Infamously, War Criminals and Islamist Terrorists Find Haven in Canada

"The CBSA [Canadian Border Services Agency], subsequent media reporting, went and obtained an instance of this video from the dark web."

"It's part of the review we're asking ourselves you know, questions about the procedures."

CBSA executive vice-president Ted Gallivan 

"Those decisions were made with the information that [CSIS and CBSA] had available to them at that time. That's why we've asked [Immigration Minister] Mark Miller and I, for them to review a process that may be able to  yield access to certain information in a different way."

"We recognize the understandable questions that Canadians had when they learned following the RCMP news release of these arrests. I think it is reasonable for the government and for Canadians to ask how could this sequence of events ... take place and what can we learn from that sequence of events to ensure the very best measures are in place."

"The fact that these two individuals are in jail and face serious criminal charges reflects the outstanding work done by the RCMP and their partners."

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc

"What happened here is we were within a hair's breadth, minutes, hours, potentially days away of a mass casualty."

"I'm sorry to all the witnesses, you failed in your responsibilities to keep us safe. You didn't do your job. By the grace of God and good French intelligence, they are behind bars where they should be."

"[Canada's intelligence agencies should fire those who] didn't do their job."

Conservative MP Larry Brock

Canada’s public safety minister faced tough questions in Ottawa on Wednesday about how a father and son accused of plotting a Toronto terror attack ended up in the country.

 

Both the Canadian Border Services Agency and Canadian Security and Intelligence Service [CSIS] failed miserably in their function to vet individuals claiming refugee status in Canada, to ensure that they are genuinely entitled to haven in Canada, that there are no outstanding warrants for arrest, nor evidence available that they have criminal or terrorist backgrounds. The recent intelligence received from French agents alerting Canada to an impending attack by Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, who just a month earlier had been granted citizenship, and his son Mostafa Eldidi, resulted in their arrest.

The immigration screening process that is meant to ensure that Canada does not welcome would-be immigrants with unsavoury and worse backgrounds appears to be mired in incompetence. Little wonder that a recent poll concluded that almost half of Canadians oppose the Liberal government's plan to accept up to 5,000 refugees from Gaza who have family members already living in Canada. They are skeptical of the government's claim that such newcomers are screened thoroughly by government officials.

It was investigative journalists with Canadian media who conducting their own investigation discovered an ISIS propaganda video in which Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi featured. Immigration and security failed themselves to uncover the presence of the video that was available on the Dark Web, showing Eldidi engaged in what ISIS loved best to do; shock Westerners with gruesome videos demonstrating live crucifixions, decapitations and other modes of barbaric death-delivery to their enemies, mostly Westerners caught while ISIS was consolidating its geographic Islamist 'Caliphate'.

In this instance it was the morbidly grotesque views of Eldidi dismembering an ISIS prisoner. Investigative reporters took the initiative of visiting the Dark Web with a specific purpose in mind, but presumably seasoned intelligence professionals were too limp-wristed to make their own definitive investigations of discovery of a video produced in 2015. The father-and-son duo was discovered to have been in the advanced stage of plans underway to launch a violent terrorist attack in Toronto. It was only by means of the intelligence alert by France that Canada escaped a potential bloodbath.

A month ago, the RCMP announced nine charges against both men; participation in the activities of a terrorist group and conspiracy to commit murder on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant among them. Eldidi senior was given refugee status in 2018 and three years later became a Canadian citizen. The House of Commons standing committee on public safety and national security voted unanimously to investigate the flawed process enabling the terror-duo to gain entry to Canada.

Either CSIS or CBSA screened Ahmed Eldidi, 62, in 2018, 2021 and 2023 while the son, Mostafa, 26, had been screened in 2020. The screening resulted in "favourable recommendations". According to the IRCC, a temporary resident visa was approved for Ahmed Eldidi in January 2018, who then entered Canada a month later, via Toronto. A year later he was granted permanent residence status in September of 2021. Mostafa Eldidi entered the United States in January 2020 on a student visa, then crossed into Canada at a land border to make an asylum claim, and he was granted refugee status on July 2022.

"Jihadology.net, a U.S. website that catalogues Islamic State communiqués and propaganda, posted what appears to be the video in question on June 16, 2015 — the same day it appeared on an ISIS-affiliated website."

"CBC News has viewed the four-minute video, which features the interrogation of a bearded prisoner wearing an orange jumpsuit. The video shows the prisoner lit by a bright light and sitting in a cell as he answers questions shouted by someone off camera."

"After a section of readings from the Qur'an, the prisoner then appears hoisted on a wooden frame in the desert, bound tightly with load straps. It's unclear from the video whether the prisoner is alive or dead at this point."

"A man dressed all in black, with a cap that features the white Islamic State symbol, then uses a long, square-edged sword to hack at the prisoner's outstretched limbs. The man's red-bearded face is briefly visible as the video cuts from one angle of the attack to another."

CBC News

Israel vs Palestinian Terrorism

"We must deal with the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever steps might be required."

"This is a war in every respect, and we must win it."

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz

The IDF said Thursday that it had completed its operation in the area around Fara'a, about 15 miles south of Jenin and near the city of Tubas  washingtonpost.com

 

Hamas, in the ten-month aftermath of the terrorist group's invasion of southern Israel leading to an orgy of chaotic mass rape, mutilations, burning of families in their homes, as they entered farming villages near the border with Gaza, has called on Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up. In spirit the general population of West Bank Palestinians has done just that; according to polls that conclude the majority of West Bank Palestinians have no problems approving of the savagery of the Hamas bloodbath that left 1,200 Israelis of all ages and mostly civilian dead, while taking 250 children, women, elderly hostage.

This week Israeli forces launched a considerable operation overnight in the West Bank targeting and dispatching ten Hamas terrorists, and sealing the city of Jenin off. The Israel Defense Forces are fighting a war with Gaza's terrorist governing body, Hamas which had experienced no compunction in their decision to invade Israel and target their border Kibbutzim for a bloody massacre. In the full and certain knowledge that conducting such inhuman carnage in Israel would draw its military into Gaza to hunt down the terrorist operatives which find refuge in tunnels, choosing to sacrifice the lives of ordinary Palestinians to protect their own.

Jenin itself is a hotspot of terrorist activity, proving itself a problem that sends out deadly tendrils of death toward Israel as spontaneous new terror groups materialize, vowing  unendingly to visit death and destruction on Israel and its Jews. With the IDF battling Hezbollah in Israel's northern border, Hamas in Gaza, and the PLFP/Fatah groups in the West Bank, this is a war with many fronts conducted by the proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, aided by Qatar's funding.

 

IDF Assault on city of Jenin, June 2023   AP Photo

 

Israel's purpose in Jenin is to root out and prevent attacks; the Palestinian leadership identifies the operation to its population as a strategy to broaden the war for the purpose of expelling West Bank Palestinians from the geography to deprive them of their aspirational state. Israeli military spokesman, Lt.Col. Nadav Shoshani described "large forces" as having entered Jenin, Tulkarem and the Al-Faraa refugee camp. 

There, Israeli forces eliminated a handful of terrorists in a Tulkarem airstrike, another few in Al-Faraa and similar numbers that were arrested, in raids that represent the initial stage of a larger operation in which Israeli forces confiscated weapons, ammunition and military equipment. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, Israeli forces blocked roads leading to a hospital with dirt barriers, while surrounding medical facilities in Jenin. The Palestinian penchant for using hospitals as military bases is hard to evade.

The IDF, on the other hand, gave assurance that their troops had not entered the hospital facilities, had disrupted nothing there, and the hospitals were open to people to enter or leave their premises. Forces loyal to the PA were called upon by Hamas to "join the sacred battle of our people". A spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mamoud Abbas spoke of the raids as a "serious escalation", urging the U.S. to intervene.

The operations are described by Israel as a requirement in their intention to completely dismantle Hamas along with other organized Palestinian terrorist groups. Since the war's start in October of 2023, attacks on Israelis have risen.

Israeli soldiers stand near a military vehicle during an Israeli raid in Nour Shams camp in Tulkarm, in the West Bank, Aug. 29, 2024. (Reuters Photo)

 

Israeli Rescue Operations of Hostages

 

"We're so excited to  hug him and see him and tell him that we're all here with him."

"I hope that every hostage will come home so the families can experience this happiness."

Faez Alkadi, Beersheba hospital, Israel

 

"[The rescue operation was part of the army's] daring and courageous activities conducted deep inside the Gaza Strip."

"[Israel is] committed to taking advantage of every opportunity to return the hostages."

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant

 

"[Israeli Bedouin Qaid Farhan Alkadi was] rescued from an underground tunnel following accurate intelligence."

"[He had been held in a number of locations, including in tunnels, where in fact, he had been found wandering, no longer in custody of the Hamas operatives who had fled the incoming Israeli troops]."

IDF military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari

Qaid Farhan Alkadi was taken to the Soroka medical centre in Beersheba, Israel, where he was reunited with his family. Photograph: Government Press Office/Yossi Ifergan/Reuters

Gaunt but smiling with relieved happiness, Qaid Farhan Alkadi's release from captivity by Hamas has brought great happiness to his large extended family after having been held a captive for 326 days after he was abducted on October 7 by Hamas terrorists. He had been working at a packing factory as a guard, in Kibbutz Magen, a farming community in southern Israel adjacent the border with Gaza when it had come under attack. 

The man's rescue after such a long internment -- deprived of freedom, away from his roots and his family, seldom seeing the light of day, subsisting on a meagre diet and never knowing what the next ordeal he would be subjected to would be -- came as a great joyful relief to greater Israel, buoying their hopes for others of the abducted hostages to be brought back home to their families. Although few details have yet been released the military revealed that a "complex operation" in a tunnel led to Alkadi's release.

From the Bedouin town of Rahat, the 52-year-old Alkadi, father of 11 children by two wives, was one of eight members of the Bedouin minority abducted on October 7. One of eight hostages that had been rescued alive, Alkadi is the first to have been rescued from an underground tunnel, alive. After having been taken to a hospital in Beersheba for a physical examination, the jubilant man was declared in good condition, albeit gaunt. His family assembled at the hospital, welcoming him home.

After speaking by telephone with Mr. Alkadi, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed the hope that Israeli rescue operations and negotiations would succeed in bringing the remaining hostages back home to their families in Israel. "Both ways together require our military presence in the field, and unceasing military pressure on Hamas", he stated.

Of the 250 people whom Hamas operatives abducted, after a November prisoner exchange for selected hostages had returned almost half to Israel, 108 hostages remained in Gaza, among them children, women, soldiers, the elderly. Israeli military intelligence has revealed the belief that of the total remaining in Gaza, over 40 are now dead. Aside from the corpses of Israelis that Hamas operatives had taken back to Gaza with them for the prospect of the bodies being used as future trade pawns.

Following an Israeli military recovery of the bodies of six hostages in southern Gaza last week, IDF military spokesperson Rear Adm. Haggari spoke of work by the army in gathering more rescue operations intelligence, adding "we cannot bring everyone back through rescue operations alone."

 

Rescued hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi reunites with his family at Soroka Medical Center after over 300 days of captivity. (credit: SOROKA MEDICAL CENTER)

"I can’t explain the feeling. It’s like being born again. We say thank you to everyone."

"We didn’t believe it at first. But when the army told us it was true, we were very excited and very happy,"

"We’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. We hope that all hostages will get this moment, that they will all experience the same excitement and joy."

Brother Hatem Alkadi

Taking Pride on an Anti-Israel Journey of Rejection

"The focus today is to show our love, to show our solidarity and our support to a community that needs it. The message here is that everybody is welcome, everybody is included and there's so much that we can learn from each other."

"For the youth to see so many groups, so may organizations and so many people being here to support this community, it gives that sense of validation that is so important -- to make people feel they are welcome and validated."

"This community is all about love, solidarity and support."

Mr. Capital Pride 2024

 

"All of the organizations and institutions that have pulled out have done so without consultation with their workers."

"This was top bosses and employers or boards of directors making decisions without consulting the people who work there or the people they actually serve." 

Emily Quaile, Community Solidarity Ottawa

Capital Pride Parade in Ottawa, on Sunday, August 25, 2024. (Chris Tanouye/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Inclusion, love, solidarity and support? Not quite. As it happens Capital Pride organizers conferred among themselves -- without taking a poll among their members, in fact -- to reach a consensus of opinion that inclusion would mean the Palestinian community of the Ottawa region, not merely those who qualify as 2SLGBTQIA+, but they and their sympathizers in general. The very groups that have celebrated the October 7 Palestinian terrorism butchery in Israel where 1,200 mostly civilians were left dead, girls and women raped and tortured, entire families put to the torch, children, women and the elderly taken hostage into Gaza.

 

Gaza, the stronghold of the Hamas terrorist organization; considered by the government of Canada to be terrorists just as they are in most Western countries, for their unabashed and straightforward dedication to the destruction of the world's only Jewish state, in an ancestral geography, an Israel reborn for the singular purpose of offering safe haven to Jews in a hostile world that continually reverts to a state of viral antisemitism, just as we now see in Europe, North America and elsewhere, boosted by the slanderous propaganda of the Palestinian agenda to discredit and demonize Israel and Jews everywhere. 

Palestinian organizations and sympathetic groups have organized raucous, threatening rallies in cities across Europe and North America from October 8 onward, funded by foreign organizations and Islamist countries like Qatar and Iran who have also supplied organizers for these pro-Hamas protests as well as the encampments on university grounds demanding that university administrators and corporations and business leaders as well as Western governments condemn Israel for its response to the mass rape, mutilations and bloodletting by Hamas when the Israeli military embarked on a campaign to destroy the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, the PLFP and Hezbollah.

The declaration of 'principles' and alliances expressed by Capital Pride prior to embarkation on its annual Capital Pride parade effectively raised the level of antisemitism in and among the LGBTQ community in favour of supporting a death cult that aims its poisoned arrows at Jews everywhere, extending its campaign in less visible but rising campaign against Western 'imperialism' inimical to Palestinian aspirations and extended Islamist jihadist goals.

"Part of the growing Islamophobic sentiment we are witnessing is fuelled by the pink-washing of the war in Gaza and racist notions that all Palestinians are homophobic and transphobic. By portraying itself as a protector of the rights of queer and trans people in the Middle East, Israel seeks to draw attention away from its abhorrent human rights abuses against Palestinians. We refuse to be complicit in this violence. Indeed, to withhold our solidarity from Palestinians in the name of upholding 2SLGBTQIA+ rights betrays the promise of liberation that guides our work. We join our voice to the calls for greater protection of civilians and reject any attempts to use a devastating conflict as a pretext to advance hate."

"To breathe life into our sincere hope for an end to this war and justice for all its victims, we commit to the following actions:

• Integrating resources such as the Palestinian BDS National Committee’s boycott list in our existing review process of current and future sponsorship agreements;
• Hosting Zaffa: A Queer Arab Showcase, a Signature Event as part of the 2024 Capital Pride Festival that features discussions about ongoing issues facing LGBTQIA+ Arabs locally and abroad;
• Recognizing the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in opening remarks at 2024 Capital Pride Festival Signature Events; and
• Working with all our partners, both public and private, to push for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages, increased access to humanitarian aid, and more accessible pathways for refugees."

Capital Pride Statement in Solidarity with Palestine, August 8, 2024, Ottawa, Ontario

Replete with the slanderous calculated falsehoods of the Palestinian propaganda, the Capital Pride Statement is a document of ignorance and antisemitism combined in a lethal cauldron of pure hate. Israel is a defender of alternate gender human rights which are legally protected in Israel; its Pride Parades are open and respectful. Whereas on the other hand, in the Palestinian Territories gays risk their very lives if their sexual orientation becomes public knowledge. In the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as in Iran, death stalks members of the Palestinian  LGBTQ community.

There is no 'genocide' against Palestinians at the hands of Israel; there IS a military campaign to expunge the presence of lethal Islamist Palestinian attackers of Jews/Israelis from the territories. The founding charters of Fatah, Hamas and other such internationally recognized terrorist groups identify their purpose as the elimination of Israel from its ancestral soil. Deadly attacks against Jews have been the Palestinian formula since 1948 with the declaration of the State of Israel. Existential threats against Israel and world Jewry emanate from the Palestinians whom LGBTQ groups lionize.

In Ottawa, reaction to the Capital Pride position statement was clear and it was a denunciation of all that it alleges in demonizing Israel while supporting Palestinian terrorism against Israel. The city's mayor began the response of rejecting the Pride position when the City of Ottawa's Mayor Mark Sutcliffe let it be known with regret, that he would not be attending the parade. Followed by the Liberal Party of Canada, the Ontario Liberal Party the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, The Ottawa Hospital, the Montfort Hospital, Ottawa Tourism, the Bank of Canada, Giant Tiger, Loblaw, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, the University of Ottawa, the U.S. Embassy, the Public Service Pride Network, Conseil des ecoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario, Conseil des ecoles catholiques du centre-Est, and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.

They did so in sympathy and agreement with the Ottawa Jewish community which felt excluded and isolated as a result of the Capital Pride statement and position taken on the Israel-Gaza conflict, repeating the slanderous accusation of Israel committing 'genocide' against the Palestinians. Ottawa's situation is not a unique one, as it happens, since Pride parades in Montreal, Toronto, Halifax and Vancouver have been disrupted by pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Hate-mongering against Jews resulted in over 100 synagogues, hospitals and Jewish community centres receiving bomb threats.

As for the Pride commitment to integrate the BDS boycott list into its review of sponsorship agreements, that remains to be seen. The TD Bank is Pride's major 'presenting' sponsor and right behind it as a sponsor is Loblaws, and the LCBO followed by the province of Ontario, all of which are listed on the BDS Coalition's "Boycott List of Shame". Shame, in very point of fact, has settled itself squarely on the Pride community for its unabashed antisemitism cloaked unbecomingly under the banner of anti-Zionism, anti-Israel provocations.

Members of the OCDSB carry a giant pride flag during the Capital Pride Parade in Ottawa, on Sunday, August 25, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Tanouye

 

Aid and Comfort to Ukraine by India

"We say it very loudly and clearly that we support the respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. It's our highest priority."

"...Problems cannot be resolved on the battlefield."

"The only way of resolving problems is through dialogue and diplomacy. It must be done without losing any time."

"We chose to stay away from war. That doesn't mean we are neutral. We are on the side of peace."

"Personally, as a friend [to Ukraine], if there is any role that I can play, I would very much like to play that role toward peace."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Friday.   Efrem Lukatsky / AP

And it was as a 'friend' that Mr. Modi made an unprecedented visit to Ukraine to meet with embattled President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to offer, as a friend, to do what he could to intercede between Kyiv and Moscow in an effort to bring the two countries together to explore ways in which each might agree to the other's concessionary guidelines to reach a peace agreement. Which, on the evidence appears to be a shore too far. Since Moscow's demands are such that Kyiv in agreeing, would simply surrender to its aggressor's territorial grab. And in turn Kyiv's demands would never be met by Russia; complete military withdrawal and full restitution.

 

In any event, Mr. Modi's appearance in Ukraine and his friendly overtures to its president could be regarded as a gentle and reassuring hug from an important world leader. Somewhat leavened by the fact that India is inadvertently helping the war to continue by accepting Russian oil and gas, at no doubt a discounted price for a nation whose burgeoning industries are thirsty for energy sources. Mr. Modi has also met with Vladimir Putin, with whom he recounts a conversation urging the Russian President to seek peace with the country he is slowly destroying.

 

And then there are the realities of this prolonged war which the Kremlin believed would last no longer than, say a month, before the smaller, weaker, less militant and less well-equipped-militarily nation would fold before its neighbour's onslaught. With the considerable assistance of its democratic Western support along with that of its near neighbours supplying vital equipment to survive and to meet the onslaught with a counteroffensive, Ukraine is giving almost as good as it's getting.

 

This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows a fire at an oil depot earlier hit by a Ukrainian drone attack near Proletarsk, August 19, 2024    Planet Labs PBC/AP

Strikes in Russia's Kursk region are continuing, with the Ukraine military making use of high-precision glide bombs provided courtesy of the United States with their assent to carry out strikes in the region. The result being the military's having recaptured some territory in Kharkiv, where in the spring Russia launched an offensive. A video was issued Thursday by Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk, Commander of the Ukraine Air Force, showing a Russian platoon base hit in the Kursk region, which led to equipment destruction by the GBU-30 bombs.

Forces of the Ukraine 3rd Separate Assault Brigade advanced some two square kilometres in the Kharkiv region. New momentum has been gained by Ukraine's forces this month, once the delayed deliveries of American weaponry were finally released. A shock offensive that began August 6 was enabled into western Kursk region, intensifying a drone war against military and fuel targets, sparking blazes this week, deep into Russian territory.

A Russian airbase in the Volgograd region was struck by a Ukrainian drone attack causing significant damage to an airfield housing glide bombs Moscow used in its war on Ukraine, At the port of Kavkaz in Russia's Krasnodar region saw a cargo ferry come under attack. Ukraine intends to continue its momentum, initially hoping to distract Russia from its Donetsk region slow but steady advance, but despite Moscow's perturbation over Ukraine's capture of towns and villages in Kursk and the mass evacuation of its citizens, no Russian platoons have been re-directed to Kursk.

Prime Minister Modi and President Zelenskyy signed co-operation agreements in agriculture, medicine and culture, releasing a joint statement that gave notice both countries agree on the necessity of close dialogue to "ensure a comprehensive, just and lasting peace". 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hugs Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Friday.  AP

Russian Outrage at Ukrainian Manoeuvres

 

"[Ukraine's attack on Kursk has ended] any possibility [of peace negotiations]."

"Who will negotiate with them after this, after the atrocities, the terror that they are committing against peaceful residents, the civilian population, civilian infrastructure and peaceful facilities."

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman, Russian Foreign Ministry

Drone footage from a Ukrainian drone shows what Kyiv's military says are artillery strikes on Russian troops east of Pokrovsk on August 21.

 

Ah, now, who will negotiate with Ukraine now that it has returned the Kremlin compliment of territorial aggression complete with atrocities, terrorizing peaceful residents, destroying civilian infrastructure and peaceful facilities in Ukraine? The 'negotiations' in question being Vladimir Putin's rapacious insistence that Kyiv capitulate entirely to Moscow's position that three Ukrainian provinces are possessions of Greater Russia? As far from Ukraine's own position that all Russian military forces leave Ukraine, surrender its territorial rampage, and adjust the Russian economy to pay for Ukrainian reconstruction, as the distance from Earth to the Sun.

The Russian bear growling its supreme displeasure at a Ukraine that has the effrontery to defy Russian might and determination. As in how dare they! As for the latest Ukrainian successes in sending drones as far as Moscow to advise Mr. Putin that Ukraine too has the resources to threaten the peace and security of Russian citizens as Russia itself has exhibited all over Ukrainian territory for the two years that succeeded its 2014 misappropriation of Ukrainian geography annexing the Crimean Peninsula.

In the Ukrainian military's largest attack by drones Moscow was, once again, given fair notice that by targeting Ukraine, Russia itself is vulnerable to return targeting. Drone attacks reaching as far as Moscow coincided with Ukrainian forces continuing their pursuit of the Kursk region in western Russia. The past week has also seen Ukrainian forces strike three bridges, several airfields and an oil depot. Just exactly who do those Ukrainians think they are?

 

"This was one of the biggest attempts of all time to attack Moscow using drones", remarked Sergei Sobyanin, mayor of Moscow, adding that all the drones were shot down by strong defences positioned around the capital. The capital city of Imperialist Russia struck by drones;  unheard of. As in HOW DARE THEY!!! Kyiv now, that's a different matter. According to Russian military authorities, 45 Ukrainian drones in an overnight strike were downed by Russian forces; eleven of which were struck over the Moscow region.

Quite the accomplishment, Ukraine has demonstrated moving its focus on the front line into Russia's geographic heart; Moscow and St. Petersburg. Oh, and an Western Russian airport. Let's see now, latterly aerial assaults on Russian soil have targeted refineries and oil terminals. Their cumulative effect, to slow the Kremlin's assault on Ukraine. In Rostov bordering Ukraine, fire at an oil depot burned for the fourth day. 

These little victories have shored up Ukrainian morale and in so doing altered the fighting dynamic. Hope has arisen that these successful tactical manouevres could have the ultimate effect of hastening an end to the war. Beyond that, the reality that opening another front sees Ukrainian forces already badly stretched, even more so; active hostilities along over 970 kilometres, while Ukraine loses ground in the industrial region of Donbas to Moscow's intention to occupy the entire province.

The Geneva Convention representing the international humanitarian rules of war are being carefully respected by Ukraine. Russian forces have committed war crimes. A vast distance between the two in terms of humanitarian concerns and respect for the international order. Ukraine's decision in attacking the three bridges over the Kursk area Seym River has the potential to trap Russian forces between the river, the Ukrainian advance and the Ukrainian border. Its effect is already being seen.

Russian pontoon bridges and pontoon engineering equipment over the Seym have been struck west of the Ukrainian advance point. Ukraine's Army General Staff noted it had struck a Russian S-300 defence system 200 km behind enemy lines in the Rostov region. The S-300 had been used by Russian for ground strikes at Ukrainian troops and cities "destroying residential buildings and terrorizing the civilian population".

 

 

Vile Islamist Agitation in Canada Unchecked

"I mean I am a Canadian citizen. I just don't think it's anyone's business."

"I spoke about the brave, heroic October 7 operation and the legitimacy of the Palestinian resistance, and why I want to get the resistance organizations off the so-called terror list."

"We stand with the Palestinian resistance and their heroic and brave action on October 7."

"Long Live October 7th!"

"The only security threat facing the world today is the Zionist genocide being carried out in Palestine against the Palestinian people that has slaughtered at least 40,000 Palestinians and that the Canadian government continues to support and that the United States continues to arm."

Charlotte Kates, coordinator, Samidoun Palestinian Solidarity Network

A video on social media shows Kates addressing a 'Pro-Palestinian' crowd in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery; the October 7 bloodbath was 'heroic' and 'brave'.

This woman, born in the United States, but having become a Canadian citizen, spouts her incendiary slander of the state of Israel and pernicious Jewish plans to rule the world that 'must be stopped', co-founded, along with her husband Palestinian-born Canadian terrorism supporter Khaled Barakat. Barakat once was contracted by the federal Heritage arm of the government to tutor civil servants on issues of human rights, until it was revealed that he was a flaming antisemite, regularly posting inflammatory hate speech against Jews and Israel.

They both had lived in Germany before coming to Canada after living in the United States for several years. German authorities, aware of their inflammatory antisemitism, deported Barakat, for his "political activities". They both have been named by B'nai Brith Canada in a petition calling for their deportation. Barakat spoke of the "racist, right-wing fascist group" attempting to have him escorted out of Canada as allies of the Israeli diplomatic mission in Ottawa, speaking for Zionist organizations.

"This woman gets on a plane and travels to Iran to receive a Human Rights Award that has been granted to some of the worst of [the] worst people within Iran, one of the worst torturers and violators of human rights."

"She herself is now tied into terrorism, but her words are incredibly dangerous and they're threatening to the Jewish community."

"...Canada has a radicalization problem that we're not clearly speaking about."

Ariella Kimmel, vice-president, strategic communications and development, Winston Wilmont

The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is closely associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, recognized by Canada as a terrorist entity. The group is responsible, among other Palestinian groups and sympathizers in Canada, for organizing and funding anti-Israel protests that have roiled Canada since October 7.  

 

Despite this background and the destabilizing effect of the Samidoun group's activities, not only canonizing Hamas and its bloody savagery in Israel, but being recognized by the Islamic Republic of Iran for her outstanding Islamist convictions, it has been given charitable status in Canada.

Photo: Michael Y.C. Tseng

 

Kates has been up front and public in her praise of the Hamas 'uprising' against the 'imperialist' West, exemplified by the position Israel has in the Middle East, a Democratic Liberal outlier, and a Jewish state in a geographic area dedicated to Islam and governed by theocracies, dictatorships, monarchies and sheikhdoms. She recently flew to Tehran where she received recognition as an Islamist stalwart and agitator, awarded an Islamic Human Rights Award for "anti-Zionist activities".

Shortly afterward she was a guest on Iranian TV, wearing a hijab and blaming "Zionist organizations and political officials" for her arrest following her appearance at the Vancouver Art Gallery in April, praising the October 7 massacre where 1,200 Israelis were murdered, girls and women gang-raped and tortured, their bodies excruciatingly mutilated before death, Kibbutz families burned alive in their homes, in a sadistic melee of chaotic savagery, that Kates celebrated, sneering at the "lie of so-called western democracy and concern for human rights".

"Hamas is not a terrorist organization. Islamic Jihad is not a terrorist organization. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is not a terrorist organization. Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization.These are resistance fighters. These are our heroes." Having stated which, it is beyond abhorrent that the government of Canada sees fit to allow this woman and her husband to continue roiling Canadian society with their outright lying slanders, even to the point of recognizing their group as a legitimate Canada-based charity.

Samidoun operates virtual seminars advocating violence perpetrated on Israel and Jews anywhere, it organizes antisemitic rallies, disseminates Hamas propaganda, and trains students in their occupation of universities. That the Islamic Republic of Iran pulls the puppet-strings of its associates, and Qatar is heavily involved in financing groups such as Samidoun has been revealed by intelligence investigations.

Image designed for Samidoun by an artist in Gaza ... Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Network

 

Fred Hahn, CUPE Ontario: 'Harmful, Hurtful, Divisive Antisemitism

"[We] would like to acknowledge how harmful, hurtful and divisive [president of CUPE Ontario, Fred Hahn's post has been]."

"[Hahn's] stance on the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine does not reflect the opinions of our local nor the spirit of our union."

Local executive of CUPE 1977

 

"Many locals haven't wanted to address this, as it's inherently toxic & doesn't advance the labour movement positively; leaving @FredHahnCUPE as the only voice for CUPE."

"Enough is enough. @CupeMedics 2974 denounces  the words & actions of Fred Since Oct7."

CUPE Local 2974 

"My intention in posting it was to call attention to the reality that, while the Russian Federation was barred from participating at the Paris Olympics, the state of Israel was permitted to participate -- which appeared clearly to me to be a double standard."

"My intent was never to associate Jewish people with the violence enacted by the state of Israel. It remains my strongly held view that it is a terrible mistake, and anti-Semitic, to conflate abhorrent actions by the state of Israel with Jewish humanity or identity."

Ontario union boss Fred Hahn

CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn at a LGBTQ rights rally. Photo by Jack Boland/Postmedia/File

This was just the last post by labour leader Fred Hahn; many other postings that were clearly antisemitic predated the latest when he reposted a video to his Facebook account, showing an Olympic diver who happened to be Jewish, as a Star of David on his arm identified him, as he leaped from a diving board. Rather than a splash the video shows the diver transformed into a bomb, and what transpires is the aftermath scene of an airstrike.

These repeated and clear instances of antisemitism celebrating the man's hatred for all things Jewish and the State of Israel in particular, has garnered public attention and embarrassment for the largest public service union in Canada, has deeply offended its Jewish members, and given labour unions generally an aura of anti-Jewish sympathies which has insulted not only Jewish union members but many of their non-Jewish counterparts as well, who would much prefer their union to reflect union issues.

The very day that Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, Hahn lost no time tweeting: "Palestine is rising, long live the resistance." Which led 80 Jewish union members to take Hahn and CUPE     Ontario to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal with the message that they feel "Isolated, unwelcome, scared, silenced, discriminated against, threatened and harassed" by their union's response to the October 7 attack.

Re-elected in May as CUPE Ontario president to two more years in office, Hahn is as well executive vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Labour and a general vice-president for CUPE National. Which has finally responded to the furor of this man's sentiments and obvious display of Jew-hatred, by informing him he is expected to resign his position.

 

Hahn's response is that the union needs him, and he has no intention of voluntarily resigning. Leaving ample room for the union's executive body to remove him involuntarily, a disgrace to labour and the  union movement, flagrantly displaying his personal animosity to a Canadian minority group, cloaking it in the flimsy garment of 'humanitarian support' for Palestinians in Gaza, where his personal sentiment has slopped over into a labour union meant to focus on worker support.

 

"I need you to know, I am representing my members. I'm not talking about Jews."

"I am talking about the State of Israel", he responded in a video that Ontario's Labour Minister Piccini posted through a 45-second video clip on X.

"With all the accusations online, attacks by Premier Doug Ford and media reports that the CUPE National Executive Board have asked me to resign from our National Board, I knew I needed to write you directly about the situation."

"I want to be clear – I utterly reject the charge of antisemitism; anyone who knows and works with me knows it to be a lie. It remains my strongly held view that it is a terrible mistake, and antisemitic, to conflate abhorrent actions by the state of Israel with Jewish humanity or identity."

"I have always had faith in the members of CUPE Ontario and been proud of the faith they placed in me by repeatedly, and democratically, electing me at both the provincial and national level. There is much work to be done – and because I respect the democracy of our union, the choice of our members, I will be here to continue to fight side by side with all of you."

Fred Hahn, discredited and defiant

"What you have said about Jews is antisemitic."

"You're an antisemite. You have to stop hating on Jews."

"You're a labour leader. And your members deserve better, they deserve better than you."

Ontario Labour Minister David Piccini

Dismal Canadian Failure to Put Out the Fire of Antisemitism

 

"[The threats were made to] a number of institutions, including synagogues and hospitals, across Canada."

"Law enforcement is also engaging with faith-based leaders to ensure they have the information and support they need."

RCMP

 

"It is absolutely chilling to hear of more than 100 Jewish institutions across the country being threatened earlier this morning."

"For many, many months, Canada's Jewish community has raised alarm bells about the escalation of rampant Jew-hatred, as incitement and hateful rhetoric have become normalized online, on our city streets and on our university and college campuses."

"Repeated calls for violence against Jews and Jewish institutions are a stark reminder that extremism and radicalization are thriving in Canada and must be confronted before it's too late."

"The time of our leaders to step up is now." 

Michael Levitt, CEO, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center

"[There was no] imminent threat [the emails appear to be] nuisance emails designed to disrupt lives."

"Jewish Canadians will not be intimidated -- we will continue to take part in Canadian society and Jewish life."

"We will stay vigilant, but we will never be intimidated."

Eta Yudin, Quebec vice-president, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

A police vehicle sits outside Yeshiva Gedola of Montreal, a Jewish school that was hit by gunshots for the second time in three days, Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. Photo by Christinne Muschi /The Canadian Press

Jews in Canada are indeed on alert; more than that, they are profoundly perplexed and disappointed that their prime minister, their provincial premiers, non-Jewish faith leaders, corporate heads, government departments, human rights groups and civil society at all levels, from school boards to municipal offices, have not made an effort to stand behind their Jewish neighbours. Canadian unions in particular, academia as well, have added fuel to the fire of condemning Israel for protecting its people in the wake of the October 7 Palestinian terrorist attack on Jewish civilians in southern Israel, leaving 1,200 dead and hundreds taken hostage by Hamas.

The constant 'pro-Palestinian' and growing pro-Hamas demonstrations taking place across Canada, at university campuses, in front of Jewish hospitals, Israeli legations, synagogues, Jewish neighbourhoods, shopping centers and municipal offices exude hatred for Jews in Canada, issuing threats well known to Jews but evidently beyond the threat-literacy of the federal government. The display of Hamas flags alongside those of the Palestinian Authority, while chants of 'from the river to the sea', the 'triangle-cum-swastika signalling death to Jews, 'final solution', and 'go back to Poland' blatant in their rancid hate.

In the absence of any vestige of a crackdown on the illegal marches, the harassment of Jews, the implied threats, public expressions of antisemitism have become increasingly and startlingly terrifying for Jews in a country they were born in and to which they have been proud of representing. The great yawning gap of disinterest by authorities in meeting this chaotic disorder threatening a minority population has served to satisfy the organizers of the rallies that they can continue to threaten and intimidate, slander and alarm, with no enforcement of the law forthcoming, enabling the organizers to become more blatantly antisemitic with each passing week.

 

Toronto firefighters are shown here at the scene of a fire at North York business. (CBC)

In the matter of a series of emails reaching synagogues, Jewish groups and medical personnel who are Jewish and considered fair game for Jew-haters, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police assured the Jewish public that they are collaborating with local law enforcement to make certain that Jewish establishments wherever they are located remain safe. The source of the threats is being investigated by the Federal Policing National Security Program which, if it did its analyzing well, would conclude that foreign financial support has been key in the organization of these hate rallies.

Threats of death and physical violence were included in the emails, which indicated the goal of the perpetrator was to cause 'terror'. Really? after months of promulgating hate fests after hate fests,that is the investigative conclusion? Our policing and intelligence agencies are really doing us proud! Since the October 7 Hamas attack last fall on Israeli civilians the lunacy of antisemitism has gone unchecked and has ballooned, threatening the well-being of the entire community. In Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Calgary, police have been responding to threats. Toronto police revealed they evacuated a building in the West End of the city to "investigate for a bomb threat".

"We are continuing to address the possible impact in Toronto", assured the Toronto Police Service media relations officer. One would hope so, considering the multiple incidents of violence targeting Jewish institutions in the last year. Where fire-bombings of synagogues and community centres in Montreal and Vancouver have taken place, even as the same in Toronto have occurred with businesses have been vandalized, and shots fired at Jewish schools, as ongoing investigations so far yield few clues as to those responsible, though Jews know very well who they are collectively.

The Adath Israel Poale Zedek Anshei Ozeroff Synagogue in Hampstead, Que., was one of more than 100 Jewish institutions across Canada to receive a bomb threat by email Wednesday morning. (François Sauvé/CBC)

Canada's Immigration Out of Whack With Reality

"Over the past few years, we’ve seen a massive spike in temporary immigration, whether it’s temporary foreign workers or whether it’s international students, in particular, that have grown at a rate far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb."

"Increasingly, more and more businesses are relying on temporary foreign workers in a way that is driving down wages in some sectors."

"We want to get those numbers down."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  

New Canadians wave the national flag during a citizenship ceremony in Toronto. Steve Russell/Toronto Star/Getty Images

Previous government administrations in Canada spoke of accelerated intake of immigrants totalling around 350,000 yearly. In and of itself an enormous number of newcomers to be welcomed and integrated into Canadian societies. For the most part, Canadians are welcoming people, and themselves mostly of immigrant stock in this relatively young nation, felt compelled to agree that Canada benefited hugely from its reliance on immigration to boost its population numbers along with the economy.

Since the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau from 2015 to the present, immigration numbers, temporary workers, foreign students, refugees and illegal migrants have swelled those yearly numbers beyond a million people annually. The most immediate problems to have surfaced is the strain on social services. Housing is another problem; there simply is not enough. A dearth of houses and priced out of a middle-class market. Canada's ailing universal health care system is stumbling along troubled by surgical wait times, mobbed hospital emergency departments and a lack of family physicians.

And while temporary foreign workers are brought into the country to take jobs that most Canadians themselves won't touch, the unemployment rate among migrants, and those on student visas as well as Canadian youth is much higher than among the general population. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made public admissions of immigration number impacts on the economy, on quality of life, on strained social services, but it has been his policies that have created the situation.

Canada's immigration intake was once a reasonable number, not the impossible influx it has become under Mr. Trudeau. The system of selecting prime immigrants by judging how they would benefit Canada was a point system that took into account education level, age, professional background, for choices that enhanced immigrants' ability to make maximum use of skills and experience and the drive to maximize both to Canada's credit while providing a promising future for successful candidates.

Responsible immigration selection protocols have gone out the window of opportunity by the Liberal government. The points system is now largely ignored. Government speaks of labour shortages and the need to increase immigration intake to fill that gap. Yet bringing in  unskilled workers with no experience and no incentive to upgrade their educational and employment opportunities benefits neither the workers nor the country.

 

Canada's Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced plans to reduce the share of temporary residents living in Canada from 6.2 to five per cent of the population. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)

 

Add to that the untamed issue of allowing migrants to flood the social security system, welfare, emergency housing, at a time of growing homelessness in the Canadian population at large, and you have a burgeoning dysfunctional situation difficult to control and to cope with. Those who now enter Canada illegally have as much opportunity to achieve permanent resident status under this government as do temporary foreign workers whose goal is to achieve permanent residency in Canada.

In 2023 according to Statistics Canada a total of 1.3 million new entrants swelled Canadian population numbers.Permanent immigrants represented 500,000; less than half of the total entrants while 800,000 were non-permanent residents comprised of temporary foreign workers and international students. Public opinion polls now reflect the perception that immigration is an issue of high concern for a sizeable number of Canadians, and rising. 

Spurred by falling GDP per capita, declining consumer spending, inadequate housing growth, and dwindling labour markets. Little wonder that a sizeable (44%) proportion of Canadians feel that immigration is responsible now for affecting the country negatively, and a wider percentage now believe immigration volumes should be decreased. 

 

Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced a new route for uneducated applicants for permanent residency: "The initiative would support the modernization of the economic immigration system by expanding the selection of permanent residents to candidates with a more diverse range of skills and experience". Unskilled foreign workers will likely be absorbed by the 'initiative', who have overstayed their visas.

At the same time a foreign student 'cap' announced by the Immigration Minister remains so high the maximum number of new students admitted in 2025 will rank 70 percent higher than the entire international student body of 2015. These outcomes are a reflection of nine years of the Trudeau government handling the affairs of the nation.

As part of its plan to shrink the number of temporary residents in Canada by 2027, Ottawa is cutting the number of temporary foreign workers that companies can hire in most sectors from 30 per cent to 20 per cent of their workforces. (Jane Robertson/CBC)

"Since the Kursk operation, I haven't noticed any changes."

"The Russians have the same tactics of infantry assaults: They are moving, advancing."

"Russians are destroying and moving, destroying and moving."

Aerial Reconnaissance soldier with Ukraine's 68th Brigade

 

"[Russian troops are] advancing at a fast pace."

"With every passing day there is less and less time to collect personal belongings and leave for safer regions."

Pokrovsk officials

A heavily damaged university building in Pokrovsk after a Russian attack   Roman Pilipey/AFP/Getty Images

Civilians in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk were urged to speed up their evacuation by military authorities, in view of the Russian army closing in on one of Moscow's key targets. By launching a bold cross-border incursion into Russia's Kursk region, Ukrainian troops have attempted to divert the Russian military focus away from the front lines in Ukraine. Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Pokrovsk and other towns nearby in the Donetsk region were "facing the most intense Russian assaults".

From his position, where he flies a drone to identify moving Russian infantry, an Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance soldier explained that the same deadly monotony occurs each day. Once he relays the co-ordinates, the boom of a mortar follows. After which greater numbers of Russian infantrymen arrive in a seemingly endless wave. With its powerful aerial bombs, he added, Russian was destroying any hope of holding the territory for Ukrainians.

Symbolic of the high-stakes gamble Ukraine is playing through taking the war into Russia with its ongoing Kursk assault, the urgency of the evacuation of civilians from Pokrovsk underscores the issue. The possibility that the effort to change the dynamic of the conflict could backfire, leaving Ukraine's defence on the front line, short handed as it is, at the mercy of Russia's advance. Battlefield momentum and superior forces in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region since the spring favours the Kremlin's forces.

For Ukraine, the possibility that it is able to cope with the strain on its resources involved in the Kursk attack without sacrificing Donetsk, motivates their bold, courageous move to distract the enemy. Russia, on the other hand appears to have concluded that it is able to contain the incursion without diverting troops in Donetsk, sending some to bolster Kursk."Both cannot be right. The outcome hangs in the balance", suggested Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

In terms of troops and armour, Russia's slow advance across Donetsk this yer has been costly, yet its gains have been realized. With a prewar population of around 60000, Pokrovsk is a main defensive stronghold and a key logistics hub for Ukraine in the Donetsk region. Ukraine's defensive abilities and supply routes would be compromised by its capture. Just as Russia would be brought closer to its aim of capturing the Donetsk region in its entirety.

"As the front line approaches Pokrovsk, the need to move to a safer place is becoming increasingly urgent", the local Pokrovsk administration informs its residents, providing them with logistical details on the evacuation, with western Ukraine offering the evacuees shelter. Ukrainian troops in the meantime, have taken full control of Sudzha in Kursk, the largest Russian town to fall to the Ukrainian forces since the start of the incursion. 

 

Ukrainian spirits have been raised by this success, while embarrassing the Kremlin.

Civilians wait to board a train leaving Pokrovsk  Thomas Peter/Reuters