Indigenous Female Victims ... Indigenous Male Victimizers

"Indigenous people find themselves disproportionately and excessively imprisoned, while Indigenous women and girls suffer from unacceptably high levels of violence and abuse."

"The lessons of the sentencing circle are more than just a source of factual information relevant to a fit sentence, but are key to understanding the Indigenous perspective on sentencing..."

"What is required is that a sentencing judge reasonably engage with the perspectives expressed in the sentencing circle in crafting a fit and appropriate sentence."

Supreme Court decision 

The landmark judgement, R. v. Cope, concerns a Mi’kmaw man from Nova Scotia who pleaded guilty after violently assaulting his intimate partner, a Mi’kmaw woman, in 2021. (File photo)

 

The Supreme Court of Canada has twisted itself like a pretzel to find the halfway point between holding an Indigenous male guilty for his criminal acts, while being aware at all times that Indigenous people are incarcerated for crimes in disproportion to their numbers in society and generally granted lighter punishment. One cannot merely draw the obvious opinion that Indigenous men are more disposed to criminal acts than the general society, for it is deemed to be racist, without considering the effect that 'colonialism' has had on the Indigenous psyche.

 

At the same time, to hand out lighter sentences to Indigenous males for their propensity toward violence against Indigenous women holds males to lesser account, while victimizing the women they threaten, abuse and murder. This kind of male behaviour to their female counterparts also cannot be construed as a cultural default since this too is racist and one must again consider the generational trauma suffered by Canada's Indigenous population as a whole as a result of colonization and the effect of residential schools which separated Indigenous children from their families and tribes in an effort to provide them with an education analogous to what every Canadian child received in the public school system.

 

The Supreme Court has recently sat with the intention of resolving competing judicial imperatives in addressing Indigenous over-incarceration and the high rates of violence committed by males of Indigenous descent against Indigenous women; where both victim and victimizer are Indigenous, in a search for a Solomonic solution. There were 22 intervener groups that included three provincial attorneys-general, First Nations and Indigenous organizations, law groups, and human rights, civil liberties and constitutional advocacy organizations. All presumably putting their collective brains to work out a just response to a vexing problem.

 

The Supreme Court justices at a ceremony to mark the opening of the judicial year, at the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, Oct. 5, 2026. Photo by David Kawai/Postmedia

 

In the end, the justices that comprise the Supreme Court -- nine in number -- were split five to four in their recently released decision. The majority opinion set a framework that judges are to follow in situations of this nature. As, for example, the 2021 case of Harry Arthur Cope who attacked his common-law partner in Halifax on a public sidewalk where he repeatedly struck the woman. When police arrived, her face was swollen and bloody, she having suffered severe injuries to her face and upper torso.

 

At the man's 2023 sentencing following his guilty plea to aggravated assault after court heard he had severe mental health challenges, no longer took medications and consumed illicit drugs the complications were duly recognized. Mr. Cope also had a significant criminal record. Provincial Court of Nova Scotia Judge Christine Driscoll ordered an Indigenous Background Report. According to a First Nations' sentencing circle it was the opinion of community members that more incarceration would not help Cope, recommending instead in-patient treatment.

 

Duly considering Cope's background, Judge Driscoll, weighing special factors from the victim's perspective, rejected the proposal for a conditional sentence and decided to sentence the man to five years in prison. His sentence was then reduced to three years by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal. That appeal decision brought the Cope case to the attention of the Supreme Court. 

 

The majority of Supreme Court judges upheld the appeal decision of a reduced sentence, while dissenting justices in the minority preferred the restoration of the trial judge's five-year sentence. According to the majority decision the sentencing judge should have adhered more closely to the mental heath factors to arrive at the offender's moral blameworthiness and in effect held she should have engaged with the input by the sentencing circle. 

 

According to the minority justice opinion, the original five-year sentence should be restored; that the sentencing judge appropriately considered the nature of the crime and the particular vulnerabilities of the victim, even as the judge had properly, as required by law, considered the circumstances of the offender, taking into account the compelling Gladue factors and Mr. Cope's mental illness. 

 

eStock Mark Bruxella

 

"In cases where an Indigenous offender commits an offence against his intimate partner who is an Indigenous woman, a sentencing judge must apply the principles related to both Indigenous offenders and victims of crime, and do so harmoniously to arrive at a just and proportionate sentence."  

"[The majority opinion said the sentencing circle process] will be relevant both to understand the availability of alternative sentencing options that may exist in the community, as well as the community perspective on the sentence that will best achieve the relevant sentencing objectives." 

Supreme Court Majority opinion 

War In Sudan

"Canada has been involved in many peace initiatives, like Colombia and others. We are working to have a political process which will require a lot of support in capacity and expertise."

"This is a war of attrition. I don't see any outright victory for any side. There's no military solution."

Sudanese former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok

Zak Irfan 123 // Shutterstock

 

On a visit to Canada, Mr. Hamdok -- now a civilian, once the Sudanese prime minister toppled in a military coup in 2021 -- is engaged in discussions with Canadian politicians and federal officials, looking for a commitment that Canada is prepared to lend its diplomatic expertise to the Sudanese peace effort. This man is obviously feeling in dire straits for the future of his country but his choice of Ottawa and Canada as representative of a country capable of extending its 'diplomatic expertise' to aid in a ceasefire leading to peace in Sudan is quite naive. 

 

In the sense of what 'diplomatic expertise'? In the sense of a country aspiring to middle power status and repeatedly stumbling in the process, having any diplomatic or political clout to lend to such an enterprise.

What is happening in Sudan, is a matter for North Africa and the Middle East to be more acutely involved in, to strive toward peace. Islam is at war with itself in that extended geography, and always has been. The tendency to resort to conflict is not uniquely Middle Eastern or African, but it is a common enough occurrence aided by the traditional culture of tribal and sectarian hostility and power politics.

 

How a country such as Canada, far removed both geographically and ethnically, not to mention, culturally could be of any use other than as a cheerleader on the sidelines for reason and a desire to spare the populations concerned from any further threats of death, displacement, starvation and disease, all endemic to the violence of conflict, is beyond imagination. 

 

However, Mr. Hamdok, as a loyal patriotic Sudanese citizen has been travelling the globe to lobby for aid in peace efforts. He is also involved in a process of political unity led by civilians among important Sudanese groups and parties in a country where war rages in various areas -- where hundreds of thousands have been killed and some 13 million citizens were forced to flee from their homes and villages since 2023 when the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have waged a war of control. 

 

UNDP/Giles Clarke People displaced by conflict take shelter at a bus station in Gedaref, Sudan.

 

While over 30 million Sudanese are reliant on emergency food aid, countless ceasefire proposals have been discussed, rejected, and broken with both sides convinced they can win the war where cities have been captured and recaptured, and heavier episodes of dread drone strikes continue to threaten the population.  The war has recently spilled into Ethiopia, where the RSF accesses drone bases and weapon supplies. As for Ethiopia, it is beleaguered with Eritrean troops crossing into the north of the country, in its own escalating conflict. 

"This has the potential of engulfing Sudan."

"It's dangerous because this is the most fragile region in the continent. It's alarming."

"All the neighbouring countries are definitely involved. Already our house is on fire, and then you see neighbours' houses also going up in flames."

Abdalla Hamdok 

In his belief that the peace process in Sudan is the process of gaining momentum, Mr. Hamdok speaks of the emergence of the "Quintet" representing five international blocs involved in attempting to resolve the conflict. The African Union and the European Union, as well as an expanding 'non-aligned' coalition of Sudanese civilian groups and political parties making up its membershipm with the inclusion of Sumoud, Mr. Hamdok's own group.

 

The Sumoud group has received $2.5 million from Canada since 2024, according to a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada. Whether Canada has diplomatic involvement in Sudan sufficient to exercise much influence over the peace process is questioned by independent analysts. One the war began in Sudan, Canada closed its Khartoum embassy, and currently relies upon its Ethiopian embassy to cover Sudan. Furthermore Canada has no formal affiliation with the Quintet. 

 

A Canadian based group, the Sudan Solidarity Collective comprised of diaspora Sudanese, argues that Mr. Hamdok's coalition should not be viewed as the sole representative of the Sudanese people in view of its alleged links to the United Arab Emirates, reported to supply weapons to the RSF. Which seems peculiar in the extreme, since the UAE uses a conciliatory approach generally as a peaceful nation for which conflict is anathema and tolerance for differences in human relations a byword. The RSF is, in fact, comprised of former Arab Janjaweed, known for their cruel massacres in the Darfurian Black farming community.   

"Canada cannot be helpful in terms of the peace process without meaningfully joining the Quintet and appointing a special envoy for Sudan or the Horn of Africa."

"[Canada should push for an expansion of Mr. Hamdok's civilian alliance, which is weak in its representation of youth groups and women]."

"It is still too narrow [to be effective in its representation]." 

Khalid Mustafa Medani, chair, African Studies Program, McGill University 

A Sudanese Armed Forces soldier walking on the Shambat bridge that once connected Omdurman with the Khartoum neighborhood of Bahri on the opposite bank of the River Nile on April 27, 2025. Giles Clarke/Avaaz via Getty Images

  

"Only three or four of us in the leadership are living in the United Arab Emirates. The bulk of our leaders are in Egypt."

"As refugees, we cannot pick and choose where to live."

"The UAE is not imposing anything on us."

Abdalla Hamdok 

The Climate-Changing Himalayas

"Nepal is very vulnerable to this because half our country is covered with mountains. That's going to affect the people living lower down below the valley along the river."

"It's a big threat. The moment glaciers recede ... the lakes are going to rise and then one day, it's going to breach and break. And that's exactly what is happening."

"It happened in Thame [his father Tenzing Norgay Sherpa's home town], half of the village was wiped off [the map]." 

"I think we have to be very careful now as to how we look at mountains and how we approach climbing mountains nowadays."

Jamling Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, 61

Edmund Hillary, left, with Tenzing Norgay in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 1953.  AP

 

Tenzing Norgay Sherpa's son is convinced the world needs to sit up and take notice. The Himalays are being transformed by climate change. Mountaineering which his father Tenzing Norgay Sherpa pioneered on the majestic mountain considered to be the tallest and certainly one of the world's most difficult to climb is now more dangerous in its laborious ascent and descent. He is also in a sense, celebrating a long-overdue view back at his father's historic climb alongside mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand. The story of their summit on Mount Everest has always been told from the perspective of Sir Hillary, never Tenzing Norgay.

 

For climbers and mountaineering Sherpa community, the changes are also making their occupation more dangerous, with unpredictable weather and frequent avalanches. RTE100

 

That never-before succeeded spectacular feat of sheer human stamina and determination in the face of the seemingly impossible, 70 years ago was a rare event in human expeditionary adventure. Yet, the Himalayas of those long decades past is not the Himalayas of the present era. Nepal, whose mountainous terrain and approach to Mount Everest and its sister mountains represent the most-commonly favoured routes to ascending those famous peaks, is not the Nepal of yesteryear. 

 

Tenzing Norgay Sherpa's home village of Thame, at an altitude of 3,800 meres (12,460 feet in height) is no more. Two years earlier, a devastating flood caused by a glacial lake outburst swept it away. Another more recent event in August saw a glacial collapse trigger a massive flash flood along the Rishuli and Bhote Koshi river systems in Nepal and Tibet. Close to 800 people lost their lives. The areas in question have become ecologically fragile.

 

Jamling Tenzing Norgay in 2001. Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images 

 

In 1996 Tenzing Noray Sherpa's son Jamling Tenzing Norgay Sherpa set out to follow his father's footsteps. "I looked up to him as my greatest role model, you know, he was my hero, and I wanted to become just like him." Some geological events and incidents of historical moment however, cannot be emulated entirely in their original form. Guides now find water at Camp 2, situated some 6,400 metres (21,000 feet) high up the slope of Mount Everest. "There was never water at all. It's always solid ice up there", emphasized Sherpa.

 

Unpredictable weather has always been a problem climbing such unapproachable peaks where raging winds and devastating snowstorms can mean the difference between life and death. But the unpredictable weather now includes a definitely notable warming trend resulting in more frequent avalanches, both auguring far more dangerous and difficult conditions being faced by climbers and the mountaineering community of Nepal's famous Sherpas. Add to that the dangers inherent in the newly-crowded conditions found on the mountain with the popularity of these prestige-assuring climbs

 

This photograph shows mountaineers climbing a slope lined up during their ascent, May 20, 2026, from the Hillary Step to summit Mount Everest in Nepal.  Furte Sherpa/AFP via Getty Images

 

"I think it was long overdue, a film, a biopic about my father, his life."

"But at the same time, he really didn't care about it. It wasn't the fame he looked for, why he climbed the mountain."

"He climbed because it was his passion and he had a dream to climb this mountain."

Jamling Tenzing Norgay Sherpa 

 While the mountains, said Sherpa, were a passionate longing for his father, and many Nepali climbers are now finally being recognized for their own heroic stature in climbing the Himalayas and Mount Everest in response to eco- and mountaineering-popularity, the mountaineering industry is driven for the most part by financial necessity. "The Sherpas climb today to keep bread and butter on the table, you know, to feed their children, to give their children a good education, so their children wouldn't have to do the same thing", he explained. 

"It's not only affecting us in the Himalayas, it's affecting European countries, it's affecting places in the U.S. with all these wildfires."

"If we don't star taking care of our planet, there's going to e a price to pay."

"While he [Tenzing Norgay] was still alive, before the '80s, nobody talked about climate change because we didn't see the changes."

"We notice this now."

Jamling Tenzing Norgay Sherpa 

The Impartial, Principled Navanethem Pillay, Nobel Laureate

"[The Nobel Peace Prize winner, Navi Pillay] contributed to strengthen the institutions of international law.'"

"Her independence, expertise and steadfastness have made her one of the most respected international jurists of our time."

"In awarding this year’s Nobel peace prize, the Norwegian Nobel committee wants to remind the world that the rule of law – national and international – underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace and resolve conflicts non-violently."

Nobel Committee 

 

"I don’t know about it so much. The question is: is it true? Being a lawyer and a judge, I still want to verify it [whether she was to be awarded the prize]."

"The last thing I did was the report on Gaza naming what’s happening there as genocide."

"One of the main reactions to that report was people [complimented] me for my courage. You can imagine how surprised I was. Why would you need courage to speak the truth. You interpret the law. You look at all the facts, so it’s an impartial decision."

Navanethem (Navi) Pillay, Nobel Laureate  

Navi Pillay, then-U.N. high commissioner for human rights, addresses the ninth session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, September 2008. Credit: Jean-Marc Ferré/U.N. Photo

 

 The inventor of dynamite felt so conscience-stricken over his genius invention that of course had peacetime applications, but would also and obviously be used in conflict situations, blowing up both enemy installations and innocent civilian lives, that he felt he had to somehow make amends. The hugely respected Nobel prizes in recognition of human endeavours in the fields of medicine, science, the arts and the art of peace salved his conscience. While he was the discoverer of a means to end lives, that was clearly not his intent. Now he is known as one whose legacy is that of a truly noble endeavour; to recognize and reward human intelligence, ingenuity and genius.

Yasser Arafat, Palestine Liberation Organization, Egyptian Palestinian Leader, Nobel Peace Prize1994

 

In being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, this accomplished lawyer, human rights advocate and internationally respected past director of many United Nations committees upholding all the qualities that the international body has traditionally promoted, respected and supported, this woman stands out as an icon of courage to many, and inchoate hateful bigotry to others. Just as the United Nations has chosen to make an exceptional example of the tiny state of Israel as a human rights denier for refusing to allow itself to be threatened with annihilation, citing a plethora of 'human rights violations' it attributes to a genuinely dedicated democratic state for which human rights is inviolable, so too has Ms. Pillay distinguished herself by her contemptuous regard for Israel, naming it for what it most positively is not -- genocidal.

 

On the surface, Ms. Pillay's extensive experience in international law and human rights prepared her for the recognition that is now universally held to be her right. Now 85, she is a former UN high commissioner for human rights. In her role as chairwoman of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, inclusive of East Jerusalem and Israel, her commission issued a 72-page report in 2025 whose conclusion was that Israel was guilty of committing genocide in Gaza against Palestinians. 

"[Awarding the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to Pillay represents a] grotesque weaponization of an award to legitimize anti-Israel hatred and prejudice."

"If there were a prize for lies, hatred and blood libels, Navi Pillay would not merely be a candidate -- she would be the front-runner."

"Now that the Nobel Committee has rewarded the biggest lie of the 21st century, Joseph Goebbels is surely applauding from hell."

Israeli Foreign Ministry 

Grotesquely, ironically, Pillay spoke at the very same Nuremberg courtroom in Germany, the site of the trials held to hold Nazi leaders to account for the atrocities of the Second World War. Where death sentences were handed out to 24 of the 177 defendants, another 20 of whom were sentenced to life imprisonment. Of the total 98 others were given variable prison sentences, several were sentenced in absentia, while 7 including Hess and Speer were sent to Spandau Prison where the four wartime powers, Britain, France, Russia and the United States took turns guarding and caring for their welfare. History will also judge Navi Pillay. 

"At the Nuremberg Court ... I cannot think of a stronger symbol for the devastating collapse of the human rights institutions and principles you were entrusted to uphold and protect, equally and consistently."

"Never again is now."

Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israeli special envoy for combatting antisemitism  

Nuremberg War Crimes Trial, Archives 1945

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney's Glib Reassurances Contrast With Lack of Commitment

"The government has been taking actions at home to protect the Jewish community, protect all Canadians, but particularly the Jewish community."

"And it's above and beyond protection, it's about the ability to truly thrive, live their lives freely and openly and thrive as Jewish people in Canada."

Prime Minister Mark Carney

 

"[There will be] an increased police presence today and in the coming days [at synagogues and other places of worship]."

"We remain committed to working with communities across Toronto addressing hate, and ensuring people are safe."

Toronto Police Service statement 

 

"I'm thinking today of Jewish families across Toronto who have spent three years watching this kind of thing move closer to their homes, their schools and their synagogues, and who are tired of being told it's being taken seriously, while it keeps happening."

"Hate directed at any community is a threat to every community, and the people responsible for this [latest event, burning of Israeli flags on the anniversary of October 7] need to be found and charged."

Brad Bradford, Toronto City Councillor/Mayoral candidate 

 

"The hatred that fuelled October 7th did not remain on foreign shores."

"Right here in Canada, far too many synagogues, Jewish businesses and institutions have been the targets of harassment and hate." 

Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre 

Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke at Holy Blossom Temple on June 1, 2026, to announce new efforts to combat antisemitism. (Photo: Mitchell Consky/The CJN)

 

Sanctimonious statements of regret, condemnation, support and dedication to ensuring that Jews in Canada are treated with the same deference, security and equality as any other ethnic/cultural group is afforded somehow ring inauthentically when they're solemnly expressed by the very heads of government that belie their words of comforting reassurance by doing absolutely nothing within the laws of the land to ensure that those words carry on beyond verbal performance. The federal Liberal government, under its previous prime minister carrying over to the current office holder, Mark Carney has done nothing in the past three years to relieve Canadian Jews of the imposed burden of Jew-hate directed from identifiable sources.

 

Those are the very identifiable sources that make no secret of their hatred and contempt for the Jewish community in Canada, loyal citizens whose presence as Canadians were of a far longer duration than those who seek to harass and threaten them to the point of terrorizing them into leaving the country of their birth for other, less threatening havens. The Jewish record of citizenship in Canada is centuries old, helping to build the country, their entrepreneurship, loyalty and commitment unquestioningly bringing credit and prosperity to the nation. Later arrivals from sources of traditional, habitual antisemitism entering Canada have brought that 'culture' with them.

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney notes their presence with the startling statement that "Muslim values are Canadian values". Invariably, while condemning antisemitism, Mr. Carney, like his predecessor never fails to mention "Islamophobia" as a social menace alongside that of antisemitism, even as the truth cannot be evaded that those 'Muslim values' practised by all too many immigrants, refugees and migrants from North Africa and the Middle East motivate and engender endless 'marches' focusing on Jews and Israel needing to be expunged from existence through modes and methods including that of  'Globalize the Intifada', and 'Final Solution'.

 

Anti-Israel protesters were "parading in front of a synagogue founded by Holocaust survivors to protest a foreign conflict". The Lodzer Centre Congregation was founded by Polish Holocaust survivors in the 1950s. Photo by Google Maps

 

Canada's progressive-left, adhering to Critical Race Theory and DEI, promoted by the Liberal government has infiltrated academia, unions, corporations, government branches and those areas of the general public permeated with the ages-old pathology of Jew-hate. Vandalizing Jewish-owned businesses, firing at Jewish day schools, throwing explosives at synagogues in Montreal and Toronto, harassing and threatening Jewish students and professors at Canadian universities has become 'normalized' in Canada, propelled by the concerted action of Palestinian student groups and foreign actors. 

"Nothing could be more contrary to the spirit of Canada, let alone our universities, than that [Jewish students avoiding wearing symbols of their ethnicity, the majority of whom feel campus antisemitism is a serious problem they have experienced or witnessed]."

[But] in addition to continue to strengthen the response on campus and giving this a national effort on behalf of universities, it's going to require a much closer partnership between all the institutional players because antisemitism does not stop or start at the edge of campus."

"The one thing I've heard most consistently from Jewish students is that they want the same protections under the same policies that every student is entitled to on campus and that's something that universities have taken to heart."

Gabriel Miller, president, Universities Canada

 

"What the university can do is ensure that it has clear policies that are consistently enforced to ensure that people are behaving toward one another in the university environment in a way that's conducive to higher education."

"Ultimately Jewish people in this country are going to be driven out of public institutions, and out of society, in a very scary way that we've seen in other countries throughout history and that no one would ever think possible in Canada."

Noah Shack, CEO, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs 

The state of funding of universities that fail to comply with the Ontario government's directive to apply their own standards and policies will lead to the reduction of operational funding through a new directive of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities of the province. The directive mandates that the institutions retain authority over (and responsibility for) student associations and groups operating on campus that promote antisemitism and hatred. This is the provincial government finally positively responding to the plight of Jewish students.

 

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the main campus of the University of Toronto are pictured on July 3, 2024. Demonstrators cleared the encampment on the university's grounds before the 6 p.m. deadline to avoid confrontation with police. (Alex Lupul/CBC)

 

The current mayor of Toronto, who stated on the anniversary of October 7 that: "I will never waver on my commitment to the safety of Jewish Torontonians. We will continue to invest in keeping communities safe and strong and will take action until every Torontonian can practise their faith without fear", should be struck by the lightning bolt of reality coming back to haunt her, through the upcoming municipal election. Mayor Olivia Chow, in fact, has stood by impassively while Jews in Toronto have been threatened by mobs of Jew-haters, even in their own neighbourhoods. Not once has she responded with the authority of her office to put a stop to the promotion of antisemitism.

 

She has stood, like the prime minister himself, foursquare with the Muslim community, appearing at their events in support and admiration, even to wearing the requisite Muslim garments for Muslim women as an indication of her comfort within the community. Not once has she moved herself to attend an event with the Jewish community in Toronto; doing all she could to evade a presence among Jews. During the mayoral election campaign she refused to take part in a discussion along with other mayoral candidates focusing on viral antisemitism in the city she governs. 

 

Source: Instagram

 

So, Mr. Putin, How's Your 'Special Military Operation' Faring?

"Putin has the view that by summer the situation in Europe will change and support for Ukraine will fall away."

"This gives the Kremlin the motivation to continue its brazen attacks."

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, exiled London opposition figure

 

"We will take the path of escalation [to deter Europe]. As well as strikes on Ukraine to take full advantage of the lack of missile defence." 

"[Efforts to restart peace talks were going] nowhere." 

Unnamed Russian official

 

"[Moscow was stepping up an aggressive] shadow war [against Germany to undermine its support for Kyiv]."

"Russia is putting us to the test and closely watching how we handle this situation."

"From the perspective of the Kremlin leadership, any sign of wavering invites them to further increase the pressure on Germany."

"We have to stand up to that."

German Federal Intelligence Service chief Martin Jaeger 

 

"Look at what's happening with the economy."

"Look at what's happening to social policy, with the living standards of citizens of the biggest European states."

"In these conditions they have to ... switch the attention of their citizens from internal problems to problems of an external nature."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

The Russian leader has set out his demands: Europe must bend the knee, or the war will go on and on and on. Center for European Policy Analysis

Europe has its growing problems that must be dealt with. That's the Europe that has been solidly behind Ukraine in its existential counteroffensive against Vladimir Putin's aspirational territorial goals. There is political upheaval in Germany, and France is faced with escalating violent student riots, and Britain seems increasingly politically unstable to name but a few. All of which lead the Russian president to believe that playing his cards right will result in the fatigue that is growing among Kyiv's supporters coming to a crisis level where they can no longer offer the munitions and the funding they've been doling out as generously as they can, over the past four years.

 

Waging war is never cheap, and Russia's own economy is struggling with the international sanctions that have dampened its economy; a yawning budget deficit must be met with some manner of solution; war funding on borrowed time and burdening future generations call for a scheme that can undermine the solidarity that Europe has shown toward Ukraine allowing it to fend off Russian attacks and to successfully mount their own within Russia. 

 

With the Russian military striking at Ukraine's civilian infrastructure; schools, power plants and bridges with their jet-powered drones and ballistic missiles, Mr. Putin feels in striking distance of his goal -- if he can only demoralize the Ukrainian public sufficiently, and with them the European public wearying of supporting beleaguered Ukraine. Russia's war-weary citizens, insecure themselves never knowing when a Ukrainian drone will strike even in Moscow, and the waning economy does not so much perturb Putin that he feels any need to curtail his ambitions, certain as he is that he is within striking distance of his goal.

 

Irritatingly, despite the Trump administration's lack of interest in supporting Ukraine, bolstering Moscow's own determination to proceed as charted, German Chancellor Friedrich Merez, visiting Kyiv unexpectedly, announced another $1.5 billion in funding aid to Ukraine. With the far-right Alternative for Germany opposing aid for Ukraine breathing down his neck, his own political future is uncertain.  "Promising further billions in German taxpayer money that is missing from the pension and health insurance funds, while Germany is mired in its worst energy crisis. It's all too much to fathom", wrote Alternative for Germany's co-leader Alice Weidel, in her criticism of Germany's leader.  

"Meanwhile, there is little for Moscow to celebrate on the battlefield. Ukraine has regained the upper hand in drone warfare, inflicting more fatalities on Russian forces. At the same time, recruitment of new soldiers is likely slowing, as even rising contract-signing bonuses may no longer tempt the shrinking pool of po    tential volunteers. As a result, Russia is beginning to struggle to replace its battlefield losses." 

"Ukraine also faces personnel shortages but has nonetheless managed to stabilise the front line, seize the initiative in some areas (such as around Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region) and will now have the resources to strengthen its defences thanks to major new financial assistance from the EU."

Ondrej Ditrych, European Union Institute for Defence Studies  

Now, post-'election' and firmly back in his throne for another 30-or-some-odd years, Putin having spoken of returning to talks post-election, now claims that during the election, Ukraine's drone attacks were responsible for cancelling prospects for any new ceasefire talks. Moscow's actions, said Merz, signalled "Russia's desperation in the face of its unsuccessful war in Ukraine". Once again threatening attacks on Europe and nuclear warnings according to some analysts, signals Moscow's desperation, with its finances under strain. 

 

Claiming a week ago, spurred by a British documentary series that depicts a fictional war game exercise, that it had information that NATO was preparing an "air and naval blockade" of Kaliningrad, the Russian Foreign Ministry gave warning to the western alliance that his country was "prepared to respond to any efforts to isolate its Baltic enclave with all its arsenal, including nuclear weapons". In response, NATO accused Moscow of "irresponsible nuclear rhetoric". 

 

The Belgian Defence Minister predicted "a dark winter ahead", while Denmark's defence intelligence service gave warning of "a low but growing risk that Russia will launch a limited military attack against one or several NATO countries on its border in the coming months". Russia's hybrid attacks in its low-decibel shadow war against Ukraine's European friends and neighbours have made them all nervous, particularly the Baltics. 

"[Putin is counting on] crises mounting."

"And that the current leaders who are seen as anti-Russian and inadequate just won't be able to cope."

"[The Kremlin is operating on] the understanding that there are different forces in Europe, and that there are those who don't want the situation to escalate to nuclear confrontation."

"[Moscow's policy on Europe has become] schizophrenic. Putin is signalling that there is an official and unofficial line that we don't want to go to war with Europe [while warning that] we have nuclear weapons if you will continue arming Ukraine and build around us all kinds of military infrastructure and threaten Kaliningrd and so on." 

"[But all Putin really wants, is for Europe to become] more pragmatic [and follow the path taken by U.S. President Donald Trump]."

Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow, Carnegie Eurasia Russia Center 

Russia’s economy is not yet collapsing. Nor is its military campaign against Ukraine. But the Kremlin is mortgaging the country’s future as underlying structural weaknesses in the economy begin to emerge. European Union Institute for Security Studies

Remembering the Unforgettable...Healing the Unspeakably Agonizing Pain

"Sexual trauma always raises the question: 'Did it happen? Show me the evidence'."

"People ask for video clips or photographs.The survivors do not owe anybody anything. They only owe themselves the chance to recover. There was a clash between the well-being and mental health of survivors and the demand -- from foreign governments, journalists and others -- for stories and evidence."

"The stories belong to the survivors. Some survivors of sexual violence from Nova [Music Festival] do not want to speak publicly. They do not want the stigma. That should be accepted and respected."

"The public does not understand the scale [of the atrocities], because it is not only direct victims, it's survivors from captivity, Nova, the kibbutzim and the military."

"It is also first responders and people who handled bodies."

Orit Sulitzeanu, executive director, Association of Rape Crisis Centers, Israel 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu places a wreath at a memorial ceremony for the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, at Mount Herzl Cemetery, Jerusalem, on Monday, October 5, 2026.   Debbie Hill/Pool/Reuters

 

Videos? There were videos galore, taken with body cams worn by some among the thousands of Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas into southern Israel on October 7, 2023 for the very purpose of chronicling the sadistic bestiality they planned to carry out among Israeli girls and women. Videos that were proudly shown on social media so they could elicit praise from the admirers of terrorism. Many of whom would later deny that this was terrorism, merely a long-overdue reckoning of an oppressed people; oppressed because the Jewish state would not turn over its ancestral heritage to Arab colonizers.

 

The Israelis who lived near the border of Gaza in collective farming communities -- kibbutzim, were firm in their belief that kindness and helpful understanding of the plight of Palestinians living in poverty in Gaza would result in mutual friendship. Hiring Palestinians for agricultural work, giving them the opportunity to earn fair wages, to enable them to raise their families with a guaranteed income providing the necessities of life, and more. And to demonstrate just how accepting the kibbutz residents were, eating their meals alongside the invited Palestinians in the collective dining rooms.

 

Friendships were indeed made, and trust went with it. Among the kibbutznik help offered to Palestinians requiring medical attention whereby they would be driven to Israeli hospitals to receive needed medical care, for hospitals in Israel treat everyone in medical need. There appeared to be no cautionary approach but one of open wholesale acceptance. That there are no real differences between the Israelis living on the opposite side of the border to Gaza, and Gazans themselves. All are human, and worthy of care and consideration.

People attend a memorial service in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, southern Israel, where many community members were killed and abducted on Oct. 7, 2023. (Ariel Schalit/The Associated Press)

 

And then came that early morning rocket barrage; not too unusual at any time, but a diversion on this occasion, to mask a more direct threat, that of thousands of dedicated terrorists from Islamic Jihad, the PLFP, Fatah and Hamas who flooded across the border after bulldozing down the protective barriers and dispatching the Israeli border guards who fought superior numbers and died or were taken captive as hostages. 

 

From there to the kibbutzim where unaware Israelis became targets for instant death. Among the terrorist horde were ordinary Palestinians, some of whom knew the layouts of the kibbutzim quite intimately, some of whom had drawn maps to instruct the invaders where each kibbutz's security center could be found, the security members neutralized before the intruders fanned out and shot at people waiting for buses, barged into homes to torture and kill children in front of their parents, parents in front of their children.

 

Where homes with their residents locked into safe rooms were torched and everyone inside burned to death. The site of the Nova Music Festival nearby, swarmed with terror operatives opening fire on those attempting to flee, firing through the walls of small huts where young men and women gathered to huddle together in the faint hope of not being discovered and survival. Where women caught fleeing were gang-raped, their bodies mutilated, limb from limb.

 

A newly completed study from the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel expected to be released in the new year was geared to studying possible recovery of survivors of sexual violence of that fateful day when savagely depraved men with no conscience shoved metal rods into women's vaginas, even grenades. And nor did the captured men escape sexual violence before their gruesome tortured deaths. The ARCCI's  2024 report -- Silent Cry: Sexual Violence Crimes on October 7, assembled an account of sexual and gender-based violence during and after October 7. The awaited report examines long-term impacts of the sexual trauma.

 

"The health system -- like therapists, hospitals, security personnel -- did sensitive work. They initially met and questioned released hostages. They were generally trauma-informed: they understood not to ask what did not need to be asked. But three years later, what is hugely missing is a national initiative to help people navigate mental health, rehabilitation, employment and bureaucracy. If people do not have someone helping them through the system, they can hardly survive. This will take a decade", explained Orit Sulitzeanu.  

 

The scale and scope of the widespread suffering of those who directly experienced and survived the atrocities, including those who were witness to them, represents a national tragedy as well as a national responsibility to care and to nurture wounded psyches back to health, if at all possible. The horrors of the acts of inhumanity that took place on October 7 are well enough known internationally. Skepticism yet abounds, and what's perhaps worse, disinterest.

 

Commuters in Tel Aviv conduct a moment of silence on the highway as part of a memorial ceremony on Wednesday. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)

 

A severely wounded country reacted as would any other nation following the broad and unforgivable human rights violations that beggar the imagination and brought pain and suffering throughout the country and traumatized the wider Jewish community throughout the diaspora. And yet despite the shock and pain, Jews once again found themselves abandoned by the larger, broader community in countries where they have lived for generations upon generations. 

 

Israel which had suffered such a devastatingly grim wound found itself facing hostile condemnation by its putative allies who aligned themselves with the Palestinian propaganda machinery painting Israel as the aggressor and Palestinians the long-suffering victims who had merely acted out their frustration of a people denied their future state. Terrorists shielding themselves behind and among a civilian population with the direct purpose of saving themselves while submitting civilians to risks of fallout from the response to an unspeakable act of terrorist atrocities used the deaths of those they had manipulated into occurring, as proof of their victimization. 

 

Polls taken by Palestinian polling agents clarify certain realities; in the wake of October 7, with all the details freely available, Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza are in the greater majority in agreeing that the October 7 atrocities had their support, as would reiterations of that vile event. When hostages were being taken into Gaza, both live and dead Israeli men and women, Palestinians were overjoyed and celebratory. Some took to beating the dead bodies of men and women, used as objects for trade in freeing Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons. 

 

The family of Hilly Solomon visits her memorial photo and plaque at the Nova festival memorial site early Wednesday in Reim, as Israel marks the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. (Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

 

"This story has become connected to bigger political arguments about Israel and Zionism. But atrocities are atrocities, whatever one's politics. They should be examined first as human acts."

"Sexual violence does not necessarily leave something a survivor can show the world."

"That makes it easier for people to place everything in apolitical context and say, 'You are lying'. I think that is horribly sad."

Orit Sulitzeanu, Association of Rape Crisis Centers, Israel