Wildfires Sweep Across Canada From East to West

"Unless we get one heck of a boost, it's projected to take chunks out of our town and surrounding areas. It's looking very ugly right now."

"We're begging for air support [to  help douse the fire]. It's really crucial."

Mayor of Flin Flon, Manitoba, George Fontaine

 

"It's a very serious situation that we're faced with. We do need some rainfall."

"We need that sooner rather than later, and in light of that not being in the forecast, we most certainly are putting in place every measure possible to prepare the province." 

"Resources are stretched thin because of the severity of the situation that we're facing and the intensity and the proximity of the fires."

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe 

 

"My husband was trapped on the other side of the barricade with no pills, no food, no nothing. They wouldn't let him come to me to evacuate," 

"[Reunited], we're trying to register with Saskatchewan Red Cross; I've tried numerous times."

"Worse happens, we're sleeping in the car. We'll just keep traveling from town to town to town to town till hopefully we find something."

Sandy Oosterlaken, evacuated from Denare Beach   

A wildfire in the Sherridon, Man. area is shown in a government handout photo on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Manitoba Government

 

Fierce, shifting winds threatened to propel a nearby raging wildfire into the city of Flin Flon, Manitoba where buildings, both homes and civil infrastructure would be vulnerable to the flames. The municipality 630 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg served notice to its 5,000 residents to begin emergency evacuation. A wildfire that had started over the boundary in neighbouring Saskatchewan had swiftly reached Flin Flon's northern perimeter.

 

Another thousand people are resident in cottages and homes surrounding Flin Flon. All remaining residents were directed by the city to leave before noon on Friday. Buses were driving those who don't have shelter, to Manitoba's capital city, Winnipeg. A total of 17,000 residents in Manitoba have been forced to leave their towns and homes in the last several days. 

 

Small communities and towns stretching from northern Ontario to British Columbia -- Canada's east-to-west geographic arc -- face an early fire season whipping through forests. From a blaze that started Monday near Creighton, Saskatchewan, after jumping the boundary into Manitoba and menacing Flin Flon, the wildfire has grown to 40 square kilometres, with firefighting crews struggling to contain it. As a result of heavy smoke and a drone incursion, water bombers were grounded intermittently.  

 

A wildfire that broke out across the North Saskatchewan River, in Parkland County, on May 8. (Noam Olsson photos) Photo by HO /THE CANADIAN PRESS

 

Residents of Creighton, 1,200 in number, have been ordered out of the range of the wildfire. Over 4,000 people have fled wildfires raging in Saskatchewan, under a province-wide state of emergency. Alberta, which in recent years has suffered immense wldfire damage, this year has fared comparatively better. Northwest of Edmonton, however, the 1,300 residents of Swan Hills have been ordered to evacuate, along with the 900 residents of Chateh in Alberta's northwestern corner.

 

In Chipewyan Lake, about 450 kilometres north of Edmonton, a crew of eight firefighters were temporarily trapped overnight but finally were able to drive their way out to safety. A wildfire in British Columbia that prompted an evacuation order Thursday, quadrupled in size overnight while firefighters prepared for "intensifying conditions" in the parched northeast of the province where the concentration of most fire activity is located. 

 

The blaze "displaying aggressive fire behaviour" in the Peace River Regional District near the community of Kelly Lake was about 46 square kilometres in size Friday, substantially larger from the 11 square kilometres it registered the day before, according to the British Columbia Wildfire Service.   

 

Military aircraft and helicopters are being used to evacuate residents in Manitoba from fast-moving wildfires    EPA

 

British Columbia has about 60 wildfires ongoing at the present time, 34 of which are classified as burning out of control. According to the B.C. Wildfire Service, 18 percent of the active fires were human caused, 77 percent started by lightning taking advantage of the drought situation and tinder-dry forests, and five percent of unknown causes.  

"It's been another challenging day here in Manitoba."

"[Firefighters were using] water bombers flying overhead [and] helicopters dropping buckets of water."

"But at the same time, all the smoke in the air is making the evacuation effort that much more difficult."

"Our provinces here in Canada are immense. By the time somebody makes it to Winnipeg, some of them have been on the road overnight. They've had to be on a flight for a few hours and then on a bus for several hours after that."

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) patrol vehicle is parked as a water bomber flies over the plume of smoke from a wildfire near The Pas, Manitoba, May 27, 2025. Manitoba RCMP/Handout via REUTERS

 

Antisemitism Affecting Canada's Jewish Physicians and Health-Care Workers

"I fear their reaction to my name and identity. Being uncomfortable with colleagues as I am aware many are unsupportive."

"Feeling that I cannot share, express or even admit my identity."

Anonymous Jewish Canadian physician

"More than 80 percent of respondents in Ontario said they've face antisemitism at work."

"The data is clear, antisemitism has impacted Jewish doctors, healthcare workers, students, residents, and the health-care environment, and immediate action is needed to ensure safe environments for all medical students and residents, and uphold equitable care standards for Jewish patients."

Survey news release

 

"This is personal for me. I work with healthcare students and residents who are bright, compassionate, and committed to becoming the future of health-care in Canada."

"Yet they are navigating a hostile environment where their identity as Jews makes them targets of hate and exclusion."

"This cannot continue."

Dr. Sam Silver, associate professor, Queen's University

An anti-Israel protester waves a Palestinian flag from a window of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, February 2024. Photo by @MelissaLantsman/X

 

The Canadian medical profession has changed startlingly since October 7, 2023 following the sadistic savagery of the terrorist attacks in southern Israel. Over 500 Jewish medical professionals affiliated with the University of Toronto's Temerty Faculty of Medicine signed a letter in November of 2023, calling out "the gross insensitivity of some of their colleagues to the deep trauma they have suffered by the largest killing of Jews since the Holocaust."

"For millennia, Jews have been accused of doing the very thing that the anti-Semites do to the Jews -- classic antisemitism."

"Now is no different."

Doctors Against Racism and Antisemitism

According to a new survey, doctors across Canada are concerned about what has been occurring in their profession. Close to a third of Jewish medical practitioners in Ontario are actively considering whether or not to leave Canada as a result of rising antisemitism impacting their personal and professional lives. Widespread concerns of antisemitism among health-care practitioners across Canada was highlighted by data released by the Jewish Medical Association of Ontario.

Over 1,000 Jewish medical professionals across Canada took part in the survey to find that a mere one percent of Canadian Jewish doctors experienced severe antisemitism in a community, hospital or academic setting prior to the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. At the present time, however, 29 percent, 39 percent and 43 percent state having experienced a level of antisemitism in each of those settings, respectively.

Comments were made by over 400 Jewish physicians, on the most difficult aspect of rising levels of antisemitism. Some state they no longer feel comfortable around their patients and colleagues. 500 Jewish health-care professionals in Ontario were included in the survey and "more than 80 percent responded that they have faced antisemitism at work." Antisemitism was widely reported within academic spaces (73 percent) and hospitals (60 percent). 

"One of the hospitals where I work is unionized, and I have seen firsthand how the union has been visibly targeting Jews with hatred."

"Union members have been attending protests that condone terrorism, and I've witnessed colleagues showing up to these protests with union flags, chanting dangerous slogans."

"This environment has made me feel unsafe in my own workplace."

Serena Lee-Segal, Toronto-based occupational therapist

Organizational policies turned out to be the most common sources of antisemitism in Canada (57 percent) followed by organizational communications (55 percent). Some 53 percent mentioned interpersonal interactions with colleagues, along with similar social interactions with non-physician staff (41 percent). A mere two percent of Jewish doctors in Canada expressed no concerns about antisemitism in health-care educational environments.

Failing to address the concerns of creeping antisemitism within the medical staff could lead to "losing a generation of physicians, educators, and researchers", pointed out JMAO chair Dr. Ayelet Kuper. JMAO's report found increasingly common antisemitism displays affected close to a third (31 percent) of Jewish doctors in Ontario, to the point of deciding to leave the country. Therapist Lee-Segal spoke of the failure of organized labour, in particular the Ontario Public Service Employee Union, to come to the aid of beleaguered Canadian Jews.

Signatories to the November 2023 University of Toronto's Temerty Faculty of Medicine who had signed the letter  deploring the situation of lack of attention by their colleagues to the plight of harassed and vilified Jewish colleagues representing the Faculty of Medicine's failure to support their Jewish friends found themselves becoming the subjects of co-ordinated doxing campaigns.

 

Pro-Palestinian encampment in an area that was fenced off at the University of Toronto campus in downtown Toronto, May 2, 2024. Photo by Ernest Doroszuk /Toronto Sun

"It is incredibly concerning to watch antisemitism creep into our medical institutions across the province."

"Discrimination doesn't just impact doctors, it undermines the entire healthcare system, compromising patient care and eroding workplace integrity."

"This is a crisis for all people in Ontario, not just Jewish doctors."

"[This situation could lead to] losing a generation of physicians, educators, and researchers, impacting health-care in Canada."

Dr. Ayelet Kuper, chair, Jewish Medical Association of Ontario

Ontario Premier Doug Ford: Out of Order!

"It's extremely politically sensitive, obviously, but procedurally I believe I made the right decision in the sense of past rulings of speakers and precedents and traditions."

"In my opinion, having done the research, it appeared to me that the keffiyeh is being worn to make a political statement."

Speaker of the Ontario Legislature, Ted Arnott

 

"I think [Speaker Arnott's ruling] is the correct decision, in the same way we can't use other kinds of political clothing."

"We can't wear T-shirts that say 'Free the hostages', or wrap ourselves in a flag or whatever."

"We have to follow the rules of the legislature. Otherwise, we politicize the entire debate inside the legislature and that's not what it's about ... we use our words to persuade, not our items of clothing".

Progressive Conservative backbencher Robin Martin

 

"It really comes down to uniting Ontarians and communities."

"We see the division right now that's going on. It's not healthy, and this will just divide the community even more."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford

Keffiyehs remain banned in the Ontario Legislature after a motion to overrule House Speaker Ted Arnott’s prohibition failed to pass at Queen’s Park on Thursday. CBC

One would think and hope that someone of the political stature and influence of the premier of Canada's most populous province would be more aware and sensitive to the implications of permitting an iconic symbol of Palestinian 'resistance' against the 'occupation' of Gaza and the West Bank by the State of Israel would be recognized as throwing political weight in the Palestinian-occupied wing of slanderous propaganda. Worse, that seeing that symbol worn in the provincial parliament, the impression that the provincial government agrees that Palestinians and their terrorist hordes have the right to raid Israeli territory to threaten, to rape, to torture, and to murder Jews in Israel.

 

The Speaker of the Ontario legislature appears to be courageously standing on principle alongside the legislature's own rules when he defied the popular (unanimous) decision of the Members of Provincial Parliament when they opted to allow keffiyeh-clad individuals to display their obvious rancor against Israel, bringing the conflict that rages in the Middle East into Canada and its levels of government as an entitlement to slander the Jewish State and propagate for its destruction as a 'final solution' to their struggle to destroy the ancestral Jewish presence in the Middle East. 

The keffiyeh is emblematic of Palestinian rejection of sharing the geography that the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 partitioned, offering Jews one portion of their traditional geography upon which to declare a modern state, and the other to the Palestinians who claim the entire territory as uniquely and solely theirs, rejecting the reality of history that reflects a Judaean presence from antiquity to the present; in fact the original 'Palestinians' as named by the Roman occupiers of the Middle East during that era.

There is a long-standing rule in the legislature that members may not make use of props, signage or accessories with the intention of expressing a political statement, and it is that rule that the Speaker of the Legislature relied upon to refuse to permit that resonating political symbol to make its appearance in the Legislature of Ontario. Having established the facts through his own "extensive research", the Speaker was confident in the applicability of his ruling.

 

The unanimous consent of the legislature is sought by members of provincial parliament when they wish to express solidarity with a specific theme or event. Provincial NDP leader Marit Stiles had moved a unanimous consent motion days earlier claiming the keffiyeh to be a culturally significant item of clothing in Palestinian, Muslim and Arab communities and as such should be given permission to be worn in Parliament. Some of those present in the Legislature demurred, the loudest "no" emanating from another Progressive Conservative MPP.

"Speaker Arnott is the longest serving MPP in the legislature and has spent three decades upholding the rules and procedures of the House."

"As the longest serving woman at Queen’s Park I support his ruling because it keeps with tradition and reminds members to keep our debates focused on words rather than on political props."

"Arnott chose parliamentary convention over political weather [vanes]."

Ontario Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod

Queen's Park, Toronto   Frank Gunn, The Canadian Press

The Derangement of an Estranged Mind

"It [the black pick-up truck] was damaged with blood."

"When they [police] got him [multiple-murder suspect] out of the vehicle, he was laughing." 

:He's really traumatized [the cabbie who had experienced seeing the accused in a mass murder atrocity in London, Ontario drive up to where his cab was parked]. It is terrifying. You're all to yourself."

Hassan Savehilaghi, president, Yellow Taxi London

Nathaniel Veltman, 20, in a sketch from his appearance via video from the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre on Thursday. (Sketch by Pam Davies)

 

So traumatizing that the man hasn't returned to work yet, taking time off to collect himself. He had conveyed what he had seen and experienced to his supervisor at Yellow Taxi London. And asked Hassan Savehilaghi to speak on his behalf. He had been parked outside a mall, taking a coffee break on Sunday. The cabbie, seeing the front end of the pickup truck bloodied had the impression the vehicle was likely in a hit-and-run. He called 911. Still speaking with a police dispatcher, the cabbie saw a cruiser passing and ran to flag it down.

Almost simultaneous to this officer pulling into the parking lot, police reinforcements arrived expeditiously to make an arrest of the man who was seen to be wearing what looked like a bulletproof vest, topped by a headpiece resembling a military helmet. The cabbie felt certain he had seen swastikas on the helmet. And he definitely saw, he told his supervisor, that the man whom the police invited to exit the truck, laughed, asking the cabbie to record his arrest.

"Nate is not a radical terrorist. He is nothing like that. He is not an Islamophobe. That's not who this kid is."

"He wasn't an extreme Christian. He never seemed to hate people. He never said anything hateful. It seems completely out of his character."

"Nate was a very close friend and never said anything bad to me."

A friend, originally from the Middle East

"[Nate] never said anything 'hateful' about any groups."

"He's Christian and has a great relationship with God. He was always pretty calm toward other people."

"He seemed broken up over it [the death of a family member] on Friday. That's the last time I saw him."

"He's not a violent guy. He's a bit high-strung sometimes, but other than that, he's a good guy. He gets along with everybody at work."

Another friend and co-worker

"The management and staff of Grey Ridge Eggs were shocked and saddened to learn late Monday afternoon that Nathaniel Veltman ... has been arrested and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder."

"We join our community in expressing our condemnation of this violent attack and offer our heartfelt sympathy to the family and the Muslim community."

William Gray, chief executive, Gray Ridge Eggs

A memorial at the scene of the attack, at the intersection of Hyde Park Road and South Carriage Road in London, Ont., after a Muslim family was hit by a truck. Four of the five died. (Greg Bruce/CBC)

 

That a violently horrific event took place in London, Ontario on Sunday is indisputable. A family of five people, out on their regular daily evening walk on a balmy late-spring evening had stopped at an intersection for the traffic light to change so they could cross the street. As they stood there, 46-year-old Salman Afzaal, 44-year old Madiha Salman, 15-year-old Yumna, 74 year-old Talat Afzaal -- parents, daughter, grandmother, among whom walked 9-year-old Fayez, a black truck appeared as though out of nowhere, sped over the curb and directly hit the family. 

 

The little boy, Fayez, the only survivor, though seriously injured will be in hospital for quite some time.

 

The driver, a 20-year-old man known by his neighbours to be an introvert, living alone in his unit, a white man who played video games with the sound on loud, at all hours, sufficiently so to annoy another neighbour, mother of a young child, disturbed enough by the noise to repeatedly demand he be more considerate of others. Typical behaviour for a young man, actually. He is the man who was arrested and charged with four counts of murder, another of intent to murder. 

 

And because the family was Pakistani-Canadian, members of the London Muslim community. collective minds leaped forward to a targeted slaughter of those of the Islamic faith. Quite possibly they were a random choice because they just happened to be there at that unfortunate time. Victims-in-waiting for a a final chapter of their lives brought to them by a possibly diseased mind.

 

Everyone, from the police service, the city's mayor, news media, the provincial premier and the prime minister instantly condemned Islamophobia for another terrorist attack by a white supremacist. Condemnation was gravely asserted, communities across Ontario commiserated not only over an incomprehensible act of mass murder, but one that targeted Muslims. A horrible, inexplicable act of hatred by someone tainted with Islamophobia. 

 

 

Paranoia and fear and victimhood expressed from within the Muslim community. From representatives of the London mosque, Muslim community members, people interviewed in the street, trembling with apprehension and terror that Canada, and London where the Muslim community has long settled is no longer safe for people of the Islamic faith. Canada, a racist country. People spoke of having left Pakistan where their lives were endangered as Muslims, for haven in Canada, a free and equal country. 

Muslims fearful of life in Pakistan, a Muslim country? Finding that Canada, after all, is not the beacon of hope they had sought and gained? In Pakistan Christians are sentenced to death should they defame Islam or Prophet Mohammad. There are minor Muslim sects which the dominant Sunni Muslim majority view with contempt and hatred and who are persecuted in Muslim-majority countries like Pakistan. Perhaps this is what drove those who spoke of emigrating from Pakistan for personal safety.

They did find the right country to offer them a new life. Canada is not a racist country. It was just that, at one time, but it is no longert. There are among Canadians as there are everywhere in the world people who are bigoted racists, people who hate those not like themselves -- people of colour, people of different backgrounds, religions, cultures, heritage. But by and large Canadians are tolerant and accepting of others. Much of that lies in the very fact that Canada is basically a country of immigrants; first, second, third generation.

There exists in all societies, sociopaths, psychopaths, people with severe mental illness, some of whom act on unpleasant impulses, some of whom become dangerous to themselves and to others. This man responsible for the death of four good people, talented, highly educated, a credit to their values and religion appears not to have been a hater, merely an introvert and possibly a severely troubled one. No one saw in him a potential killer. Reality is that somehow he became one.

What is passing strange is the leap to judgement over instantly assessing the carnage that ensued as the work of an Islamophobe. Strange, in that whenever an Islamist act of carnage, a terrorist atrocity takes place, authorities go to great pains to warn not to attribute such acts as reflective of Islam; fair enough, nor to characterize it as an act of Islamist terrorism, until that it indeed is, can no longer be denied. Yet here, in this dreadful instance, the leap to condemn an Islamophobic act of terror was instant.

One of Nathaniel Veltman's friends who found it incomprehensible that he could be capable of such violence, who attested to his never having expressed contempt or hatred for any identifiable group on religious, ethnic or cultural grounds, spoke of having been in his new Dodge Ram with him, when the steering seemed off. He was experiencing difficulties with the steering of his vehicle. "I actually drove with him on Thursday", his friend and co-worker said. 

There is much yet to know about this miserable event that deprived four people of their lives, that deprived a little boy of his sister, mother, father and grandmother. As for the military-style 'helmet' and the 'armoured' vest the man was wearing when he was arrested -- earlier on Sunday during a day shift when he showed up for work before the fatal attack that would take place that night, Veltman was involved in a competitive shooting game somewhat like paintball, using soft pellets.

A line of police officers look for evidence at the scene of a car crash in London, Ontario on Monday, June 7, 2021. Police in London, Ont., say four people have died after several pedestrians were struck by a car Sunday night. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Geoff Robins

A Normal, Happy Family Oblivious to Their Fate

Four members of a Pakistani-Canadian family were killed by a man in a truck in what police are calling a hate-motivated attack. This photo, released by the family, shows the victims (left to right): Yumna Afzaal, 15, Madiha Salman, 44, Talat Afzaal, 74, and Salman Afzaal, 46.

"Let me be clear: This was an act of mass murder, perpetrated against Muslims — against Londoners — and rooted in unspeakable hatred." 

"The magnitude of such hatred can make one question who we are as a city, and who we are as Londoners."  

"It's up to us — all of us — to answer that question, through not only our words, but our actions. We can say 'this isn't who we are,' and I know that to be true."

"[Words] are not enough. We must demonstrate, behave, and act on those words. This act of unspeakable hatred, this act of Islamophobia, must be followed by acts of compassion, acts of kindness, acts of empathy, acts of solidarity — justice — and, above all else, love."

"In one act of murder some individual has wiped out three generations of family. It's horrific."  

London Mayor Ed Holder

 

"We believe the victims were targeted because of their Islamic faith." 

"We understand that this event may cause fear and anxiety in the community, particularly in the Muslim community, in any community targeted by hate ..."

"There is no tolerance in this community [for those] who are motivated by hate [to] target others with violence."

London Police Chief Stephen Williams  

Police officers look for evidence at the scene of mass murder targeting a Muslim family in London, Ontario on June 7, 2021. (Photo by AP)

Reports of a vehicle striking pedestrians in the northwest end of London, Ontario brought out emergency crews at 8:40 p.m. on Sunday. When they arrived police found a scene of chaos and horror. The result of a 20-year-old resident of the city who had deliberately mounted a sidewalk with his black pickup truck to strike a family of five as they waited to cross an intersection. People nearby heard screams of pain and anguish as an elderly woman, her son and daughter-in-law and her granddaughter suffered injuries from the impact that ended their lives. The fifth person involved in the unspeakable carnage was a 9-year-old boy who is now an orphan, his entire family murdered in one fell turn of a driving wheel.

Faez Afzaa is in hospital and it will take him some time to recover from his serious physical injuries. The psychic pain he will experience as he gradually is informed and realizes that his family is gone and he is alone in this world will haunt him forever. Syed Afzaal, his wife Madiha Salman, daughter Yumnah Afzaal, and Talat Afzaal, 74, failed to survive as an intact and close family involved in their community and their mosque, in a random mass killing meant to target, by all indications, Muslims. That these five people out together as a close family to enjoy a pleasant evening walk became victims of a psychopathic hater was their dire ill fortune.

No one can help feeling moved at the plight of the little boy destined to move through life without those who loved him, guided and nurtured him, and whom he loved unreservedly in return. No one could possibly 'understand' a vile depth of unreasoning hatred so ingrained that the holder of such sentiments could find it in him to plan to kill innocent people, people he didn't personally know, all of whom were vastly superior to the murderer in any and every conceivable metric of humanity.

Police were in consultation with the RCMP and public prosecutors on the potential of laying terrorism charges alongside those of murder. The man, who had sped away after deliberately targeting the family, was arrested nearby the scene of carnage in the parking lot of a mall. Nathaniel Veltman faces four counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder in a city reeling with the unfathomable fate that awaited innocent Londoners. At the time of his arrest, the killer was wearing a body-armour-type vest, a man with no prior criminal convictions.

On her balcony, reading, Lindsay Marshall, in an apartment facing the scene of the crash heard a truck :rev its engine "and I looked up right at that point", to see what she thought was a truck striking a mailbox or rigid road sign. "The truck didn't slow down, didn't stop, it just kept going", she recounted. Vehicles began to slow down, people to gather at the scene. Soon a police car arrived. Marshall spoke of watching as a police officer performed CPR on someone lying on the road.

"My jaw dropped as I held my hands over my mouth. Then a couple of metres away, there was another body, lying motionless, and then a third a few metres away from them, and then the little boy."

"It was like a horror movie. It was the worst thing I have ever seen. It's something that you never prepare yourself to witness in your lifetime."

Lena Gabriel, motorist driving toward the scene

"I can't get the sound of the screams out of my head", Paige Martin, a witness to the event said thinking about the victims runs through her mind non-stop. She had stopped at a red light when a large pickup drove past at speed, so close her car shook. "I was shaken up thinking it was an erratic driver", she said. She saw a police officer performing chest compressions on one person, with three others on the ground. 

"When I came to Canada, I came to London and bought a house and he [Syed Afzaal] was the first person I saw and came over with a jug of water and glasses. They were just out for their walk that they would go out for every day", said friend Zahid Khan of the family that had emigrated from Pakistan to Canada 14 years earlier. This was a family whose presence gave much to Canada and they had every expectation that Canada would reciprocate.

Father Syed Afzaal was a physiotherapist, his wife Madiha Salman was completing her doctorate in civil engineering at Western University, while their 15-year-old daughter Yumnah Afzaal was completing Grade 9; her grandmother considered to be a "pillar" of the family. Nine-year-old Faez, the sole survivor of the atrocity will be left with their memory to shadow his future.

 

The Community Scourge of Drug-Running

"Some of them [are] very menacing in the firepower they possess. And we know that in the drug trade violence is common. The propensity for violence [involving] profit-driven, illegal commodities we're seeing in the community on a regular basis."

"Of particular concern when we look at heroin, a very insidious drug causing great harm to our community, a number of kilograms are alleged to be seized from a Playland in Brampton [Ontario]."

"We can see not only the effects in the community but the real significant risk that it put to the children, some of the most vulnerable people in our community."

Inspector Ryan Hogan, York Regional Police Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau

 

"The success of this investigation is a testament to the effective cooperation among multiple agencies across jurisdictions as we pursue the shared objective of public safety."

"The RCMP's resources across Canada and overseas and our partnership with York Regional Police provide a multiplier effect to our collective efforts to dismantle such criminal networks."

Inspector Marwan Zogheib, Toronto West Detachment, RCMP

Police say they found drugs at an indoor playground in Brampton, Ont

 

Kilos of heroin were discovered hidden in a children's indoor playground located in Brampton, Ontario, when police moved in to shutter an international drug trafficking network. The network stands accused of smuggling cocaine, ketamine, heroin and opium into Canada. The drugs were looped through Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. The drug running was described as a "robust network" importing drugs into the Toronto area from India and the United States, distributing them "through a sophisticated system", according to York Regional Police.

Police in California along with those in three provinces executed over 50 search warrants, leading to the arrest of 33 people. Drugs valued at millions were seized, including ten kilos of cocaine, eight kilos of ketamine, three kilos of heroin and 2.5 kilos of opium. Of deep additional concern were the weapons seized, some 48 firearms along with $730,000 in cash and three high-end vehicles. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was involved in the investigationm along with York Police, Peel Regional Police and the RCMP.

One of the raids saw police having to smash through an iron gate, part of a high fence mounted with security cameras surrounding a mansion. Tactical officers heavily armed, and with the use of armoured vehicles breached the property and arrested one man whom they led away in handcuffs. The large property on which the mansion stood was littered with children's toys and bicycles. Anoher man arrested, of Caledon, Ontario is charged with trafficking ketamine, conspiracy to traffic ketamine and two counts of possession of property obained by crime.

 

Guns seized during the crackdown operation ‘Project Cheetah’ in Canada. (Supplied photo)

 

During a search of the Caledon property, 46 guns were found; shotguns and rifles, one with a tactical long-distance scope. The guns, though lawfully possessed, were seized "as a serious threat to public safety", under provisions of the Criminal Code, reflecting the nature of the criminal charges. Concerning was the discovery of heroin stored in a children's playground business. The Karebear Playland enterprise is contained in a large, three-storey children's play area with climbing structures, play area, slides and play structures. Three rooms are available for children's birthday parties.

The transnational investigation into a network receiving drug shipments smuggled from India and California led to Peel region where most accused in the enterprise and subsequent raids live. It is where Toronto Pearson International Airport is located, as well as a large base of trucking companies; either or both of which may be involved in transiting the drugs. It is assumed that five of those arrested were taken in California, while others were arrested in Ontario.

An image released by York Regional Police of an arrest made in Project Cheetah. YRP

Caught in a Public Health Double-Bind

"Service providers where possible are going to online provision of service."

"If you want to have a conversation with your doctor, Zoom is often the first choice. And homeless people don't have access to Zoom."

"The more connection you have with people who care about you, the less likely you are to develop an addiction. And right now, we're disconnecting."

"As people become more involved with the criminal justice system, they become more criminal."

"Jail is crime school n the same way that Harvard Law is upper-crust training school -- you learn some stuff, you're constantly told who you are, and you make connections."

"Ending drug prohibition would stop that process."

Mark Haden, adjunct professor, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia 

"People have been very hurt by seeing how quickly the government can react to a public health emergency when it chooses to do so [as with COVID-19]"

"People who use drugs and their allies have been really devastated to see that comparison."

"Since COVID, we've seen things get much worse. The level of adulteration of the drug supply has increased."

Dr.Alexis Crabtree, resident physician in public health and preventive medicine, University of British Columbia

Front-line workers in Ottawa-Gatineau say more people are using street drugs in an unsupervised environment due to their fears of catching COVID-19. (Brian Stewart/CBC News)

"People have been applying for the government COVID-19 aid, using it to binge on drugs and overdosing. [The Trudeau government introduced a monthly Can$2,000 emergency benefit in March to help Canadians left jobless by the pandemic. Applicants are required only to answer a few questions and certify their veracity.]"

"With Can$2,000 in their pocket, people just went on benders."

"They had access to quick cash and it killed them."

"[It was a] stronger batch of drugs [than he was used to that did him in.] They got me back on my feet and sent me on my way. I rested up and did more drugs."

Luc Laplante, homeless in Ottawa, drug-addicted 37-year-old

Health officials in Canada continue to urge people to remain cautious even as the country approaches the 300,000-case mark of COVID-19. And nor do overall trends strike confidence that the pandemic will end anytime soson. Dr.Theresa Tam, Canada's top public health figure, has warned that Canadians must engage in stopping the spread of COVID-19 to help avoid overwhelming hospitals. Even as Manitoba becomes the new red zone in Canada for cases, Manitobans rallied against mandatory masks and allied lockdown measures.

From Saskatchewan to Nunavut, Ontario to Quebec, Alberta to British Columbia, Canada is witness to growing numbers of COVID cases in an ongoing upward swirl, leading to hospitalizations, emergency treatment and deaths. The call has gone out to the public that increased awareness and appropriate steps in social distancing and mask wearing is not negotiable; it is up to everyone to maintain vigilance. And in all the attention given to the SARS-CoV-2 virus running rampant through the country, another crisis is being short-shrifted.

That would be the pandemic of opioid overdoses which have also seen a sharp rise in tandem with that of COVID infections. Since the March border closure, and limited access to services have both conspired to turn back the slow descent in opioid deaths, directing their rise, leading to the reversal of the 13 percent decline in fatal opioid overdoses between the years 2018 and 2019. "Illicit toxicity deaths" have risen starkly in the months between March and August in British Columbia, the nation's hot-spot for overdoses.

 

On International Overdose Awareness Day in August, people in Vancouver, British Columbia, remembered those who died of overdoses. Photo: DARRYL DYCK/Associated Press

The Public Health Agency of Canada has posted numbers of an alarming rise in deaths, 181 occurring in June alone, representing a 138 percent increase from the 76 fatalities the same period the previous year. And nor is Ontario's situation an improvement on that of British Columbia's, where an estimated 50 to 60 people weekly are now dying of overdoses, according to the chief coroner's office which identifies a 35 to 40 percent year-over-year increase since the pandemic's onset.

"Canadians should be seized with this particular crisis [that is] escalating as we speak", said Dr.Theresa Tam last month. A range of factors have been linked to the virus, leading to the deadly spike of opioid overdoses. The continuing border shutdown disrupts illicit drugs' supply chain, setting the stage for contamination by dealers hoping to stretch their profits, mixing it with toxic additives making them more deadly. Added to which health precautions occasioned by the virus narrow access to services, from doctor visits to supervised injection sites.

Overdose prevention sites can make physical distancing difficult with bottlenecks, a situation that deters people who require immediate access or those who simply cannot see themselves standing in line in cold weather. Pandemic restrictions' social isolation can breed new users as well as heavier substance abuse. At social housing facilities pandemic protocols have the effect of restricting visitors, increasing the risk of an overdose when no one is close by to intervene in a crisis in progress.

While some people may take comfort in the swift and dramatic action undertaken by governments across the country in an effort to control the spread of COVID-19, its example of health-care responsiveness contrasts with the inaction by those same governments where indifference is perceived to the plight of those addicted to substances whose possession is illegal. Experts in the field urge expanded access to prescribed opioids through safer supply programs.

Oxycodone & acetaminophen pills (CP/Graeme Roy)

The Canadian Medical Association Journal published a study in August that showed few overdoses connected to people with prescribed opioids such as methadone and buprenorphine. The lead author of the study felt doctors should feel more relaxed about prescribing those alternatives. Were the overdose crisis to be declared a public health emergency the groundwork would be laid for improved access to treatment and recovery services alongside broader use of overdose-reversing drugs like naloxone, the study suggests.

Contemplating decriminalizing drugs might advantage the situation by deterring users from underground access to drugs, and could at the same time free up resources for public health that by default go to law enforcement. 

 

And nor is Canada's situation unique. In the United States, the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in the country's history is taking place, where 71,000 overdose deaths took place last year, even before the coronavirus arrived. It is likely that the total of such deaths this current COVID year will surpass that of the year before, given preliminary death data from nine states, along with national data on emergency responses to reported drug overdoses as reported by the Associated Press.

Firefighters and paramedics with Anne Arundel County Fire Department wear enhanced PPE as they transport a patient after responding to a call for a cardiac arrest as a result of a drug overdose on May 6, 2020 in Brooklyn, Md.   Alex Edelman / AFP via Getty

Familicide: The High Cost of Protecting a Lie

Menhaz Zaman, 24, Quadruple Murderer

"Words such as brutal, cruel, cold and callous do not begin to convey the enormity of his violence. It is difficult to imagine a more horrific way to take a human life than by slitting the victim's throat. Mr. Zaman did so not just once, but four separate times over a span of hours." 

"No right-thinking member of society would see any remote correlation between the imminent disclosure of the secret of Mr. Zaman's non-attendance at school and the vicious taking of the lives of the four people closest to him."

"That Mr. Zaman saw such a connection and acted on it in the cold and calculated manner that he did is deeply disturbing."

"The betrayal of trust involved in these crimes is enormous."

Justice Michelle Fuerst, Newmarket Ontario Court of Justice, November 2, 2020

Back in July of last year, an online gamer told CTV News Toronto that Zaman “messaged many of his friends, including myself, about the details of the murder, during the act.”

A young man living in Markham, Ontario, just north of Toronto, and part of the Greater Toronto region, lied for years to his family who were under the impression that he was attending York University in north Toronto toward a degree in engineering. He was not attending university, but chose to attend Seneca College for an electronics engineering program for several years, which he failed in. He then spent his daytime  hours in a mall nearby his family home, and played video games at home, all the while describing to his family his university courses and how well he was managing his classes. 

His purpose was simply stalling for time, with no end-game in sight, as long as his family continued to believe he was following the course set for him, to get a good education in his chosen field of endeavour, to become a responsible young adult and to forge a life for himself. All the while he was leading his family to believe he was doing just that, while he was not. With each lie told, a deeper pit was dug. He seemed aimless, content to while away the hours, keeping the truth from his trusting family. Whom he was determined to keep the reality of the situation from.

And it seems he finally found the route to ensure they would never discover his ploys and his chosen field of endeavour; hanging out, playing online games, finding community with other gamers. It was some of those other gamers whom he contacted, informing them that he was in the process of solving his dilemma. As he planned and undertook to complete the plan to rescue himself from the network of lies he had woven. A gaming friend in Minnesota, another in Tunisia, were texted informing them of what Zaman was doing and just to ensure they fully understood, photographs of the bloody bodies of  his family accompanied the texts.

Those far-flung friends frantically called the Toronto police hoping to alert authorities. The IP address from the communications was identified at a home in Markham. York Regional Police, whose jurisdiction it was, were called into action by the Toronto Police Service, and they sent officers to the home where they discovered the bodies of 70-year-old Firoza Begum, 59-year-old Monirus Zaman, 50-year-old Momtaz Begum, and 21-year-old Malesa Zaman.

On the afternoon of the day prior to Zaman's 'graduation from university', he began to carry out his plan to avoid having to tell his family that he had lied to them for years. He killed his mother by slitting her throat, and an hour later he did the same to his grandmother. It would be hours before his sister and father arrived home, so he played video games and napped while he waited. When his sister got home around 11 p.m. she too was killed by having her throat slit. His father was next, attacked as soon as he returned home an hour later.

 

Police took Zaman into custody, and he pleaded guilty. The Crown attorney and the defence both requested Zaman receive 25 years of parole ineligibility for the first-degree murder counts to be served concurrently, along with an additional 15 years of ineligibility for the second-degree murder count to be served on top. Menhaz Zaman pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and one-count of second degree murder for killing his parents, sister and grandmother in their home in Markham on July 27, 2019. All of those murder counts carry automatic life sentences. 

At his sentencing hearing, Zaman apologized to anyone he had "impacted negatively" as a result of the murders. That apology needless to say discounted his immediate family members for they were indeed negatively impacted and no apology would ever reach their ears, and nor would they find comfort in such words from an accomplished liar. For his "deeply disturbing" crimes, Menhaz Zaman was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 40 years, a particularly benevolent penalty for an unspeakable crime.

The victims were his 21-year-old sister Malesa Zaman, his 59-year-old father Moniruz Zaman, his 50-year-old mother Momotaz Begum, and his 70-year-old grandmother Firoza Begum. Facebook

 

"Mr. Zaman executed four unsuspecting family members in their own home. It defies understanding that while his mother and grandmother lay upstairs in their own blood, Mr. Zaman played video games and napped to pass the time, apparently untroubled as he lay in wait to slay his sister and father in the same manner."

Justice Michelle Fuerst, Ontario Court of Justice

Canada: Indigenous Residents and 'Settler Population'

"[This blockade and encampment represents a protest] to protect and save the land for our future generations who will have nowhere to live and prosper if the settler population continues to unlawfully encroach upon our lands."                   "The Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council is opposed to this development and as the holder of collective rights for the Haudenosaunee people has not granted any type of consent which would allow this development to proceed."         "The Council holds rights collectively on behalf of the Haudenosaunee." Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council

"We are exposed to acts of domestic terrorism at least twice a year. Does anyone outside our rural county care?"                                                                         "Where else in Ontario do citizens endure almost constant blockades of their roads and the railways, and have tire fires lit across their main thoroughfare as well as the bypass to the town?"                                                                               Resident, Caledonia housing development, Ontario

"[I] encourage all sides and each and every person involved to carefully consider the actions they take and the impacts those actions will have on the situation." Mark Hill, elected chief, Six Nations

OPP closed the road as a group of protesters lit tires on Highway 6 near Argyle Street in Caledonia, Ont. Lisa Polewski / 900 CHML

"The OPP took a measured, professional and safe approach while assisting with enforcement of the court injunction."                                                                      "As a result of demonstrators that then went onto Argyle Street North in Caledonia, OPP have closed Argyle Street North between Highway 6 and Braemar Avenue for public safety and to assist in maintaining traffic flow in the area. The Highway 6 by-pass between Argyle Street North and Greens Road is also closed."                     OPP Constable Rodney LeClair

Caledonia, about 10 km distant from Hamilton, Ontario, is once again in the news. An old standoff that took place earlier when a land dispute between Indigenous people in southwestern Ontario and a land developer, led to blockades, encampments, and violent protests, finally settled when the province bought out the developer and handed the land in question to the tribal authorities. Bad feelings tend not to evaporate when people living in a suburban development are threatened, face violence and intimidation as was the case with the original Caledonia protest.

Caledonia is now on repeat. A new encampment named 1492 Land Back Lane in place since mid-July, established on McKenzie Meadows -- a site where a developer has plans to build 218 homes on 25 acres, where home buyers had expectations of moving into their new homes come the fall, is the focus of the occupation of parcels of land on the acreage, leading to a halt in construction, despite a court-ordered injunction that construction could proceed.

The 2006 standoff between earlier developers and the Six Nations of the Grand River ignited protests, saw tire-burning and residents forced to run a daily blockade to leave and get back to their homes. There were incidents of violence resulting to injuries. Indigenous 'warriors' were adamant they had no intention of leaving, and the 'settlers' had better get used to it. Neither the government of the day nor the Ontario Provincial Police had any wish to apply the law, remove the threats along with the warriors and rescue residents from the dilemma they were facing.

Until the province agreed to abort the subdivision project, leaving the disputed land in the hands of the Indigenous community. A new developer, Foxgate Developments more latterly purchased a new tract of land at McKenzie Meadows through consultations with the Six Nations elected council. The elected leadership of Six Nations had agreed to support the development project according to documents filed in court. The issue now is that elected chiefs are in full agreement of the land being developed for residential purposes, while the hereditary chiefs oppose it leaving the developer to struggle between both.

Foxgate Developments' entirely legal purchase of the land in question from the democratically elected chiefs acting on behalf of the people they represent is now in limbo; a replay of the earlier drama that had degenerated into intimidation, threats and violence, where the province refused to step in and authorize the OPP to protect the lawful activity of a developer and those who had purchased homes and had every expectation of living in them without constant harassment.

Rocks could be heard hitting police vehicles as Ontario Provincial Police officers are slowly pushed back by a large group of indigenous protesters gather in Caledonia over the noon hour on Wednesday August 5, 2020. Earlier in the morning, a large contingent of police removed protesters occupying a nearby residential construction site, prompting supporters from the nearby Six Nations of the Grand River Territory to arrive. (Brian Thompson/Postmedia Network)

Earlier in the month the blockade had been cleared, arrests taking place when Ontario Provincial Police took steps to enforce a court-ordered injunction at the site permitting development of areas of the site to continue and the locked roads to be cleared. The parcels of land that had been illegally occupied were cleared to enable development to proceed. Locals had been frustrated by the lack of action by the OPP, and even at the present time, portions of area highways have been closed.

Over the summer, the cleared camp has been gradually re-occupied; the OPP dismantling overturned. These recurring, dangerous face-offs lead back to various levels of government not having concluded good-faith bargaining with the Indigenous populations, finally settling grievances and land rights after hundreds of years. The site, part of the Haldimand Tract, was given to members of the Haudenosaunee nation in 1784 in acknowledgement of their having fought for the British during the American Revolutionary War.

The courts are still struggling with details of land ownership in that tract, remaining under dispute reflecting 29 separate claims focusing on land loss and assets over the years. Little wonder Indigenous peoples are frustrated and angry, when it's long past time that any questions revolving around land claims should have reached an agreeable compromise between governments and the Indian nations.

About 10 tents dotted the site on August 12, along with the frame of a structure demonstrators have said will be used as a kitchen. (Dan Taekema/CBC)