Choosing Your Neighbours

"The University administration has been communicating with protest organizers since it began, and we continue to convey our expectations to them to ensure a peaceful and lawful protest."

"Our priority remains upholding the rights of students, professors and staff to be safe and respected."

"The safety and well-being of all members of our community and [to] allow them to move around freely on our campuses will see the university continue to act in accordance with its policies and regulations]."

"Incitement to violence, threats, harassment, intimidation, damage or occupation of buildings will carry consequences."

Jess Robichaud, spokesperson, University of Ottawa

"As we have continuously reiterated, our focus will remain on the genocide of Gaza and we expect that the university responds to our demands for divestment promptly."

Integrity Not Spite Against Falastin

"We must ensure that members of the Jewish community -- and all residents of our city -- can gather whenever they choose to do so in safety, and free from intimidation and fear."

"We must continue to support our Jewish community, which is experiencing increasingly higher levels of antisemitism. Let's all work together to ensure our city is safe and free from violence and racism in all its forms."

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe

"Today's ceremony [Israel's Independence Day -- Yom Ha'atzmaut] sends a clear message: the Jewish community has the right to celebrate its culture and history, just like all other communities in Canada. Hate will not erase our community or any other."

"Since its inception, the raising of the flags of the many nations with which Canada shares diplomatic ties, has always been a time for the Jewish community to come together and stand proudly, without fear."

"The landscape this year looks different, and it is disheartening."

"We hope that today signals the beginning of a shift away from hatred and extremism, and toward a future where all Canadians, all governments and police services stand with the Jewish community to ensure we can continue to live safely as proud Jewish Canadians."

Jewish Federation of Ottawa

People dressed in blue and white and waving Israeli flags, gathered in the plaza at Ottawa city hall on Tuesday to commemorate Israel’s independence, while pro-Palestinian protesters chanted in the background. Photo by Blair Crawford/POSTMEDIA

 

A week ago the city advised that plans for a ceremony that usually accompanies the raising of the flag of the State of Israel in recognition of its Independence Day, would proceed and end with the flag. The annual ceremony was to be cancelled in view of police concerns that violence would erupt from the same sources that have marched through the streets of Canada and virtually shut down universities, while excoriating Israel and Jews for the Israeli military response in Gaza to the earlier October 7 massacre by terrorist Hamas in southern Israel of Jewish men, women and children.

On that occasion the Mayor of Ottawa spoke of his "disappointment" with the decision, urging Ottawa Police and the Jewish Federation to consider a workable plan where the day could be marked in safety. That original decision was reversed a day later, with the ceremony to proceed along with the raising of the Israeli flag. In preparation for a backlash by organized 'pro-Palestinian' supporters of the Hamas mass rape, mutilation and murder of Israeli girls, women and children, Ottawa Police Service officers were present, expecting to ensure that the Jewish celebration group and their Palestinian detractors were kept apart.

The City's security staff alongside other police officers patrolled inside city hall, while a drone hovered overhead. The first of the 'demonstrators' arrived to vilify the proceedings but not before the Israeli flag had been raised outside city hall. A banner reading "All Eyes on Gaza" conveyed the enraged expression over the event by those who came along to ensure that their bile at the joyous event for the Jewish population over a re-emerged historical homeland was noted by civic authorities.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators and pro-Israeli supporters were both on the front lawn of Ottawa City Hall after the city raised an Israeli flag on Tuesday. Photo by Jean Levac /Postmedia

 

"Sutcliffe, Sutcliffe,you can't hide, You support genocide" was chanted by the crowd of well-wishers who have made Canada their home and in the process have demonstrated how unsuitable they are for membership as citizenry of a decent, law-abiding, self-respecting social order. A month earlier the Ottawa Police Service Hate and Bias Crime Unit had launched an investigation over a demonstrator chanting praise for the murderous attack by Hamas on October 7 in southern Israel.

The Jewish Federation of Ottawa conveyed its gratitude to the city mayor and the police for their openness to the re-enactment of the yearly respectful acknowledgement of Israel's Independence Day celebrations. For their part, the anti-Zionist, anti-Jew, anti-Israel, antisemitic crowd seeking to overwhelm the day's proceedings with their venom held signs equating the flag of Israel to that of Nazi Germany; the ultimate irony considering fascist Germany's genocide against Europe's Jews.

Among others within the protesters, chants erupted warning Jews to "go back to Europe". The stark civil differences between the two groups on full display. Never has a Jewish community organized hateful campaigns anywhere against other members of a nation's ethnic/religious group, committing instead to become part of the overall community in their worldwide diaspora, and to contribute to the entire national community's welfare.

The Palestinian, Arab, Muslim immigrants, refugees and migrants have largely emerged as a Jew-hating bloc that despite their possible differences in country of origin, sectarian divisions, tribe and culture, the sole issue they find common cause with is hatred of Jews, agreeing as a group to campaign against Jews in their adopted community, in occasionally violently hostile criminal acts, and certainly in joint actions leaving no doubt in anyone's mind that their acrimonious antipathy represents a brand of antisemitism immune to reasonable intelligence.

 

The very public clashes between the two groups; one taking pride in a nation for whom a return to Zion speaks of history, antecedents, culture, religion, heritage and Jewish tradition, the other viciously condemnatory, in full rejection of history and justice balancing wrongs righted to acknowledge an ancient injustice with the full spite of those who cannot stomach the reality of Jewish entitlements to history's legacy.

 

Jewish celebration of May 14, 1948 reflects pride in achievement and the presence of a national identity reborn. In contrast to Palestinian/Arab/Muslim resentment at that achievement that runs counter to Islam's injunction that land once consecrated to Islam -- stolen land included -- may never be permitted to return to its former identity; in this instance a Jewish state returned to its ancestral roots. 

 

And whereas Jews were overjoyed at the creation of the State of Israel, Arabs who call themselves Palestinians rejected outright the opportunity to establish their own state alongside that of Israel. That too is history. Resorting to deadly violence immediately on Israel's re-establshment, 'Palestinians' have relied upon their very special brand of lethal violence ever since, branching out to brand themselves as the world's premier 'victims' and establishing a remarkable propaganda campaign excelling at slandering Israel.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators and pro-Israeli supporters were both on the front lawn of Ottawa City Hall after the City raised an Israeli flag on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Photo by Jean Levac /Postmedia

"From the river to the sea, Palestine is almost free! [shouted the demonstrators, along with] Globalize the Intifada [and] We don't want two states, take us back to '48!"

Israel's Independence Day counter-demonstrators

 

Chinese Communist Party Funding Pro-Hamas Demonstrations

"SID4P [Shut It Down for Palestine] represents a significant evolution in networked influence and coordinated direct action aimed at disrupting critical infrastructure and inflaming protests across the U.S. and around the globe."

"[The activities of SID4P highlight a trend in which] the instruments of democracy are being exploited to undermine its foundations."

The National Contagion Research Institute 

"This is the moment we must all fight back -- by raising our voices in support of Palestinian armed resistance including the heroic and momentous operation, the Al-Asque Flood launched on October 7th, by calling for the removal of Palestinian and Arab resistance movements from so-called terror lists."

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

An anti-Israel tent encampment protesting the war in Gaza continues to stand at the University of Toronto campus in Toronto, Tuesday May 7, 2024 Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post

The independent body launched to identify cyber threats to civil society -- The National Contagion Research Institute -- issued a new report revolving around the funding of the anti-Israel movement in North America. According to their research some left-wing groups have united under the Shut It Down for Palestine banner, linking to Beijing through Communist Party associates, Neville Roy Singham and wife Jodie Evans. Organizations operating under the umbrella of SID4P, are widely recognized as a conduit for Chinese Communist Party geopolitical influence.

The hashtag for the SID4P links to 11,874 Instagram posts, 8,000 tweets, 9,200 Facebook posts and 2,457 TikTok videos. The New York Times linked U.S. tech multimillionaire Singham who lives now in Shanghai, as controlling a financial network using North American non-profit groups to further Chinese propaganda worldwide. Singham, charges the NCRI, has seen investigations by the U.S., Canada and India for CCP-linked operations. His wife lists as a board member for the China People's Forum; she is a co-founder of Code Pink.

Loopholes in the U.S. non-profit system are used by SID4P to facilitate flow of American dollars to organization whose  function is stoking social unrest. SID4P convenors the report lists include the People's Forum, the ANSWER Coalition, the International People's Assembly, Al Awda NY, National Students for Justice in Palestine, the Palestine Youth Movement, and the Palestinian American Community Centre. 

 

A statement issued on October 8, following the October 7 atrocities committed by Hamas in southern Israel at the Gaza border, explained they were "mobilizing in the belly of the beast because we understand we have a unique role to play in combating material support for Zionism and weakening the handmaiden of U.S. global imperialism." According to Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy at B'nai Brith Canada, the Revolutionary Communist Party, established as a new group to "prepare Canada for revolution" has a presence at almost every protest; they encourage student walkouts at high schools.

 

Groups active in the United States are similarly active in Canada; organized protests are advertised on the website of the SID4P. The Palestinian Youth Movement, one of the seven conveners for SID4P, has been active and visible in both Montreal and Toronto; planning a "No Rest Until Liberation" rally tomorrow in Montreal. Director of Samidoun, Charlotte Kates, is listed as an official of Al Awda, another SID4P convener. 

 

Arrested earlier in the month at a Vancouver protest held at the city's art gallery, she had shouted: "Long live October 7th", claiming Hamas is not a terrorist organization. "They are resistance fighters. They are our heroes", she claimed. Her husband, Khaled Barakat is an advocate for the violent destruction of Israel. Not only has Canada's Liberal-led government of Justin Trudeau been absent from action when it should have taken steps to shut down the hate rallies, their silent inaction has been taken by those involved in the rallies glorifying Hamas and excoriating Israel, as approval.

A pro-Palestinian demonstrator holds up a mock body as protestor confront police as they clear an encampment after students occupied the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall at the University of California, Irvine, in Irvine, California on May 15, 2025. (Image: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

"The People’s Forum, IPA, and ANSWER Coalition serve as the conduit through which CCP-affiliated entities have effectively co-opted pro-Palestinian activism in the U.S., advancing a broader anti-American, anti-democratic, and anti-capitalist agenda."

"These three far-left SID4P Convenors are part of a network linked by close financial, interpersonal, and ideological ties to Neville Roy Singham and his wife Jodie Evans, a power couple within the global far-left movement with close ties to the CCP."

The National Contagion Research Institute 

Validate Russian Territorial Violations for Peace

"We have never refused to negotiate."

"We are seeking a comprehensive, sustainable and just settlement of this conflict through peaceful means."

"We are open to a dialogue on Ukraine, but such negotiations must take into account the interests of all countries involved in the conflict, including ours."

"[A Chinese proposal (2023) which Ukraine and the West rejected, could] lay the groundwork for a political and diplomatic process that would take into account Russia's security concerns and contribute to achieving a long-term and sustainable peace."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Reuters

Who cares to dispute that Moscow has been prepared for well over a year to engage in 'peace talks', to end the conflict it unilaterally imposed on Ukraine? Infamously its offers to withdraw troops were always linked to demands that there be no repercussions for Russia which was only, after all, securing its security in the face of a dominating neo-Nazi ideology that was rife through Ukraine threatening stability in Russia. One of the primary conditions was that Russia would retain its holdings in the one-fifth of Ukraine it held, as part of Greater Russia.

 

Ukraine thought otherwise. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy counter-proposed that the Kremlin should pull out its troops, to make an end to the 'Special Military operation', and be prepared as well to foot reparations as a penalty for destroying an enormous amount of civil infrastructure in Ukraine, release all Ukrainian prisoners and recant its vile claims of fascist Ukraine, when in fact, it has been Russia whose moves stem from a deep-seated fascist motivation.

 

Workers repair part of a damaged thermal power plant, one of the country's largest, recently destroyed by Russian missiles near Kharkiv, Ukraine, on April 12, 2024.

On a two-day trip to Beijing, and interviewed by the official Xinhua News Agency, Mr. Putin's sanctimony reflected in the nobility of Russia's determination to combat the Nazis administering the affairs of the embattled Ukraine appealed to reasonableness in that peace is always preferential to war, but there are occasions when a nation's leadership, viewing the danger from without, must take steps to stem the tide of burgeoning fascism before it infected its own nation.

 

Ukraine committed itself entirely and without equivocation to democracy. Its bid to join the European Union and ultimately NATO, allows it entree only because it has converted itself entirely to democracy with a primary intention to defeat its traditional role as one of Russia's  subservient lapdogs, leaving behind the national humiliation of being a shadow country in thrall to Communist Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy whose battered country is now in dire straits with a serious shortage of badly needed munitions against the Russian juggernaut, insists any negotiations must see a complete restoration of his country's territorial integrity; withdrawal of Russian troops, release of all prisoners, the striking of a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression, and security guarantees for his country.

Putin, calculating as ever, poses as the more meritorious of the two belligerents by suing for a peace he very well knows he has no intention of honouring without his demands being met with no equivocation. Meaning that he feels completely entitled to come away with the conquest of Ukrainian territory that he has achieved. Beijing has made common cause with Moscow, claiming neutrality, but clearly supporting Russia's claim of having been forced by manipulations of the West into the position of defending Russia.

During the two leaders' (Putin and Xi Jinping) discussions "a detailed discussion (took place) on the entire range of issues related to the comprehensive partnership and strategic co-operation and (to) determine the new directions for further development of cooperation between Russia and China". Beijing is completely and serenely complicit in the scenario of Putin claiming that history places Ukraine in Russia's inner orbit. Precisely the argument of historical 'ownership' Xi advances on Taiwan.

Meanwhile, Putin's strategic and territorial interests continue to expand Russia's holdings in eastern Ukraine with the Kharkiv region threatened, and Russian troops moving in to capture villages whose residents have fled the conflict for safety elsewhere.

Air raid alert across several Ukrainian regions

This map shows much of eastern Ukraine is under an air raid alert currently.

"Air defence is working, do not leave shelters and be careful" -- Kharkiv governor Oleh Synehubov warned, on Telegram.

Canada's Flirtation With Terrorism

"'Palestine' is, as it stands, a porous-bordered, non-contiguous hodgepodge, split governance-wise between two mutually suspicious parties united only by their antipathy toward Israel. It is less a sovereign state than a half-baked idea drawn on a cocktail napkin."

While Melanie Joly is joining the faddish call for Palestinian statehood, she must know deep down that the Palestinian territories look nothing like a state and likely won't any time soon. Her performative virtue signalling only further harms her credibility as Canada's top diplomat."

Rahim Mohamed, journalist, National Post

 

Nothing very 'diplomatic' in tone or expression, much less adherence to recognition of reality and loyalty to a fellow democracy in strained relations between the Trudeau Liberal government in Canada and its behaviour toward Israel under this 'post-national' administration that has embraced DEI-woke-Critical Race Theory full bore as an enlightened 'progressive' government dragging Canada kicking and screaming into a national culture of anything goes, which includes promoting LGBTQ-2 rights beyond reason in its support of transitioning children toward pharmaceuticals and surgeries that deny their biological genders.

 

As for giving credence and support to a fellow democracy located in the Middle East amongst Islamist theocracies, kingdoms, sheikhdoms and terrorism-guided countries loyal to the darkest issues of pure Islamism, that too has been abandoned in favour of leaning toward equating fantasies and slanders issued by terrorist groups on an equal footing with that of a legitimate sovereign government. Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly's recent declaration of Canada's willingness to support statehood for 'Palestine' a case in point.

 

Palestine, as a combination of the West Bank and Gaza, two territories that comprise 'Palestine' in the minds of outsiders, but not reflected in the aspirations of Fatah and Hamas each of which controls one-half of the Palestinian 'Territories', since they envision Israel off the map and 'Palestine' comprised of the entire region, 'from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean sea'. And they have worked assiduously over the years, since Israel's rebirth to persuade the international community of Israel's illegitimacy as a state on land purloined from the 'Palestinians'.

 

Yet from the authoritative and well-considered wellspring of a mind versed in international law we hear: "Canada is prepared to recognize the State of Palestine at the time most favourable to a lasting peace, not at the last step along the path". Alongside voting against Israel in the United Nations, Canada has now committed itself to full betrayal of international law with one eye cocked on the considerable Muslim voting base in Canada and the other at catering to the elements within the United Nations for which Israel's existence is an abomination.

 

Both the West Bank, administered by Fatah/Mahmoud Abbas and the Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas -- both illegitimate entities with a pretense at democracy well versed in the values of the West, and appealing to those values by discrediting Israel at every turn as an oppressor intent on perpetrating genocide against Arab Palestinians, while themselves in full practise of virulent Islamism, actually do make an effort at genocide against Jews, mocking the Holocaust they deny occurred, but promising another one -- are ill-prepared to govern.

 

While Mahmoud Abbas spews racial and religious epithets against Jews and Israel, mounting a never-ending campaign of abuse against Palestinians taught from cradle to grave that Jews are mendacious, untrustworthy, violently greedy, intent on looting more territory inscribed by the heavens above for Palestinian statehood, worthy of death brought to fruition by blessed martyrdom, inspiring and spurring children to aspire to become terrorists as a noble future for the faithful, Hamas goes straight to the core of dedicated mass murder to achieve its goal.

 

And this is prime material for statehood? Statehood with no potential responsible, lawful candidates available for administering a state to live in peace with its neighbours? Even other Arab regional states shudder envisioning what a nightmare that would be. Yet the international community is eager to consign Israel to a fate of everlasting, unending feral deadly attacks against its citizens by a neighbour 'state' that cannot govern sufficiently well to create security and prosperity for its citizens, yet conspires to make life hell for its neighbour.

 

On the other hand, if Justin Trudeau and his cabinet of Liberal progressives would agree to go to the new state permanently as its future executive administrators, most Canadians would be in full and total agreement.

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada's longstanding position that a Palestinian state could only be recognized at the end of a process leading to a two-state solution has changed. "We now recognize that it may happen sooner than at the end of the process".   CBC

 

"Unlike resolutions in the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the 193-member General Assembly. Friday’s resolution required a two-thirds majority of members voting and got significantly more than the 118 vote minimum."

"U.S. allies supported the resolution, including France, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Australia, Estonia and Norway. But European countries were very divided."

"The resolution “determines” that a state of Palestine is qualified for membership — dropping the original language that in the General Assembly’s judgment it is “a peace-loving state.” It therefore recommends that the Security Council reconsider its request “favorably”."

Associated Press