Advocating for the Detestation and Harm Against Members of the Israeli and Jewish Communities

"[Police allege that on May 25 and September 7, 2024, Ahmad Hassan Hajahmad, 33, attended anti-Israel demonstrations in the area of Bay Street and Front Street West], where he used amplification devices to make public statements that advocated for the detestation and harm against members of the Israeli and Jewish communities [allegedly acting] for the benefit of, and in association with, Hamas."

Toronto Police Service 

 

"It is chilling that a Toronto man has been charged with acting for the benefit of and in association with Hamas, a banned terrorist organization.

"Governments and authorities across Canada must do more to confront those who are radicalizing people in our streets to support violence and promote terrorist organizations, and ensure police and national security agencies have the counter-terrorism resources they need to enforce the law and keep Canadians safe."

Noah Shack, CEO, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs 

 

"He faces a single charge arising from speaking at public demonstrations. No violence, no weapon, no one harmed. Speaking out at a protest about the killing of civilians is protected expression, not terrorism."

"The police told the media he 'advocated for detestation and harm' but he is not charged with that. We'll be looking closely at how and why this case came to be, and we're confident it won't hold up when measured against the law."

Mohamed El Rashidy, defence lawyer for the accused 

Demonstrators at pro-Palestinian rally before the U.S. Consulate in Toronto   Chris Young, CP

 

The Attorney General of Ontario and the Government of Canada provided consent to the Toronto Police to proceed with the charge against Ahmad Hassan Hajahmad, resident of Toronto. Following which this man was arrested and charged with participation in or contributing to the activities of a terrorist group. One of the very such groups on Canada's terrorist list. Following his appearance before the Ontario court of justice the Toronto Police Service issued a statement. 

"Due to a court-imposed publication ban, the Toronto Police Service is unable to provide further details related to this investigation."

"The Toronto Police Service thanks the RCMP's INSET for their support with this investigation."

"A joint investigation by the Toronto Police Service Hate Crime Unit and INSET subsequently gathered evidence supporting the allegation that the accused acted for the benefit of, and in association with, Hamas, a designated terrorist group."

Toronto Police Service

Tensions ran high on Montreal’s downtown campuses as student activists led more than 500 protesters in support of Palestine. The rally began outside of Concordia University’s Hall building and snaked through downtown towards the McGill University campus. University Affairs

 

The Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams (INSET), is led by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, comprised of especially trained members of that group along with other law enforcement and national security partners at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. The proliferation of street demonstrations led by Palestinian student groups in Canada, incited and funded by foreign actors from abroad were initiated in the wake of the 7 October 2023 Palestinian terrorist incursion into southern Israel, led by Hamas. 

 

The protesters, labelling themselves 'pro-Palestinians' cited and repeated Hamas/Palestinian claims of Israeli genocide against Palestinians even before the Israel Defense Force had entered Gaza for the distinct purpose of routing out all Hamas agents and the terrorist leaders who had planned and executed the bloody barbarism that saw Jewish girls and women gang-raped and tortured, entire families put to the torch in their homes, farming communities torn asunder, their residents butchered, and children, the elderly and infirm and other Israeli civilians in their hundreds taken hostage into Gaza.

 

The Palestine Youth Movement held a downtown rally from Yonge and Dundas Sts. to the Israeli Consulate on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, before shutting down the intersection to traffic. Photo by Caryma Sa'd /Special to the Toronto Sun

 

Marching through Canadian streets and chanting 'Globalize the Intifada', 'Final Solution!', and 'Palestine will be free from the river to the sea', the protesters engaged in wildly uncivil and unlawful actions while threatening Canadian Jews in their neighbourhoods. On college and university campuses encampments were set up to harass Jewish students and to publicize Palestinian/Hamas propaganda, slandering both Israel and the Canadian Jewish population. While the targets of these wholesale discriminatory, racial events awaited police reaction and law action, it was in vain.

 

Jewish-owned businesses were vandalized, Jewish parochial schools shot at, synagogues fired-bombed, Jews were ostracized and abandoned, while police organized themselves to keep public order translated as separating the Palestinian supporters from smaller groups of Jews that came out to counter-protest and in so doing informed those small groups that their presence comprised a threat to public safety by inciting violence from the Palestinian-support groups lionizing Hamas's bloodbath as an understandable 'reaction' to 'occupation'.

 

Investigators had executed a search warrant at a Toronto residence on March 7, 2025, and there seized multiple electronic devices, we now are informed. "Investigations into criminal offences committed at demonstrations do not end when the event is over", stated Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw. 

"As this investigation progressed, we worked closely with our INSET partners to pursue the terrorism charge warranted by the investigation."

These complex investigations underscore the importance of continuing to strengthen our Counter Terrorism Security Unit so we can identify and investigate evolving threats to public safety."

"We will continue to hold those who break the law accountable, no matter how long it takes."

Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw 

Hamas terrorists in Rafah, Gaza   (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Canada's Islamofascist Ticking Time Bomb

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s (RCMP) Federal Policing – Central Region’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) has arrested an individual in connection with an ongoing investigation into terrorism-related offences, under the Criminal Code of Canada.

On November 26, 2025, RCMP officers from Ontario’s Greater Toronto Area / Southwest INSET arrested and charged Waleed KHAN (26) of Toronto with the following:

• Between June 17, 2025 and August 17, 2025, in the City of Toronto and elsewhere in the Province of Ontario, Waleed Khan did, directly or indirectly, provide property, to fund, knowing that, in whole or in part, it would be used by or would benefit a terrorist group, namely ISIS, contrary to s. 83.03(2) of the Criminal Code;
• Between June 17, 2025 and August 17, 2025, in the City of Toronto and elsewhere in the Province of Ontario, Waleed Khan did, directly or indirectly, provide property, to wit social media accounts, knowing that, in whole or in part, they would be used by or would benefit a terrorist group, namely ISIS, contrary to s. 83.03(2) of the Criminal Code;
• Between June 17, 2025 and August 17, 2025, in the City of Toronto and elsewhere in the Province of Ontario, Waleed Khan did participate in the activities of a terrorist group by providing property to be used to carry out terrorist activity or benefit any person facilitating or carrying out terrorist activity, contrary to s. 83.18(1) of the Criminal Code;
• Between June 17, 2025 and August 17, 2025, in the City of Toronto and elsewhere in the Province of Ontario, Waleed Khan did participate in the activities of a terrorist group by making himself, in response to instructions from any of the persons who constitute a terrorist group, available to facilitate or commit a terrorism offence or an act or omission outside Canada that, if committed in Canada, would be a terrorism offence, contrary to s. 83.18(1) of the Criminal Code;
• Between June 17, 2025 and August 17, 2025, in the City of Toronto and elsewhere in the Province of Ontario, Waleed Khan did facilitate terrorist activity by providing property used to carry out terrorist activity or benefiting any person facilitating or carrying out terrorist activity, contrary to s. 83.19 of the Criminal Code;
• Between June 17, 2025 and August 17, 2025, in the City of Toronto and elsewhere in the Province of Ontario, Waleed Khan did commit an indictable offence, to wit conspiracy to commit murder, for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a terrorist group, contrary to s. 83.2 of the Criminal Code;
• Between June 17, 2025 and August 17, 2025, in the City of Toronto and elsewhere in the Province of Ontario, Waleed Khan did conspire with persons known and unknown to commit murder, contrary to s. 465(1)(a) of the Criminal Code.

 

"We have arrested three individuals for offences targeting women and members of the Jewish community."

Toronto Chief of Police Myron Demkiw 

 

"What began as armed, coordinated attempts to kidnap women led to significant arrests and charges, stopping a dangerous escalation of hate-motivated crimes and terrorism across the Greater Toronto Area and beyond."

Peel Regional Police chief Nisham Duraiappah 

 

"The evidence gathered expanded the scope of the investigation to include additional offences motivated by hate -- particularly targeting women and members of the Jewish community."

"Investigators also uncovered links to terrorism, prompting a separate but parallel RCMP investigation."

Toronto Police Service 

Waleed Khan, Osman Azizov and Fahad Sadaat are facing a combined total of 79 charges according to police, including attempted kidnapping with a firearm and sexual assault with a weapon. Khan is also accused of funding ISIS and aiding terrorist activity. (Toronto Police Service/YouTube)

 

Finally, action from Toronto police to apprehend Islamist threats to the Canadian Jewish community. Three young men acting out the premises behind the organized, ongoing 'pro-Palestinian' protests that have been a regular part of public life in Toronto where the pathology of Muslim antisemitism is on full display, arrogating to themselves the right of 'free speech' that threatens the safety and security of the Jewish residents of the city and beyond. Heretofore, threats and implied violence, along with defacing of Jewish properties, harassment of Jewish schoolchildren have gone 'unnoticed' by authorities.

 

Policing agents at all levels of government have demonstrated a soft touch approach to the vociferous hate crimes besmirching the streets of Toronto, the grim reality of Jewish neighbourhoods having to put up with weekly incursions of hate-mongering antisemites stoked by the slanders and incitements of such groups as students4palestine and toronto4palestine marching to shouts of 'globalize the intifada' and 'final solution!', both readily interpreted as the butchery of Jews, reflecting the purpose of the 7 October Hamas atrocities.

 

Anti-Israel protesters were "parading in front of a synagogue founded by Holocaust survivors to protest a foreign conflict," on Nov. 16, said MP Melissa Lantsman. The Lodzer Centre Congregation was founded by Polish Holocaust survivors in the 1950s. (Credit: Google Maps)

 

Toronto and Peel police services, alongside the federal policing agency, RCMP, have finally come out in strength on the basis of investigations revealing the Islamic State connection and plans by three of Toronto's Muslim youth contingent to stalk, harass, kidnap and sexually assault Jewish girls and women; their part in the 'globalizing the intifada' that just captured news out of Australia with the shooting deaths of 15 Australian Jews by two committed Islamofascists whose ambition was realized on the world stage.

 

The oldest of the three arrested is no amateur at the game, having previously been arrested by the RCMP on a number of terrorism charges including taking part in a terrorist group actions, facilitating terrorist activity, terrorist financing and conspiracy to commit murder. Yet this enterprising young Muslim jihadist was freed on bail with conditions that he promptly broke, to continue with his Islamist agenda. With a rapsheet of such criminal terrorist charges the question is why he was set loose to continue his terrorist activities to begin with. 

 

The later Toronto charges are inclusive of kidnapping attempted kidnapping with firearms, conspiracy to commit sexual assault and hostage taking classed as hate-motivated extremism. Two young women in Mississauga were targeted when three masked men pulled up in an Audi SUV armed with a handgun, a rifle and knife, to chase the women in an attempt to kidnap them. When a passerby interrupted their activities the men fled. The month previous, a woman was approached by three men, one with a handgun, another with a knife in the Don Mills area of Toronto attempting to force her into a vehicle, but fled when a passing motorist stopped.

 

Vehicle flees following attempted abduction, June 24, 2025. Peel police

 

Khan, the oldest of the three was arrested on August 18 while Peel police searched for two more suspects whom their would-be victims described as males of Middle Eastern origin. Eventually Osman Azizov, 18, and Fahad Sadaat, 19, were located, charged and arrested. Searching the Toronto home of Khan, police found two loaded prohibited firearms, an AR-style rifle capable of automatic fire, and a pistol equipped with prohibited high-capacity magazines, and 110 rounds of ammunition, while the man was on probation for previous violent offences, and prohibited from possessing firearms.  

"The details of the investigation indicate a grave threat, involving the Islamic State and attempts to target women and Jewish Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area."

"This goes far beyond the safety of any one group. It is a matter of national security and public safety."

"There is a ticking time bomb in our country that our leaders must confront before it's too late."

"We need to be keenly aware that there are people pushing extremist agendas, promoting violence, promoting hate, and that is having deadly consequences around the world."

"If we don't take it seriously in Canada, take measures to stop it, it will be too late." 

Noah Shack, chief executive, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs 

 

The Failed Canadian Justice System

"Where are the judges who make these decisions?"

"Our members are held accountable for the decisions they make and the actions they take."

"Why isn't anyone else?" 

Toronto Police Association

 

"What we expect from the Crown -- what you and the public should expect -- is that the Crown is a zealous advocate for justice."

"Unfortunately, so far, we have not seen that in this case."

Megan Hankeich, executive director, legal services, Edmonton Police Service

 

"This decision is not only profoundly disrespectful to Constable Scott's family and colleagues, it is a slap in the face to every police officer who puts their life on the line each and every shift to keep our communities safe."

National Police Federation 

 

"...This incident comes just days after RCMP Members in Nanaimo apprehended a subject who was threatening residents with a machete while also out on bail, as well as a drive-by shooting in Coquitlam last week believed to involve suspects known to police."

National Police Federation

 

"Catch and release" justice has infuriated Canadian police agencies for years, and the situation has more latterly become a full-blown crisis of crime and criminals being let off the hook of responsibility by a lenient system of justice. Police do their jobs, trying to protect the public from sociopaths, psychopaths and the criminal elements that invariably infect every society, only to see soft-on-crime judges rule that those committing serious crimes are still eligible for bail and release. While prison parole boards opt for parole and early release for those committing themselves to terrorizing whole communities.

 

Appeals by police services to the federal government to harden bail for repeat offenders have fallen on deaf ears. The previous Conservative government had imposed hard bail conditions for criminal offenders, only to see follow-up Liberal legislation reverse the decisions made by their predecessors. Rising crime rates led to the Conservative move in an effort to make sociopaths understand there are consequences to their violent actions. Since the Liberal softening of consequences crime rates have soared in Canada.

 

In the past decade, identity-based justice and a distaste for punishment has created a regime that allows chronic offenders to walk free  Tristin Hopper, National Post

 

The Toronto Police Association was infuriated in a case where a 12-year-old on a release order took part in the beating death of a homeless man in Toronto. In Edmonton, police slammed Crown prosecutors for their failure in pursuing murder charges for a woman who killed an eight-year-old Indigenous girl. The child's whereabouts were unknown in 2023, missing from her Alberta home until her body was discovered in the back of a pickup truck stuffed into a hockey bag.

 

Crown prosecutors agreed to a 'solution' where the accused killer of the girl would plead guilty to manslaughter thus avoiding a murder prosecution. Provincial officials were called by Edmonton police to annul the agreement; while details of the case had been placed under a publication ban shield, outraged police threatened to publicly disclose key details of the case if the plea agreement proceeded. 

 

Two months ago the Parole Board of Canada released a convicted police-killer 17 years into his 25-year capital sentence. Convicted of first-degree murder for the 2007 shooting death of RCMP Constable Douglas Scott in Kimmirut, Nunavut, Pingoatuk Kolola was given an early release. Constable Scott was the sole police officer in Kimmirut. His death resulted in eliminating single-member detachments in northern communities. The parole board can approve unescorted prison releases or day parole, despite first-degree mandatory 25-years incarceration.

 

In the face of rising crime rates, Canadian police have all but abandoned traditional agreement on Canadian justice policies; they are now more vocal in calling for measures to tighten bail and release conditions for chronic offenders; it is their job as professional defenders of the public weal to view public safety and security as society's first order of business. Their end of the justice system is rooting out crime, apprehending offenders and turning them over to the justice system. Closure cannot be found when the justice system simply releases chronic offenders with no imposed penalty, leading to re-offence.

 

OPP Const. Grzegorz Pierzchala was killed in action two days after Christmas, around 2:30 p.m., while responding to a black truck in the ditch near Hagersville, Ont. (Submitted by Bill Dickson)

 

The 2022 murder of Ontario Provincial Police constable Grzegorz Pierzchala and its outcome was the initial spur to Canadian police calling for justice reform in a loud, collective voice. Shot and killed during a routine roadside check by a chronic offender with a lengthy history of violent offences, Constable Pierzchala's murderer was given bail owing to his Indigenous background. Justice Harrison Arrell who presided over the case cited an "obligation" to consider that the accused was "a status Aboriginal". 

 

The response was police agencies calling out for tightened bail conditions; a reversal of Liberal changes that saw judges such as Arrell required to consider the "marginalized" identity of criminal defendants in their final judgements. According to OPP commissioner Thomas Carique, strict bail conditions would have resulted in victims like Constable Pierzchala being spared their lives.

 

A year ago, the National Police Federation addressed the "catch and release" format so regularly employed by the justice system, calling for its cessation following horrific stranger attacks in downtown Vancouver when a man with over 60 documented police interventions slashed two random pedestrians, killing one, severing another's hand.

 

"Over the last two years, we've seen serious incidents related to our bail system that have put the lives of police service members and our communities in danger", pointed out Mark Baxter, president, Police Association of Ontario, his statement co-signed by the Ontario Provincial Police Association. This, following a routine police check in Toronto where an all-out gang shootout occurred. Leading three Ontario police associations to call for "immediate action" on bail reform. 

 

Police unions in Toronto, Surrey, B.C., and Peel Region in Ontario accused the Liberal government of ignoring a deadly gun crime situation, driven by illegal firearms smuggled into Canada from the United States. "What difference does your handgun ban make when 85 percent of guns seized by our members can be sourced to the United States?" they asked, responding to then-prime minister Justin Trudeau self-congratulating the success of his government's gun bans, and a "freeze" on sale or transfer of legal handguns. 

 

Pallbearers carry the casket of OPP Const. Grzegorz “Greg” Pierzchala after his funeral in Barrie, Ont. on Jan. 4, 2022. Randall McKenzie, the man charged with first-degree murder in the young officer’s death, was deemed violent, unpredictable and likely to reoffend — yet was out on bail. Photo by Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press

 

"You're On Your Own" ... "Trust Me, You're On Your Own"

"He's just terrorized the whole community. Everybody's always on edge with this guy around."

"I know how long it's going to take for the cops to come. It's going to take them15, 20 minutes. And a lot can happen in that time."

"I pulled up into the front of his house ... and before I could even get my door open, he comes flying out of there with the axe again, and just hit the passenger side door where my son was sitting and just missed him by fractions of an inch."

"The handle of the splitting maul stopped it from going in further. Jordan didn't even see it coming because it was kind of in his blind spot."

"It should be attempted murder. If you'd seen how that axe hit that truck .. if he connected, that was it."

"Even when the cops were putting him in the back of the car, he says, 'Darin, I'm going to kill you and your family' -- right in front of the cop. He says, 'I'm gonna be out tomorrow'. He's smart enough to know the law because he's been around it long enough."

Darin Swanson, 60, resident of Masset, northern coast inlet, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia

Haida Gwaii   Archipelago in British Columbia

 

Darin Swanson's son Jordan Holt drove over to the beach at Masset on Thursday evening, planning to watch the sunset. A vehicle pulled up beside him on his way. The driver shouted for him to pull over. So he stopped, under the impression that this was a driver looking for help. When he stepped out of his truck the driver of the second vehicle ran up to him swinging a splitting maul -- a top-heavy axe used to split firewood. The first swing nicked him on the hip, and when he attempted to deflect the second swing he bent his thumb, the axe smashing into the driver's side window on the open door of his Ford truck.

 

Wood splitting maul

Jordan hopped back into his truck, the driver shouting at him to get the truck out of his town, hitting the passenger side window as he drove off. Jordan called the police, then he called his father, a member of he Haida Gwaii hereditary chiefs council.  They both drove in Darin's truck to the suspect's property, intending to block the driveway to ensure the attacker remained until the arrival of police. After the first several swings of that maul, both men tackled their attacker to the ground, and held him until he was taken into custody by police.

 

The RCMP issued a statement: "Police determined the man needed treatment at the hospital, where he was released on strict conditions and will be required to attend court in October." Needless to say, that statement struck Swanson and his son, leaving his family on "high alert". "[Jordan], he's got a shotgun ready to go", said Darin of his son, preparing himself for another possible confrontation by his attacker. It is not only these two men who are increasingly frustrated with the situation; it is a sentiment expressed by the entire community.

 

Police were called four times in recent weeks by other victims of the attacker in separate assaults. Police, moreover suggested to Swanson that he and his son may have instigated the incident. "They gaslight you. they make it your problem. The cop even said, 'Well, why the hell did your son get out of the truck?' Because he thought somebody might have needed help. So it's my son's fault that he got attacked by an axe? The whole situation sucks ... You're on your own. Trust me, you are on your own."

 

Swanson predicted that without some kind of action, someone will be hurt or killed. "It's gone to a whole new level. It's going to be him, or whoever. His own safety is in jeopardy now ... I don't know if [police] are scared of this guy or they're just tired of him. That will be the conclusion of it. It's him or it's us. That's what it's going to come down to, and I'm going to protect my family." 

 

A photo of the truck of Jordan Holt, which was allegedly smashed by an axe-wielding man in Masset, Haida Gwaii, last week. Photo by Lori Holt /Facebook

 

"That night, I went to bed with a pipe, a knife and bear spray by my bed. I went through the house, made sure all my windows were locked. I made sure all the doors were locked."

"...We just took all kinds of measures, and I couldn't sleep until four in the morning, thinking, 'Is this guy going to walk out of the hospital and burn my house down'?"

Darin Swanson

 

Haida Gwaii, B.C. Heaven on Earth

 

China's Political Subversion Agenda : A Real and Present Danger

"Secret [for] Canadian Eyes Only." 

"Triads [covers the activities of Chinese organized crime groups including within Canada]."

"Intelligence Services of the People's Republic of China [details the methodology of Beijing's agents and their infiltration activities in Canada; and] The PRCIS and the Triads [analyzes the connection between the People's Republic of China's Intelligence Service and organized crime]."

RCMP/CSIS Joint investigation report

An early draft of this report had been leaked before now but was controversially discredited by Canada’s Security Intelligence Review Committee. Photo by Government of Canada

Evidence was found by Canada's domestic spy agency CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) and its federal police force, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), and spelled out in detail in a secret report both agencies contributed to, of foreign agents infiltrating Canada to "influence ... important leaders" and "neutralize" any criticism of China. This is a report, recently surrendered for public scrutiny after many redactions, that had been composed a quarter-century ago. 

The report had been finalized in 1998 and is now partially declassified; a report resulting from a joint RCMP-CSIS investigation called 'Project Sidewinder' that set out to examine links between the Chinese government intelligence agencies and Chinese organized crime groups. While an early draft of the report had been leaked at one time it had been discredited by Canada's Security Intelligence Review Committee.

"They [Chinese agents] attempt to secure access to, influence with, and the support of important leaders, officials and sectors of the population, particularly with the Chinese communities."

"The PRCIS also seeks to mute criticism of the Chinese government in Canada and to identify and neutralize political forces in Canada opposed to Beijing's policies."

"Canada is seen as an excellent source of indigenous and foreign advanced technology both open and restricted [ie. proprietary, classified or embargoed], with which to expedite the modernization of China's economy."

RCMP/CSIS Joint investigation report

The report, entitled "Allegations of Co-operation Between the Triads and the Government of the People's Republic of China", describes concerns relating to Chinese political interference in Canada, concerns that have re-emerged recently through intelligence leaks alerting the public. Accusations that the current Liberal government of Justin Trudeau continued to ignore such warnings in its zeal to sign a free trade agreement with China, led finally to the launch of a public inquiry as a result of pressure exerted on the government by parliamentary opposition critics.

In the late 1990s, relations between Canada and the Chinese government were warm. Here, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is seen with China's Xi Jinping during a G20 summit in Bali last year. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

The report is 26 detailed pages in length, incorporating three main sections. Issues of concern were possible cooperation between Chinese criminal groups and the Chinese government; Chinese political interference in Canada; and China's intelligence services activities. The final conclusion reached by the report was that Chinese intelligence services actively attempted to recruit business and political leaders in Canada to influence Canada's political activities dating from the 1990s. 

"PRCIS front companies and Canadian companies have been used to slip PRCIS [People's Republic of China Intelligence Services] personnel into Canada in delegations."

"The thousands of Chinese students and delegates who come to Canada each year and are hampered by few restrictions in moving about the country, pose the greatest Chinese intelligence threat."

RCMP/CSIS Joint investigation report

There was also the highlighted issue of China's intelligence services actively seeking Canadian intellectual property to be handed over to Chinese organizations. Noted in the report as well was China's use of "mass line" intelligence gathering with the use of a network of informed Chinese nationals tasked to travel abroad for the express purpose of gathering useful intelligence information.

Old intelligence reports accused Beijing of using criminal triads to do their dirty work outside mainland China. In one recent example, criminal groups are suspected of beating pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, seen here in 2019. (Ming Ko/AP)

Former national security analyst Stephanie Carvin commented on China's pursuit of a similar agenda in 1999, similar to what it is pursuing at present, irrespective of different leaders of the Chinese Communist Government in the last 25 years. When the report was submitted to government 25 years ago, then-Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien dismissed allegations of political interference. It would, if given credence, interfere with his personal plans to do business in China which his series of trade missions had set the groundwork for.

In addition, the Project Sidewinder report confirmed that Chinese criminal organizations were actively working in Canada. "this country is an excellent place for them to invest in companies, launder profits derived from criminal activities, secure a portion of their assets outside Hong Kong and obtain a Canadian passport".

Media reports earlier in 2023 informed by intelligence source leaks speak of widespread efforts by the Chinese government to interfere in recent 2019 and 2021 elections in Canada. Underhanded work such as misleading social media to reflect a Chinese agenda, and WeChat posts in Chinese aimed at influencing Canada's huge Chinese diaspora communities, in a deliberate mission to have the Liberals returned to government while demonizing their opposition Conservatives. 

Former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu says he was targeted for attacks by the Chinese government in the 2021 election after he proposed creating a registry of foreign agents, like some other countries have. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

"I would say what's different now is scale."

"The other thing that's really coming in since 1999, I would say is the cyber angle [China's online disinformation and computerized intelligence-gathering]."

"I don't think this was ever forgotten [keeping an intelligence services eye on China in the 1990s of subversive activities]."

"I'm just not sure the extent people were paying attention until recently."

Stephanie Carvin, associate professor, Carleton University, former national security analyst

A Chinese man cycles past a billboard in front of Beijing's Forbidden City before a 2001 visit by then-Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien. At the time, concerned U.S. officials were secretly probing Chinese operations in Canada. (Reuters)

Mass Murder at James Smith Cree Nation

"This tragedy that happened here on our land, it's all because of drugs and alcohol."

"The drug problem we have here is rampant. It's gone out of control."

Ivor Wayne Burns, James Smith Cree Nation

"[It is tragic], the unspeakable violence that claimed the lives of innocent people."

"This is the destruction we face when harmful illegal drugs invade our communities, and we demand all authorities to take direction from the Chiefs and Councils and their membership to create safer and healthier communities for our people."

Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby Cameron

"We were supposed to gather this evening at the gym, but we're on lockdown for the safety of everybody, so we could not gather."

"This is the safest way that we could reach you people [live streaming a prayer service on Facebook on Sunday night]."

"Lord, grant us strength to forgive. Grant us strength to get through this together."

Reverend Wilfred Sanderson, James Smith Cree Nation

An RCMP vehicle drives past a police road block set up in James Smith Cree Nation, Sask., on Tuesday. RCMP sent an alert Tuesday for residents of the reserve to shelter in place due to a possible sighting of the accused in Sunday's deadly mass stabbings. (Heywood Yu/The Canadian Press)

 

One of two brothers who rampaged through James Smith Cree Nation, a settlement of about two thousand, and nearby 200 population Weldon, was found in a heavily grassed area , dead of wounds sustained two days after 31-year-ld Damien Sanderson and his 30-year-old brother Myles rampaged through the two communities, attacking people at random, stabbing to death ten people and wounding another 18. 

The younger of the two remains at large, a fugitive, with RCMP believing he may be heavily wounded and alerting the area that he may be seeking medical assistance. Wounded or not, they stress, he remains a violent threat to anyone he may come across. Predawn Sunday morning the brothers set out on a mission of terror, by stabbing people to death. In such small close-knit communities where many are related and almost all know one another, although the attacks may have been random, the brothers knew those they stabbed to death.

 

Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore, centre, speaks while Regina police Chief Evan Bray looks on during a news conference in Regina. Police say the suspects, pictured on the right, are brothers. (Michael Bell/The Canadian Press)

 

"A Dangerous Persons Alert is being issued by the Melfort RCMP after several calls of stabbings on the James Smith Cree Nation."

"We have located ten deceased individuals and are investigating 13 locations."

"[He -- Myles Sanderson --] may have sustained injuries This has not been confirmed but we do want the public to know this because there is a possibility he may seek medical attention."

Even if he is injured, it doesn't mean he is not still dangerous."

Rhonda Blackmore, assistant RCMP commissioner, Saskatchewan

Speculation is that the younger brother and his older sibling may have turned on one another, that Myles Sanderson killed his brother Damien. Armed with knives the two men began kicking in doors before 6:00 a.m. in the community they lived in, the James Smith Cree Nation. Whoever they found inside the homes they invaded they stabbed to death, then moved on to the next house.

Children begged the killers to stop when they witnessed grandparents stabbed before their eyes. Children were themselves stabbed attempting to protect their mothers. The adult grandson of 77-year-old widower, Wes Petterson, a beloved resident of Weldon, a 30-minute drive from the James Smith Cree Nation, cowered in the basement of their home while his grandfather was being stabbed to death.

Just as the two brothers would have been familiar with all the residents of the two communities, those residents would have been quite familiar with the two mass murderers. Both had lengthy criminal records. Both had been imprisoned for violent crimes. Both were addicted to alcohol and to drugs. Both represented a living danger to the communities and both proved that concern was not misdirected.

They have left two communities in disbelief and in deep mourning over their losses.

 

Saskatchewan RCMP continue to search for Myles Sanderson, who is six-foot-one and 240 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. RCMP say Myles may not be wearing glasses and his current appearance may not exactly resemble this photo. (Saskatchewan RCMP)

 

The two brothers, in their early morning killing spree, struck at 13 different locations. In the duo's killing of ten people and injuring at least 18 others they were responsible for the worst mass-killing in the history of modern Saskatchewan. A manhunt for the two began soon after the 911 distress call was received and the RCMP appeared on the scene. They believed the brothers to have escaped on foot but soon found they had stolen a vehicle causing the police to dispatch a wider area alert.

Three medevac helicopters began ferrying the wounded from James Smith Cree Nation to Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital which called a Code Orange signalling a mass casualty incident. Coincidentally on Monday another emergency alert warning of shots fired at Witchekan Lake First Nation, roughly 200 kilometres west of James Smith went out. "At this time, it is not believed to be connected to the James Smith Cree Nation investigation", the alert read, as people were warned to shelter in place.

A police officer speaks with someone outside the James Smith Cree Nation Tuesday. There was a heavy police presence on James Smith after a possible sighting of the remaining suspect in the stabbings that occurred on the reserve and the nearby town of Weldon, Sask. (Lars Hagberg/AFP via Getty Images)

Canada's Conscience Pay-Outs to Islamists

"In the aftermath of Sepember 11, 2001, Slahi was again arrested in Mauritania at the behest of the United States."

"He was kidnapped and transported against his will on a CIA-orchestrated rendition plane to Jordan, where he was interrogated and tortured for eight months, before being rendered to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan and then onwards to Guantanamo Bay."

$35-Million lawsuit Statement of Claim

 

"Canadians need to understand this is a Canadian story."

"Without Canada I'd never have been kidnapped. Without Canada I'd never have [been] tortured."

Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Mauritanian

 

"You provide information, which results in someone's detention."

"And then even though you're not the party detaining them -- you're not the one waterboarding them -- when you receive that information back from torture and you act on it, you're justifying it."

Jody Brown, lawyer represent Slahi 

Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who wrote a best-selling book about his experiences in the U.S. military prison, is shown in October 2016, after he was reunited with his family in his native Mauritania. He was detained for 14 years and is now suing the Canadian government for its alleged role in his detention. (AFP/Getty Images)

 

That the United States has enemies is indisputable. The sole global power that is the United States of America, for good or for ill, involves itself in foreign conflicts, has collegial relations with some, and is clearly antagonistic toward others. At a time when radical Islam became a threat to be reckoned with, rising in Saudi Arabia among Wahhabist extremists and military arms of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as terrorist groups fostered by the Islamic Republic of Iran, all of which considered the West and the U.S. in particular, enemies of Islam, it isn't surprising that symbolic structures of that global power were targeted for destruction and thousands of innocent lives were lost.

The al-Qaeda-originated plan to attack the World Trade Centers in New York and the Pentagon, along with a failed passenger flight meant for Washington but ending up in a Pennsylvania field, was a product of Saudi Arabia. Where the official Islamist sect of Wahhabism gave impetus to Osama bin Laden's terror group that carried out the surprise attacks of 9/11. An event that saw great celebration in parts of the Islamic world, and brought shock and horror to the world of the West. Little wonder that horror of vibrant, hateful terrorism made the world take notice of violent, deadly Islamist terrorism.

There can have been little surprise anywhere that the U.S. set out on a mission to stop further atrocities being committed by al-Qaeda, and in the process sought those who might have been involved in the attacks, along with others who took inspiration from it, and went on to commit other, similar mass murders. Suspicion under such circumstances would naturally fall on all young Muslim men in the freshness of the horrifying deaths of almost three thousand innocent people who happened to be working in the targeted buildings.

In the past, Canada agreed to settle lawsuits brought by Muslim men held under suspicion and incarcerated and tortured because of perceived links to Islamist terrorist groups. The lawsuits contended that Canadian investigative authorities had erred in collaborating with their Intelligence partners in other countries, most notably the United States at a time when it was locating men suspected of links with terror, rounding them up and incarcerating them under special emergency provisions beyond normal law and justice.

Now, a man who had lived in Montreal for close to two months has filed a $35-million lawsuit against the government of Canada for its part in the alleged claim of responsibility for his incarceration for 14 years in Guantanamo prison. That it was Canada's 'contribution' to intelligence-gathering that implicated him as a possible terrorist leading to his imprisonment and torture. National security and intelligence agencies have the responsibility to investigate potential threats and identify them for the purpose of thwarting attacks.

In so doing, exchanging information with a collegial power, an action considered normal cooperation by those agencies with the responsibility to be alert and prevent violent attacks that had become increasingly common throughout Europe and North America, by Islamists dedicated to wreaking havoc, destruction and death purportedly doing the will of Islam where the Koran identifies non-Muslim countries as countries of 'war', considering Islamic nations to be countries of 'peace'. An inversion in fact, which justifies Islamic nations warring on non-Muslim countries to bring 'peace'; aka Islam to them.

Authorities with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police began questioning Sllahi about ties to Ahmed Ressam, the millennium bomber who had planned an attack on Los Angeles airport. The link between the two was superficial; attendance at the same Montreal mosque. The Federal Court of Canada ruled that Slahi was not entitled to intelligence documents as being neither a citizen nor subject to legal proceedings in Canada.

Because of the surveillance he was under in Canada, he decided to return to West Africa where he was arrested in Senegal and interrogated there by American officials. When he was released from prison in 2015 he was ordered restricted to movement within Mauritania. It was not until 2020 he was able to leave the country. Guantanamo filings for his interrogation were based on a telephone conversation thought to be coded. According to Mostafa Farooq of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, the perceived Canadian complicity in Slahi's detainment and torture was a result of Islamophobia,

Given the circumstances, the horrendous events of 9/11, the terrorist attacks in the U.K., in Spain, in France and elsewhere, it is little wonder that young Muslim men were viewed with suspicion. All the more so that many young Muslim men living in Europe and North America saw fit to answer the call to Islamist jihad, travelling to the Middle East to join terrorist groups fighting against the West. The cautionary principle to know your enemy does lead to stereotyping inevitably. On the other hand, some of Islam's faithful distinguished themselves as jihadists; little wonder they were singled out for special attention; the circumstances and the times demanded it.

This Nov. 30, 2017 photo shows former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mohamedou Ould Slahi speaking about his experiences under CIA interrogation via video from his home in Mauritania to an anti-torture group in Raleigh, NC. (AP Photo/Emery Dalesio)

From Terrorist to 'Model Citizen' : Past Error in Judgement

"I'm just so thankful. You will not be sorry."

"I know that you're taking a risk and this is going to be highly mediatized, but in front of all these people and in front of God -- I know I said I was not a religious man, but I do believe in God -- I will not disappoint you."

"You will never hear from me again."

Shareef Abdelhaleem, member of 'Toronto 18' terrorist group

Muhammad Shareef Abdelhaleem. Photo by File

Now 45 years of age, imprisoned for the past 14 years, Abdelhaleem has been granted six months of day parole so he may study in Montreal.There, in an enclosed facility, he will be living for that period. It was noted that the halfway house that had accepted him as a resident later withdrew its support. No reason for that withdrawal was given, but it should have been. Similarly, the Correctional Service of Canada did not recommend this man's release from prison, yet at the hearing, the Parole Board of Canada took its own advice, assenting to parole.

Cautionary conditions accompany that parole; Shareef Abdelhaleem  must not associate with anyone involved in crime or radicalized activity. He must not travel to Toronto without permission from parole officials, and must not accept a position of responsibility "In any spiritual or religious activities or groups that share the same beliefs, this includes the mosque", enumerated the parole board. As well he was ordered to take part in de-radicalization treatment and was limited to ownership of a single cellphone and one SIM card which parole officials were to be given access.

A total of 18 people were arrested in sweeping national security raids in that took place in 2006. They stood accused of plans to detonate powerful truck bombs at key financial, military and intelligence targets. The group had formulated other plans, to storm Parliament, the CBC, to take hostages, and to behead the prime minister. A series of plans which, when revealed publicly sent a deep shiver of shock through the Canadian community.

A young Muslim-Canadian had infiltrated the group to gather human intelligence and evidence, alerting the RCMP to details of the plot, plot rehearsals and where the explosive materials could be found. He was a paid informer without whose cooperation much of the information that ended up in court might never have been gathered. While those of the 18-member terrorist group that were tried and convicted were imprisoned, the young informer completed his university education and is now a professor of terrorism studies at a Canadian university.

Shareef Abdelhaleem was the last of the Toronto 18 to be tried and convicted, named a "key architect" of the bomb plot, given a life sentence without opportunity for parole for a decade ('life sentence' under Canadian law). At his hearing, he stated that he had spent those 14 years in prison ruminating on the actions that brought him to that state. He had been a software developer earning well, spending it all. He drove a BMW convertible, and spent thousands on clothing. "I felt like my presence in the universe had no meaning."

 

"I felt like an overgrown, fat pig whose main purpose in life was to consume more, more, more. And I looked at the whole world around me and there is disasters and suffering." Which was when he decided to take Islam more seriously and began attending mosque, where he met Zakaria Amara, the ringleader of the plot. "He presented what I now think is a ridiculous plot to try to change the world. It seemed like a very fast way to bring about change. It seemed like the right thing to do, I hate to say, back then. Definitely the wrong thing to do from all angles; moral, political, practical, anything. Thank God we were stopped", he said.

 

He may have spent that 14 years in prison carefully rehearing precisely all the notes he had to hit to impress a parole board. He thinks, he went on, of the people of Toronto who woke to read the newspapers "and thought their city was under attack". He feels particularly bad for those who worked in the targeted buildings and read that they might have been victims of a deadly plot. Interesting he could empathize, but would have proceeded with the plot had the opportunity not been interrupted.

 

His time in prison was unpleasant, he said, describing how socially isolating it was for him, shunned by his plotter companions, (who presumably continued to cling to their terrorism obsession, while he did not?)  refusing prison culture and shunned by other prisoners as well, as a result. He had been assaulted physically on several occasions. And never had he made any attempt to radicalize, to convert, or to influence other inmates negatively. The parole hearing took place remotely, audio only. 

 

Temporary release from Cowansville Institution.  

Adrian Humphreys/National Post

There had been a previous parole hearing, at which time his request for parole had met with denial. That was when he was asked if he remains a terrorist, and responded "Not any more, I would rather die than reoffend", leading the questioner to further ask whether he was making reference to martyrdom or suicide attacks. "No, no, it's just an expression, that's not what I meant", he hastily said. On this second parole hearing, he promised: "I will be the model citizen". 

 

That, he promised to be, for to remain in prison would be to 'wither away', a condition  to be avoided at all costs; he would prefer a dreadful illness be visited upon himself rather than to reoffend -- he promised.

Selling Out Canada's Intelligence Operations

"The allegations are that he obtained, stored, processed sensitive information, we believe with the intent to communicate it to people that he shouldn't be communicating it to."

Crown Prosecutor John MacFarlane

"A potential Chinese spy infiltrated the highest levels of the Canadian intelligence service, which is part of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The implications extend far beyond the borders of Canada."

"Canada was warned in 2013 that unless it tightened security procedures, Five Eyes would withhold the shared classified information."

Retired CIA official, American Military News

 

"The intelligence that Mr. Ortis had stolen and sold was largely the work product of the NICC [National Intelligence Co-ordination Centre] employees he had targeted. The work product transmitted by Mr. Ortis to third parties contains information which identifies the plaintiffs personally."

"[The analysts] were subject to an investigation into whether they were complicit in Mr. Ortis's actions, which caused them distress and  further isolated them in the workplace."

"While ultimately cleared, they were provided no information about the level of investigation to which they were subjected, including whether they were subject to any monitoring and whether any monitoring was ongoing." 

"The plaintiffs have received no reassurances or transparency around the degree to which the RCMP may have been or may still be intruding on their privacy in order to 'clear' them."   

Civil suit filed against the RCMP by three analysts who worked under Ortis at the NICC

Ortis walks away from the courthouse in Ottawa with his lawyer Ian Carter, left, after being granted bail on Oct. 22, 2019. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

 

The unsteady reputation of the present-day Royal Canadian Mounted Police suffered a head blow in September of 2019 when its highest-level civilian intelligence official was arrested on charges of revealing secret level intelligence to an unnamed recipient while planning to send on top secret Canadian intelligence shared with other members of the international intelligence group called the Five Eyes, to a foreign agency.

 

That startling revelation of espionage at the highest reaches of Canada's intelligence agencies has damaged reliance on Canadian integrity and law-enforcement with other members of the Five Eyes military-intelligence alliance, consisting of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Since his arrest, 48-year-old Cameron Ortis and his benighted covert actions have been shrouded in secrecy. 

 

Originally from British Columbia, Mr. Ortis became an expert in cybersecurity; in 2015 appointed director general of the RCMP's National Intelligence Coordination Centre. He had held high-level security clearance as the highest-ranking civilian on the force with access to information on anti-terrorism and crime-busting operations globally, shared with all members of the Five Eyes alliance. 

 

Among his many credits, Mr. Ortis also spoke fluent Mandarin, a talent that might have been viewed as a bonus in his position, but which is now considered a lead in his private sympathies. Since Mr. Ortis's imprisonment, very little has been released about the man, his position with the RCMP, the long investigation and search for incriminating evidence launched by the RCMP against one of their own. But it has been revealed that while he was under investigation no move was made to remove him from office.

 

Appointed director general in April 2016, he was a civilian analyst in 2007 with the RCMP post-completion of a PhD at the University of British Columbia. He had held positions in the Operations Research and National Security Criminal Investigations Directorate at the RCMP previously, so he was well versed in RCMP operations. He now faces eight counts under the Security of Information Act, along with breach of trust.

 

All the while the international investigation was in motion, Mr. Ortis was permitted to remain in his highly sensitive position, privy to every secret file, all intelligence received routinely by Canada as a member of the Five Eyes group. And during that period, 2018 to 2019, he is held to have accessed, obtained and retained guarded information. He is as well held to have possessed a "device apparatus or software useful for concealing the content of information or for surreptitiously communicating, obtaining or retaining information".

Although Canadians know little of the investigation and the man whose covert exploits have put Canada's security and intelligence rating with its colleague countries at risk, foreign media appear to have accessed information on the matter. An article appeared in American Military News that a retired CIA official wrote, spelling out just how seriously the mismanagement by Canada's federal government is viewed internationally.

In 2013 an earlier security scandal had erupted when an officer with the Canadian Navy was revealed to have sold intelligence of a classified nature to a foreign body. At that time Canada was given fair warning that its security lapse was seen as troubling to its place of trust within the foreign intelligence community. From 2015 to 2019 as director general with the RCMP Cameron Ortis had unlimited access to Canada's allies' secrets.

"We are aware of the potential risk to agency operations of our partners in Canada and abroad, and we thank them for their continued collaboration", stated RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki. Suspicions surrounding Ortis first emerged in 2018 when the RCMP was helping the FBI with a case and investigators discovered documents pointing to the existence of "a mole", according to a story aired by the BBC. 

More latterly, in August of this year, three RCMP analysts who had worked under Ortis filed a civil suit in which they accused their former director general of workplace harassment, and accused RCMP management of neglecting their responsibility to address his poor management, alleging privacy breaches as well. All documents and proceedings in this hushed case have been sealed by the courts to maintain secrecy.

• Unanswered are prime questions such as: Were Canada and its allies placed at risk? 
• What malevolent nation-states, organizations and individuals are involved? 
• Are reports true that the RCMP reviewed security protocols following the case, but none has yet been implemented? 
• Did the complaint of 2013 lead to reforms?
•  Is Canada now on a Five Eyes' watch list? 

All of which leads one to contemplate government incompetence in the most critical of issues; as well as the critical issue of Canada's sovereignty, security and reputation in the opinion of peer nations of the democratic community. 

"A year is a very long time."

"If the RCMP is publicly saying that they haven't done anything or haven't implemented any of the changes that maybe need to happen in terms of increasing the security posture, what are they telling allies? Because they're obviously still receiving intelligence from the allies. So is the messaging the same to them? And if so, how are they taking that?" 

Jessica Davis, former senior intelligence analyst, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), head, Insight Threat Intelligence   

 
"An internal investigation is fine up to a point but Ortis sat at the centre of an intelligence and communications web that reached to many domestic and international partners." 
"The bigger issue is that the RCMP on its national security side is not currently under any regular scrutiny from external, independent review bodies." 

"But NSIRA [National Security and Intelligence Review Agency] is not required to conduct annual or even regular reviews of the RCMP [as it is for CSIS and CSE]. It can simply look at aspects of RCMP operations when it chooses."

Wesley Wark, national security, intelligence and terrorism professor, University of Ottawa

Cameron Ortis walks with his lawyer Ian Carter, obscured at left, after leaving the courthouse in Ottawa on Oct. 22, 2019. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)