Innocently Barbecuing Jewish Institutions

"This wasn't the only thing that was bizarre about this hearing. Before it began, I, a videographer and another reporter waited in the hallway near the elevators and close to the courtroom, where signage expressly permits filming, hoping for an image of Akodad, who has no pictures online."

"A man approached and tried to tell us who we could film. When asked who he was,  he replied, 'Don't worry about who I am'."

"Later, I learned the man was El Amine Serhani, director of the Listening and Assistance Centre for Maghrebi People in Quebec. The same organization lists Akodad's lawyer Saaty as a 'citizen mentor' and his father Fouad Akodad as a 'human pillar'."

"All three were present in court. The scene grew even more bizarre when the court constable shook Serhani's hand after the hearing." 

Terry Newman, The National Post

The accused, Mohamed Ilyess Akodad, said he accepted a $15,000 contract to set fire to Congregation Beth Tikvah on Dec. 18, 2024. (Simon-Marc Charron/Radio-Canada)

 

On Thursday in a Montreal courtroom, Mohamed Ilyes Akodad, 21, appeared in court for his sentencing after having pleaded guilty to firebombing a synagogue and Jewish community centre. He had, he said, no idea that the two buildings had Jewish occupancy. He and his layer, Nazar Saaty, earnestly addressed the judge with the difficult-to-believe claim that Akodad was merely carrying out a business agreement, a paid contract for 'three barbecues' arranged through Signal and FaceTime for unknown locations.

 

The court was informed that the job accepted by Akodad presented when he attended a party with a friend that took place somewhere his memory failed him to identify, as a result of undue stress experienced at the time along with the desensitization of time and place due to drug use. The job for which he was to be paid a princely $15,000 entailed fire-bombing three locations. Duly early morning of December 18, 2024, Akodad smashed the windows of the Federation CJA's West Island offices in Dollard-des-Ormeaux with a hammer.

 

He followed that  up by crossing the street to Beth Tikvah synagogue to set a fire, located next to a Jewish day school awaiting the arrival of children that morning. About four months later he was arrested. While he asked for release at his first bail hearing a month later, he was denied bail, and has been in custody since that time. Pleading guilty to three of the six arson-related charges, along with the intentional or reckless damage caused by fire or explosion to property, mischief respecting property with a value exceeding $5000, and arson by negligence, the maximum sentences reflecting such offences are 14, 10 and 15 years respectively.

 

A firefighter on the scene after a firebomb was thrown at Congregation Beth Tikvah, Montreal, Dec. 18, 2024. (Credit: Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs)

 

That aside, following the hearing of last week, reporters were informed by Crown prosecutor Christopher Hadjis-Chartrand that a two-year prison sentence is sought by the Crown even as Akodad's lawyer has recommended a sentence of nine to 12 months under condition that his client enter therapy, perform community work and apologize to the community. The actual sentencing decision will not be delivered until September 10 when court reconvenes. However, taking into account time already served Akodad could be released that very day.

 

The court heard of the difficult childhood experienced by Akodad leading to low self-esteem and problems with drug addiction. There was also a complaint about "difficult conditions" his pre-trial detention had exposed him to, with limited family visits, placement with gang members, a situation  so very difficult for a man like Akodad who has been convicted of car thefts. That is another story, that criminal gangs pay young men willing to steal vehicles that are then shipped abroad with the profits realized used to buy and smuggle guns from the U.S. into Canada.

 

During his testimony, Akodad's mother wept while his father testifying in support of his son berated him in a demonstration that it could not possibly have been the way he was raised that turned him to crime. He had agreed to the offer by a stranger to commit to three criminal acts which, when videoed as proof that he had carried out the mission as per contract would net him $15,000. The 'three barbecues' mission did not go off directly as ordered, and in the end he was given a mere $2,500 for an incomplete job. 

 

Now, with Akodad claiming he had no idea that his targets had anything to do with the Jewish community, his lawyer argues the arsons were strictly a business proposition, his client earning a fee, and there was no hate motivation involved, and in the absence of proof beyond reasonable doubt, that the miscreant had any knowledge it was Jewish institutions he was to target -- for that, he should be granted "benefit of the doubt".

 

For his part, Crown prosecutor Hajis-Chartrand questioned the claims that Akodad was  unable to recall details of the events that occurred as a result of stress and drugs, suggesting he had been able to plan, recall details, carry out the acts and then film them as proof. Pressed whether he hadn't realized these were Jewish institutions Akodad lashed back that he "wasn't stupid" and could recognize what the Star of David represented. 

 

Cantor Henry Topas, centre, and Rabbi Emeritus Dr. Mordecai Zeitz, right, at the firebombed entrance to Congregation Beth Tikvah in Dollard-des-Ormeaux on Dec. 18, 2024. (John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette files)

 

 

 

The Unspeakable Debasing of the Social Order in Canada

"[Montreal4Palestine has spend years raising awareness in Montreal, consistently working to] unite Montrealers of all religious backgrounds."

"[We have] stood firmly against all forms of hate, including antisemitism [and uphold] values of human dignity, freedom of expression and solidarity among communities."

"[We are] deeply concerned by efforts to falsely characterize a side-profile image of an effigy as depicting a 'man in a kippah.'"

"[The effigies displayed] were directed specifically at political figures [and] at no point were [they] intended to represent Judaism, Jewish people, or any religious, ethnic, or identifiable community."

Montreal4Palestine

Montreal4Palestine posted this image to Instagram on Wednesday in response to the public outcry, clarifying that the three figures hanging in effigy at a rally on Saturday in Montreal were directed specifically at political figures. (mtl4pal/Instagram)

 

"The incitement to violence, hate symbols, and displays of intimidation that we see in our streets are unacceptable."

"Images of hangings or effigies have no place in Montreal, nor anywhere else."

"Montreal must remain a city of dialogue, respect, and living together, where everyone can feel safe and treated with dignity."

Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrara 

 

"This is not a debate about the Middle East."

"Hanging effigies of Jews in the streets of Montreal evokes some of the darkest antisemitic imagery in history and is completely unacceptable."

"This is not 'peaceful activism.' It is the promotion of hatred and the incitement of violence that fuels the radicalization of our social climate."

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs 

A still from the footage that appears to show the effigy of a Jewish figure being hung (Photo: X)

 

The ongoing spectacles of Palestinian 'protests' alongside their far-left-wing supporters that denigrate the state of Israel as a genocidal entity with the usual chants of 'globalize the Intifada', 'Final Solution' and 'From the river to the sea!' do not, and cannot be construed as free speech, when a simple analysis of these chants reveal their true meaning; the 'final solution' hearking back to the Holocaust and the infamous Nazi final solution to the Jewish 'problem'; the bookending chants' meaning the destruction of Israel, the Jewish homeland. 

 

The usual commentary by government officials, decrying the obvious antisemitic and violent nature of such protests amount to public dressing and no more by authority figures who deny that antisemitism reflects the values of society, but their declarations of denials are pablum and nothing more. Disrupting the social order to the extent that has become so depressingly commonplace since the Palestinian terrorist attacks on southern Israel of 7 October 2023, with no penalties attached for those who slander, threaten, and aggressively harass Jews within their communities represents a blot of shame for both elected officials and Canadian police services for their inattention and inaction.

 

No segment of society representing an ethnic, cultural, religious group should ever be forced by government unwillingness to apply the law as it should be done, to be constantly victimized with no consequences resulting from their violently verbal attackers. The government leaders that prefer to turn a blind eye, blinkered by their own political animus against a legitimate democratic state constantly under attack by destructive and violent neighbours, prefer to do nothing rather than alienate a voting block of Muslim Canadians that have become through immigration, migrant and refugee intake, far larger than that of the Jewish-Canadian demographic with its much longer historical roots in Canada. 

 

Mock hangings at a pro-Palestinian event in Montreal on Sunday, May 24, 2026 appear to show effigies depicting U.S. President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. (Montreal4Palestine / Instagram)

 

Finally, the Montreal Police Service has announced an investigation following yet another anti-Israel march that saw the hanging of effigy figures on the May 24 weekend. Effigies purporting to depict U.S. President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir amused the crowd no end. But, claimed the protest organizers, there was nothing antisemitic about the spectacle, nothing at all. Islamists who have succeeded in infiltrating Canada know how to play the game of using Western social justice values to their advantage, mouthing denials and claiming adherence to human rights.

 

Montreal police emailed their intention to investigate these most recent examples of Montreal4Palestine honouring Canadian values. The matter, they declared, was being investigated by their hate-crimes unit, with further details to be released at a later date. "As city councillor, I reached out to the local commander and asked for the latest information on the protest. I had received a lot of complaints from people in my district", explained Leslie Roberts, a Montreal councillor whose district the protest rally took place in.  

"In my view, depiction of violence against anyone crosses the line. I contacted the police to find out if what they were doing was within the Charter of Rights [and Freedoms] or not."

"Depiction of a Jewish man hanging with a kippah, depiction of anyone hanging, is crossing the line, in my opinion."

Montreal City Councillor Leslie Roberts   

"Hanging effigies, burning effigies, that sort of thing, is a very common form of political protest. The courts have said over and over again that political speech is, in a sense, the highest form of free speech, because it engages with our understanding of self-expression, it engages with the broader public sphere", stated Pearl Eliadis, a lawyer and McGill associate professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy. The exception under Canadian law, is when violence is used to foment hatred. And if this display fails to fall into that category, then what does?!!

 

The animus and hostility toward Jews is fully expressed by Montreal4Palestine and other like groups practising their very special brand of antisemitism in Canada. While the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms protect free expression, they do not extend that freedom to the expression of viral hatred of the depth and degree demonstrated at this May 24 rally featuring a hanging-in-effigy of world leaders and by obvious extension Jews in general, which the kippah-clad effigy represented.

 

 

Shoah Commemoration at Vanier College

"I was scheduled to participate and speak at a commemoration of the Shoah, the Holocaust."

"It was very disappointing that Vanier decided to cancel the commemoration in fear, I was told, of demonstrations and problems with agitators outside the college."

"When fear rules your decisions rather than conviction of what is right, that’s dangerous."

"We live in a very fractured world now, and I think that we have to remember our history. I think that an educational institution such as Vanier has an obligation to educate their students and help them see each other as human beings."

"My talk was really going to be about our responsibilities as human beings, about the importance of remembrance, and how if education is the only tool, are we using it to the best of its possibilities."

"If we don’t learn from our history, then we’re condemned to repeat it and we’re well on the way to repetition."

"I would hope that Vanier reconsiders this decision, if not for this year, then for next year, and allow students to learn from it."

Eva Kuper, 85, Holocaust survivor, volunteer, Montreal Holocaust Museum

Eva Kuper, seen at the Montreal Holocaust Museum in 2017, was scheduled to speak at Vanier College about surviving the Holocaust. Last week she learned Vanier called off the ceremony. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf /Montreal Gazette

"While the College was not the target of a specific threat, in light of the current geopolitical context and information provided by our security team, we elected to review the event’s scheduling and format to err on the side of caution."

"[We are] currently reviewing the format of [the] annual Holocaust commemoration ceremony. [An] important event [that] holds a significant place in our institutional history [as it] brings together a number of external guest and dignitaries, students, staff and members of the general public."

"We are working to develop an alternative that honours the significance of this historical event that aligns with our values of education, remembrance and community well-being."

Vanier College, Saint Laurent, Montreal 

SAINT LAURENT, Q.C. - Vanier College on March 24, 2026. Terry Newman/National Post

 

Vanier College in the Saint Laurent borough of Montreal issued a statement on Wednesday to the effect that its 34th Symposium on the Holocaust and Genocide is continuing as planned, but the commemorative event was postponed. This abrupt announcement took everyone involved by surprise, not the least the invited guests as well as the presenters. What had been a mainstay for decades has seen the 35th version of the Holocaust commemoration cancelled, evidently due to concerns over the perceived issue of its attracting a violent backlash from pro-Palestinian contingents that have been marching for over two years against the existence of the state of Israel, while intimidating the Montreal Jewish community in a replay of the very scenarios leading up to the Holocaust throughout the Third Reich.

 

Speeches scheduled for the commemoration of that signal event of historical horror, from Christian Wagner, consul general of Germany, Eliaz Luf, consul general of Israel, Eva Kuper, a Holocaust survivor, and two Vanier students, summarily cancelled. Memorial prayers and a candle-lighting ceremony, planned for the the event would obviously also not take place. During the college's 34th Annual Symposium on the Holocaust and Genocide, 17 allied events were scheduled between March 23 to 27.

 

An event meant to honour the memory of 6 million Jews who were murdered during World War II by a Fascist totalitarian government cancelled as the organizers cowered in fear that hateful mobs that call for another Holocaust might disrupt the proceedings, and conceivably overwhelm the security guards posted at the institute  for all events to maintain order and civility. For events such as this, however, where a whiff of Jew-hate raises its threatening spectre of violence and the possibility of a riot and injuries or even worse, tender souls shrivel in fear.

 

In contrast to the heightened trepidation and an enlarged number of security personnel for any event featuring a speaker in support of Israel, there are also anti-Zionist Palestine presentations, such as occurred at an International Women's Week event at Vanier College. Where there was a notable absence of security guards in numbers that might dissuade psychopathic reaction from disaffected outsiders. All those disaffected outsiders, in effect, were in attendance at the event. 

 

 

 

"[The situation has been a] misunderstanding, [the broader Holocaust symposium has gone ahead.."

"The Holocaust symposium has been unfolding this week as planned, with over 15 talks on different themes pertaining to the Holocaust and Jewish history."

"Most of those decisions are made by the executive team, composed of all the directors of all the departments, including the department responsible for the security. [The decision applied only to the commemorative portion of the event]."

"That came with parameters that we felt, given the geopolitical situation, were not optimal for us to ensure safety and security. We felt it would be best for us to explore alternatives to be able to hold it under safer parameters."

"I do understand that the misunderstanding that took place could have been very disturbing… and I’m sincerely sorry about that misunderstanding."

Benoit Morin, director general, Vanier College

 

"[This is a] disgraceful act of capitulation."

"When a Holocaust commemoration is deemed a ‘security risk,’ that is not a reason to cancel the event, it is proof that something has gone deeply wrong."

"One of the last living witnesses to history was ready to share her testimony, and an institution of higher learning decided that it was safer to cancel her than to stand behind her."

Jewish Community Council of Montreal 

 

Terminating Fascist Threats

"We found out at around 2 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. We actually talked to her as well. We basically said: 'Listen, we cannot allow this to happen. We spoke to our lawyers, and we prepared a press release. We could not send out the press release for a few hours, until the lawyers actually sent her a termination letter."

"[The company stands against such] violent and hateful [remarks]. Political views are up to individuals, but things like this? We can't tolerate that."

"Were going to figure out a way to reopen the stores quickly."

Foodtastic (Second Cup) CEO Peter Mammas

"This video is related to a franchisee of Second Cup, one of the private tenants operating within the Jewish General Hospital. We fully support Second Cup's decision to take swift and decisive action in this matter by shutting down the franchisee's cafes and terminating their lease agreement."

"Our CIUSSS [Integrated Health and Social Services Centres] is deeply committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and stands firmly against antisemitism and any other form of discrimination or hate speech."

Carl Theriault, spokesperson, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal

The Jewish General Hospital is seen in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

 

On Thursday, in Montreal, a series of pro-Palestinian/hate-Israel groups conducted their usual peaceful marches with the good humour and attention to moral civility that is their hallmark  in Canada with a little different twist. Outside Concordia University a protest took place against the existence of the State of Israel and Jewish existence in particular. A woman, later identified by employees of a Second Cup shop located at the Jewish General Hospital as a franchisee, exercised her hateful spleen by exhibiting her prowess in giving a Nazi salute, aimed at the presence of counter-protesters.

To the Israel supporters and Jews standing there, as the event was being videoed, she addressed another type of salute, this one in reference to the Nazi Germany World War II Final Solution involved in the extermination of European Jewry. "The final solution is coming your way -- the final solution. You know what the final solution is?" A familiar phrase indeed to Jews still reeling from the most horribly despicable descent of humanity into the hellscape of genocide.

The revealing video swiftly made its way onto social media and the outcry was predictably outraged. Eventually, the incident, boiling away on social media, made its introduction to the awareness of Second Cup's corporate headquarters chief executive officer of the parent company. Clearly not very good public relations for the respected coffee chain. According to Foodtastic's Peter Mammas, after he confronted the  woman identified as Mai Abdulhadi over her incendiary remarks she did not deny being the author of the remarks.

 

The now-closed Second Cup cafe at the Jewish General Hospital

 

Following her termination, which includes her family, all of whom are linked to two Second Cup franchises at the Jewish General Hospital, she has busied herself seeking out legal counsel for herself and her family members, listed as Quebec business owners of two coffee counters. With the termination of the franchise leases for the family of Ms. Abdulhadi, the 12 employees in the two shops are set to continue being paid during a transition period when new licensees will take over the now-shuttered two Second Cup counters. 

 Students marched through downtown Montreal on Thursday in their tens of thousands to protest Israel's military activities in Gaza, claiming their universities are complicit with Israel's conflict against the terrorist Hamas group in Gaza. The following day, an anti-Israel, anti-NATO protest became violent when protesters, including 'outside agitators' clashed with police. Cars were torched, and windows were smashed in the Palais de Congres Montreal where the NATO meeting was taking place. Businesses alongside the conference centre also had their windows smashed.

In total three people were arrested. Protest attendees were mostly masked to avoid identification. Montreal Police stated that they anticipate that facial recognition techniques will aid in identifying others who will also be arrested for their violent contributions to 'peaceful' gatherings. They also noted that there are no plans to launch a hate crime investigation over the Nazi salute and other societal disrupting incidents since "we have not received any complaints yet". One can only hope that will soon be remedied.

The CEO of Foodtastic said the company's operations team reviewed footage from last Thursday's pro-Palestinian protest outside Concordia University. He says the person seen making the gesture is Mai Abdulhadi. The company says Abdulhadi owned and operated two of its Second Cup locations inside the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. (thestartupnation.ca/Instagram)

"The Court Rejects His Entire Account"

"In the final analysis, the court does not retain the hodgepodge of explanations provided by Gabriel Sohier Chaput about his writings."

"[The Court] rejects his entire account, because his explanations leave no doubt."

"The Court finds that the explanations provided are specious, insincere, opportunistic, deceptive, far-fetched, implausible, concealers of the truth, and were cobbled together to conceal the true intention of the accused."

"[Sohier Chaput] intentionally promoted hatred, through the Daily Stormer platform, against people of Jewish faith."

"The evidence in this regard is overwhelming. In closing allow [myself] to make the following observation: the victims [Jews and other groups] of the Holocaust and also the victims of other genocides perpetrated throughout history, as well as their families deserve to be left in peace. The suffering they have been put through is inexpressible and defies the meaning of humanity."

"In the light of all of [Sohier Chaput's] writings, the court could not ignore what the ideology of Nazism meant. On the contrary, through his writings we can infer that [Sohier Chaput] was well versed in the matter of hateful ideology that Nazism represented and the role it played during the Second World War."

Judge Manlio Del Negro, Montreal, Quebec Court

"2017 will be the year of action."

"We need to make sure no [social justice warrior] or Jew can remain safely untriggered."

"Non-stop Nazism, everywhere, until the very streets are flooded with the tears of our enemies."

"In order to get people's attention, you have to go to the extreme, toward humour, absurdity, provocation."

"Obviously, that's not the literal message."

Posting by Gabriel Sohier Chaput, neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website

Gabriel Sohier-Chaput, right, known online by his neo-Nazi pseudonym Zeiger, is seen at the Montreal courthouse on July 12, 2023. He was found guilty of the wilful promotion of hatred earlier this year. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)

 

Both the prosecution and the defence -- in this case of a man convicted of promoting hatred against Jews -- recommended a three-month sentence, along with a year's probation. Gabriel Sohier Chaput was convicted in January of hate-mongering aimed at the Jewish community, summed up in an article he wrote that was published on the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website. Justice Del Negro, on the other hand, felt a three-month jail sentence for promoting hate would serve to trivialize the crime.

According to Antonio Cabral, defence lawyer, his client is no longer involved with on line neo-Nazis; he is a changed man. To which Judge Del Negro responded that a pre-sentencing report indicated on the contrary, that Sohier Chaput continues to hold the same views that he subscribed to when he wrote the antisemitic article; that the sentencing hearing apology uttered by Sohier Chaput was 'opportunistic'. He is prepared to deliver his sentence on September 22.

In the interim, the judge wanted it to be known that he did not accept the defence by Sohier Chaput of having had his sentiments misunderstood; that what he wrote for the Daily Stormer, a website dedicated to airing vile antisemitic screeds, just happened to be satirical in nature, an intended exaggeration, as a mockery in other words of antisemitism.

 

Sohier Chaput was charged in 2018 under the Criminal Code, with the wilful promotion of hatred by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, [that] wilfully promote hatred against any identifiable group. A charge that carries a maximum sentence of two years' imprisonment. Sohier Chaput had been the focus in 2018 of a series of articles published by the Montreal Gazette describing him as one of North America's most prominent Daily Stormer writers.

 

The articles which linked Sohier Chaput to the Zeiger pseudonym that his published articles used, drew the attention of B'nai Brith Canada. That investigative work revealing his true identity as the author of hundreds of articles on the website also revealed he had organized meetings for a local neo-Nazi group. When B'nai Brith filed a complaint to the Montreal police about Sohier Chaput, a warrant for his arrest was issued on October 30, 2018.

 

During his trial, his defence lawyer identified him as the person who had posted between 800 and 1,000 items under the Zeiger pseudonym. The lawyer argued during the trial that what her client had written was repugnant, but under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, he had a right to post what he wrote.

"The only regrets and empathetic thoughts he expressed are directed at his loved ones, who have experienced the direct consequences of his delinquent actions."

"[The lack of emotion in his explanations were found] all the more disturbing when he describes the pleasure he derived from writing] 'things that can’t be said because of history'."

Probation officer Gabrielle Boulanger-Dumont

"When cross-examined on the meaning of his thought about the sentence: 'Non-Stop Nazism, everywhere' and if it could be perceived as promoting the extermination or persecution of the Jews, his answers were evasive, he seemed to want to avoid answering it."

"Counsel for the prosecution had to repeat the same question three times before he answered 'No'."

Judge Manlio Del Negro

"I found the Daily Stormer’s I.P. address, which turned out to be registered to a Canadian company called Frantech Solutions. It was here that I encountered Francisco Dias, the founder of Frantech and two affiliated companies, BuyVM and Buyshared."

"Through his companies, Dias rents out server space in Las Vegas, New Jersey, and Luxembourg—the last of which, according to BuyVM’s site, offers especially 'strong privacy and freedom of speech laws'."

"When I contacted Dias to ask him about his involvement with the Daily Stormer, he replied at some length. 'I try my very best to take the most neutral stance when it comes to things like this', he wrote. 'I’d prefer they weren’t hosted here, but minus some people trying to sling bad press at me, they’ve broken no laws I’m aware of'."

"BuyVM’s terms of service prohibited 'Any content that violates Canadian, United States, and Luxembourg laws'. Since Canada has a law explicitly forbidding the promotion or advocacy of genocide, I pointed Dias to a recent Daily Stormer article that called Slobodan Praljak, a former general in the Croatian Army who was convicted of war crimes against Bosnia’s Muslim population, a hero; the article also compares the murder of thousands of Muslims to 'spraying termites'. Dias said that he hadn’t heard from Canadian law enforcement, though he was 'sure' people had reached out to them about it. (BuyVM’s terms of service have since been updated to indicate that the company does its best 'to follow a Law of the Land stance when it comes to content hosted within our services'—without specifying any particular law or land.) Moreover, Dias contended, he only provided the site with bandwidth; someone else hosted the data."

Talia Lavin, The New Yorker

Founder and operator of The Daily Stormer website, Andrew Anglin. (Wikimedia Commons via JTA)

MISSOULA, Montana — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the arrest of a neo-Nazi website publisher accused of ignoring a $14 million judgment against him for orchestrating an antisemitic harassment campaign against a Montana woman’s family.

US District Judge Dana Christensen issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Andrew Anglin, founder and operator of The Daily Stormer website.

Attorneys for Montana real estate agent Tanya Gersh have said Anglin did not pay any portion of the August 2019 judgment and has ignored their requests for information about his whereabouts, his operation of the website and other assets. November 11, 2022 -- Associated Press

Biddably Compliant Ciizens under COVID Restrictions They Are Not

"These were members of my own community with hatred in their eyes, flipping the finger toward me, calling me a Nazi, saying I deserve to die."

"I was just brutally assaulted, hit in the head, and kicked at by an angry crowd of hundreds of community members of the Boro Park protest — while yelling at me 'Nazi’ and ‘Hitler’ — after Heshy Tischler [city council candidate] recognized me and ordered the crowd to chase me down the street,” 

"All these months I keep a distance, wear a mask not to get sick, advocate for measures that save lives, they disrespect my space and do something horrifying."

"[I was] hit in the head, and kicked at by an angry crowd of hundreds of community members."

Jacob Kornbluh, politics reporter, Jewish Insider

 

"To the extent there are communities that are upset, that's because they haven't been following the original rules."

"That's why the infection spread. That’s why we are where we are, make no mistake."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

 

"We are appalled by Governor Cuomo's words and actions today."

"He has chosen to pursue a scientifically and constitutionally questionable shutdown of our communities."

Simcha Eichenstein, New York state assemblyman

"We know that we've got to get out of this and we've got to get out of it quickly. No one wants to see a full resurgence, a second wave in New York City. If we get a second wave, then a lot more will be shut down for a lot longer."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio 

The epitome of good citizenship they clearly are not, demonstrably. Demonstrating that they are faithful to their fundamentalist religious view, quite less committed to their community's health and security in the face of COVID-19's rampage through the boroughs where ultra-religiously-orthodox Jews live, work and pray, not necessarily in that order. Tensions arose within these communities in New York boroughs from the first wave of SARS-CoV-2 to the present time. When the community leaders felt it more important to continue holding in-person religious services than to recommend to their synagogue members that for the present, it would be more prudent to be physically distant.

This is a community for which physical distance at any time, is difficult. They are close-knit, have very large families and for them synagogue and community are paramount influences in their lives. Religious holiday events call for mass celebrations, large gatherings for prayer in synagogues and family get-togethers, unrestrained, boisterous, celebrating life and faith. Brooklyn's neighbourhoods of predominately orthodox Jewish communities are difficult to restrain, much less to convince to tone down their community events through which the coronavirus transmission skyrockets.

Funnily enough, a similar situation pertains in Montreal, Canada, in the very same communities. Some members of which travel frequently between their Montreal communities to those in New York, to share religious events and reunite with extended family. Inconveniently bringing the virus back with them. Israel's runaway infection rate has much to thank the same communities in Israel for, where they are every bit as resistant to government protective edicts as they are elsewhere. While constituting 12 percent of the population, they represent 40 percent of the infections in Israel.

God uber alles. And where in Israel the government, hugely dependent on ultra-religious political blocs to shore up minority governments, leaves the situation as is, for fear of the religious communities withdrawing their support for government, necessitating yet another in a string of elections, no such restraint on government orders exists in New York. Where the city's mayor and the state governor issue statements critical of the community's lack of commitment to personal safety, extending to the wider community comes into focus.

Where the communities in question send up outraged cries of discrimination. Mr. Kornbluh, the reporter who was attacked while he was, in essence, going about his journalistic business, as a member of the same orthodox community explains the reasons the community is defiant represents a tangled web of government mistrust, and resentment that lawmakers 'interfere' in their religious activities, along with unfairly criticizing the orthodox community. He feels that community outreach has been lacking, which adds to the element of denial and distrust.

The reality is that the pandemic hit at an early stage hardest within the Orthodox neighbourhoods in New York, where the first reports of cases surfaced. And where dozens of funerals took place day following day, while authorities took steps to clamp down on the huge funeral gatherings where virus transmission ran rampant. The targeted community feels they've been unfairly singled out for criticism. And while there was a notable drop in cases over the summer, infections have once again risen, and the orthodox community appears to have significantly relaxed social distancing and other public health rules.

Within the communities flyers instruct families to refrain from having their children tested, since that has the potential of revealing a rising positivity rate, risking a shutdown of celebrations for the High Holidays. Because of accusations from the communities and a shortage of Yiddish-speaking interpreters, those within the communities have lacked official encouragement or the enforcement to ensure public health guidelines are complied with. 

On Tuesday, Governor Cuomo ordered schools in the areas to close, and he also shut down non-essential businesses, while imposing strict capacity limits on religious gatherings, ensuring an immediate blowback from the elected officials within the community, claiming the governor had lied to them in a "duplicitous bait and switch", making "irresponsible and pejorative" comments with Jews the target.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews gather in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn to protest Covid-19 restrictions in New York City on Oct. 7, 2020.  Yuki Iwamura / Reuters

Dangerously Cloistered Religion-Obsessed Minds

"[In order to] prevent future generations from having to suffer what they suffered [Yohanan and Shifra Lowen await a judgement against the Province of Quebec and Boisbriand Hasidic schools]."
"These illegal schools still exist and several hundred students attend them, in full view of government authorities."
"The plaintiffs finished their high school education without knowing about the St. Lawrence River of the theory of evolution."
Court motion

"When he left the community, he [Yohanan Lowen] could not speak French and could not speak English very well."
"They [the former Hasidic couple are not seeking damages but a declaratory judgement; they] don’t want this to be the case for children in Hasidic schools today, even in Montreal."
Lawyer Bruce Johnston

Clara Wasserstein and Yochonon Lowen arrive at the Montreal courthouse Monday. The former Hasidic Jews claim they completed their secondary education without knowing what the St. Lawrence River is or ever hearing about the theory of evolution. Graham Hughes / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Like any other people who leave a cult, finding its strictures and aversion to the greater society around them stifling and incompatible with a larger social contract, diminishing their pride in their ethnic and religious roots as a result of the severity of the constraints, and ultimately finding themselves unable to fit into the larger community in which they live and work; finding above all that the education they received as children ill-prepared them for life anywhere outside the community, a couple in Montreal who decided to leave an Orthodox Hasidic community has launched a court case.

Clearly the education they describe and which had undergone examination by provincial education authorities for its results in adequately preparing children to embark into the world as adults found the curriculum beyond wanting; inadequate and painfully close-minded. The children who graduated alongside the now-adult married couple were barely functional in either English or French, were almost, on graduation, illiterate and innumerate. They knew nothing about their immediate geography, much less world history past and present.

The couple appeared in Quebec Superior Court to seek a judgement against the Province of Quebec, accusing it of failing to ensure they and other Hasidic children taught in private parochial schools entirely in Yiddish, with no secular subjects on the curriculum whatever, were adequately prepared for responsible independence. The schools, moreover, had no license to recognition as educational institutes. The children attending them had no exposure to subjects in history, geography, science or art, much less the official languages of the country.

The couple was unprepared on graduation to integrate into Quebec society, despite being born in the province. Since leaving the Hasidic community in 2010 they have found it a struggle without possessing recognized high school diplomas, and equipped with the utterly lacking education they received at one of the Hasidic community's Boisbriand Hasidic schools in Montreal to qualify for employment anywhere. The kind of parochial school they attended should have been an after-hours addition to attending a regular public school where approved curricula would have formed the basis of their education.

Perhaps a good question to be put to this pair of rightly disaffected people is where lies the responsibility of parents within the Hasidic community who obviously felt their obligations to their children had been met when they received a distinctly sub-par education through this kind of schooling? Only fundamentalist fanatics might consider that as parents they have provided their children with the opportunity through a thorough, basic education to take their place in adult society when they have in fact, failed so spectacularly.

An educational assessment of 320 boys of the community found 280 among them acutely lacking in math and reading and writing in English. A youth protection agency was called in 2014 to assess a girls' school operated by the Hasidic community, discovering the students could speak English and received secular education at a somewhat lower level of difficulty than in comparison to other schools. A subsequent assessment of the boys' school found another situation altogether.

Of the boys, many among them educated in Yiddish only, were unable to speak or understand enough English to take tests without the help of an interpreter; in addition, speaking virtually no French whatever. Many of the boys were products of educational neglect; their knowledge identified as "below the minimum of what's needed to be functional and autonomous in Quebec society".

Once the families entered into an agreement with the school board to regularize education, the situation saw a marked improvement and by 2017 fewer than 100 of the boys were considered educationally "compromised", even while their education level was still below that of other students of their age group. By shielding children of the Lowy Hasidic community from 'contamination' by the social mores and values of the greater society, the community endowed their children with academic ignorance ill-preparing them for life in the modern world of today.

In order to protect the community from what he perceived as the moral decay of the outside community, Rebbe Lowy put together a set of by-laws "to govern the behavior of all the residents" of Kiryas Tosh.^[7] To live in this community, residents need to abide by these by-laws.^[7]

1. No book, newspaper, or magazine is permitted in the buildings of the community, unless their content is in conformity to strictly Orthodox Judaism.
2. All male members of the community must attend religious services, three times per day, at the synagogue.
3. No radio, television, record, or cassette is allowed in the buildings of the community.
4. No members of the community may attend the cinema or be present at any theatrical performance under the penalty of immediate expulsion.
5. All women residing in the community must dress in accordance with the Orthodox laws of modesty, as follows:
6. All dresses must be at least four inches below the knees, no trousers or panty-hose may be worn by women and girls 3 years of age or older.
7. Married women's hair must be completely covered in public, by a scarf or by a wig.
8. It is forbidden for unrelated men and women to walk together in the street.
9. Men and women must be separated by a wall (at least 7 feet high), when attending any gathering of a social or religious nature.
10. All food consumed in the buildings of the community must conform to the dietary laws of the Code of Laws and be approved by the chief Rabbi or his second in command.
11. No car may be driven by an unmarried man.
12. The members must submit any interpersonal conflict to the arbitration of a rabbinical court.
13. The Sabbath must be observed in strict conformity to Jewish law.
14. Male members of the community must study the Torah and other religious texts for at least two hours a day.

Teachers of secular subjects who come into the community must follow guidelines of their own:

1. All textbooks and literature to be used by the students in class or at home... must first be approved by the principal.
2. No stencil or photo-copy of any other book may be used without approval.
3. Students are not permitted to go to the public library nor is the teacher permitted to bring into the school, for the students, any such books.
4. No newspaper or magazine may be read in school or hung up. Students are not permitted to read the above at home either.
5. No records or tape may be used in the classroom without approval.
6. No extra subjects, books, magazine supplement or other information which is not on the required curriculum of the school may be taught.
7. For extra credit work or for class projects, students should not be told to write away for such material. The teacher should supply them with the material with approval.
8. No discussion on boyfriends.
9. No discussions of reproduction.
10. No discussion about radio, television or movies.
11. No discussion on religion.
12. No discussion about Women's Liberation
13. No homework on Thursdays.

Tracking the Fascists

"Anything that depicts anything regarding Hitler is a very sensitive issue, especially with growing anti-Semitism throughout Canada, the United States and around the world."
"When we receive complaints from the community, we have to respond."
"This is a sensitive issue with the Jewish population and with families of those involved in the Holocaust."
Harvey Levine, regional director, Quebec, B'nai Brith human rights organization

"[Levine] expressed his and the community's shock concerning the fact that the game exists and that we would carry it."
"I'm glad that he spoke to us directly."
"Between our three stores, many copies were sold."
Manager, West Island Tour de Jeux outlet, Montreal

This is a board game, only one of a number, that bases its competitive underpinning on the Third Reich, a battle between fascists and moderates, a political-faux thriller pitting the forces of evil against those who aspire to defeat their agenda of world domination. The kindest thing that can be said about something of this nature -- taking a real-life historical event known for its brutality and vicious Nazi aspiration to extinguish the lives of Europe's Jews in an finely orchestrated genocidal 'final solution' while fighting a world war, is that it trivializes one of the most horrific of humankind's basest atrocities.

Hitler, Nazis, fascism and World War Two are synonymous with genocide and the extermination of six million Jews, as well as political dissenters, Roma, homosexuals, socialists, and society's mentally and physically infirm, all destined for obliteration through a clockwork organization of mass executions. The blueprint for such a game based on the horrific realities of the era reflects a casual disregard for humanity's blackest, bleakest hours. During the Second World War, an estimated 70 million people died, representing 20 million military and 40 million civilians.

Human memory is short, and  history is given short shrift, but this example of profit over morals is nothing short of shocking. Yet this game in particular is advertised as having great popularity and having been rated a nominee for the 2016 Golden Geek Best Party Game. Three Montreal area stores carried the game -- which is widely available online including through Amazon.

Complaints were lodged from the Jewish community of Montreal with the Jewish human rights group B'nai Brith Canada, which then contacted the manager of the Tour de Jeux at its Pointe-Claire outlet. Complaints over the presence in Montreal of the game were also posted on Facebook by troubled Quebecers, rousing B'nai Brith to action. The game, set in 1933's Germany the year Adolf Hitler became chancellor, came on the market several years ago. There are two teams on the fascist Hitler-themed game, liberals and fascists.

The liberals are tasked with finding and stopping Secret Hitler before it's too late, while the fascists sow distrust and install and protect their leader. This is the game's plot, one that B'nai Brith brought to the attention of the store's manager. The West Island manager contacted the store's owner who made the decision to remove the game at his three Montreal locations. The game had been stocked over the holiday period after customer requests.

Distributed worldwide through Amazon, complaints have issued from other Jewish groups, in the United States and Australia. Sales of board games have skyrocketed over the past five years, often emphasizing strategy and co-operation. Although anti-Semitic attacks have increased in volume throughout Canada, the increase of such incidents has been far greater in the Province of Quebec.

It was revealed a year ago through the news media that one of the most influential neo-Nazis lives in Montreal, and organizes a white supremacist network. He is a prolific writer on the Daily Stormer, the extreme-right-wing news website with upwards of 80,000 visitors monthly, and he goes by the name "Zeiger". It is a toxic site trafficking in conspiracy theories, which refers to African Americans as "nogs", to gays as "faggots" and covers the "Race War" and the "Jewish Problem". Anti-fascist investigators have discovered a link to "Zeiger" through a 2002 yearbook from Paul-Gérin-Lajoie-d’Outremont, which Sohier Chaput attended in Grade 10. They saw a resemblance between the 2002 photo of Sohier Chaput and Zeiger’s online profiles.

White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the alt-right exchange volleys of pepper spray with counter-protesters at Charlottesville in August 2011: For Zeiger, the €œpath of questioning€ began early. He says in a podcast that he was 14 when he read about the Holocaust and €œrealized that it was a hoax.€ Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A 'new generation' of white men are said to be inspired by the Daily Stormer's writers along with Zeiger's Nazi-glorifying articles, the man who has helped the spread of this fascist ideology across North America. Presumably, it is among this lot in particular that a passion for this board game emanates....

We Get Too Soon Old and Too Late Smart

"It was a very scary thing that happened to me."

"I really don't want anybody to experience what I did, and maybe if the police caught the man who did this, nobody else will be hurt."

Unnamed victim

’Hamid Chekakri, 47, has been arrested in Atlanta on suspicion of doping seniors with drugged chocolates before stealing cash and valuables from their homes. Police handout

Elderly people are usually polite with strangers and for the most part respond to those who appear to be kind and 'charming', with trust. It seems the older one becomes, the more trusting. Because basically it's easier to believe -- or want to trust -- that people are basically good, and that it never hurts to give the time of day to people who appear to be comfortable in your presence. Certainly the benefit of the doubt is in favour of briefly befriending people who seem to merit it.

And for the people who were victimized by 47-year-old Algerian-born Hamid Chekakri, polite Canadians appear to have given him the time of day. They were willing to converse with him, to permit him into their homes on the pretext he conveyed that he was just a man looking for information, or, if they had a house for sale, perhaps he could be the buyer. And since he was so nice about it all, they were nice right back to him.

His modus operandi was to gain the trust of older people in their 60s and 70s, behave as though a transaction of some value to them might be in the offing, and as a sign of goodwill would offer them chocolates. One woman declined his offer, but he circumvented her decision of disinterest by popping a chocolate into her mouth. Imagine the effrontery of it! One might think the reaction to that would be offence, but this woman evidently swallowed the unwanted chocolate. It took 15 minutes for her to feel v e e e e r y drowsy.

The trouble was, anyone who enjoyed one of those chocolates would be ingesting a quite powerful sedative. Generally used medically in the treatment of seizures and anxiety. Mr. Chekakri used such a strong version of the drug that many of those he cajoled into enjoying one of his chocolates lost consciousness for a day, even several days. One couple in Montreal, 67 and 76, man and wife, were unconscious for 24 hours. 

When the 67-year-old wife woke she realized her head and lips were bruised, and then she saw her husband, unconscious on the floor. Taken to hospital they were tested positive for Clonazepam. On their return home they discovered that personal documents, cash, and jewellery were missing. In the space of a week, the "calm, patient and very charming" man robbed three households, feeding the householders  his special chocolates.

Video footage recorded by security cameras located close to the victims' home revealed that a rented vehicle left the area soon after the couple had fallen asleep, later found abandoned. But the rental registration surrendered the name of the culprit, and seeking assistance from the public to identify the image of the man captured on video, he was identified. And linked to six victims in various parts of Montreal and Ottawa.

Mr. Chekakri fled with the avails of his robberies, and was found and identified by the U.S. Marshals Service in Atlanta, Georgia where he had arrived on a flight from Costa Rica. Authorities confirmed active warrants out of Montreal for assault and burglary and arrested the man, and Montreal police escorted him back to Canada. To stand trial, while police urge any possible additional victims to come forward.

• Five counts of aggravated assault.
• Five counts of causing any person to take a stupefying or overpowering drug.
• Five counts of robbery.
• Three counts of breaking and entering.

The Irresistibly Romantic Lure of Jihad

"The Islamic State, a young adult couple who want to leave Canada to join this terrorist group and the discovery of a recipe to make a bomb with some of the necessary ingredients. In one sentence, that is what our case is about."
"In a binder found on the nightstand in the bedroom of the condo [an officer] found, on two pages, a recipe about how to make a bomb, written by hand by Mr. Jamali."
"This recipe, the evidence will show, was word for word a recipe published by al-Qaeda [in one of their magazines]."
Federal prosecutor Lyne Decarie, Montreal

Sabrine Djermane and El Mahdi Jamali were 19 and 18 years old respectively when they were charged in April 2015. (Radio-Canada)

Crown prosecutor  Decarie spoke of a propaganda video to be addressed by the last of the witnesses, an expert on Syria, Islamic State and its fascist ideology, that was produced to incite Muslims in Canada to commit as faithful in Islam to one of two choices: pack a bag, buy a plane ticket and join Islamic State abroad -- alternatively prepare explosives, sharpen knives, use vehicles, whatever it takes to perpetrate an attack right where they live; in this instance, Canada.

"The Crown intends to demonstrate that El Mahdi Jamali and Sabrine Djermane responded to this call", Decarie informed the jury at this trial on terrorism expected to take ten weeks before it winds up with a jury declaration of innocent or guilty.  The accused pair are young Montrealers; El Mahdi Jamli and Sabrine Djermane, now 20 and 21 respectively, both of whom have pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against them.

These charges are explosive in their nature, four in number: attempting to leave Canada to commit a terror act abroad; possession of an explosive substance; facilitating a terrorist act; and committing an act under the direction or for the profit of a terrorist organization. The Crown prosecutor has named as witnesses, 31 members of the police along with expert and civilian witnesses whom her legal team plans to call upon throughout the extended trial.

Police are set to give testimony over their seizures taken from the condo that the two accused share. The home of Jamali's parents also  yielded evidence, in the form of a receipt for passports, a new suitcase with new, tagged clothing, along with a plane ticket complete with planned May departure date. A number of other documents were also taken as evidence. RCMP agents as well, discovered a bag containing bomb-making equipment.

When they returned again in the company of an explosives expert other incriminating evidence was unearthed, along with a list alleged to have been written by Djermane. Their cellphones, three computers and a tablet were taken and analyzed in RCMP laboratories. Their Facebook pages were of interest to the experts tasked with going through them to flag conversations of interest, messages and links they had posted.

The two accused cast themselves by pleading not guilty, as innocents who had no idea that the materials they had amassed, the ideology they appeared connected to through Islamist zeal, and the motivational effect of the video extolling the virtues inherent in violent jihad had nothing whatever to do with them.  If it had not been for the concern expressed by an as-yet unidentified individual who alerted police, according to Kevin Rouleau, the first witness and principal RCMP investigator on the case, their activities would have gone undetected.

Sabrine Djermane and El Mahdi Jamali, shown here in a courtroom sketch during jury selection, are on trial for terrorism-related offences. (Radio-Canada)

It was, in fact, by Jamali's own hand, posting the iconic black flag of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on his Facebook account, that took the initial attention of the person who contacted the RCMP. Officer Rouleau was given the initial suspicious information about the pair on April 10, 2015, meeting soon afterward with the complainant, then going on to interview the suspects.