Britain's Enduring Shame

"[British and Scottish political parties leery of accusations of racism combined with fear of loss at the ballot box took] precedence over the protection of British children."

"[A recently launched official government inquiry into grooming gangs may be a time-waster and there is] no guarantee that it will adequately address the politically sensitive ethnoreligious nature of the phenomenon." 

Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Britain

Woodhouse says she became pregnant at 14 and was forced to have an abortion. When she became pregnant again at 16, she was allowed to keep the child. Photo supplied/Woodhouse

 

Chaired by British MP Rupert Lowe, and led by survivor Sammy Woodhouse, the Rape Gang Inquiry Report has exposed the horrors of systematic grooming and sexual exploitation of mostly white British girls, by predominantly Muslim Pakistani gangs. It has been a shocking open secret for years that vulnerable white British girls have been used and savagely sexually abused by these grooming gangs, and though there have been citizen-calls to formally investigate the situation and put a stop to it, while prosecuting the malefactors, nothing was done for far too long.

 

It took a widely-publicized campaign by one of the world's most recognizable names, when the wealthiest man in the world wielded his own notoriety to highlight the assaults on young British girls, demanding that Great Britain finally respond to the human rights outrage and rescue any future victims from the fate that had befallen their earlier counterparts, to hone international outrage. The squeamishness of British government agencies including politicians, to confront the issue head on admitting that it was Muslim men who were persecuting, mocking and grooming female children for sex reflected an unwillingness to be labelled 'racist' and perhaps worse in their opinion, 'Islamophobic'.  

"[A pre-release briefing states of the inquiry that it is required to] consider how the ethnicity, religion and culture of both perpetrators and victims may have influenced offending patterns, as well as institutional responses to abuse."

"Men of Asian ethnicity are over-represented as perpetrators in group-based child sexual exploitation." 

Official Government Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs  

Undeniably, Muslim Pakistani grooming gangs in towns and cities across the United Kingdom have been engaged in the grooming and exploitation of young girls in Britain. On June 15, the 219-page independent report titled the Rape Gang Inquiry was released, a crowdfunding project where a campaign raised 794,677 pounds, thanks to over 20,000 Brits who responded to fund the inquiry. In the report, stories of girls systematically groomed as young as 11 by gangs were recorded.

 

More than 800 recommendations relating to grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation and abuse dating back to the 1990s have been identified by the inquiry. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters

 

Befriended, introduced to alcohol and drugs, young girls were often taken from schools and care homes to be subjected to repeated rape, gang rape, trafficking and torture.  In some instances girls in the throes of sexual abuse were recorded on video, informed they were 'white trash'. Miscarriages, forced abortions were endured by girls whose rapes resulted in pregnancies. Other young girl who gave birth had them taken by the state, while yet others were taken to the Middle East to be part of arranged marriages.   

"[Over 250,000 girls were trafficked since the first recorded case in 1955], when four Bradford-based Pakistanis were charged with raping a 15-year-old girl from Middlesbrough." 

Rape Gang Inquiry Report  

Sammy Woodhouse was groomed at age 14 by a 24-year-old, Arshid Hussain, ringleader of a Pakistani-heritage child exploitation gang. Neither the police, social services, the National Health Service nor schools intervened at any time to rescue girls and to spur investigations into the ongoing abuse. Anyone who did make an effort to report the rapists were labelled racists or Islamophobes. The gangs acted with complete impunity. Urged to launch an inquiry the Labour government refused, until sufficient pressure was exerted to acquiesce.

 

When the government did launch an official independent inquiry, it was handed 65 million pounds to get the job done by March 31, 2029. The inquiry has not been given prior specific instructions on ethnicity, religion or any similar identifying demographic. Whereas the Rape Gang Inquiry Report tackles the issue head on, adding that the grooming gangs represent an immigration screening problem. 

 

Ethnicity data was found not to have been recorded for two-thirds of grooming-gang perpetrators, according to a 2025 audit examining available national databases and police data. This was highlighted by Baroness Casey of Blackstock in the audit. All the Casey report's recommendations have since been  accepted by the British government. It is yet too early to discern whether politicians will revert to their usual catering to groups in their constituencies in avoidance of being labelled racist and Islamophobic.  

Victims as young as 10 – often those in care, or children with learning or physical disabilities – being singled out for grooming precisely because of their vulnerability.

Perpetrators still walking free because no one joined the dots or because the law ended up protecting them instead of the victims that they had exploited.

Deep rooted institutional failures, stretching back decades, where organisations who should have protected children and punished offenders looked the other way - and Baroness Casey found “blindness, ignorance, prejudice, defensiveness and even good but misdirected intentions” all played a part in this collective failure.

Baroness Casey audit

Deadly Haemorrhagic Fever Outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo

The latest outbreak of the Ebola virus in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)—the country’s 17th since 1976—has resulted in more than 1,000 confirmed cases and over 250 deaths. The number of cases has risen faster for this outbreak than any other Ebola outbreak to date. The Red Cross says that the epidemic has not yet peaked and could last a year. The United States Centers for Disease Control projected the outbreak could reach at least 20,000 cases in a worst-case scenario without intervention. Areas at greatest risk are nearby provinces in eastern DRC, neighboring South Sudan, and the border regions of Uganda.

The outbreak is concentrated in northeastern DRC, with more than 97 percent of all cases in Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu Provinces. Only 19 cases have been reported in neighboring Uganda, and they are largely associated with individuals who traveled from the affected regions in the DRC. Uganda’s public health system has actively responded to the outbreak—both in Uganda and across the border in the DRC—by supporting surveillance, testing, and care.

In addition to the lack of a proven vaccine for the Bundibugyo variant, the current Ebola response is particularly challenging because of the region’s remoteness and the ongoing insecurity caused by dozens of armed groups operating in the area. The outbreak is estimated to have circulated within the community for weeks—and possibly months–before it was detected and confirmed on May 15, 2026. Now, public health officials are racing to contain the spread, provide care, trace and monitor contacts, and deploy public health messaging campaigns throughout the region and neighboring countries.

Africa Center for Strategic Studies 

Health officials and humanitarian workers undergo temperature screening and handwashing before entering an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, Ituri. (Photo: AFP/Jospin Mwisha)

 

 

"[Figures on the number of patients who have recovered and those being treated, as well as deaths, indicate 297 people who tested positive are unaccounted for]. This is a concern that we have. Where are these people?"

"[30% of new cases are among known contacts of confirmed cases, indicating] huge, huge community transmission." 

"[Bed occupancy in Ebola treatment centres is at 95% and] we didn’t reach the peak yet."

"[Camps in which displaced people were living] have cases, and because we don’t have access to these camps, we cannot have the contact tracing. We cannot have a photo of what’s happening there."

"We cannot stop this outbreak, without resolving the humanitarian issue."

Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

In a little over a month after the Ebola epidemic was declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo, over 300 lives have been lost to the virus. Spreading through direct contact with bodily fluids, the deadly viral disease causes severe bleeding and organ failure in many of those morbidly afflicted. Out of 1,115 confirmed infections since its detection as an outbreak on May 15, 304 people have died in the Congo. This represents a mortality rate of 26.3 percent, according to the National Public Health Institute, an increase from the 202 deaths confirmed on June 18. At that time, the African Union's health agency confirmed 875 infections with a mortality rate of 23 percent.

 

The deadly haemorrhagic fever outbreak has yet to peak and it may continue to wreak havoc for up to a year as efforts to contain it are pursued, cautions the Red Cross. Hopeful news came in the form of  an announcement by Congolese authorities in early June that treatment of seven Ebola patients had resulted in a cure for that number. This is the 17th epidemic to wreak havoc on the huge, destabilized central African country. There are no approved vaccines or treatment for the Bundibugyo strain of the virus implicated in this latest Congo outbreak. 

 

Health workers disinfect a coffin at Kigonze displaced persons camp in Bunia, DRC last week. More than 1 million people live in similar camps to which health workers have no access. Photograph: Gradel Muyisa Mumbere/Reuters

 

 The situation has been hugely exacerbated by the fact that Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, the three outbreak-afflicted provinces in eastern Congo, have been for the past three decades mired in conflict resulting in miss displacement of people. A total of a million people living in refugee camps, many inaccessible to health workers, are vulnerable, given the circumstances. Neighbouring Uganda has employed successful containment measures after the outbreak spread there. Twenty confirmed cases were reported countrywide, including two deaths, since May 15; those infected mostly Congolese nationals travelling to Uganda.

 

A French-Congolese doctor working in the Congo for the international medical aid NGO ALIMA, became the outbreak's first confirmed case of Ebola outside Africa, France reported. Despite which according to the World Health Organization, there is minimal risk of the virus spreading in Europe, and no need to declare travel restrictions, which still led Air France to suspend all flights for several days to Kinshasa.

 

The mineral-rich province of Ituri is where the vast majority of Congolese cases have been detected; an area plagued with unrest linked to a bevy of rival armed groups causing frequent population movements. Creating the perfect storm to hasten the spread of the disease where over 91 percent of all infections have been registered in the provincial capital, Bunia, along with over 82 percent of all deaths. 

 

Health care facilities in Ituri lack basic equipment and supplies, including personal protective equipment and chlorine. Clinics organized by the WHO and aid agencies, are close to being overwhelmed by ebola patients. Up to 78 health care workers were infected with the virus, 18 of whom died of its effects. To complicate matters even further, leading to preventable transmission, medical aid workers have been confronted with deep mistrust from local communities.

 

Families which have demanded that hospitals release the bodies of the deceased, failing to comprehend that even touching the body places them at risk of contamination. In such environments, the readily-communicable virus is set to thrive as it moves from host to victim. 

 

Dz’na Lipe Jean‑Marie, secretary of Kpangba displacement camp in the DRC, holds an Ebola awareness session on 13 June 2026. Photograph: Gradel Muyisa Mumbere/Reuters

 

 

Venezuela's Quake Rescues: "It's all Improvisation"

"There is no planning, it's all improvisation."

"This is a state that is lacking in security services to deal with this type of emergency."

"Our firefighters and first responders don't have the proper equipment." 

Vicente Villarroel, a former federal lawmaker from the city of La Guaira 

 

"With everything that has happened to Venezuela in the past few years, we thought that nothing worse could happen."

"But what has happened is a real catastrophe, a tragedy."

Javier, Barquisimeto 

 

"What motivates me to become part of this movement is the empathy I feel for all Venezuelans who have lost their homes, their families, their will to live because they have been left with nothing."

"I think, as Venezuelans, more than ever, we are united for different reasons."

"Many of us have families in the impacted zones, others do it from a desire to help, but in the end it's all the same objective."

Raquel Mercedes Contreras Manrique, president, student centre, University of Los Andes, San Cristobal  

Raquel Mercedes Contreras Manrique, president of the student centre at the University of Los Andes in San Cristobal, packs donated supplies on Friday. (Submitted by Raquel Mercedes Contreras Manrique)

 

 A day ago, shortly after Venezuela was hit with two, back-to-back earthquakes President Delcy Rodriguez announced that at least 164 deaths and 971 injured had resulted at that point of reckoning. The U.S. Geological Survey which had pegged the temblors at 7.2-magnitude and 7.5 magnitude following, warned that "high casualties and damage are probable". The death count from the earthquakes has risen a day later, to 1,400 -- and counting. Two aftershocks were recorded; one of 4.5- and the other 4.4-magnitude, close to Caracas, the country's capital.

 

On the Richter scale, a 7.5-magnitude quake is almost twice as powerful as one at 7.2 magnitude. When they struck, one after the other, it took altogether 30 seconds that the ground wobbled after 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Glass from nearby windows fell to shatter on streets below. Los Palos Grandes, a seismic area of eastern Caracas was hit directly. Three buildings on one block, one of 13-storeys in height, collapsed. A state of emergency was declared. 

 

U.S. President Donald Trump wrote: "I have instructed all agencies of our government to get ready to move quickly. We will be there for our new and great friends. Early reports are not good." Emergency rescue teams have arrived from Venezuela's regional neighbours, El Salvador, Ecuador, Brazil and Chile, and other seasoned teams, including one from Israel and the much-storied and well-experienced White Helmets from Syria were also dispatched to do what they know best; rescuing those still alive in hazardous life conditions. 

 

Venezuelans have rallied to support their fellow citizens, some travelling hundreds of kilometres to join relief efforts. (Susy Peña/CBC)

 

The boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates is where the sequence occurred when two giant sections of the Earth's crust slid sideways past each other along a fault. That action released the massive energy that caused the quakes. A figure of 4,300 injured people was released, but is certain to rise as rescue operations continue. The number of those missing is also growing, while first responders and volunteers desperately search for survivors. Over 200 people are still trapped in the rubble with Venezuelans in a "race against time" to rescue them, amidst ongoing aftershocks.

 

The number of buildings that collapsed: 250 in all. Dozens of apartment buildings in La Guaira were shaken to the  ground. In many areas of the state heavy machinery is scarce; volunteers were forced to make use of whatever tools they could locate in hopes of carving through the collapsed concrete rubble. It was almost a full day that passed before government responders arrived to help dig through debris.

 

The main health facility, Jose Maria Vargas Hospital, saw injured people lying on thin mattresses outside on the ground of the hospital premises. Its emergency department was swamped with people presenting with all manner of injuries. Some of the patients held their IV drips aloft on their own. Across the country Venezuelans crowdsourced websites and social media in search of missing family members. Over 42,000 names with photos and descriptions were listed on one website alone. 

 

While first responders and volunteers worked amidst the collapsed buildings interspersed with rubble, family members waited in high suspense, for outcomes. The Altamira neighborhood of Caracas was one such venue. A rescue team searched the rubble, unable to use the equipment at hand because the electric generator wasn't responding. For that team even basic tools like hammers were not available. The government, in economic crisis, lacks the capacity to respond to such disasters.

 

A building rocked by two earthquakes is seen Friday in the beachfront neighbourhood Playa Grande in Catia la Mar, a city in the Venezuelan state of La Guaira. (Susy Peña/CBC)

 

 

Border-Crossing Drugs -- Transnational Criminal Operations

"There's a lot of frustration and it, in and of itself, lends itself to facile responses that look good, but in the end don't really do anything."

"Blowing up drug boats ... is a perfect example of a facile response that does absolutely nothing."

"We often think of [fentanyl] as just a border issue, and it's not just a border issue. These are transnational criminal operations."

Regina LaBelle, professor of addiction policy Georgetown University 

 

"The biggest concern we see is what's happening on our southern border being pushed up to our northern border."

"Over the last year, we've apprehended enough fentanyl that would kill 17 million Americans on our northern border." 

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said this week that more fentanyl is coming into the U.S. from Canada, which is not reflected in the latest data from U.S. border officials (Manuel Balce Ceneta/The Associated Press)

 

"I mean, it just really isn't happening."

"It's way too much trouble to ship [fentanyl] around and put it through Canada and then take it into the United States."

Mark Tyndall, public health scientist, professor of medicine University of British Columbia

 

"The flows that we know of across the U.S.-Canada border are token and trivial compared to the flows into the U.S., primarily across the southwest border or the flows into Canada of the precursors, not through the U.S."

"The fentanyl killing Canadians is mostly made in Canada with precursors that came from China."

"The U.S. supply chain is independent of the Canadian supply chain once the precursors leave China, but the manufacturing for U.S. markets mostly happens in Mexico." 

Jonathan Caulkins, drug policy researcher, Carnegie Mellon University

A bag filled with drug paraphernalia  (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

 

There has been a realization of a drop in overdose deaths in both Canada and the United States. Drug policy experts can only theorize what the cause might be. The recently identified decline may be attributable to supply shifts alongside public health measures, eliminating tariffs or border crackdowns as part of the cause. The fearful public menace of overdose deaths has strike across all measures of society in both countries; everyone knows someone who knows someone who died of a drug overdose caused by synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

 

While Canada has developed no system of gathering statistics, the worst-hit province of British Columbia can boast that one in five residents knew someone who died from an overdose, in 2023. In 2024, close to half of Americans knew of someone who died from an overdose. Those who study the societal impacts of the drug trade tend to differ in their understanding of the situation, its impact and its victims and the possible causes, from politicians who view the subject from the perspective of ... politics.

 

And while Homeland Security Secretary Mullin claims pressure on the southern border drives cartel actions northward, including toward Canada, citing a surge in fentanyl moving across the northern border, he is contradicted by his Canadian counterpart who states data "really haven't borne that [Mullin's contention] out". 

Kevin Brosseau, Canada's fentanyl czar, says his goal is to eliminate all fentanyl in the country. 'It's killing kids every day and destroying families,' he said. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

 

Canadian fentanyl czar Kevin Brousseau cited U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures indicating some three kilograms of fentanyl seized at the northern order since October 2025. Which makes quite a comparison with over 3,000 kilograms seized at the southern, Mexican border. Nor are epidemiologists other than skeptical of charges that fentanyl trafficking has been shifting north.  

"We're talking about an illicit supply market that is entirely in the hands of illicit production traffickers, criminal organizations, and there's no regulation."

"[Supply conditions] can change very quickly again."

"A little change or an added highly toxic component to the drugs distributed could drive that toward an uptick."

Regina LaBelle

 

"From all I can gather, it's a mix of things, but the most likely driver of the drop in overdose deaths, at least on the Canadian side, has been changes in the fentanyl or in the synthetic opioid supply."

"[That could be construed as lower purity or products mixed with less lethal substances]."

Benedikt Fischer, professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University  

Precursor chemicals, usually shipped in from China, are generally available widely, enabling local production of fentanyl. The potency of the opioid calculates to a tiny amount able to supply the U.S. market. According to Professor Caulkins, trafficking capacity  and the criminal organizations that are involved are logically the most effective target by law agencies. 

 

Sharp declines in overdose deaths seen in both Canada and the U.S., since late 2023 where in the U.S. deaths involving synthetic opioids fell from 74,702 in 2023 to 48,422 in 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while positive in outlook, remain a puzzle in understanding why. The Canadian Public Health Agency data reflect 7,146 opioid-related drug toxicity deaths in 2024, 17 percent fewer than 2023, followed by another 2025 decline to 5,630.

The factors that may be assigned to these drops in fatal overdose occurrences range widely; expanded naloxone access, supervised consumption sites, drug supply prevention efforts, and increased public awareness among them. A 2026 study in Science magazine revealing a shock to the fentanyl supply having occurred in 2023 attributed to Chinese regulatory changes affecting access to precursor chemicals, another possible reason. 

 

In late 2023, deaths suddenly decreased in both countries, making it unlikely to point to one of the countries' policy changes, as a causative. Making it more likely that it is the supply that likely had an effect on the death rate. If so, this is a condition that may not continue. Academics now appear to favour the opinion that the fentanyl crisis is not vulnerable to border crackdowns, but more likely reacting to illicit market shifts and the capacity of public health systems to react accordingly. 

"If vigilance at any border drops, traffickers could use it as a transshipment route."

"Things that disturb the ability of the two countries on either side of the border to partner effectively are counterproductive."

"[Canada and the U.S. should refrain from allowing trade tensions to impair working in tandem at the border]." 

Jonathan Caulkins, Carnegie Mellon University 

A man sits on a sidewalk along East Hastings Street in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

 

Virtue-Signalling Window Dressing Optics in the Corporate World

Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy

 

"It's very much purely words and no actions. They can talk all they like, but do they actually deliver on things? And the answer is no, not really. So they're not really being especially discriminatory when it comes down to it."

"It's just saying one thing and doing another. So corporations are particularly good at that. It's very much window dressing. It's virtue signalling. [They do it] because they know that it's good for reputation if they say these things."

"Canadian firms are heavily engaged in social engineering. [The practise] extends well beyond the office. [Companies fund groups that] advocate controversial issues." 

Leigh Reveres, report lead author. University of Toronto professor emeritus  

"[DEI  began with good intentions but became] an ideology that has gone much too far. [Corporations now] prefer equality of outcomes [over equality of opportunity]."

"Tech [on the other hand] stands out in a good way."

"[Explicit bias rarely surfaces in job postings.] But that does not mean that discrimination and preferential hiring is not happening. Because the fact that almost everyone has to go through this DEI training, and we see that DEI is completely ubiquitous throughout corporate Canada."

"It's extremely unlikely that that's not affecting decision-making in the job hiring process." 

David Hunt, research director, Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy 

According to a recently released study that the Aristotle Foundation published as a report titled Corporate Discrimination Index, where for 25 of the largest Canadian-owned companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange, merit-based hiring remains the standard, despite Diversity, Equity and Inclusion being widespread. Most of the companies were studied for the report to determine their hiring practices and how frequently language in sync with DEI appears in corporate reports. The study drew on 500 job postings and a 42-term 'woke lexicon' in annual and ESG reports.

 

The study led the foundation to conclude that 96 percent of companies provide DEI training; 88 percent declare demographic hiring or promotion targets, while 80 percent promote DEI in job postings. As well, 88 percent declare demographic hiring or promotion targets,while 80 percent promote DEI in job postings, What is described as ideological or political groups was deemed to be funded by 88 percent. And although Mr. Hunt claimed unwillingness to 'pass judgment' on the funding, a bank, in his opinion, 'should be a neutral actor'.

 

Intact, on the foundation's Corporate Discrimination Index, ranks number one, with a score of 67 of 100, while Shopify scored zero in the index that assigns 60 percent of its weight to preferential and restrictive hiring, with preference --  found in under five percent of postings, and restrictions in two of 500. Shopify scored zero based on the fact that it "exclusively hires based on merit". Intact's score, on the other hand, was based largely on postings encouraging applications from "equity-deserving groups". 

 

The frequency with which DEI terms appear in corporate documents is counted in a separate language index. Built by the foundation in view of the fact that explicit bias rarely surfaces in job postings, which did not disqualify the ideological wording from influencing  hiring. Another takeaway from the report was sectors making use of greater amounts of ideological language tend to discriminate more frequently in hiring. Technology was a sole standout with a low score in that metric. 

 

This, according to the foundation is a "DEI Paradox" where companies promote DEI publicly yet continue hiring largely on the base of merit; frequent use of the specific language reflects a workplace culture that veers toward discrimination. What DEI "really means is setting quotas", stated Professor Revers; setting demographic targets in advance signals "you're kind of prejudging the candidate pool. But what you're really doing is pre-emptively setting the playing field.That's what we consider to be discrimination." 

 

The report found that 96% of the companies that were studied provide DEI training, 88% declare demographic hiring or promotion targets and 80% promote DEI in job postings. Photo by Adobe Stock

 

"[Corporations] were sold down the river on this [by] the academics in the universities [though some companies are now retreating]."

"[DEI is] kind of in hiding now. The word has been toxified. Canada's not crazy."

Leigh Revers, professor emeritus, Master of Biotechnology, University of Toronto 

 

 

Home-Grown Ideological Terrorism

Montreal police take cover during the shooting. Photograph: Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press/AP

 

"Behind the uniform was an exceptional and a dedicated police officer, a loyal friend, a loving partner, and an extraordinary father. Today, he leaves behind a pregnant partner who was preparing to build a future with him, and a young child of only 3 years old who will grow up without his father."

"[...While no amount of money can fill this immense void [it hopes to] ease the burden now on [Benredouane's] family and offer some support during this heartbreaking ordeal."

"It is with immense sadness and heavy hearts that we launch this fundraising campaign to support the family of our friend, colleague, and brother-in-arms who tragically died in the line of duty."

Montreal Police Brotherhood, GoFundMe campaign 

Residents of the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood are mourning the death of 34-year-old Montreal police officer Mohamed Lamine Benredouane who was killed in a shooting Monday. A civilian and the suspect also died that day.  CBC

 

"Born in Lebanon, Michel eventually made his home in Israel before settling in Montreal. He remained deeply devoted to Israel throughout his life, maintaining close ties to his children and family there. Almost every year on the anniversary of his father's death he travelled to Israel."

"It is therefore especially heartbreaking that violence would ultimately claim Michel's own life here in Montreal. Having already borne the pain of losing loved ones to conflict overseas, he himself became the victim of senseless violence in the city he called home. His passing is a reminder that hatred, wherever it appears, knows no borders and spares no innocent."

Beryl P. Wajsman, president, Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal

Sixty-eight-year-old Michel Mizrahi is being remembered as a generous and committed community member, especially at his synagogue in a Montreal suburb. Mizrahi was killed Monday in the shooting that also took the life of a Montreal police officer.  CBC

 

Michel Mizrahi, 68, a Montreal businessman, was the lone civilian killed by a gunman who suddenly appeared Monday morning in a newly developed commercial hub in Cote-des-Neiges, central Montreal, an area known as a Jewish district. The shooter, dressed in military fatigues and carrying a long gun, opened fire, shooting in all directions, while the busy thoroughfare quickly relinquished its many passerby to a desperate rush to shelter from the gunfire. A 911 call to police saw a response within minutes, police squads on the scene swiftly become the target of the shooter.

 

As a passerby, Mr. Mizrahi was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Born in Lebanon, he was remembered by those who knew him well, as a kind and gentle man. A man who had suffered his own losses in the near past, when his father was killed in a missile attack during the Gulf War, in 1991, in Israel. Another staggering blow arrived on the news that one of his siblings' child had been slaughtered on October 7, 2023 at the Nova music festival during the Palestinian invasion comprised of thousands of terrorists, led by Hamas.

 

The police officer victimized by the gunman was 34 years of age, Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, a member of the Montreal Police Force since 2021. Not scheduled to work on Monday, he had decided to take an overtime shift. Benredouane went to school in the neighbourhood where he was killed. "You have someone that grew up in the neighbourhood and decided to serve his community in the way that he did, by ultimately losing his life. It was an act of heroism that I can't highlight further",  said Notre-Dame-deGrae borough Mayor Stephanie Valenzuela.

 

Montreal shooting leaves three dead including a police officer – video

Eyewitness videos posted to social media showed one police officer shot, as another, female officer crouched behind a waist-level concrete planter, exchanging fire with a man in camouflage. Another video showed the downed officer rolling on his back, then his stomach, in an effort to crawl away from the direct fire, where at least 30 shots were later documented. That officer in the end, died of his wounds; Mohamed Lamine Benredouane. And with him, Michel Mizrahi who had been standing beside the female officer who was also shot in the exchange, but survived her wounds in hospital.

 

The attack had taken place at the Hilton Hotel on the corner of De Courtrai and Trans Island avenues. On the arrival of police a lockdown was ordered, people warned to remain in their apartments, doors locked, nearby stores with shoppers the same. Police were uncertain whether there was a lone shooter, or another with him close by. The lockdown with people sheltering in place lasted in fear and confusion for hours before it was lifted with the assurance that one shooter only was involved, and he had been lethally shot by police at the scene.

 

Seth Hatfield, 25 years of age, from Alberta who had attended Lethbridge University, recognized as an outstanding student, who had set out to put into action a plan of vengeance against capitalists, the elite, and Zionists and Jews who were behind all manner of nefarious social constructs he set out in a lengthy manifesto which also extolled the virtues of communism and the evils of "high capitalist" societies, urging readers of his screed who shared his grievances to "Be unflinching, go forth, and KILL THEM ALL!"

 

The document this class-action terrorist left behind listed "valid potential class A targets", that included international real-estate brokerages, private equity firms, elite bankers and politicians, influential Zionists, private health and oil CEOs, plastic surgeons, cryptocurrency leaders, the headquarters of all corporations with ties to Zionism (IBM, Microsoft, Boeing) and "pick-up artists", as well as pornographers. Among other targets: "the headquarters of international pornography companies", and those who "actively promote pornography to the public".

 

Montreal police work the scene of a shooting, June 22, 2026. CHRISTOPHER KATSAROV / CHRISTOPHER KATSAROV/THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP

  

Adolescent Gender Identity/Dysphoria

"These findings support that within a clinical context involving comprehensive psychosocial assessment and support, gender identity among adolescents is highly stable, and rates of reidentification with birth-assigned gender and cessation of [gender-affirming hormones] are low."

"Despite there being broad consensus among major medical organizations about the necessity of gender-affirming care, some government bodies continue to raise questions a bout access to gender-affirming care."

Recently-published Canadian study    Journal of Adolescent Health

 

"The study also found that no one who initially identified as non-binary returned to a binary gender aligned with their birth sex."

"For many youth, access to appropriate care is associated with improved well-being and mental-health outcomes."

"Other research has also reported low rates of detransition and treatment discontinuation, although findings vary depending on the population studied."

Daniel Metzger, paediatric endocrinologist, B.C. Children's Hospital, report first-author

 

"It's an open question whether the detransition rate of someone who started their transition in 2012 is going to be the same rate as someone who started their transition in 2020 or 2022."

"[The paper suggests that appropriately selected youth who undergo comprehensive holistic assessments] are likely to at least be persistent in the short- to medium-term."

"It could be that many of them are continuing to do great and if we reached out to them today, in 2025, they'd say; 'Hey, I'm doing great. Leave me alone'."

"Or we could reach out and they say, 'I desisted when I was 22'. We don't know. And we can't tell from this data." 

Dr. Laura Targownik, physician-scientist, professor of medicine, University of Toronto 

New Study Shows Trans Youth Are Extremely Unlikely to Detransition   them.us

 

Only 2.9 percent of teens -- in a social period of rapid gender-affirming medical interventions -- referred to one of four specialized pediatric gender clinics, changed back to their original gender identity; detransitioned, over a median followup study of 2.4 years. The study authors felt the findings suggest stability in teen gender identity where their study appears to prove that actual detransitioning is 'uncommon'. The results of their study, they wrote "may offer reassurance to those concerned that adolescents are too  young to understand their gender identity or make decisions about medical transition".

 

As with any scientific study addressing controversial issues, critics find the study has the effect of inflating persistence while presenting a skewed picture, taking into regard the short followup window to detect a verifiable transition rate. Moreover, the study's structure leaves the authors incapable of asserting with any certainty what occurred when youth moved from adolescence into adulthood, and how that maturation affects their identity perception at that juncture.

 

The study encompassed children between between the years 2012 and 2017 prior to the more recent spike in gender dysphoria cases, alongside changing demographics. At the present time, predominantly biological females, many with accompanying complex mental health problems, many identifying as non-binary, are being seen by doctors. "Considerable uncertainty" remains of benefits of gender treatment for children, two recent Canadian studies concluded. 

 

The number of children and teens seeking gender-affirming care almost tripled in Canada and the U.S. between 2017 and 2020, the study's authors note. Photo by Adobe Stock

 

The latest study research team involved reviewing 445 teens diagnosed with gender dysphoria and seen at gender clinics in Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Halifax -- of which 74 percent were born female, most between the ages of 13 and 18 at time of referral, while the mean age of beginning gender-affirming hormone treatment was just over 16 years of age. At each visit, every six months, the teens were questioned about their gender identity and whether hormone use was being continued. 

 

Researchers looked at data in the youths' medical records between 2018 and 2020. There ensued at least one year of followup after each gender clinic visit. 95 percent -- 421 of the 445 -- continued with their presenting gender identity or re-identified as nonbinary: "from initial referral to end of the observation period". Of the 353 adolescents who began gender-affirming hormones, only one percent stopped taking them. Of the 24 that changed gender identity, 13 "returned to gender identity typically aligned with sex at birth".

 

Doctors have been sued by some detransitioners with the allegation that their wish for extreme interventions had never been challenged, nor were alternative treatments properly discussed. Detransitioners, surveys have found, may sometimes feel reluctant to inform their doctors, concerned they would waste people's time, even knowing that something was not quite right. Detransition "is very unlikely to occur even after 10 or more years identifying with [a] gender identity different than the identity aligned with birth sex", pointed out Dr. Lawson. 

 

Parents of transgender children and other supporters of transgender rights gather in an outdoor rotunda in Austin, Texas, to speak about transgender legislation being considered in the state House and Senate, on April 14, 2021.   Eric Gay / AP file

 

"I don't expect the detransition rate at a median two years to be terribly high, but if you follow these patients for five years, or 10 years, you might have a clearer picture."

"[The finding that most youth prescribed hormones] does provide some reassurance that they're not just starting patients on hormones and they're desisting right away."

"But [the researchers] don't talk about, were these patients seeing psychiatrists? Were they seen for other problems? Were they getting admitted to hospital for mental-health decompensation?"

"They're basically using persistence as a proxy for, 'Well, they're doing OK enough that they didn't have to abandon their transition or that their clinicians didn't feel that they were suffering from such a grievous harm that it had to be stopped."

Dr. Laura Targownik, transgender woman 

 

"Individuals who do not support gender-affirming medical care for adolescents are likely to look for reasons that might discount the findings of our study and publication."

"However, as principal investigator of this study, I can assure you that our study's methodology is extremely sound."

Senior study author Dr. Margaret Lawson, scientist emeritus, CHEO Research Institute