RCMP -- Royal Canadian Mounted Police -- Can Their Reputation Ever Be Redeemed?

"The overarching approach and response by the RCMP as an institution had many shortcomings. This must be addressed."

"The RCMP must finally undergo fundamental change that previous reports have called for."

Commissioner Leanne Fitch, Mass Casualty Commission, Portapique, N.S. Mass Shooting 

"The RCMP command group wrongly concluded that Portapique community members were mistaken when they reported seeing the perpetrator driving a fully marked RCMP cruiser. They were too quick to embrace an explanation that discounted the clear and consistent information that several eyewitnesses had provided independent of one another."

"Key information conveyed by 911 callers from Portapique was not accurately or fully captured within the RCMP incident activity logs, nor was it fully conveyed to first responders and the RCMP command group."

"The RCMP public communications during the evening of April 18, 2020, seriously understated the threat presented by the perpetrator and the associated risks to the public."

"As commissioners, we believe this lesson [gender-based, intimate-partner and family violence] to be the most important one to be learned from this mass casualty. Let us not look away again."

Report, Mass Casualty Commission

Twenty-two people died on April 18 and 19, 2020. Top row from left: Gina Goulet, Dawn Gulenchyn, Jolene Oliver, Frank Gulenchyn, Sean McLeod, Alanna Jenkins. Second row: John Zahl, Lisa McCully, Joey Webber, Heidi Stevenson, Heather O'Brien and Jamie Blair. Third row from top: Kristen Beaton, Lillian Campbell, Joanne Thomas, Peter Bond, Tom Bagley and Greg Blair. Bottom row: Emily Tuck, Joy Bond, Corrie Ellison and Aaron Tuck. (CBC)

 

Links were drawn by the commissioners in the report, between the mass shootings and the abuse of women by the killer. The first step, according to the report, in preventing mass violence is the recognition of danger in escalation inherent in all forms of violence, including gender-based, intimate-partner and family violence. Such forms of violence is to be declared an "epidemic". In that many mass violence events are initiated with an attack on a specific woman. 

 

The rampage that left 22 people dead around the small community of Portapique, extending to other nearby communities was carried out by a Halifax denturist, Gabriel Wortman, who owned a summer home in Portapique. He was well known to his neighbours and had fractious relationships with them. They knew him as a braggart and a wife-batterer. In the two days that comprised the murderous assault on people known to him, as well as with complete strangers, Gabriel Wortman faced little organized opposition.

The RCMP had failed to respond properly, professionally to the shooting of 22 people, among whom was an RCMP officer. On the afternoon of the second day of a continued mass slaughter, Gabriel Wortman was finally shot by two Mounties at an Enfield, Nova Scotia gas station, a full thirteen hours into his rampage. He had made use of a replica RCMP cruiser and wore the uniform of an RCMP officer. All information relayed by witnesses to the investigating RCMP officers, and all shrugged away.

 

After police shot and killed the gunman at a gas station in Enfield, N.S., they found five firearms in his possession, three handguns and two rifles. He obtained three of them in Houlton, Maine. (Mass Casualty Commission)

 

Considerable confusion  marked the event which began on April 18, 2020 and ended on April 19. Information reported to 911 failed to reach the officers consistently or quickly enough to be useful. Startlingly, though a system existed to alert the population, the RCMP failed to warn the public about the danger of an at-loose murderer. Random killings could have been averted had people been warned to remain indoors and not respond to any strangers or unknown knockers at the doors of their homes.

The commission concluded that the current 26-week training period is insufficiently adequate given the complex demands of policing. The training academy in Regina should, they recommend, be replaced with a three-year, degree-based model of education, similar to what exists in Finland for federal policing. The recommendation was made for the federal government to pass a law whose guiding principle would be "a prevention-first approach to public safety" with police as "collaborative partners".

Increased funding for rural mental health centres and front-line workers who deal with intimate-partner violence, another recommendation. An example was made of the experience of Brenda Forbes, a neighbour in Portapique who reported to the RCMP Wortman's violent abuse toward his common-law wife, Lisa Banfield. Despite that report nothing of any consequence ensued.

On the other hand, there were consequences for Brenda Forbes, with Wortman stalking, harassing and threatening her for years. Which eventually prompted her to leave the province for security to be found elsewhere. All five firearms found in Wortman's possession -- two semi-automatic handguns, a police-style carbine, a semi-automatic rifle and an RCMP-assigned pistol taken from the officer he killed -- were illegally obtained.

There was, as well, reference to the disturbing interactions between Nova Scotia senior RCMP officers and RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki who pressured them for the release of information about the types of weapons used in the shooting rampage to be publicly released. The local RCMP officials declined, citing the ongoing investigation. Commissioner Lucki informed them that the Public Safety Minister, Bill Blair urged that the information be made public.

The Nova Scotia RCMP personnel rankled at their impression of political interference in RCMP operational investigations.The commission found commissioner Lucki's comments to represent an error in judgement that constrained the relations between herself and senior provincial RCMP officials.

"Luki's audio recorded remarks about the benefits to police of proposed firearms legislation were ill timed and poorly expressed, but they were not partisan and they do not show that there had been attempted political interference", they commented nonetheless. Commissioner Lucki has since resigned her position. It will be a new commissioner who will doubtless shelve the report. 

 

The RCMP is badly in need of a resolute, intelligent chief operative to move it from its current state of incompetence to one that resurrects the force to a semblance of its former well-earned reputation of excellence in policing.

Friends, family and supporters of the victims of the mass killings in rural Nova Scotia in 2020 react at the beginning of the final report of the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry in Truro, N.S. on March 30, 2023. (Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press)

The Seriousness of the START Situation

"[Vladimir Putin's decision on tactical weapons] followed the failure by Kyiv's allies to heed previous serious signals [from Moscow because of the] fundamental irresponsibility of Western elites before their people and international security."

"Now they will have to deal with changing realities."

"We hope that NATO officials will adequately assess the seriousness of the situation."

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, Moscow

The Russian Foreign Ministry initially said Moscow would keep notifying the U.S. about planned test launches of its ballistic missiles, but Ryabkov's statement reflected an abrupt change of course.  CBC

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided that Moscow is no longer obligated via treaty to honour the United States' decision-making by trustfully alerting it through advance notice regarding Russian missile tests. This, at a time when the Russian military under Kremlin orders deployed mobile missile launchers in Siberia as a demonstration of Russia's massive nuclear capabilities a highlighted link to the invasion of Ukraine and the fortunes of a conflict that has left both countries in a veritable stalemate condition.

Russian news agencies carried Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov's remarks that all information exchanges under the START agreement with Washington have been halted by Moscow, completing the distancing of the two countries in their nuclear responsibility pacts following on the suspension of Russia's ongoing participation in the last remaining nuclear arms pact with the United States.

Data relating to the current state of both countries' nuclear forces -- up to the present routinely released at six month intervals complying with the treaty -- both parties also exchanged advance warnings of test launches. Notices of this type represent an essential element of strategic stability and have for decades. This cooperation allowed Russia and the United States to properly interpret each other's moves, making certain that neither would mistake a test launch for a missile attack.

Termination of missile test warnings represents another effort on Moscow's part to discourage the West from continuing to strengthen its support for Ukraine. Emphasizing Russia's massive nuclear arsenal is a most transparent threat, one occasioned by the fury of stalemate and the isolation imposed by the U.S. and NATO upon the Russian Federation.  Augmented by President Putin's announcement of tacticl nuclear weapons deployed to Belarus territory, as a regional trusted ally.

 

This photo made from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, shows a Yars missile launcher of the Russian armed forces being driven from a shelter in an undisclosed location in Russia. The Russian military on Wednesday launched drills of its strategic missile forces, deploying Yars mobile launchers in Siberia in a show of the country's massive nuclear capability amid the fighting in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

 

The New START treaty was suspended last month, with Mr. Putin stating that U.S. inspections of Russia's nuclear sites was unacceptable at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have committed to Moscow's defeat in Ukraine. While not withdrawing entirely from the pact, Moscow stated its intention to continue to respect caps on nuclear weapons set by the treaty.

 

 

To the present, until Ryabkov's statement, it was understood by the United States that Moscow intended to continue notifying the U.S. of planned test launches of ballistic missiles, now upset by an abrupt change in orders. 

 

Russian drills will see Yars mobile missile launchers manoeuvre across three regions of Siberia involving measures to conceal the deployment from foreign satellites and other intelligence assets. No mention from the Russian Defence Ministry was given of how long the drills would last, nor were any practice launches mentioned of the nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic Yars missile with its range of about 11,000 kilometers. The Yars missile represents the backbone of Russia's strategic missile forces.

The tactical nuclear weapons deployed in Belarus are useful on the battlefield with their relatively short range and considerably lower yield, in comparison with the long-range strategic missiles fitted with nuclear warheads capable of obliterating entire cities. This latest decision by President Putin follows repeated warning that Moscow is prepared to use "all available means" -- referring to its nuclear arsenal -- to fend off attacks on Russian territory.

A still image from video, released by the Russian Defence Ministry in October 2022, shows what is said to be a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launched during an exercise at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. (Russian Defence Ministry/Reuters)

A Pathological Vendetta Against Children

"There is video from the school that we are viewing now to try to learn exactly how all of this happened."

Don Aaron, police spokesperson

 

"In a tragic morning, Nashville joined the dreaded, long list of communities to experience school shooting."

"M heart goes out to the families of the victims. Our entire city stands with you."

Nashville Mayor John Cooper

 

"We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we're going over that pertain to this date, the actual incident."

"We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place."

“Our police officers have cried and are crying with Nashville and the world. I have cried and continue to cry and I have prayed for Nashville as well."

Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake

Monday marked yet another shooting atrocity in a school in the United States. It is unfathomable that disturbed minds are able to access firearms. It is beyond difficult to mentally ingest that anyone would set out deliberately to deprive children of their futures. To leave families in a state of permanent bereavement. To leave surviving children with the living memory of the fear and terror instilled in them by psychopaths who used automatic rifles to hunt down and kill children.

Two "assault-style" rifles along with a pistol in the hands of a woman who considered herself a man. A manly thing to do, taking lethal weapons into a school with the intention of murdering children and their adult protectors. Three nine-year olds and three adults in a virtual blink of an eye lost their lives at The Covenant School where several hundred children are educated from preschool through to the sixth grade.

All the sorrow and grieving revolves  around a 14-minute event that unfolded rapidly and violently by a mind vicious enough to plan every detail of the attack.The 28-year-old had emailed someone just before embarking on her fatal excursion, for she too died, just as she meant to. A mind in turmoil seeking death and the method of suicide carefully thought out; death by police fire. But to draw that police fire she would first kill six people. An obvious choice made by a diseased mind.

 

The attacker's body is shown lying on the ground after officers opened fire    Sky News

 

A video was in fact released a day later, from a body-worn camera. The six-minute video follows on an earlier video release. 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale smashed through the glass doors of the elementary school and made her way into the school where she had once been a student. She had carefully drawn a map of action with several entry points. This born female identified as transgender making use of the pronouns that have become formulaic in rejecting one's birth gender.

 

She murdered Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, three nine-year-old children. She murdered 51-year-old Cynthia Peak, 60-year-old Katherine Koonce, and 61-year-old Mike Hill. One woman, Ms. Peak, was a school volunteer, Mr. Hill a school custodian, and Katherine Koonce was the school head. None of them  could begin to imagine that before the day was over they would no longer be alive.

 

The second of the two videos cane from a camera worn by Officer Rex Engelbert. A woman greets police on their arrival: "The kids are all locked down, but we have two kids that we don't know where they are", she says then directing them to where people had heard gunshots, "Upstairs are a bunch of kids", she tells them. Rooms are searched, one by one by the three officers. Alarms are sounded in the school and one officer says, "It sounds like it's upstairs".

 

They enter a lobby area after climbing the stairs to the second floor. A barrage of gunfire follows. "Get your hands away from the gun", one officer orders. The video then shows the killer of children lying motionless on the floor. Her firearms were bought legally in the Nashville area. A search of her home saw a sawed-off shotgun, another shotgun and other evidence discovered.

"I doubt that there's anyone you can talk to who would even be able to answer why. It's not logical,"

"I'll never understand, it because it's not a logical thing to do. I'm very sad for the loss of my friend, and I'm very sad for the families and the loved ones of the victims."

"I'm very sad for her parents, because they lost their child." 

Anonymous High School friend

The Covenant School shooting victims (top row) Katherine Koonce, Mike Hill, Cynthia Peak, (bottom row) Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney.   From The Covenant School/Covenant Presbyterian Church/Facebook/KMOV/Dieckhaus Family

Dividing a Nation

"[In Israel at the present time] judges are appointed by the president [an otherwise-ceremonial executive position] on the advice f the judicial selection committee, composed of nine members including three Supreme Court justices and two representatives of the Israel Bar Association."

"Given that Supreme Court appointments require the consent of seven members the legal profession maintains a de facto veto over the makeup of the court, a situation unique to Israel."

"The proposed legislation would turn the committee into an 11-member panel, six of which would be controlled by the governing coalition. The bill was amended earlier this week to give the government control over the first two Supreme Court appointments that come up during its tenure, but require the support of an opposition member for a third and both a judicial representative and an opposition MK for a fourth"

Jesse Kline, National Post

 

"We are on the path toward a dangerous collision in Israeli society. We are in the midst of a crisis that endangers the basic unity between us. Such a crisis requires us all to act responsibly."

"When there's an opportunity to avoid civil war through dialogue I, as prime minister, am taking a time-out for dialogue."

"[I remain determined to pass a judicial reform but in the interim we opt for] an attempt to achieve broad consensus."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

           

Israel's fifteen-member Supreme Court is free to serve until age 70. Given the notoriously short term governments thanks to the electoral system of proportional representation, and the number of political parties representing every facet of Israeli society, governments have a tendency to instability. When elections take place, the party receiving the most votes of a fractured total vote count representing all the competing parties with their partisan interests, must seek a coalition in support of a shared government to gain sufficient seats to govern.

In the instance of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, with him as head having received the the most votes, alliances were made with right-wing parties, chief among them the ultra-orthodox. Prime Minister Netanyahu was minded in agreement with his government partners to make judicial reforms for the purpose of reasserting elected government authority in enacting legislation, often usurped by the unelected social-justice-focused Supreme Court. 

PM Netanyahu & Justice Minister Yariv Levin (Flash90)

The previous government and its coalition partners were focused on the left. In the last general election a majority of voters indicated they were intent on a change of government. Which was not hugely celebrated by the outgoing government whom the electorate had just 'fired' from office. They viewed the current government's move to amend the appointment capabilities of the judicial selection committee inconvenient to their perspective, in the process muting the authority taken by the Supreme Court to challenge the elected government.

Claiming that such a change would deleteriously affect the nature of Israel's democracy and neuter the Supreme Court, the opposition in the Knesset set about persuading their supporters among Israel's left wing that should this change take effect, their rights would be impacted and the country they love would be democracy-impaired, while the government in power would become increasingly autocratic. The protests began, with thousands and tens of thousands of Israelis taking to the streets in protest.

While Prime Minister Netanyahu sought repeatedly to reassure the protesters that Israel's democracy would remain unchanged, asking for patience, the opposition continued to incite people to remonstrate and the protests continued and grew with people expressing their vehement denial of the government to proceed with legislating the change it envisioned to deter the Supreme Court from its activist agenda, impairing government initiatives.

Before long, reservists in the Israel Defence Forces joined the protests, refusing to show up for duty. Then the pilots began their agitation, refusing as well to allow the government to proceed with its plans. Historically the Israeli Supreme Court played an important role in protecting the rights of Arab-Israeli citizens, of women, of non-Orthodox Jews and of the gay community. Now, thanks in part to the agitation caused by the Knesset opposition so recently tossed out of power, protesters believe this work of the Supreme Court would become imperiled.

 

There is also suspicion that forces outside the country have been involved in supporting and promoting the protests; specifically charges have been made that the U.S. State Department is involved. Infamously, during the Obama administration, in his earlier stint at government, Benjamin Netanyahu was treated with contempt and diplomatically insulted repeatedly. President Joe Biden, Barack Obama's successor in the Democratic Party, inherited all the anti-Netanyahu bias of his predecessor.

 

A Democratic-ruled United States is in no mind to see a right-wing Israeli government interacting with it. The situation in Israel has become seriously destabilizing. All the more so when members of its military, as professional an army as any of the best anywhere in the world, is facing mass insurrection. A nation surrounded by terrorist groups, funded as proxies by the Islamic Republic of Iran with its stated goal of destroying the Jewish state is not in a good place when it cannot function to its full professional capacity. 

 

Hamas and Hezbollah have both tested the waters of this sea-change in the professionalism of the IDF. Exploratory forays by each were apprehended but if the situation in Israel continues to deteriorate further, chaos will erupt, leaving the country vulnerable both to its own destabilizing hysteria with political/sectarian factions becoming ever more polarized, and from the exterior always prepared to take any advantage they can detect to pursue their agenda of violence.

With Monday's decision to explore further negotiations with the official Israeli opposition in an effort to cool down the fires of partisan outrage over a decision by the new government to bring the outsize influence of the Supreme Court into line with those of most other democratic nations of the world, the impasse must come to a mutually agreeable conclusion, one that will forestall further disintegration of civil discourse and continue imperilling the nation.

Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial overhaul plan outside the parliament in Jerusalem, March 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Food Security as a Geopolitical Weapon

 

"They've just become so common. Every week, I would say, we are getting contacted by farmers or food companies. It's one of the soft bellies of our critical infrastructure."

"I think we are all waiting for disaster."

Ali Dahghantanha, Cyber Science Lab, University of Guelph, Ontario

"These are all systems that we explicitly depend on every single day, and they have become extremely vulnerable to manipulation of all sorts."

"They're vulnerable because we haven't thought carefully about the security of how we set these systems up."

"I mean, it's truly terrifying, to be honest."

Even Fraser, director, Arrell Food Institute, University of Guelph

"The interruption of the global food supply is not collateral damage from the war in Ukraine."

"It is a planned hybrid weapon to further massively destabilize the global economy and political order."

Yulia Klymenko, Ukrainian MP, first deputy chair, Transport and Infrastructure Committee, Ukraine

"There is a lot of innovation happening in agriculture in Canada."

"So we are at risk from foreign-backed espionage."

Mohamad Yaghi, Agriculture and Climate policy lead, Royal Bank of Canada

Hackers could be waiting to cause disruption, or simply just monitoring and collecting data on foreign agricultural methods. Photo by Chung Sun-Jun/Getty Images

 

Last year Ali Dehghantanha's squad of engineers and computer scientists responded to dozens of reports from southwestern Ontario of hacks within farming and food production operations. Sometimes the incidents represent a bad link in an email with hackers demanding money to unlock a system or to return the farmer's data. In other instances hackers break into a farm system and threaten to kill livestock; chickens, cattle. 

In a third of the cases, investigators found evidence of state-sponsored hackers originating in
Russia, China, North Korea and Iran who have quietly gained access to control systems inside a farming operation. The University of Guelph is located close to Toronto in one of the province's most vital farming hubs. A group of specialists work out of the Cyber Science Lab, visiting banks, defence contractors, hospitals and farms. The lab received fifty calls from the food industry last year.

The realization dawned that the domestic food production system may be one of the most obvious cracks in Canada's national defences. Criminals or state-sponsored hackers breaking into systems to disrupt critical infrastructure like transportation or health care or food production only recently become plausible owing in part to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

 

 Canada's Communications Security Establishment (CSE) the country's signals intelligence agency, warned that Russian-backed hackers are "exploring options for potential counterattacks" on critical infrastructure in Canada and other NATO allies supporting Ukraine.

 

A computer monitor is seen inside a GPS-equipped John Deere tractor. As farm use of technology and smart devices grows, experts say more needs to be done to protect against cyberattacks that could threaten food security. (Seth Perlman/The Associated Press)

 

Farms have become complex technical operations using networks of remote monitors measuring soil moisture, or robotic milkers capable of detecting an infection in a single teat, or environmental control systems maintaining the precise indoor temperature and air filtration requirements of a poultry barn. All of which in theory could be commandeered and held for ransom by a hacker. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security identified several "hypothetical threat scenarios" in its 2018 report where hackers could compromise agricultural operations. 

 

One scenario had a terrorist lift data on the health of a large livestock herd. "They modify the data to look like the herds have foot and mouth disease, and dump the data on the internet". In such an instance it could take weeks for lab tests to confirm the outbreak was in fact false -- in the interim causing trade issues and shaking public trust in the food supply. Another scenario had hackers manipulate moisture sensors in a farmer's soil, triggering watering systems to flood the fields and destroy crops.

 

In its invasion of Ukraine an effective part of the Russian playbook has been attacking agricultural infrastructure. EU trade counsellor Maud Labat warned that Moscow strategized how to wield food as a "geopolitical weapon". Its attacks on transportation and grain storage infrastructure, its months-long blockade of ports on the Black Sea choked off access to one of the world's most important bread baskets, driving up global grain prices last spring. Food shortage concerns intensified in developing nations depending on the region for imports. 

 

National Cyber Threat Assessment's latest report stated state-sponsored hackers are not likely to disrupt or destroy critical infrastructure unless Canada enters into direct hostilioties, leaving  hackers more likely to break into Canadian systems to collect information or "pre-position" in the event of a future conflict. Released last fall, the CSE report stated adversaries could use cyberattacks as a form of "power projection and intimidation".

 

 

"In the absence of a significant escalation in international hostilities, we assess it is unlikely that state-sponsored actors will intentionally seek to disrupt Canadian critical infrastructure and cause major damage or loss of life", advised CSE spokesperson Kyla Borden. "This is organized crime. These folks have HR departments. They have employees of the month awards. This is big business", explained John Hewie, a national security officer at Microsoft Inc., referring to sophisticated networks focusing on "big-game hunting" -- attacks where a hacker takes control of a system or data from a major business and asks for a steep ransom.

 

In fact, the Canadian food industry alone experienced a series of high-profile incidents late last year, a "cybersecurity incident" at Maple Leaf Foods Inc., one of Canada's largest meat packers. Empire Co.Ltd., Canada's second-largest grocery chain experienced a "cybersecurity intrusion" that snarled operations, expected to cost the company $25 million. According to Janos Botschner, lead investigator of the Cyber Security Capacity in Canadian Agriculture, approximately four to 11 percent of Canada's farms have had a cyberattack attempt on their operations. "This is very much an estimate, but it's probably also an under-report", he clarified. 

A farmer in a chicken barn in Ontario. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post files

Russian War Crimes in Ukraine -- The Language of Force

"An attempt to split part of the state away means an encroachment at the very existence of the state. Quite obviously, it warrants the use of any weapons. I hope our 'friends' across the ocean realize that."

"If Patriot or other weapons are delivered to the territory of Ukraine along with foreign experts, they certainly make legitimate targets, which must be destroyed."

"They are combatants, they are the enemies of our state and they must be destroyed."

“Honestly speaking, Ukraine is part of Russia. But due to geopolitical reasons and the course of history we had tolerated that we were living in separate quarters and had been forced to acknowledge those invented borders for a long time."

Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president, now deputy head of Russia's Security Council

 

"Right now, residential areas where ordinary people and children live are being fired at."

"This must not become 'just another day' in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world. The world needs greater unity and determination to defeat Russian terror faster and protect lives."

"Every time someone tries to hear the world 'peace' in Moscow, another order is given there for such criminal strikes [against Ukraine's civilian population]."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Onlookers watch smoke rise from the fire caused by missile debris falling in the courtyard of a residential building in the Sviatoshynskyi district   CNN

 

Civilians are being killed and wounded across Ukraine by long-range Russian bombardment. At the same time Kremlin official Dmitry Medvedev heralded the news that Russian forces were prepared to repell the anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive scheduled for this spring. Last year Ukrainian authorities established hundreds of 'points of invincibility', in reality aid stations where residents of Donetsk province could have access to food, charge their cellphone and enjoy some warmth. 

A Russian missile struck an aid station in eastern Ukraine with predictable results. Russian attacks are replete with S300 anti-aircraft missiles, not aimed at military bases but directly at civilian enclaves. The civilians who were killed at the aid station were refugees. The winter artillery war continues with Russian forces  using air-launched missiles, exploding drones and sliding bombs in several regions. 

An overnight rocket and artillery barrage and airstrikes hit the town of Bilophillia in Sumy province in the northeastern region. While in southern Ukraine, Russian shelling in the city of Kherson killed and wounded civilians and as well in the town of Bilozerka just a day after President Zelenskyy had visited the region.

Rescuers carry a body from residential buildings destroyed by a Russian missile strike

 

With the arrival of warmer spring weather and new weapons in hand from the West, including tanks, Ukrainian forces are preparing for a counteroffensive meant to dislodge Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine. "Our General Staff is addressing all that", scoffed Medvedev; any Ukrainian attempt to recapture Crimea illegally annexed in 2014, could, he asserted, trigger a nuclear response from Moscow. 

This is reflective of Russia's security doctrine which envisions the use of its atomic arsenal responding to a nuclear attack or one with conventional weaponry threatening "the very existence of the Russian state". Western experts operating weapons like the U.S.-produced Patriot air defence missile system given to Ukraine could be targeted, suggested Medvedev.  Russia knows well that Ukrainian soldiers received training in the U.S. despite which Russian officials often allude to foreign instructors in Ukraine.

Medvedev revealed that Moscow may strategize to occupy a long strip of Ukrainian territory stretching all the way to the Polish border. Poland would not stand idly by, unperturbed at witnessing this kind of operation unfold, with no reaction. It is even so without this further kind of action, preparing for the type of scenario that would activate its own military into confronting Russian forces by committing to active combat alongside Ukraine.

Poland knows of a certainty that if Russia succeeds in its mission of eviscerating Ukraine and growing the territory of the Russian Federation accordingly, it would be next on Moscow's expansion agenda, and it has no intention of allowing itself to become another appendage of Russian territorial conquest in a renewal of the Soviet Union.

"Our relations with the West are already worse than they have ever been in history. [German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann asserting Putin would be arrested in the ICC warrant should he visit Germany, a case in point.]"

“Let’s imagine ... the leader of a nuclear power visits the territory of Germany and is arrested. [It would amount to a declaration of war against Russia.] In this case, our assets will fly to hit the Bundestag, the chancellor’s office and so on."

“I have no illusions that we could communicate with them [Western politicians] again any time soon. It makes no sense to negotiate with certain countries and blocs — they only understand the language of force."

Dmitry Medvedev

Three Russian rockets launched against Ukraine from Russia's Belgorod region are seen at dawn in Kharkiv, Ukraine   CNN

The Fiction of Palestinians for Peace

"Shame on you ... your president and the rest of the Palestinian leadership regularly incite terrorism, never condemn the murders of Israeli civilians, praise Palestinian terrorists and actively attempt to rewrite facts and the truth by erasing Jewish history."

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan

"Some treacherous Arab rulers have chosen to normalize relations with the child-killing regime, but the Muslim people of the region have never forgotten Palestine."

Tehran Times editorial

"A seismic shift is taking place in the Middle East. A year ago, the Abraham Accords offered the promise of peace, which has been elusive for Israel's nearly 75-year history."

"However, due to a confluence of factors mainly energized by Palestinian radicalism and the West's unwitting support of it, the region has turned into a tinder box that could explode into absolute chaos."

Avi Abraham Benlolo, founder, chair, Abraham Global Peace Initiative

Israel's United Nations Ambassador Gilad Erdan slammed the United Nations over its Commission of Inquiry into Israel, Thursday, for its one-sided report against the Jewish state. (Israeli Mission to the United Nations.) 

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) found through a survey that 71 percent of Palestinians are in support of the recent murder of two Israeli brothers who happened to be driving through the West Bank town of Huwara when mobs of Palestinians attacked them. These are people who from childhood to adulthood have been exposed to hate propaganda courtesy of the Palestinian Authority -- from elementary school curricula to high school and beyond, through television and news outlets, videos and plays Palestinians are taught the virtues of martyrdom and 'resistance' to an 'occupation' necessitated by the very violence imposed upon the Israeli public by Palestinians.

At the Security Council's monthly meeting at the United Nations this week, Gilad Erdan, Israel's UN ambassador, directly addressed the Palestinian representative, highlighting the many ways that the Palestinian Authority is complicit in inciting Palestinians to riot and to wreak havoc while periodically violently attacking Israelis, wounding or murdering them. How the propaganda arm of the PA and Hamas have conducted a slander war against Israel. And how both have continually denied the existence of Jews in the Middle East from time immemorial as a fallacy.

Random attacks on Jews by Palestinians, by Palestinian youth, boys and girls are common. They are fulfilling their adopted obligation to maim and murder in line with instructions given them throughout their formative years. This has become a society that takes pride in violence and committing murder. The most common manifestation of the satisfaction felt at news of another Jew being killed, even children, is the general celebratory air, the shooting off of fireworks, the distribution of sweets in a holiday mood. Infamously, those assaulting Jews and their families can anticipate being paid well for their efforts by the PA.

 

MEMRI, March 17, 2023   Standing in solidarity with Palestinians in Jenin, New York City

 

A mere 27 percent of Palestinians, according to PCPSR, support a two-state solution for peace. Pro-Palestinian groups throughout the West regularly carry placards on city streets, at protests, during rallies, with megaphones sounding "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free". A call to cleanse Jews from Israel's geography, and to replace the Jewish state with a single Palestinian state. It is a plan that is validated when aid agencies like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, a refugee-sponsoring arm of the UN mandated solely for the Palestinians to maintain them indefinitely as 'refugees'.

The 'refugee' camps in Gaza, the West Bank, in Beirut, Amman and Damascus exist to maintain the fiction of Palestinians as refugees alive, a festering sore yielding human rights concerns that are blinkered to the terrorist ambitions of the leaders that are satisfied to keep them in that condition. For as refugees they are victims, and victims must have an identifiable group that is responsible for their victimhood/refugee status. Who better than Jews who returned to their ancestral home when the world turned against their diaspora in an exercise of mass extermination?

The survey found that 68 percent of Palestinians find favour in forming armed groups of terrorists dedicated to the destruction of Israel. New independent terrorist organizations form themselves time and again, to infiltrate Israel and demonstrate how effective they are at nation-destruction, rather than nation=building. These are people for whom there is no governmental inclination to producing social, civil infrastructure, employment and civil/social services for a people unified in their wish to live decent, normal lives.

 

Members of religion of peace resting in a mosque on Temple Mount between hurling rocks at Jews on religious holiday. Twitter, Richard Kemp

 

The international community -- from the United Nations, to the European Union, the United States, Canada, all contribute to their status as refugees. NGOs dedicated themselves to the welfare of the Palestinians because their leaders have abandoned them to the higher order of agitating to violence. Where there is room and opportunity for two nations to live side-by-side as neighbours, trading with one another, Palestinian leaders have chosen the path of death and destruction -- both of their own and of Israelis.

Polling sees 58 percent of Palestinians calling for renewed violence, and this is what the international community is funding by their compassionate generosity for 'refugees'. A two-state solution in the opinion of 73 percent of Palestinians is neither viable nor feasible. Palestinians view the emergence of another intifada as inevitable. These are the people whose president, Mahmoud Abbas, assures the international community that the PA is striving toward peace with Israel, while to the Palestinians directly he urges jihad against Israel.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that Palestinians would not allow Jews to desecrate the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem with their “filthy feet,” Palestinian Media Watch.

 

Incunabula: The Old Testament

 

"There are three ancient Hebrew Bibles from this period. [Only the Dead Sea Scrolls and a handful of fragmentary early medieval texts are older, and] an entire Hebrew Bible is relatively rare."

"The Aleppo Codex is more precise than the Sassoon Codex, there's no doubt. But because it's missing [a third of its pages], in those parts that are absent, there is great significance in this manuscript."

Yosef Ofer, professor of Bible studies, Bar Ilan University, Israel

"It's like the emergence of the biblical text as we know it today."

"It's so foundational not only for Judaism, but also for world culture."

Sharon Liberman Mintz, Judaica specialist, Sotheby's Auctions

"Any Masoretic scholar in their right mind would take the Aleppo Codex over the Sassoon Codex, without any regret or hesitation."

"[The scribal quality is] surprisingly sloppy [in comparison to its counterpart.]"

Kim Phillips, Bible expert, Cambridge University Library

 

If expectations are met this rare hand-scripted Old Testament leather-bound manuscript that some unknown scribe produced a thousand years ago, preparing to be auctioned by Sotheby's Auction House may eclipse the hitherto-most expensive Jewish document sold in 2021, the Luzzatto Machzor, a 14th-century prayer book, that went for $8.3 million. It could possibly break the record for the most expensive historical document sold at any time at public auction; a 1787 copy of the U.S. Constitution that went for $43 million in 2021.

The 1,100-year-old Codex Sassoon parchment (animal skin) Hebrew Bible is set to fall under the auctioneer's hammer in May, and it may very well go for a price as  high as $30 million. It contains close to the entirety of the Bible. Sotheby's in New York  is counting on a robust market for art, antiquities and ancient manuscripts worldwide. In that expectation it has tagged the rare manuscript between $30 to $50 million.

The ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv opened a weeklong exhibition of the manuscript, as part of a world-wide tour of the artefact where it will visit the United Kingdom, Israel and the United States before the auction date. There are three Hebrew Bibles of ancient vintage; the Codex Sassoon and the Aleppo Codex both from the 10th century, and the St.Petersburg Codex, dating from the early 11th century.

 

Sotheby's

 

A few centuries before the Codex Sassoon's creation, Jewish scribal scholars known as Masoretes began the laborious work of codifying oral traditions in the manner of properly spelling, pronouncing, punctuating and chanting Judaism's most sacred book. Hebrew letters are devoid of vowels and punctuation in Torah scrolls, but these biblical manuscripts contained extensive annotation instructing its readings how best to recite the words correctly.

Certainty over the precise location and when the Codex Sassoon was produced remains in question; from Sotheby's senior Judaica specialist radiocarbon dating of the parchment rendered an estimated date of 880 to 960. The writing style links its creator to the early 10th-century, a scribe in Egypt or the Levant. Scholars feel the Codex Sassoon is not a match for the quality and pedigree of its contemporary, the Aleppo Codex.The scribal quality deemed to be "sloppy", relatively speaking. 

 

The gold standard of the Masoretic Bibles is ascribed to the Aleppo Codex, dated to around 930, and has been considered so, for a millennia. Such rare and valuable scripts are considered sacred in the Jewish tradition, protected and treasured as venerable manuscripts by Syrian Jewish communities for centuries until the 20th century when Jews were banished by Muslim-ruled nations where they once lived for vast generations.

There is evidence of its centuries-past ownership, beginning with a man named Khalaf ben Abraham, who then gave it to Isaac ben Ezekiel al-Attar, who then handed it down to his sons Ezekiel and Maimon. Later the manuscript migrated to the eastern town of Makisin in today's northeast Syria, dedicated to a 13th century synagogue. When the synagogue was destroyed the codex was entrusted to Salama ibn Abi al-Fakhr until such time the synagogue would be rebuilt, but it never was.

For the following 500 years its ownership was unknown and then it resurfaced in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1929, bought by a legendary collector of Jewish manuscripts. David Solomon Sassoon, born in Mumbai, India to an Iraqi Jewish business magnate, filled his home in London with a huge collection of Jewish manuscripts. "His capacity was astounding, both in terms of number but also in terms of what he was able to find", explained Raquel Ukeles, head of collections, at Israel's National Library.

David Solomon Sassoon travelled about Europe, the Middle East and North Africa accessing old books. When he died in 1942, his collection burst with over 1,200 manuscripts. After his death his estate was de-acquisitioned, the codex sold in Zurich by Sotheby's in 1978 for around $320,000 to the British Rail Pension Fund, which later flipped the Codex Sassoon 11 years on for ten times its hammer price when a banker and art collector, Jacqui Safra, bought it in 1989 for $3.19 million.

Extreme Level of Cyber-Security Risk

"Given the extreme risk level associated with this vulnerability and the widespread usage of Outlook in the Government of Canada [GC], I am directing GC Chief Information Officers and Heads of IT to prioritize patching of this vulnerability within two days."

"Critical zero-day vulnerability [discovered Outlook Microsoft's email program could give hackers the opportunity to access and exfiltrate sensitive government data, requiring urgent address]." 

"This vulnerability has been exploited by nation-state actors targeting international government institutions to covertly obtain the password hash of targeted users in the past."

"I encourage you to make this a priority within your organization [Departments]."

Shirley Ivan, Chief Information Security and Technology Officer, Canada

 

"We're now in a year plus one in the Ukrainian conflict, and it has been seen in many Telegram channels that Russian-backed cyber criminal gangs will be enhancing, if not promulgating, such attacks against all types of governments that have been helping out Ukraine war efforts."

"The Cyber Centre has access to all the data. So, they knew in advance, and I don't know why they took their time to publish an advisory so late in the game."

"They should have been at the forefront of bringing on this alert one week ahead of Microsoft."

Steve Waterhouse, cybersecurity expert

The new Outlook vulnerability allows hackers to potentially extract an individual’s email account login information simply by sending a 'specially crafted email with a malicious payload.' Photo by Unsplash

Russian-backed hackers have been taking advantage of Microsoft Outlook's newly identified cybersecurity vulnerability. Microsoft itself only days ago confirmed a "critical" zero-day vulnerability in their Outlook email product, its flagship email program. The issue was detected while it was already live and potentially exploitable, interpreted as "zero days" for the organization to find a solution, since "zero-day" designates the vulnerability as a real and current threat.

 

The new Outlook vulnerability gives hackers the opportunity potentially to extract an individual's email account login information through the simple medium of sending a "specially crafted email with a malicious payload", one that does not depend on it being opened to be effective, notes the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security. "Sophisticated actors", confirmed the Cyber Centre in an advisory, had already exploited the vulnerability with success. 

 

Ms. Ivan stated that the Cyber Centre would be committing to placing further measures to "mitigate the threat" of password data being lifted by hackers via the Outlook vulnerability, along with addressing the "long-standing risk of exfiltration" of government data. First detected by Ukraine's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) in conjunction with Microsoft researchers in February, Microsoft confirmed its existence a full month later. 

The vulnerability is notoriously exploited by Russian-backed hackers, used against Ukrainian adversaries forming part of their full-scale invasion. Pro-Russia channels on social media have been promoting the use of that Outlook vulnerability against Ukrainian allies, such as Canada, explained cybersecurity expert Steve Waterhouse. The urgency spelled out in Ms. Ivan's memo to federal government department heads reveals the critical nature of the security issue.

According to Mr. Waterhouse, it seemed "weird" that no one in government moved earlier, particularly the Cyber Centre which should have been aware of the issue when Ukraine first signalled it in late February. He described it as a "cover-your-ass approach", that the Cyber Centre waited until Microsoft published its alert. It was on February 24, a full year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine that the Cyber Centre published its advisory warning all Canadians to be aware and "prepared for potential malicious cyber activity following the one-year mark of Russia's war on Ukraine".

  

"The Cyber Centre would like to specifically warn Canadian organizations and critical lnfrastructure operators to be prepared for the possible disruption, defacement, and attempted exploitation of Canadian network assets by cyber threat actors aligned with Russian interests."
Canadian Centre for Cyber Security Advisory

The Doomed Republic of Haiti

"We believe the security and humanitarian situation in Haiti is worsening and the situation on the ground will not improve without armed assistance from international partners."

UN National Security Council 

"Kidnappings are rampant."

"The sexual violence that is taking place in Haiti is at levels never seen before -- and rarely seen in any society."

Helen La Lime, special representative, UN secretary-General for Haiti

Police fire tear gas at protesters demanding the resignation of Haiti's prime minister, Ariel Henry, in Port-au-Prince on Monday. (Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters)

 

What is it about Haiti? A completely failed state. From the time of Papa 'Doc' Duvalier to the present. The Island of Hispaniola is shared between the Republic of Haiti (west) and the Dominican Republic (east). They are as unalike in their societal values, culture and makeup, politics and orderly civilized life as it possible to be. Destabilized, rampant crime and an inability of any government to bring order to the country, it requires the intervention now and again of the international community to bring a level of stability to bear. Yet it always seems to revert in time to yet another version of dystopian disorder. 

Five months ago its interim prime minister Ariel Henry pleaded for the deployment of a "specialized armed force" from outside the country to restore order in the country reeling from one crisis to another. Most Haitians want no intervention despite the critical nature of the failing state, in memory of its long history of foreign interventions. But its current struggle with gang violence, civil and political unrest and a cholera resurgence leaves it in a desperate state.

Both the United Nations and the United States support immediate rescue of the country through a brief intervention to restore calm and the authority of the government. Nothing has yet emerged, however, despite good intentions and the country is left to stagger from one misery to another with no end in sight. 2023 has seen 531 people killed, 300 wounded, 277 kidnapped in gang-related violence. In the first half of March alone 208 people died, 154 were wounded, 301 kidnapped.

Most of these unsettling violent episodes take place in the capital, Port-au--Prince. Most victims in the first half of March were killed or injured by snipers randomly shooting at people in their homes or out on the streets. According to analysts, allies of the United States remain hesitant to risk lives in a logistically complicated mission requiring an unknown but significant amount of time and resources, not to mention complexity.

 

Many Haitians are wary of International forces. Jaime Razuri/AFP via Getty Images)

 

"You don't go there for three months or six months. You will go there for at least a couple of years", said Gilles Rivard, a former Canadian ambassador to Haiti who has advised the foreign ministry on UN-led peacekeeping missions. Haiti's presidency has been vacant since the 2021 assassination of Juvenal Moise. The national government has no democratically elected officials in the absence of elections. 

Gang violence linked to drug-running and other criminal activities as the violence has gone deeper into more neighbourhoods. Haitian police struggle with high rates of attrition, outnumbered and outgunned by the gangs. Some in Haiti fear an outside force to bring order to the country would support interim President Henry's retention of his temporary post, a deeply unpopular appointee whose claim to power is viewed as illegitimate.

Some Haitians take a dim view of the international response to date as security conditions deteriorate. When two navy ships were deployed by Canada to patrol Haitian waters in February, Le Nouvelliste, the largest newspaper in Haiti, published a front-page cartoon showing a bandit holding a gun in one hand, a man upside down in the other ... shaking him down as he shrugs off the ships.

A Haitian historian, Georges Michel, who contributed in writing the nation's 1987 constitution, remarked that some measures taken by the international community have been well-intentioned, but too late. What will save this West Indies nation from itself?

Members of the Haitian diaspora as well as faith and human rights leaders protest outside the White House to demand the Biden administration stop supporting Haiti's government on Oct. 9 in Washington. Shannon Finney/Getty Images for Beyond Borders