criminals. "The pattern of persistent criminality by this select group is staggering and relentless", the report pointed out.   

 

Ontario Provincial Police and the Canada Border Services Agency said they've seized 598 stolen cars that were destined for export at the Port of Montreal, during a news conference on April 3. The vehicles had an estimated value of $35.5 million dollars. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

 

 

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW)

"The record demonstrates that Mr. McCook's life trajectory has been shaped by systemic and intergenerational forces, including early removal from his family, family disruption associated with the legacy of residential schools, and the normalization of alcohol misuse within his social environment."

"These factors provide important context for understanding his background and inform the Court's assessment of proportionality and the appropriate balance between denunciation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and restraint."

Supreme Court of B.C. Justice Sandra Sukstorf

A person walks up the stairs of the Law Courts building, which is home to B.C. Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, is seen in Vancouver, on Monday, January 12, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

 

Once again, as has been the case since 2014 when the Supreme Court of Canada instituted the Gladue principles to direct judges to take into account specific backgrounds and systemic factors contributing to over-representation of Indigenous men and women in Canada's courts and prisons, a man who was originally charged with second-degree murder in the killing of his wife has received a beneficent reduced sentence for that murder, of significant proportions in terms of time behind bars. 

 

As a result, needless to say, the mother, the woman whose husband murdered her, received no benefit from the Gladue principles, leaving their two young children motherless in their remote Tsek'ehne First Nations community in northern B.C. The community where the couple, their two boys and their extended family live, is a dry community, which prohibits the transportation and possession of alcohol on its territory.  

 

That did not stop the couple from embarking on a long drive of 425 kilometres south to Mackenzie where they bought liquor to the tune of $600. On their drive home they began consuming the alcohol.  Once they arrived back in Kwadacha, the drinking continued. They drank all night and into the morning that followed, during which time McCook, 28, "consumed extreme quantities of alcohol over many hours and became profoundly intoxicated", stated Judge Sukstorf.  

"[When a police officer opened the passenger door to check on her], he observed that Ms. Poole had a visible facial wound, and upon closer examination, he concluded that she was deceased."

"[A post-mortem toxicology report measured her blood alcohol concentration at 0.281 grams per 100 millimetres], a level consistent with severe intoxication and significant cognitive and motor impairment."

Justice Sandra Sukstorf

Brent Angus McCook was “profoundly intoxicated” in the shooting of his wife, Rochelle Poole. (Tingey Injury Law Firm/Unsplash)

 

The binge was a 17-hour marathon for the two young parents, Brent McCook and Rochelle Poole, on January 24, 2023. Neighbours, witness to the unfolding event, testified that although it was noticed that McCook's state of inebriation was affecting his mood, added that the couple's relationship, in their opinion was without friction and "described their interactions as calm and affectionate". Those neighbours, it seems, were relatives on McCook's side.

 

Mid-morning of the day the killing occurred, the couple had embarked on a drive around town with two of McCook's cousins. Some time later, Jason McCook, hearing gunfire from his home two doors away from the couple's house, looked out and saw his cousin standing next to his truck, a rifle in his hands. Jason McCook approached his cousin Brent  until his cousin fired in his direction, causing him to retreat, another bullet following him. Jason called local the emergency response centre, then managed to subdue his cousin and take possession of the gun. 

 

"It was like no one was home, like the lights were on but no one was there", Jason testified in court. A number of officers and witnesses at the scene described the drunk man as "incoherent, erratic, confused, and severely impaired immediately before and after the event". Rochelle Poole, seated in the truck's front seat was thought to be in deep sleep following her heavy drinking bout. Her death was apparent only after the RCMP arrived.

 

It was determined by police that McCook was inside the family home when he first fired his rifle at the vehicle, the bullet hitting Pool's head. No evidence was found by police that McCook knew his wife was in the vehicle when he shot at it. Nor were they able to establish whether from standing inside the house he could see that his wife was seated in it. Defence counsel sought a sentence of five years. The Crown felt 16 years appropriate, arguing the fatal incident occurred within "a broader pattern of intimate partner violence ... rather than as an isolated event".

 

Supporting that contention was testimony from two witnesses, two of Poole's cousins who testified that she had made remarks of her husband's abuse. Poole once said, according to one of the cousins, something to the "effect that if she ever died, Mr. McCook would be the one who killed her". And though the judge thought this credible, she ruled Crown counsel failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this was an issue of intimate partner violence. A sentence of 7 years was appropriate, in her judgement.

 

Giving McCook a sentence of six years and nine months last month at the sentencing hearing in Prince George, McCook now has two years less six days to serve on his sentence, given credit for time served in custody awaiting trial and sentencing. Three years of probation and a lifetime ban on gun ownership.

 

 

"On the evidence before me, I am satisfied that the relationship between Ms. Poole and Mr. McCook was marked by alcohol-fuelled instability."

"The fact that the offence was committed against an intimate partner remains highly relevant to the sentencing analysis. However, the Crown has not established that the offence itself was the culmination of a pattern of intimate partner violence."

Justice Sandra Sukstorf 

Economist Extraordinaire : Mark Carney for PM to Solve Canada's Economic Woes

"Canada’s federal government has experienced significant fiscal challenges in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic saw revenues decline and expenditures rise dramatically. Prior to that, the 2009 financial crisis had brought similar shifts, albeit on a smaller scale. But even outside of these extraordinary events, expenditures have consistently exceeded revenues, with the federal government running a budget deficit in each of the past 18 years."

"One might naturally wonder what potential paths lie ahead for returning to balance. The present study describes the current state of the federal budget and explores possible paths to balance by 2035. If the budget is balanced at that point, then the string of deficits that began in 2008 would be tied for the longest stretch of deficits ever recorded since 1867."

"The scale of the challenge is beyond what many Canadians may appreciate. Returning to balance over this relatively prudent time horizon, while fulfilling Canada’s new international commitments to increase military spending, requires large and fundamentally new approaches to major areas of federal finances that have been mostly absent from public debate. Considering available options sooner rather than later is important, as the longer that fiscal adjustments are delayed, the larger and more difficult they will need to be to ensure the long-run sustainability of federal finances."

"Together, these pressures will cause overall federal spending to grow faster than revenues in the years ahead unless policy adjustments are made."

"On its current course, Canada's finances run the] looming risk of a 1990s rerun, [falling back to a fiscal position where] debt-servicing costs consumed roughly one-third of federal revenues, and overall public net debt ... was both high and rising, at  roughly two-thirds of GDP."

"Even if we hold the amount of direct defence spending at two percent of GDP, we still end up with a deficit in 2035 roughly as large as what we're seeing over the next five years." 

Economists Trevor Tombe/Gabriel Giguere, University of Calgary

 

 

A new study produced for the Montreal Economic Institute reports that, should current fiscal policy hold, by 2035 the baseline federal deficit will balloon to $227 billion. The liberal largess over the past decade has lofted Canada's deficit year over year, impacting the federal debt to a point of staggering proportions. Under the leadership of a man whose formidable reputation as a highly experienced central banker, serving as governor of both the Bank of Canada and that of the U.K., his decision to enter politics at the elite level as new leader of the governing Liberal Party of Canada, resurrected that party from its doldrums at the prospective polls, with the unmasking of the inadequacy, profligacy, and errant ideology of Justin Trudeau.

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney holds up a copy of the budget as he and Minister of Finance and National Revenue François-Philippe Champagne make their way to the House of Commons for the tabling of the federal budget on Nov. 4, 2025. Photo by Justin Tang/The Canadian Press/File

 

In the 2025-26 federal budget, a $78.3-billion deficit was projected, representing the largest such deficit in the history of Canada, COVID-19 pandemic-era aside. The  authors of the newly-published study, economists Trevor Tombe and Gabriel Giguere, forecasted federal finances would be impacted hugely in pressure exerted as a reflection of new international commitments to significantly raise military spending, to reflect NATO's latest target of 3.5 percent to be spent by member-states on core defence spending by 2035. That rise in military spending was targeted at 10 percent annually, some $100 billion.

 

Within the next decade it is anticipated that federal spending will rise by 50 percent for elderly benefits, as Canadians continue to grey and a larger proportion of the population will be above 65 years of age at a time in medical history when people are living longer and more healthily. Add to that health transfers, equalization and debt interest payments where the federal revenue stream will not be expected to match those onerous expenditures (elderly benefits alone projected to rise to $45 B), and more.  

 

"Trimming" elderly benefits to match the rate of economic growth might be considered as one measure to help bring some balance back to the deficit, suggested Mr. Tombe. "It wouldn't be an outright cut. We'd still see elderly benefits grow every single year, but they wouldn't grow more quickly than the GDP". Back when Paul Martin was Canada's Finance Minister under Prime Minister Jean Chretien, and together they embarked on a hugely successful mission to bring the deficit under control in 1998, while musing about senior benefit cutbacks, there was a public outcry from seniors that forced a rethink of that solution.

 

Reducing regulatory burdens on businesses, Economist Tombe offered, as another deficit-reducing initiative as an exercise in spending restraint to promote economic growth. A 0.5 percent annual increase would result in  additional revenue of some $20 billion by 2035, he stated. The last 18 years saw Canada run budget deficits, but it's fairly safe to say that it was only in the last decade, beginning in 2015, when Justin Trudeau became prime minister and the Liberals played fast and loose with government treasury that deficits really began to bloom and boom. And under this new economics-guru prime minister they continue to soar...

 

On the first day of a new sitting of Parliament, Prime Minister Mark Carney faced questions about how the fall budget will cover the cost of recent government spending, which has created a ‘substantial’ deficit. Still from video, CBC

"There are no easy options for balancing the federal budget by 2035. Tax increases alone are certainly not a credible option. To balance by 2035 with no changes in federal spending, and assuming currently planned spending restraint ended in 2029, the GST would need to gradually rise to 12.5% from its current rate of 5%. That is far beyond a reasonable policy option."

"Some combination of faster economic growth, revenue changes, substantial reforms to major transfers to persons, and reductions in non-defence direct expenditures will therefore need to be considered in order to correct the current, unsustainable trajectory of the federal debt. The sooner these difficult conversations begin, and the sooner the public understands the challenge and buys into potential options, the lower the cost of those adjustments will be."

Paths to Balancing the Federal Budget by 2035, Montreal Economic Institute

The Lopsided Scales of Justice in Canada

"[Al Jalmoud] did not at this time have a valid driver's licence nor had he ever driven a vehicle in Canada since his arrival in 2018." 

"[Police observed the Ford Escape] swerving in and out of lanes and repeatedly increasing/decreasing the rate of speed [prior to the deadly crash]"

"The police officers at this time got out of their unmarked [white minivan] in uniform, to check on the driver based on their concerns that he might be distracted or impaired. As the police officers stepped out of their vehicle Mr. Al Jalmoud took off in the Escape." 

Ontario Review Board 

John William Wignall, 57, (left) and Ryan Valentim, 38, were killed in the crash on Sept. 25, 2022. Photo by Hamilton Police // Family handout

 

 Mouhamad Al Jalmoud, a 20-year-old Syrian refugee, drove a black Ford Escape in September 2022 that collided with a Hyundai Sonata, in Hamilton. That collision resulted in the death of two passengers of the Hyundai, while seriously injuring its driver. This lethal accident derived from a chain of events when two police officers stopped a driver who was steering his vehicle erratically, ignoring traffic rules including driving above the speed limit and as such, posing a danger both to himself and other drivers.

 

When Al Jalmoud was stopped by the police, he veered away and sped off, failing to stop for a red light and then collided with the Hyundai, when hit, was caused "to spin out of control". One man in the Hyundai was ejected from the rear window into a building, perishing at the scene. Another passenger was taken by paramedics to hospital where he was shortly afterward pronounced dead. "Very serious" injuries were suffered by the Hyundai driver.

 

Following the crash, Al Jalmoud "took off on foot leaving he scene", returning some time later when he collapsed and was taken to hospital. He was found by a jury in 2024 not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder, on three counts of failing to stop after the crash. Al Jalmoud was found guilty by the same jury on two counts of  dangerous driving causing death and one count of dangerous driving causing bodily harm. In March of 2025 he was sentenced by a judge to three years and three months in prison.

 

A Hamilton man has been arrested for impaired operation causing death after a collision where two people died late on Sunday night.  The Hammer

 

Al Jalmoud filed an appeal of both his conviction and the sentence, and after six months in custody he was released in September of 2025. "Those matters are before the court and outside our jurisdiction", stated the review board. During his release, Al Jalmoud is subject to several conditions, one of which permits him to leave home with his father in attendance. 

 

During Al Jalmoud's criminal trial, the jury heard that as a child he had "witnessed the horrors of the Syrian civil war, including bombings, airstrikes, killings in the street, mass and arbitrary arrests, and torture. He witnessed the effects of these horrors on his friends, neighbours and family. He was tortured himself. He developed a fear of police and military figures. The family fled to refugee camps in Lebanon, where they were mistreated." The Al Jalmoud family arrived in Canada as refugees, when Mouhamad was 16 years old. 

 

At his trial, two psychiatrists testified that Al Jalmoud "suffered from (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) on the evening of September 25, 2022, that the PTD led to a dissociative state triggered by Mr. Al Jalmoud's encounter with the police officers in the white minivan, and that Mr. Al Jalmoud was in a dissociative state  until he woke up in the hospital hours later." Both psychiatrists were in agreement and testified that "While he was capable of performing motor functions, he was not conscious or aware of what he was doing, either while driving away from the police or after the collision."

 

Both experts were "of the view that Mr. Al Jalmoud was not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder" for failing to stop at the crash scene. On the other hand, a psychiatrist who had earlier conducted a risk assessment on Al Jalmoud, testified before the Ontario Review Board that Al Jalmoud "does not have risk factors including having a major mental illness, anti-social traits or antisocial personality disorder or substance use that would enhance risk." 

 

The Special Investigations Unit is investigating after a crash killed two men on Sunday night. A 20-year-old man has been charged with impaired causing death. (David Ritchie)

 

The Review Board in interviewing the psychiatrist who assessed Al Jalmoud last year "was asked whether he agreed with the evidence at trial that the sound of the collision could have triggered PTSD. His response was that while anything was possible, the sound alone would not lead to a PTSD response to lead Mr. Al Jalmoud to flee the scene."

 

The decision from the Ontario Review Board was to find the Syrian refugee not criminally responsible for failing to stop at the accident he caused that killed two men, severely injuring a third, and has granted  him an absolute discharge.  Now 24, the Board was of the opinion that Al Jalmoud "exhibits pro-social values of family connection, no substance use and pro-social future goals". 

 

Free to go. 

 

As an adult, one who is capable of practicing free will, who is responsible for the untimely deaths of two innocent people and a life-changing injury of a third, if not this man? 

Do the crime, serve the time...

 

Surveillance footage of Al Jalmoud exiting the SUV after collision: Court exhibit

"He [initial psychiatric assessor] expressed that he would have come to a different conclusion than the two psychiatric assessors at trial; that this was a young man who made an unbelievably unwise decision to drive, given his skill set, and panicked when he saw the police, knowing he was driving without a licence and possibly without knowing how to drive."

"He accelerated, colliding with another vehicle, panicked, took off and  came back."

"[However, he] gave clear evidence that Mr. Al Jalmoud ... does not at this time pose a significant threat to the safety of the public."

Ontario Review Board