Ukraine Alerting Russians to Pain Caused by Putin's War

Smoke rises from a fire at Wildberries' logistics complex in Elektrostal, outside Moscow, Russia, following a Ukrainian drone attack on July 18, 2026. (Tatyana Makeyeva / AFP / Getty Images)

 

"Well, starting last Saturday and just about every day since, Ukrainian drones have struck these giant warehouses belonging to Wildberries, causing massive fires to facilities outside of Moscow, outside of St. Petersburg and several cities in the south of Russia."

"The costs have come in lives. At least nine workers are dead, dozens more injured, several of whom were migrant workers from Central Asia. But of course, there's also material costs."

"Wildberries is Russia's largest online retailer. And its warehouses are full of goods from small and mid-size Russian businesses, who have taken to social media to say these attacks have caused their financial ruin."

Charles Maynes, NPR, Moscow  

"Yet another flood of videos from Russians weeping over the ‘shock’ and ‘unfairness’ of strikes on a Wildberries warehouse."

"​It doesn’t cross their minds how unfair it felt when we were just living our lives, bothering no one, in our own country and our own homes, right up until their missiles started tearing our cities apart on a chilly winter morning."

Kateryna Bohuslavska – who posts on X as “Kate from Kharkiv”  

 

"In Russia, official procedures mostly only cover arms procurement."

"So military units and individual soldiers need to buy a lot of things themselves: uniforms, food, gasoline, electric power generators, drones, cars, motorcycles, spare parts… that’s why it is possible to buy goods necessary for warfare on Wildberries." 

Pavel Luzin, senior fellow, Center for European Policy Analysis 

Smoke rises from a Wildberries facility in St. Petersburg, Russia, on July 24 after a Ukrainian drone attack. Reuters verified this social media image by matching building and other details with satellite imagery. The founder of Wildberries also confirmed there was an attack on the facility. (Social media/Reuters)

 

  A fire sending smoke pouring over St. Petersburg early Friday was caused by Ukrainian drones hitting a warehouse for a Russian e-commerce giant. St. Petersburg has been targeted by Kyiv stepping up its long-range drone strikes on Russian energy, military and logistic sites in recent weeks. Retribution for Moscow's nightly drone and missile barrages aimed at Ukrainian cities. Russian strikes at civilian targets throughout Ukraine have aimed at depressing morale of the Ukrainian population, a war crime in and of itself. Russians have never, until recently, had to face the reality that Ukrainians have lived with for over four years.

 

This was not supposed to happen. Russian President Vladimir Putin imagined a swift and easy invasion of a country incapable of defending itself. The Ukrainian response proved otherwise, rising from an initial determination to defend itself against superior numbers and weaponry, to the present where necessity drove Ukraine to invent its own military hardware capable of withstanding Russia's aerial attacks and in good time a counteroffensive to knock Russia's military back from its steady advances, to the point where Ukraine not only held its own, but retook some of its sovereign territory from rapacious Russian occupation.

 

Most recently, Russian forces were put to the test of shooting down 571 Ukrainian drones over a dozen regions, including Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russian annexed in 2014 when it began its revanchist Greater Russia enterprise. More latterly, grey smoke rose into the morning sky over highrise residential buildings in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin's hometown, located over 800 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. 

 

A Wildberries warehouse, for Russia's largest online retailer referred to as 'Russia's Amazon" was set on fire following the strike. The third such overnight strike on a Wildberries installation by Ukraine forces over the course of a single week. Eight night shift workers last week were killed at Wildberries sites when one of the company's main warehouses came under attack and burned to the ground, just outside Moscow. 

 

A Wildberries collection point in Moscow. The platform is popular among lower-income Russians and its network of collection points extends into small towns and villages. Photograph: Anastasia Barashkova/Reuters

 

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the facilities were used to "supply sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment". This bombing campaign is one of "long-range sanctions"; Kyiv adding that the attacks are justified retribution for nightly drones Russia sends along with missile barrages everywhere in Ukraine, targeting its cities since February of 2022 when the ground invasion of Ukraine began.

 

Nationwide fuel shortages have arisen thanks to the campaign, undeniably taking its toll on Russia's financial war account. Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg was forced to suspend flights throughout the attack, disrupting 50 departures. Two of Wildberries warehouses in the city temporarily halted their business operations.  

 

Recent months have seen escalations of long-range strikes by both Russia and Ukraine. Increasing ballistic missile numbers have been fired at Kyiv, killing dozens of residents, while ripping open apartment blocks and destroying neighbourhoods. Leading perhaps to a turnabout in attitude, when U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to back Ukraine's counterattacks on Russia; naming the strikes "an escalation that can lead to an end".

 

June of 2026, according to the United Nations, has seen a surge in civilian deaths; the deadliest month since mid-2022.  

"Russians found out their country is waging a war. The next step is for them to realize who is responsible for all the damage caused to Russia (Putin)."

"Wildberries is no longer just an online marketplace for clothing and household goods. The platform sells weapons, body armor, drones, drone components, and fiber-optics used for drones."

"All of these items are used in the war against Ukraine and help kill Ukrainians. That is why such facilities are legitimate military targets for Ukraine’s Armed Forces."

Anton Gerashchenko, Ukrainian social media influencer  

Remains of the Wildberries warehouse that burned down after a recent Ukrainian drone attack in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, in the city of Elektrostal in the Moscow region, Russia July 23, 2026. Photo by Stringer TPX Reuters

 

"[The warehouse attacks added to the pain of small businesses, which in recent years have been] struggling very badly, [while probably causing only] relatively slight [damage to the industry and the economy in general; effectively stagnant, but stable]."

"[It's about] undermining public morale, and getting people to talk much more [about the war and question the Kremlin's actions]."

"[For years after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, people largely appeared complacent about the fighting.] It was something that was happening a long way off. [But that has changed this year, with regular strikes on oil refineries in parts of Russia leading to the massive fires, and now Wildberries]."

"There is now much more awareness, but there's also much more discussion, and more people are questioning what's going on and why is it happening and the conflict lasting so long. It brings it home."

Chris Weafer, CEO, Macro-Advisory Ltd. Consultancy 

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)

Wildly Disproportionate Hate Crimes Against Jewish Canadians

"The latest hate crime data further reinforce Canada's antisemitism crisis, with Jews targeted at rates disproportionate to any other community."

"While the number can fluctuate year-to-year, we've been tracking the proportion of hate crimes targeting the Jewish community very closely as a bellwether for what's happening in Canadian society."

"When criminals attack Jews, it's not because of how we pray."

"Nothing can justify attacks on Canadians here in Canada, no mater what  you think about what's going on a half a world away."

Noah Shack, chief executive, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs/Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA

Police tape outside synagogue in Thornhill, Ont. struck by bullets following start of Iran war. Global News

 

In Canada, police reported 4,708 hate crimes for 2024, three percent fewer than the 4,841 reported for 2024, according to Statistics Canada. Prior to this decline there were six years of increases, more than doubling the national count between 2018 and 2024. Those hate crimes that have been motivated by religious bigotry fell 18 percent to 1,114 incidents. Jewish people were targeted out of that total 788 times, 15 percent fewer such incidents than the year before, yet representing 71 percent of all religion-motivated hate crimes.

 

The target of over 15 percent of all hate crime incidents, Jewish Canadians represent just under one percent of the overall Canadian population. A Jewish Canadian is 22 times likelier to be a victim of a hate crime than is any other Canadian. In 2024, Jews accounted for 69 percent of religion-motivated incidents, and 71 percent in 2025.

 

Extremists living in Canada, along with foreign principals from abroad are involved in anti-Israel hate, fed by conspiracy theories. The leading proponents of slander against both Israel and Jews in Canada emerged from among the Canadian Muslim population whose numbers now aggregate over five times the numbers of Jewish Canadians. 

 

Violence such as fire bombings and synagogue shootings as well as at Jewish parochial schools, along with vandalism striking Jewish-owned businesses, and aggravated boycotts have wracked the Jewish community since October 7, 2023, when Palestinian student groups organized street protests that called for internationalizing the 'Intifada', while accusing Israel of 'Apartheid' and 'genocidal' intentions in the Palestinian Territories, somehow managing to bypass the origins of the current war in Gaza, propelled by the Hamas-led slaughter in southern Israel.  

"When criminals attack Jews, it’s not because of how we pray. Much of today's antisemitic violence – which includes gunfire and firebombing of synagogues and schools, vandalizing businesses, and assaulting community members – is perpetrated by extremists at home and foreign actors abroad, driven by conspiracy theories and anti-Israel hate. Governments and authorities must be unequivocal: nothing can justify these criminal acts targeting Canadians."

"Government and authorities at all levels must acknowledge the drivers of today's antisemitism, including the extremism and radicalization that fuel attacks against Jews; consistent enforcement of the law; get tough on terror; and ensure public institutions and government bodies, such as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and the Canada Revenue Agency, are not weaponized against Canadians."

Noah Shack, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs 

Global News

 

The largest category of hate crimes at 2,391 incidents, sees race or ethnicity at the top, while Blacks were targets of 858 incidents and attacks targeting South Asians rose to 483 such events, concentrated in Ontario and British Columbia. The trend declined for most other racialized groups in Canada. Jewish Canadians were targeted more frequently than any other group, measured against population size. 

 

One Anti-Jewish hate crime occurred for every 366 Jews in Canada in 2024, compared to one for every 1,961 for Black Canadians, and one for every 9,091 Muslim Canadians, revealed the Canadian Jewish Barometer, a study co-authored by Robert Brym, emeritus sociology professor at University of Toronto. Disability, language, sex, age and immigrants or newcomers as a separate category, rose 52 percent to 562 incidents. 

 

The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right (IMCR), which is allegedly linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force, claimed responsibility for two shootings in Canada. Global News

 

"There's a lot of hate that's spreading out there that doesn't rise to the criminal level, whether we're talking about bullying in schools, discrimination in the workplace and general attitudes that people are confronted with as they go about their daily lives."

"These numbers are an important indicator of what our community is facing, but of course behind each number is a story of a family and a community that has suffered a hate crime."

Noah Shack, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs 

Success Breeds Resentment in Kyiv

"This [appointing Mykhailo Drapatyi, a popular and innovative general, as the new head of Ukraine’s armed forces], brings a breath of fresh air and new hope to the struggle of free people for freedom and justice. It is a voice for change that could not be ignored."

"The high expectations of the Ukrainian people must be met with a clear vision for ending the war for independence, a strong team and decisive actions aimed at saving the lives of our soldiers, automating the frontline, delivering asymmetric strikes and crippling the Russian economy."

Mykhailo Fedorov, former Ukraine defence minister 

 

"I offered Mykhailo a prominent position within the government that would enable him to unify the technological sector of our state and ensure its development."

"Our shared wish is one – victory over the enemy and conditions at the front and in pressure on Russia that would force Russia toward peace."

"A significant path has been travelled, the defence of Ukraine continues, and every warrior deserves dignified treatment."

"We have come a long way. The defence of Ukraine continues. And every soldier deserves to be treated with respect."

"I am grateful to Syrskyi and to] every one of our soldiers [fighting on the frontline]." 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy  

Oleksandr Syrskyi and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 2022.  Metin Aktaş / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images file

 

In a sudden move a week ago President Volodymyr Zelenskyy decided to remove his popular defence minister, his prime minister and several days later the commander-in-chief of his armed forces. Puzzlingly, this at a time when Ukrainian drones are hitting Russian refineries, while Moscow's summer offensive has stalled on most front areas and Ukraine has been restoring some of its sovereign territories.  Relations with Trump have settled down, and Ukraine has been given permission to manufacture its own U.S.-style interceptor missiles.

 

Yet at this signal time in Ukraine's history its president has announced a new "political strategy" through the reshuffling of its major war figures responsible for these successes. Thousand of Ukrainians poured into the streets across the country to protest the removal of  the popular Mykhailo Fedorov, credited as a key architect of Ukraine's advances in a drone warfare breakthrough. With no satisfactory explanation for the removal, Ukrainians fed up with corruption and alert to malfeasance, have campaigned for his reinstatement as minister of defence.

 

On the surface it appears that a generational conflict over how best to wage a modern war should proceed, as well as conflicts over corruption, inclusive of turf battles between the Defence Ministry and the generals, plus a president with a reputed tendency to remove subordinates who become too popular in the public regard, lest they become competitors for his alpha-executive governing position. 

 

With the acute realization that he may have made some awkward decisions that would not be well received not only by the Ukrainian public, but by the White House and Ukraine's NATO allies, Mr. Zelenskyy has been left to scramble in hopes of containing the fallout. It has become clear that deep institutional tensions on command structures in Ukraine which were brewing for months, have led to this crisis in confidence.  

"Probably [Zelensyy] didn't grasp fully how Fedorov has become so closely associated with positive changes."

"And the overall protest morphed into broad debate on war strategy and battlefield management."

Mykola Bielieskov, Kyiv defence analyst  

Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov holds a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.  Danylo Antoniuk / Future Publishing via Getty Images

 

The disrupter-style hacks that were championed by younger officials tended to raise the hackles of old-guard battlefield tacticians, Mykhailo Fedorov first among them. Fedorov's innovative approach to the battlefield had won the approval of many officials in NATO, who privately expressed disappointment that Mr. Zelenskyy moved against his continuing in the role of Minister of Defence. 

 

Five consecutive nights saw thousands of noisy protesters outside the president's Kyiv office following Fedorov's dismissal as Minister of Defence, as rallies took place in over a dozen cities.  The public pressure succeeded in having the president reverse course, to fire Ukraine's commander-in-chief, Oleksander Syrsky and to replace him with another reform-minded commander, while offering Fedorov a new high-level government role. 

 

It had been widely rumoured that bad blood in battlefield disagreements between Fedorov and Syrsky led the commander-in-chief to demand that a choice had to be made by Zelenskyy; either Fedorov had to leave or he would. That choice was made, and then reversed under the weight of public censure. 

 

Syrsky's appointment to lead Ukraine's military arrived two years ago, replacing another poplar head of the armed forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, top commander during the February 2022 Russian invasion. A number of military issues led Zaluzhny to clash with Zelenskyy; the latter's request to mobilize 500,000 new soldiers one of those irritants.  It was likely that political ambitions on Zaluzhny's part finally poisoned their relations.

 

Disagreement between those who believe that drones and robots should drive the war to its winning conclusion as opposed to those who place their trust in conventional infantry and artillery to win the war has the former now feeling vindicated. The military tactics with the use of drones have unquestionably turned the tide of the war in Ukraine's favour. 

 

According to an interpretation by a European diplomat stationed in Kyiv, the turbulence between generational factions, corruption currents and personal egos are all involved. "All three of those reasons are  true. But also Fedorov is a political threat to Zelenskyy; many groups wanted to take him down." 

 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy with Oleksandr Syrskyi at the handover of drone missiles to the Ukrainian army in Kyiv in December 2024. Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA

  

In Britain Who Exactly Qualifies as a Poisonous Bigot?

"I cannot tell you why Ann was killed. That is for the police and the courts. What I can tell you is that counter-terrorist police are investigating her murder as a suspected act of terrorism."

"The climate in which she was killed [owes to] a relentless narrative from politicians and the media that Reform UK is a threat -- a threat to be urgently stopped. [That narrative is] so relentless, it constitutes incitement."

"[Reform UK has become a target] because we say things that are unfashionable among many in Westminster, but are popular in the country at large."

"We cannot allow this [the dreadful murder of 78-year-old Ann Widdecombe] ever to happen again."

Reform UK spokesperson Zia Yusuf

Ann Widdicombe was struck 21 times with a hammer until dead. Anthony Devlin, Getty Images 

 

She was a controversial political figure. A Tory who had before retiring crossed over to the Reform UK party. A well-known Catholic social conservative whose passionate advocating on behalf of Christians persecuted worldwide, drew the attention of the Vatican and culminated in Pope Benedict XVI honouring here with a papal damehood in 2013. After her retirement from the British House of Commons in 2011, she stated that "You stand a better chance of earnest representation if  you are a hedgehog than if you are persecuted Christian".

 

She argued in a 2019 speech for the Oxford Union Society against deplatforming and censorship, explaining why free speech was so vital to her, given her experience growing up following the Second World War. On July 8 she was found dead in her Dartmoore home. When a producer she had been speaking with preparatory to her appearance on a Channel 5 show suddenly had his conversation with her go mute, he contacted her personal assistant, who in turn spoke to the gardener at her home.

 

The following day the gardener discovered Widdecombe's body at her "Widdecombe's Rest", the name she had given her retirement home. The attack that killed her succeeded with 21 hammer blows to her head, which police described as a "targeted attack". Counterterrorism police quickly took over the investigation into her death. When they arrested 28-year-old Joshua Kerry the statement was that her murder was motivated by "left-wing, anarchist and single-issue terrorism", in police lingo LASIT.   

"We have decided to prosecute Joshua Kerry for murder following a police investigation into the death of Ann Widdecombe in Haytor, Dartmoor."

"Police inquiries into the defendant’s motives are ongoing, including a potential political or terrorist connection."

"Our prosecutors have worked closely with the police to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this case to court, and we will continue working with them as their investigation progresses."

"We remind all concerned that proceedings against the defendant are active and he has the right to a fair trial."

"It is vital that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information which could in any way prejudice these proceedings."

Frank Ferguson, the chief crown prosecutor of the CPS special crime and counter-terrorism division  

A court sketch of Joshua Kerry, 28, at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, on Tuesday. He is charged with the murder of Widdecombe, who was found dead at her home in Devon.

Elizabeth Cook/PA

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, pointed out Reform UK's Yusuf, described Widdecombe as a "poisonous bigot" who wants to "drag us back to the 19th century" and "throw minorities out in the cold on the way. We must stand up to them before it's too late"; as inflammatory statements go, that certainly rates.  As well, pointed out Yusuf, former health secretary Wes Streeting said, "If only science had a cure for Ann Widdecombe".

There was more that he pointed out, a statement by former parliamentary under-secretary of state for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, Jess Pillips: "Ann Widdecombe better go this week. She is a little fascist beast." As for Liberal Democrats Leader Ed Davey -- "The greatest threat to the Britain we love doesn't come from Tehran or Moscow. It comes from within. I'm talking about Nigel Farage and Reform". Pretty poisonous rhetoric from parliamentarians who should, we might believe, know better. 

"Reform UK MPs are being given round the clock security protection, as police continue their murder investigation into the death of Ann Widdecombe."

"The veteran politician, a former Tory minister and later Reform spokesperson, was found dead at her home in Haytor on Dartmoor at around 11.40am on Thursday after sustaining serious injuries."

"Reform’s MPs are now being given 24-hour security protection following Miss Widdecombe’s death, as first reported by The Mail on Sunday."

"The security is being paid for by the party and was offered for fear of similar attacks."

"Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform, visited Devon on Saturday to lay a wreath for Miss Widdecombe and spoke to reporters about the case while he was there."

"He claimed Reform had gone through its emails to check for patterns of abuse directed at Ms Widdecombe, but had not been able to find anything."

"On Friday, he described Ms Widdecombe’s death as “a terrible reflection on modern Britain”."

"He added: “And I do fear that for anybody in public life, or especially the political space, things have become even more dangerous to them”."

itvNews  

Ann Widdecombe making a speech Credit: PA Archive/PA Images

 

 

The Canadian Jewish Barometer

"[It is] ironic [that DEI programs are] often structurally incapable of even seeing antisemitism, let alone addressing it."

"If your DEI lens only recognizes race-based disadvantage, and cannot grapple with religious, cultural, economic and national dimensions, then Jews -- who are the most targeted group in the country -- are effectively rendered invisible."

"Some of the research shows an inherent tension between DEI frameworks, and the ability to understand antisemitism."

"When DEI is framed almost exclusively around systemic barriers defined by race, it cannot grapple with how antisemitism operates along religious, cultural, economic and national lines."

"The result is that antisemitism is frequently not mentioned at all in institutional DEI policies, or, when it is, the national dimension of Jewish identity is explicitly excluded."

Rhonda Lenton, former president, York University

 

"That 25 percent [one in four Jews seriously considering leaving Canada] is not people packing suitcases; it's a measure of lost trust. They are questioning whether Canada is still living up to its commitments on multiculturalism and minority rights."

"When that many members of a historically successful minority are thinking in those terms, it's not just a 'Jewish problem'. It's a warning light for every minority in this country."

"We're finding that strong negative attitudes toward Israel's very right to exist have bred a great deal of antisemitism in recent years. They're different focal points -- Jews on the one hand, Israel on the other -- but they have become closely linked forms of antipathy."

Sociologist Robert Brym, University of Toronto 

Israel’s Ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, looks at bullet holes fired at the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Synagogue in Vaughan, March 12, 2026. Photo by Peter J. Thompson /National Post

 

According to the Canadian Jewish Barometer 2026, representing a new national survey through a medium compiled by former president of York University Rhonda Lenton and University of Toronto sociologist Robert Brym, non-Jewish Canadians hold less favourable views of Jews at present than was the case two years earlier, while attitudes toward Israel have become far less favourable over the same time frame. The authors of this new national survey conclude that the greatest exacerbating factor is the diversity, inclusion and equity programs that have succeeded in eroding sensibilities. 

 

The web-based survey undertook to question 3,062 Canadian adults from mid-January to mid-February of 2026. Oversampling polls of Jews, Muslims and Quebecers drawn from a Leger Opinion Panel, made for detailed subgroup analysis. Positive sentiment toward Jews was found to have dropped in comparison to a similar 2024 survey; agreement with negatively-worded statements about Jews rose by roughly five percent on average, considered to be statistically significant.

 

Non-Jewish Canadians with the most favourable view of Jews fell by eight percentage points in the two- year period, while those with slightly positive views dropped by 15 points. Leading the authors to deduce  that the 'golden age' of Canadian Jewry -- from the 1960s to the early 2020s -- giving way to a hostile environment. The Barometer notes that Jews suffer more police-recorded hate crimes per capita than any other ethnic, racial or religious group in Canada, since the Israel-Hamas war.

 

Rising incidents of hostility have caused a psychological toll within the Jewish community In 2024, 63 percent of Jews felt less safe in Canada than they did five years earlier and by 2026 that figure leapt to 88 percent, where close to seven in ten Jewish parents are concerned over their children's safety in school. Fear, discomfort and discussions over emigration represent newly measurable trends, with one in four Jews seriously considering leaving Canada.

 

The prevailing atmosphere is that non-Jewish Canadians are markedly more critical of Israel; strong and moderate support declining, while weak support, outright opposition and uncertainty have all gained traction. More Canadians describe their view of Israel as unfavourable than favourable, with a majority stating their opinion that the Gaza campaign represents 'genocide'. 

 

Universities and other organizations must retool how DEI is operationalized to identify where anti-Jewish bias is being inadvertently baked into policy, according to Ms. Lenton. Perhaps the best, most effective place to start the process, is government itself with its 'progressive' dedication to DEI. The Barometer indicates that more hours of classroom teaching of the Holocaust correlates with slightly more positive attitudes toward Jews, but that effect is slight. Many non-Jewish respondents in Quebec particularly, under-estimate the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust.   

"A program designed to be inclusive ends up being exclusive of the group that experiences the highest rate of hate crimes in the country. The only 'good Jew' in many DEI framings, is a Jew without any national ambitions for the Jewish people."

"That's includes revisiting definitions metrics and recommended strategies [to identify where anti-Jewish bias is baked into policy] and making sure that Jews are recognized as a vulnerable minority in all the dimensions in which they are targeted."

Robert Brym

  

"Whether justified based on available surveys or not, the perception itself is politically significant. For many Canadians, antisemitism is no longer viewed solely as a domestic prejudice inherited from Europe’s past, but increasingly as a problem linked to contemporary demographic and concomitant cultural change. In short, more immigration from Muslim countries. The constant and massive anti-Israel demonstrations that have rocked Toronto and Montreal have left a broad, distinctly visual impression."

"Perhaps the most revealing demographic pattern in the survey was the connection between antisemitic attitudes and dissatisfaction with Canada itself. Respondents who viewed Canada negatively were significantly more likely to feel negatively towards Jews than those who expressed confidence in the country and its institutions."

Sago, Public Square, The Hub  

 

 

 

Criminalizing Denialism : Canada's Residential Schools

"I went to the sacred site [Kamloops] where 215 anomalies were found. As my chief said: crime scene..."

"This is genocide. Not only cultural genocide."

"It is genocide, to try and get rid of a people deliberately." 

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee 

 

"This country still tries to commit genocide."

"We have unmarked graves. I don't like to all them unmarked graves; these are crime scenes that need to be protected as well as investigated."

Pimicikamak Cree Nation Chief David Monas

 

"These denialists? Stop it. This is the truth, that Tk'emlup te Secwepemc truth."

"Denialists need to hear our stories and also need to know the truth, and I think it's right there. It's bare. It's the truth."

"We know that many of these residential schools had graves. Many had unmarked graves and this is the truth."

National Regional Chief Terry Tegee

Former Kamloops Indian Residential School, British Columbia, circa 1930  Archives Deschâtelets-NDC, Fonds Deschâtelets

 

Denialism to Canada's First Nations is the withholding of credulity at a presumed government initiative to 'take the Indian out of the Indian', through the imposition on an unwilling Canadian Indigenous population of the Residential School System initiated in 17th century Canada to school Indigenous children in church-run institutions that were set  up to expose children to standard educational curricula taught in schools throughout Canada. The schools operated up to the late 1990s. 

 

Many indigenous parents wanted their children to have a good education. Aside from math, geography, history and science - admittedly from a Eurocentric-Western cultural tradition to prepare children for the wider world's opportunities in their futures, issues such as Western social interaction, hygiene, and preparations for life in a wider community outside that of tribal communities were central to the education system children were exposed to. Some children thrived, many others did not. 

 

There were children who were disciplined harshly, instances where homesick children were treated badly. While instilling a Western way of life into the children through deliberate exposure to a lifestyle unlike their own, children were not permitted to speak their indigenous languages, and punishment for disciplinary infractions could be punitive in nature. There were issues with predatory sexual attacks. Issues that also cropped up at elite, prestigious institutions where boys in Toronto were sent by well-off parents for their education.

 

Issues that were all too common in British schools where the well-off elite sent their offspring for educational opportunities superior to those taught in schools catering to the offspring of ordinary citizens. The Residential School system in Canada started with the intention of preparing Indigenous children to take their place in the wider community outside the confines of tribal reserves. In preparing these children with an education that would enable them to go on to higher education many became professionals; lawyers, educators, health professionals. 

 

From today's perspective this plan to educate while depriving children of their heritage, their history, their culture and their pride in Indigeneity, represents a human rights travesty. This is certainly how many among those communities view it today, with resentment, anger and a demand for reparations. It is not the 

'good' intentions and future welfare of those involved that really matter in the final analysis, it is how those for whom this experiment in social patterning feel about the outcome that is at the crux of their discontent and entitled grievances. 

 

So when unmarked graves containing bodies of hundreds of children at the former residential school in Kamloops first was announced five years ago, no one questioned it as fact, despite that ground-penetrating radar had identified 'anomalies' and not the possible presence of human bodies. Taken as truth, Canadian flags were ordered at half-mast for six months, Canadian and international news wrote of First Nations 'genocide' because that's how it was described by indignant onlookers and Indian chiefs.

 

The 'unmarked graves' were never disinterred, despite generous funding from the federal government to determine whether or not there really were graves, and not buried farm gates, posts, upheaved rocks or anything else that would qualify as 'anomalies'. The original charges of 'children's bodies' found were subtly changed to 'aberrations' or 'anomalies', highly reliant on children's hushed whispers of 'buried bodies', taken as testaments of actual occurrences.

 

Which led to Nunavut Senator Nancy Karetak-Lindell attempting to include residential school denialism in the Liberal government's anti-hate law, Bill C-9. To include residential school denialism to make it illegal for anyone to engage in "condoning, denying or downplaying" residential schools' 'discoveries' of unmarked graves. The penalty for which would be a proposed maximum of two years' imprisonment.

First Nations chiefs are in agreement that a law is needed to criminalize denialism.

 

Bad enough that in the years following Tk'emlups te Secwepemic Chief Rosanne Casimir's statement that ground-penetrating radar confirmed "the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Some were as young as three years old", churches were attacked. In the immediate aftermath of that revelation which prompted the New York Times to write "Horrible History: Mass Grave of Indigenous Children Reported in Canada", worse occurred when churches began being torched and vandalized, some burnt to the ground on First Nations reserves. No one was ever held responsible.  

 

Firefighters' jackets hang on the fence of the burned-out remnants of Sacred Heart church on the Penticton Indian Reserve, near Penticton, British Columbia, on Monday. Photograph: James Miller/AP

 

"The Survivors speak. Warm memories." 

"Many students have positive memories of their experiences of residential schools and acknowledge the skills they acquired, the beneficial impacts of the recreational and sporting activities in which they engaged, and the friendships they made."

Truth and Reconciliation Commission