Sudan : An Abandoned Crisis

International Rescue Committee

 

"Even before the war in Sudan erupted in April 2023, the country was already experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis that left 15.8 million people in need of aid. Now, three years of war have drastically worsened these conditions, displacing approximately 14 million people and leaving 33.7 million people—two-thirds of the population—in need of humanitarian support."

"The country’s food system has been pushed to the brink, with millions of families now surviving on just one meal a day, or less."

"Sudan is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world in terms of number of people who need humanitarian aid. It is also the largest and fastest displacement crisis."
International Rescue Committee 

 

As Sudan marks three years of war, MSF teams continue to treat people whose lives have been devastated by the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

A lack of basic services and constrained humanitarian access are compounding people's suffering.

The warring parties must protect civilians and be held accountable for their violations, and the international community must use diplomatic pressure to prevent further crimes. 

Medicins Sans Frontieres  

Patient Saidal Altaher, 2 months old, being treated for malnutrition at the pediatric hospital stabilization center in Port Sudan on Wednesday.  Bernat Armangue / AP

 

Described as the world's largest humanitarian challenge in terms of displacement and hunger, Sudan is suffering a crisis of abandonment with the world's attention turning to the Middle East and the standoff in Iran, and its blockade of the Hormuz Strait. In Sudan, 13 million people have been forced by the threat and violence of a bloody conflict to flee their homes, becoming internally displaced. Food and medicines are scarce and diseases like cholera are running rampant. 

 

The number of  dead from the conflict stands at 59,000 with 6,000 having perished over three days alone, as the RSF (paramilitary Rapid Support Forces) bulled their way through the Darfur outpost of el-Fasher in October, an offensive that the UN considers alike "the defining characteristics of genocide". Black Darfurians once again in the rifle sights of the horsed Arab Janjaweed as they were in the early 2000s.

 

Severe acute malnutrition is set to afflict 800,000 people in parts of Sudan, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Two of every three Sudanese require assistance, according to the United Nations. Health facilities have been impacted to the point where only 63 percent remain fully or partially functional to deal with the conflict's wounded and emerging disease outbreaks. 

 

Denise Brown, the UN's top official in Sudan, criticizing the international community for its failure to press for the end to the conflict, stating: "A plea from me: Please don't call this the forgotten crisis. I'm referring to this as an abandoned crisis", she corrected. 

 

People fleeing conflict in Sudan's Darfur risked being hit by drone strikes   Reuters

 

Following the deposed dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, a power struggle emerged between the Sudanese military under General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and RSF commander General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who was initially Burhan's deputy at the ruling sovereign council of Sudan. Sudanese "have become powerless and are subjected to foreign dictates", claimed a Sudanese journalist and researcher.

 

Germany undertook to host a  conference in Berlin, welcoming governments, UN agencies and aid groups to take part, with a goal to rally donors to assist in funding strained humanitarian responses and to "promote an immediate ceasefire", according to the German Development Ministry. For its troubles, the Khartoum government condemned the conference as an 'unacceptable' interference on Sudan's internal affairs. 

 

The Sudanese military has control over the country's north, east and central regions, its oil refineries and pipelines, and Red Sea ports. The RSF and its allies control Darfur and the region at the border with South Sudan. Regions that both include oilfields and gold mines. Egypt supports the Sudan military, and the United Arab Emirates has been accused by the UN of providing arms to the RSF, which it emphatically denies. 

 

In the three years of conflict, widespread atrocities are known to have occurred;  rampant sexual violence in gang rapes and mass killings, among them. According to the WHO, hospitals, ambulances and medical workers have been attacked, claiming over 2,000 have been killed.  Most atrocities have been placed at the feet of the RSF and the Janjaweed, notorious for atrocities committed in the early 2000s against Black Sudanese farming communities. 

 

Sudanese army soldiers sitting atop a parked tank after their capture of a base used by the RSF, after the rival paramilitary group evacuated from the Salha area of Omdurman, the twin city of Sudan's capital, in May 2025.  Ebrahim Hamid / AFP via Getty Images

 

 

 

China: Defender of Stability, Diplomacy, Open Global Economy: Yup

"Many want Beijing to play a larger role as a defender of stability diplomacy, and an open global economy."

"World leaders are heading to Beijing because they increasingly see China as a hedge against an unpredictable United States." 

Neil Thomas, fellow, Chinese Politics, Asia Society Policy Institute Center for China Analysis 

 

"Beijing also has concerns about managing its own relationship with Washington."

"More direct and active involvement in negotiations [with the Islamic Republic] could win the Trump administration's affirmation as much as earn its ire and blame."

Ja Ian Chong, associate professor of political science, National University of Singapore 

 

"It is very easy to criticize the U.S. Even America's allies are at odds with Trump and Washington these days."

"But sooner or later, China needs to go beyond the position of critic, and get some real diplomatic skin in the game."

Richard McGregor, senior fellow for East Asia, The Lowy Institute

Spain struck a trade deal with China on Tuesday

 

China no longer viewed by the West as an economic ogre, one whose finesse at hostage diplomacy, whose penchant for cybertheft and purloining foreign industrial/commercial formulae and government secrets for its benefits; a gargantuan, omnivorous threat to the well-being of other nations' wealth and aspirations? What a swift transition. And to think that it has been occasioned by the president of the United States of America's belligerence over trade tariffs and unity in Western security over threats poised by Xi and Putin!

 

Yet in one week alone Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamnmed, Vietnam's president To Lam, all came visiting one after another. Impressed, no doubt over President Xi Jinping's turning the leaf on his book of global exploits in presenting China as a source of dependable stability and (newfound) respect for international rules. As, for example in contrast to President Trump's unspeakably dire threat to bomb Iran "back to the Stone Ages", a bit of bluster to match Iran's own, that horrified Pope Leo XIV. 

 

In fact, the contrast is a deep and unfolding reality, where Trump's unchecked pronouncements on his social media site has served to further confound, affront and distance erstwhile staunch supporters in Europe, North America and Asia of U.S. policies and allied support. Italy's Giorgia Meloni, the U.K.'s Keir Starmer were this week recipients of President Trump's ire; not that it was undeserving, simply a trifle undiplomatic, as is his inimitable style. Nor did Pope Leo come away unscathed for his penchant at being "terrible for foreign policy"; that too not far from reality.   

 

Oh, and Italy's foreign minister also visited Beijing this week, coming away with a pledge that China is prepared to deepen ties with Rome. Mr. Trump's frustration with allies over their disinterest in teaming up with the U.S. military to open the Strait of Hormuz to normal shipping so that energy can continue to flow from the Persian Gulf to the people who most need and use it, including those allies, has deepened with their continued hands-off negativity.  

"Donald Trump’s second Administration is bringing about a historic reconfiguration of transatlantic relations, compelling the EU and its member states to reassess multiple dimensions of their foreign policy. In response to the deepening rift with Washington, Europe is adopting a hedging strategy by strengthening ties with other global actors, including China."

"This approach was underscored by Ursula von der Leyen at the World Economic Forum, referring to the 50^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Beijing as ‘an opportunity to engage and deepen our relationship with China, and where possible, even to expand our trade and investment ties’. "

Mario Esteban, Elcano Royal Institute  

They've chosen instead to go-it-alone as a group, sans the U.S. and that purpose saw the U.K.'s Starmer in Paris to host a video conference alongside Emmanuel Macron, steering a coalition of some 40 countries planning to help independently restore free transit through the Strait of Hormuz, South Korea, Japan and Australia included -- all supporting a ceasefire in return for intervention. Nations in Southeast Asia have been given support in their energy crisis by a $10-billion financial package promised by Japan's Sanae Takaichi on a new "Power Asia" initiative.

 

An aerial view of the cityscape of Beijing, China Photo: VCG

 

That China stoutly maintains its support of Russia, despite its full-fledged conflict in Ukraine makes the entire scenario somewhat bizarrely Byzantine; even as European leaders, fixed in their support of Ukraine's battle to sustain its sovereignty, visit China to explore lucrative trade agreements, Xi met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to pledge deeper bilateral coordination. Not to be forgotten is Russian and Chinese backing of Iran, their major oil supplier, despite global sanctions.

 

As the world's largest oil importer, China has vast commercial oil reserves to tide it conveniently over the current shortage afflicting its neighbours. China is content with taking an observer's back seat with the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Officially it calls for restraint and de-escalation. Business as usual, for China.

 

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Much Ado About Nothing : Canada's Shakespearean Farce

"I told her: 'I wish our people could grab you, drag you over to the Kamloops residential school, put you into the basement, speak our language to you, rape you, hurt you."

"And maybe you'd understand what our people went through."

Charlene Belleau, elder, Esk'etemc First Nation, British Columbia 

 

"I don't think they're a threat I think there's a lot of comments about how she should be charged and punished in various ways, and I'm opposed to that, because I think people should e able to speak freely about everything, as long as they don't incite violence or engage in threats."

"I think they're deplorable comments, and it reflects the fact that Aboriginal leaders are pandered to constantly and never challenged, so they become more and more unhinged as time goes on."

Frances Widdowson, academic; Economics and Indigenous Policy 

 

"I'm not sure what the member [MLA Tara Armstrong] is referring to, but I do know what she's tried to do in the past, insisting that the bodies of children who died at residential schools should be dug up."

"Something that you would never insist at any other place in t he world where  holocausts or genocides occurred."

"That's not how we do these things. [She is] trying to further divide us over an issue that is very emotional, troubling and challenging."

B.C. Indigenous Relations Minister Spencer Chandra Herbert

The main administrative building of the former school is pictured in 1970. (Department of Citizenship and Immigration- Information Division / Library and Archives Canada)

 

In 2021 at the former Kamloops Residential School, the chief of the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir made a riveting public statement that sent shock waves through the country, a statement picked up by international news media, and which prompted then-PM Justice Trudeau to order Canadian flags at half-mast and held them that way for six months, in honour of the 215 Indigenous children Chief Casimir claimed lay in unmarked graves at the school site. Her band had hired a specialist in ground-penetrating radar, the results of which led her to make these remarks to the media: 

"To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths."

"Some were as young as three years old. We sought out a way to confirm that knowing out of deepest respect and love for those lost children and their families, understanding that Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc is the final resting place of these children."  

That shocking declaration galvanized Canada into a state of mourning, of self-blame, of acceptance of the charges that a 'genocide' took place. Government at every level genuflected in shame and remorse, pledged that this horrible sin against humanity and Indigenous children who attended Indian Residential Schools, who had suffered loneliness and misery, neglect and humiliation, condemned if they spoke their native language, were exposed to life-changing, long-lasting trauma that affected following generations.

 

On the rare occasion, some individuals who had attended these schools denied those charges, countered that their exposure to educational opportunities aided them in their later lives to make a life for themselves outside of aboriginal communities, adjusting to the outside world and finding professional occupations that satisfied their personal aspirations. These voices were swiftly condemned and stilled. Then someone observed there was no proof presented. And eventually Chief Casimir altered her story in line with what she had been informed by the professionals using the ground-penetrating radar, that it identified underground 'anomalies', which could be anything, from dead wood to inanimate buried items -- and just possibly bodies.

A plaque is seen outside of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. (Andrew Snucins/The Canadian Press)

 

Funding was made available to look deeper into the situation. Including disinterring whatever lay underground identified as anomalies by the ground-penetrating radar.  In the years since the original 'discovery' no attempts were made to investigate any further. The story of unmarked graves continued and persist to this day, most particularly in British Columbia. Professor Widdowson objected to this unquestioned and unproven claim and paid dearly in her professional life, when her colleagues and her university employment isolated her.

 

While Professor Widdowson offered to civilly debate anyone who was interested over the issue, her offer was rejected. During an event called 'My name is Charlene: Perseverance and poise in an era of truth, reconciliation, anger and rage', hosted by the Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion under the medical faculty of UBC, guest Charlene Belleau recounted a comment she had made to Professor Widdowson at a campus event; in disagreement with the professor's position, she had addressed her saying she would like to see  her beaten and raped.

 

When the B.C. Legislature met last Friday, a question was put to the Indigenous Relations minister to comment on Chief Belleau's statement. Refusing to respond, the minister instead accused the questioning member of attempting to foment confusion and division. Yet the B.C. government in 2021 had allocated $12 million to finance First Nations' investigation into the unmarked grave sites. At that time Chief Belleau said it represented an "important first step in supporting the resiliency and healing of B.C. First Nations people". And then: nothing. 

 

The former Kamloops Indian Residential School is seen on Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation in Kamloops, B.C., on May 27, 2021. The remains of 215 children were purported to have been found buried on the site, the First Nation said. (Andrew Snucins/The Canadian Press)

"The UBC [University of British Columbia] faculty of medicine does not condone any speech that endorses or promotes harassment or violence of any kind."

"An invitation for a community member to participate in an event does not constitute endorsement of their specific remarks or views."

Mieke Koehoorn, vice-dean of academic affairs, Faculty of Medicine, UBC

 

Cheap Chinese EV Bargains in Canada -- Collapse of Canadian Auto Industry

"Unless this trade is tightly constrained, it’s likely to undermine Canada’s industrial base."

"If we take a wrong turn, an entire industrial ecosystem could be hollowed out or captured, leading to a dependency that erodes economic security, sovereignty, and democratic values."

Deeper economic entanglement with China is not a long-term route to achieving any of those goals. It's a dead end." 

"The fundamental problem is that the Chinese Communist Party has an agenda that is hostile to Western democracies because it seeks to weaken our governance and our societies."

"Tilting toward China is a risky bet that is likely to carry more negative costs for Canada than the positive benefits that it could potentially bring."

Michael Kovrig, geopolitical adviser, former diplomat 

 

"It's a massive risk."

"Canada's auto industry depends on our integration with North America and the U.S. specifically. That's been the foundation of the sector, going all the way back to the auto pact."

"An estimated hourly wage at a Chinese [plant] is between U.S. $2 and $4 an hour. Compare that to a unionized vehicle production plant in Canada, where your average wage is about $45 an hour, and that also includes pensions and benefits and a whole range of other advantages." 

Brian Kingston, president, CEO Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association 

 

"We should welcome Chinese car manufacturers but set the rules similarly to what GM Canada had to do when it went to Shanghai in 2009."

"We should say, you are welcome to come to Canada, but you will have, after three years, to have about 30 percent of Canadian content, and after ten years, it has to be 100 percent content."

Guy Saint-Jacques former Canadian ambassador to China 

Models pose near the BYD Seal 06 Dmi, unveiled during the Auto China 2024 show in Beijing, on April 25, 2024. China's largest EV maker has been expanding rapidly into overseas markets and could reach Canadian shores shortly following Ottawa's recent deal with Beijing. (Ng Han Guan/The Associated Press)

Second-guessing Prime Minister Mark Carney's triumphant visit to Beijing in January when he came back home to Canada with a prize; Beijing's agreement to lower tariffs on Canadian canola and pork. That didn't come out of the goodness of China's trading-heart, but it mightily pleased the Canadian agrifood industry after a trade spat that close to destroyed their always-dependable Chinese market. Canola, seafood and pork are important comestibles for the Chinese, but they are products considered in trade talk to be fungible; they can be acquired elsewhere. In return, the negotiators in Beijing smiled broadly when Mr. Carney agreed to drop the 100% tariff Ottawa levied on Chinese electric vehicles and to allow the entry under a favourable tariff rate, an initial 49,000 of the vehicles for the Canadian market.

 

The Canadian auto industry was anything but pleased. Chinese electric vehicles are priced very reasonably in comparison to their counterparts produced in North America. The Canadian auto industry has gone through an agonizing few years thanks to the Trump administration's decision to punish its neighbour for taking the U.S. for a trade ride for far too long, according to their logic. The heavily intertwined industry where parts go back and forth between Canada and the U.S. in production of vehicles had suited both countries very well in the past, where the new tariffs have left Canada's auto industry on its knees.

 

Carney loosens Chinese EV tariffs

Mark Carney smooth-talked the situation as an opportunity for Canadians to consider the purchase of a less expensive option where the market of such vehicles struggle with soaring prices. In five years, he said with confidence, over 50 percent of vehicles in North America will be available at an import price of less than $35,000. More affordable options at a potential cost to tens of thousands of auto industry jobs in Canada. "It's clear that this will be a delicate and sometimes difficult relationship to manage with risks and opportunities that must be carefully weighed, as we heard from the earlier witnesses today", noted director of policy and strategy at Clean Energy Canada, acknowledging the risks associated with Chinese companies accessing the Canadian auto market.

 

Michael Kovrig, whose experience with China was rather less than idyllic, when he was taken into custody while in China, accused of a conspiracy against China, and was imprisoned in less than stellar conditions, with 'soft' torture for almost three years for espionage, as was Michael Spavor, during a different, diplomatic drama when China was polishing up its hostage-diplomacy credentials, warns against any Canadian involvement with Chinese trade.  

 

He addressed the issue of harmful environmental practices and abuses of human rights well known to exist in the supply chains of Chinese production, inclusive of Chinese EV companies. Allegations of using forced labour in the construction of vehicles by BYD, include its plants located in Brazil and Hungary. The U.S.-based non-profit China Labor Watch recently reported evidence of brutal labour conditions for Chinese migrant workers at its facility in Hungary. BYD was also listed by Brazil on its registry of employers subjecting workers to slave labour conditions.

 

Former senior bureaucrat Margaret McCuaig-Johnston last month during testimony before a House of Commons committee cited a Human Rights Watch report that aluminum used in dozens of auto parts in Chinese EVs is likely to be produced by Uyghur forced labour. China-based Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology Co. discussed the potential with Stellantis of building Chinese EVs at their idled Brampton, Ontario plant. The plan involving "knock down" kits assembled in Canada, parts produced and shipped from China. A plan that would wholly diminish Canadian auto parts' and workers' importance in total auto production.

 

While the prime minister claimed Canadian legislation is designed to force companies to report on their supply chains, recognize forced labour elements and keep them out of the Canadian supply chain, critics point out that the Canada Border Services Agency since 2021 halted a mere two shipments containing forced labour, both from China. "The legislation is world class; the enforcement of the legislation is possibly less than world class", former Liberal MP John McKay stated. 

 

A BYD vehicle is assembled on the production line of the company's factory in Camacari, Brazil, on Oct. 9, 2025. (Joa Souza/Reuters)

"I think there are a number of concerns when it comes to this expansion of Chinese companies and their presence in the Canadian market."

"And human rights is one element of it, but economic security and national security concerns must also be considered."

Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada 

 

Canada Going Along to Get Along with Iran in the UN on Human Rights

"From the General Assembly resolution 3379 in 1975, which called Zionism 'a form of racism'; through the 2001 Durban human rights conference; to the 2003 election of a representative of Libya's Col. Qaddafi as chair of the Human Rights Council, the UN's veneer of legitimacy has worn thin."

John Ivison, journalist, National Post 

The Security Council chamber at the United Nations in New York City. Photo by Spencer Platt /Getty Images

 

Once a year the UN's Economic and Social Council's [ECOSOC], 54 members which centrally coordinates the UN's work on economic, social and environmental issues, nominates a list of countries to join the UN Committee for Program and Coordination [CPC], which are generally confirmed. Currently the ECOSOC membership includes the United States, Germany, France, Spain, the United Kingdom and Canada, among many other countries. A week ago nominations for the CPC came up for debate. The Islamic Republic of Iran was one of those nominated. And the United States was the only ECOSOC member to dissent over its nomination, declaring Iran unfit to sit on the CPC.

 

In another month the CPC will take to reviewing United Nations programs that address gender equality, disarmament and terrorism prevention. Certainly, Iran knows a great deal about all three issues. And as a world-leader in abuse of women's rights, and the ultimate resistor-country to disarmament, as well as the globally-acknowledged leader in the promotion of terrorism, it could conceivably act as a poster for all that has gone wrong in human rights under its theistic rule. Other than that, what could it possibly add of any value to those items? 

 

Canada was one of the ECOSOC members, along with Germany, France, Spain, and the U.K. to rubber-stamp the Iranian nomination to the CPC -- and just coincidentally Iran had been elected to the group previously, in 2014, 2017, 2020 and 2023, as astonishingly corrupt as that might appear to any befuddled mind that continues to cling to the belief that the United Nations is a global institution whose mandate is one of promoting human rights and world peace. 

 

United Nations Headquarters   Image courtesy of Nils Huenerfuerst on Unsplash

 

The following Tuesday in the House of Commons, Opposition Conservative MP Michael Chong, foreign affairs critic, questioned Canada's supine agreement for Iran. Foreign Affairs minister Anita Anand informed  him that there was nothing Canada could do: "As the position was uncontested, there was no opportunity for a vote", she explained. But the opportunity was there to object and Canada failed that metric of responsibility. "Canada will continue to work closely with partners to actively counter Iran's candidacies in UN bodies and will do so on all occasions", she emphasized, having just done otherwise. 

 

But then, of course, she was only relying on the outstanding leadership example of the leader of the Liberal party, Prime Minister Mark Carney, to lead the way on sanctimonious cynicism, as when in January his speech in Davos included this humdinger: "There is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along. To accommodate. To avoid trouble. To hope that compliance will buy safety. It won't."

 

According to Canadian lawyer Hillel Neuer of UN Watch in Geneva, Anand's position  was "misleading". Canada could have acted with principle, but failed to. It had the opportunity to force a vote on the nominations, at the very least could have done what the U.S. did, to disassociate from the consensus that rubber-stamped Iran's committee membership, once again. The U.S. ambassador to ECOSOC made that abundantly clear, and included Cuba and Nicaragua. 

"To be clear, Canada joined the consensus in endorsing Iran and others, and it was not obliged to."

"I would say this is typical. Much of what happens at the UN is very cynical. If you want to be principled, you are going to be very busy and it is going to be unpleasant."

"Diplomats believe it is good to get along with as many countries as possible It is much easier to go along to get along."

"[Placing] serial abusers [at the helm of human rights at the UN is] like putting Al Capone in charge of fighting organized crime".

Hillel Neuer, UN Watch 

Iran secures UN role with backing from UK, France, Canada, Australia as US stands alone

 

It's An Unremittingly Harsh World for Jews

The clearest takeaway from this study is that public opinion on Canada and Israel is not one-dimensional. Canadians may be broadly negative toward Israel overall, but that does not translate into wholesale rejection of Israel’s right to exist or defend itself.

Three quarters of Canadians, 75%, agree that Israel has a right to defend itself when threatened by other countries. Two thirds, 66%, agree that Israel has a right to exist. A majority, 57%, also say Israel faces a uniquely difficult situation in a hostile region.

At the same time, many Canadians are critical of Israel’s behaviour and intentions. Just over half, 52%, agree that Israel is its own worst enemy because it makes no effort to live peacefully with its neighbours. Only 33% believe Israel is actively seeking peace with neighbours willing to stop threatening it. In other words, many Canadians still recognize Israel’s security concerns, but they are far less convinced by the country’s current political and military posture.

Israel’s overall standing is weak across the country. Favourable opinion sits at 22% nationally, and falls to 17% in Quebec. It is also notably lower among women than men, 17% versus 27%. By voting intention, perceptions differ sharply. Conservative voters are far more likely to view Israel favourably, at 38%, while favourable opinion drops to 17% among Liberal voters and 12% among NDP voters.

Canadians who rely mainly on family and friends for Middle East news are more likely to hold a favourable impression of Israel, at 38%, than those who rely on Canadian mainstream media, at 20%. More broadly, mainstream Canadian news outlets remain the dominant source of information on Middle East issues, cited by 57% of respondents, followed by social media at 25% and mainstream international media at 20%.

Asked about the Government of Canada’s response to rising antisemitic incidents since October 7 and the subsequent Middle East conflict, 39% say Ottawa needs to do more. Only 29% say the government is doing enough, and just 7% say it is doing too much.

Canadians are clearly more negative toward Israel than they were three years ago. That shift likely reflects the cumulative effect of war, regional escalation, humanitarian devastation, and the increasingly visible costs of prolonged military action. But Canadians have not moved to a simplistic all-or-nothing position. They still affirm Israel’s right to exist. They still affirm its right to defend itself. And they also affirm homeland rights for Palestinians, almost to the same degree. 

Perception of Israel; Survey of Canadians, Leger Poll

Photo by John Mahoney/MONTREAL GAZETTE

 

The recently-published Leger poll that looked into Canadians' support for Israel has concluded that support has dropped to quite a degree since the October 7, 2023 invasion of southern Israel by thousands of Palestinians, led by the terrorist group Hamas, with a clear plan laid out to punish Jews for living on their own ancestral land, that Palestinians claimed as their own, having chosen to reject the United Nations Partition Plan that divided that historically Judean landscape to share between Jews and Palestinians. That punishment took the form of mass rape, torture, sadistic savagery on a scale unimaginable by most sane minds, to rampage through farming communities, slaughtering children, the elderly, men and women.

 

There is always a reaction of sympathy in the immediacy of Jewish tragedy revealed, and it lasts as long as it takes Jews to amass  resources to respond to their deadly persecutors. So when Israel dispatched the Israeli Defense Forces into Gaza to hunt down the mass murderers who have always used the strategy of concealing themselves behind Palestinian civilians, using schools, mosques, community centres and hospitals as headquarters, weapons storage and communications centres amidst a civilian population, the stage is set for triumphant propaganda to persuade foreign news services and governments that Israel is attacking the human rights of defenseless people.

 

That 'public relations' ploy has been perfected against a background of fairly universal, and most frequently underground hatred of Jews and they come together  with a ferocity of awakened antisemitism justifying itself on the basis of 'recognizing' ancient Jewish stereotypes and caricatures of Jews as shrewd manipulators whose goal is to rule the world for their own malign purposes. Accused of controlling world banking, news media, and governments, despite all real events pointing to the obvious opposite, a snarling global media faults Israel for 'indiscriminate' and 'disproportionate' responses to atrocities it suffers when it responds to protect its population.

 

Notionally and nominally viewed as a Western ally, a solid democracy living in a hostile environment of Middle Eastern potentates, theocracies, kingdoms and oil sheikdoms where oil resources exploited by its neighbours have earned great favour in those same Western democracies, Israel's friendships and reliance on erstwhile allies is put to the test, and particularly in these last three years, that test has failed. In the IDF's campaign to destroy the terrorist group with a covenant to destroy Israel from Gaza, other similar groups in Lebanon and Yemen, controlled by the Islamic Republic all sought to pounce in unity, and all have been put back on their heels by the tiny nation that appears as a discrete spot on the globe.

 

Countries in the Jewish diaspora where Jews have lived for centuries and sometimes millennia have latterly become unsafe for continued Jewish existence, from Germany to France, Britain to Ireland, Spain to Greece, Australia to Canada. A massive influx of Muslims has infiltrated the West through a process of immigration, refuge and migration, bringing with them their ancient scriptures demanding jihad against non-believers, beginning with Jews, and since that jihad  takes many forms, the faithful are obliged to their duty, which translates to making life unbearable for Jews wherever they live, beginning with the state of Israel.

 

Governments which commit to equality for all their citizens, suddenly find it difficult to extend that equality to their Jewish populations in view of much larger demographics of Muslim populations. News media obligingly play the role of transmitting subtle, then not-so-subtle portrayals of the Jewish state's questionable responses to threats when forced by violence to respond in kind in a geography that recognizes no other kind of reactions than militancy to be respected and anything approaching diplomacy is a byzantine puzzle to unravel.  

 

In Canada, as in much of Europe, a flood of 'progressive'-left, Critical Race Theory, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion imperatives have refashioned society through their governments' commitments to empathetic action in reaction to charges of 'colonialism' and exploitation of less-developed nations and societies during past imperialistic eras. Conflating Israel, an indigenous people to the Middle East, with 'colonialism' in lock-step with Palestinian propaganda has succeeded in isolating Israel as a holdover from a now-despised age, completely perverting history and reality.

 

The incoherent and confused Canadian reaction to the recent Leger poll reflects to a great degree that condition now prevailing where Israel has become an outcast among democratic nations, through a successful campaign of delegitimization portraying the Jewish state, and Jews in general everywhere as illegal occupiers to be shunned and condemned. That Israel's scientific and technological and agricultural advances have been admired, acclaimed and shared, doesn't spare it one iota, nor the number of Jewish Nobel Laureates, out of proportion to their global population numbers. 

 

Do any of Israel's detractors in the West even note that when Jews mount protests they do so peacefully, holding not only the  flags of Israel aloft, but flags denoting their countries of  residence. 'Pro-Palestinian' protests, on the other hand, see people masked, shouting invective, threatening the local Jewish population, chanting for the destruction of Israel, wearing keffiyehs to signal Palestinian triumphs over adversity when a death-cult mentality identifies their target as genocidal. 'Palestine' is a useful symbol for those who use it  as a cudgel, nothing more, with which to demolish Israel's place in the world. 

 

People attend a rally outside Convocation Hall on the University of Toronto campus on Monday, May 27, 2024 as members of the Ontario Federation of Labour support the pro-Palestinian encampment at the university. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)

 

 

 

 

 

Normalizing Violent Antisemitism

"High levels of antisemitism have become a normalized feature in societies with large Jewish minorities."

"The data raise concern that a high level of antisemitic incidents is becoming a normalized reality." 

"The label of antisemitism is harsh and should be applied only after careful consideration and based on solid criteria."

"The peak in the number of incidents was recorded in the immediate aftermath of the 7 October attack, after which we began to see a downward trend. But unfortunately, that trend did not continue in 2025."  

Uriya Shavit, chief editor, Tel Aviv University annual report 

Survivor Saul Reichert, third from left, and his family light a candle at Toronto's Holocaust memorial event, April 13, 2026. (Credit: Shay Markowitz, for the Toronto Holocaust Museum)

"Offenders align with two main ideological orientations."

"They are predominantly Christian white supremacists or Muslims who apply antisemitism as a response to grievances about Middle Eastern political developments."

"[The] most worrying phenomenon [of the past year had been the] normalisation of antisemitic rhetoric in American political discourse."

"[US President Donald Trump had] tolerated, as no contemporary president has, deep-seated, loathsome antisemites within his camp, and continues to do so for cynical political reasons."

"The result is a new culture of everything-goes that is undermining the sense that Jews have had for decades that their future in America is secure."

Tel Aviv University annual report  

The attack at Sydney's Bondi Beach killed 15 members of the Jewish Community.  Getty Images

 

According to an annual study released on Monday, coinciding with the Shoah Day of Remembrance, 2025 distinguished itself as the most violent year in thirty, for Jews facing a resurgence of global antisemitism. The study pointed out that Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy and Australia had all posted notable increases in antisemitic incidents reported in 2025. In the United States and France, irrespective of notable physical attacks on Jewish targets, the report found the number of antisemitic incidents there declined.

 

Violence against Jews saw a spike beginning after the  Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel when an estimated 6 thousand terrorists flooded across from Gaza into Israel, followed by ordinary Palestinian citizens, all of whom committed barbaric, sadistic acts of rape, torture, burning entire families alive in their homes, slaughtering over a thousand civilians, foreign farm workers, children and the elderly, while taking infants, their parents and grandparents, women and men hostage into Gaza.

When Israel mobilized the Israel Defense Forces to enter Gaza to search for Hamas leaders, their operatives, and those of Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, all involved in the heinous bloodshed, the world -- initially shocked at the carnage committed in Israel -- turned against Israeli reprisal against the terrorists, despite the military doing its utmost to spare civilian lives through pre-strike alerts and organized population moves out of harm's way.

A sign reading "Jewish Lives Should Matter, Too" is seen at the floral tributes area outside Bondi Pavilion in Sydney on Dec. 18, 2025, to honour victims of the Bondi Beach shooting. The attack at Bondi Beach on Dec.14 was one of the deadliest in Australian history. Photo by DAVID GRAY / AFP via Getty Images 

 

In Sydney, Australia, a Muslim father and son duo launched a deadly attack on Bondi Beach, killing 15 members of the Jewish community that had gathered in December to celebrate Hannukah. Two antisemitic attacks in the United States in Washington, D.C. and Colorado were mounted, while in Britain two people were murdered at a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the most sacred day in Judaism's High Holy Days.

 

Tel Aviv University's Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, alongside the Irwin Cotler Institute for Democracy, Human Rights and Justice annually release their report on antisemitism, coinciding with Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day that serves as a national memorial for the six million Jewish children, women and men whose lives were systematically obliterated in a state mechanism deployed to destroy Europe's Jews. 

 

An increase in antisemitic attacks resulting in physical harm is tracked annually to produce each year's report. This report found that 2025 represented the deadliest year for such attacks since 1994, when a Jewish community centre in Argentina (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina),was bombed, where 85 people died and over 300 were wounded. A suicide-bombing attributed to Islamic Jihad/Hezbollah, the Islamic State of Iran's proxy terrorist groups in Lebanon. 

 

Since 2023, the incidents of viral antisemitism have soared, in comparison to those committed in 2022 Incidents that range from physical violence and vandalism to verbal threats and harassment on social media are all tracked by researchers who produce the final report. The report relies on statistics based on reports from police, national authorities, and local Jewish communities.

 

In Canada alone, to cite one country in isolation from others, the number of incidents rose from 6,219 committed in 2024, to 6,800 in 2025, representing a number over three times steeper than in 2022 -- pre-October 7's Palestinian terrorist horde attacking Israeli farming communities and a nearby musical festival where over 370 young festival-goers, men and women were raped and murdered. 

Some might question why the report failed to address the phenomenon of mass protests on the streets of Europe and North America by Palestinian and Muslim groups that immediately began accusing Israel of 'genocide' in its terrorist-seeking foray into Gaza, where masked, keffiyeh-clad 'protesters' issued threats against Israel and harassed, hounded and threatened diaspora-citizen Jews. Where in Canada, synagogues, Jewish parochial schools, and private businesses owned by Jews were vandalized and shot up.  

 

Rabbi Yossi Friedman speaks to people gathering at a flower memorial by the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, following Sunday’s shooting in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

 

Call It What It Is: Antisemitism

"The Azrieli Foundation is a passive minority shareholders of the Azrieli Group. As a responsible investor, based on our knowledge and information, we can confirm that the Azrieli Group's activities are entirely within Israel's internationally recognized borders."

"I am particularly saddened that ongoing attempts to disparage the Foundation have impacted many of the artists, creators and organizations that we have supported over the years in Canada." 

Naomi Azrieli, Azrieli Foundation chair 

 

"[It's up to the Giller if it's] interested in rebuilding any sense of trust with writers and readers."

"We imagine some authors who have boycotted might submit their works again, and others might not."

CanLit Responds organizer Michael DeForge

Protesters gather in Toronto to demonstrate against the Giller Award ceremony in November 2024. (Eduardo Lima/The Canadian Press)

 

Once again pro-Palestinian propaganda groups that promulgate a version of  history and reality that is their very own perception, unreflective of reality, has succeeded in wearing down the sponsors of the Giller Prize group through a literary event boycott. Their mission is to wreak havoc within any group that hints of a relationship with Israel, portraying them as complicit in the suffering of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government.

 

That Palestinian leaders have for generations incited the Palestinian population to view Israel and Jews -indigenous to the land -- as enemies, as usurpers of Palestinian land, colonists who have no right to claim land as theirs, thus depriving the Palestinians of what is rightfully theirs, and in the process teaching their population from childhood forward that to desire martyrdom in the cause of achieving Palestinian statehood where Israel sits and beyond, is the greatest of aspirations in honour of the Islamic faith. That heroic status of martyrdom theirs, with the commission of murder of Jews.

 

This is the ideology of victimhood that supporters of the 'Palestinian cause' celebrate, support, and choose to harass and persecute Canadian Jews, their organizations and very presence in support of. That Israel exists on its own ancestral land, that Jews gratefully accepted a Partition Plan proffered by the United Nations and the Palestinians rejected that offer, is of no concern to Western apologists for Palestinian terrorism, who prefer to portray them as victims of Israeli 'occupation'. An 'occupation' necessitated by constant Palestinian lethal attacks, random or organized, on Jews in Israel.

 

The equivalent of the lethal attacks in the Middle East verbally now take place regularly in the West, with slanderous accusations of 'genocide' levelled against Israel and the IDF in its retaliation for the worst slaughter of Israelis carried out in southern Israel by terrorist groups from Gaza, led by Hamas. That would be the Hamas which, though on Canada's official terror list, is considered a liberating army by the persecutors of Canadian Jews and their organizations.

 

A prestigious Canadian literary prize halted its partnership with Scotiabank after nearly 20 authors pulled their books from consideration to protest the bank's investment in an Israeli defence contractor. CBC

 

CanLit Responds is one of those groups, proud of its efforts to demonize Israel and by extension any group or organization or individual in Canada with links to Israel. CanLit Responds, comprised of like-minded anti-Israel haters, a literary group of Canadian writers who have in the past benefited from association with the Giller Prize, blackballed the Giller to the point where it now announced no sponsorship ties to Scotiabank or the Azrieli Foundation, through an announcement from its executive director Elana Rabinovitch.

 

At the same time, Indigo Books, which has also been a target of pro-Palestinian groups for its charitable arm in Israel that offers higher educational opportunities for Israeli soldiers, foreign volunteers without family in the country, has been identified as well in the Giller announcement to the effect that it was never a sponsor, only a promotional partner, by highlighting Giller-prize authors on shelving displays highlighted in their stores. 

 

CanLit Responds claimed to represent hundreds of writers when they launched their boycott in 2024 over Giller sponsors' links to Israel. Scotiabank had been the naming sponsor of the $100,000 prize for two decades, but when protests surfaced in 2023 after the October 7 massacre of Israelis by Palestinian terrorists over its subsidiary's investment in an Israeli arms manufacturer, Scotiabank and the Giller Foundation delinked their association. 

 

That alone failed to satisfy the CanLit organizers who insisted that the boycott would remain in place as long as the Giller Prize was linked to either Indigo or the Azrieli Foundation, taking issue with Indigo's charity of scholarships for former IDF soldiers. Giller, responded Rabinovitch, "has never received money" from Indigo. Citing the Azrieli Foundation's connection to Israeli real estate company Azrieli Group, with minority holdings in Bank Leumi, it was also in the CanLit crosshairs.

 

It was later explained by Rabinovitch that the Azrieli Foundation's contract with the Giller ended in 2025. The foundation and prize continued to operate in 2025, she stated, with "a one-time 'bridge' gift and two smaller donations from individuals and foundations who wish to remain anonymous", allowing the Giller to carry on for the 2026 prize event.  

 

Pro-Palestinian activists are calling for a national day of action and boycott against businesses tied to Israel's actions in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Supporters of Israel call the movement antisemitic.

"The Azrieli Foundation remains deeply committed to supporting arts and culture in Canada and we are proud of our collaboration with the Giller Prize."

"It was not ended because of pressure from activist groups. In fact, we remain open to new opportunities to collaborate in the future." 

Heather Sherman