Canada's Liberal Government Sanctioning Palestinian History Inversion

"Despite numerous pleas over many, many months by many different people there has been a very careful effort to provide no context for the Palestinian displacement whatsoever."

"From what I’ve seen from the website, it is a very one-sided, biased narrative that is not befitting a national federal museum." 

Gail Asper whose father Israel Asper founded the Museum of Human Rights

 

"It is difficult to understand how telling the story of Palestinian displacement in 1948 while omitting the simultaneous expulsion of 850,000 Jews from the Arab states can be viewed as anything other than politically motivated."

"In response, the museum has only made a vague commitment to exploring that story as part of a broader exhibit on displacement at some time in the unknown future."

"But the stories are not severable — they occurred at the same historical moment."

Letter of Resignation from CMHR Board, Mark Berlin, McGill law professor, human rights lawyer

Protesters rally outside the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, June 26, 2026. (Credit: Izzie Helenchilde)

 

In 1948 when Arab armies joined forces to attack the nascent Jewish state following the UN's 1947 Partition Plan for Palestine declaration, offering an opportunity for both Jews and Arabs to declare their sovereign state intentions, Jews moved directly to form their sovereign nation as a reborn-from-antiquity Israel. Palestinians had chosen to reject the opportunity, in the process refusing Israel's right of existence.

An estimated 750,000 Arab Palestinians fled the fledgling Israel, persuaded by surrounding Arab states to leave, planning to return once the combined Arab militaries had destroyed the Jewish state-that-would-be.

 

When the motley collection of Jewish kibbutz farmers, Holocaust survivors, former refugees and members of the Jewish resistance, hurriedly formed into a new army for a new state somehow, miraculously foiled the Arab League's plan of extinction, leaving the Arab armies to themselves flee, the unexpected debacle was declared by the defeated Arabs to represent a catastrophe, a "Nakba". That word was immediately adopted by the self-exiled Arabs now calling themselves Palestinians to describe the advent of Israel's existence, on Judean ancestral land, that the 'Palestinians' claimed as their very own.

 

While some of the 750,000 Arabs who fled Israel may have been propelled by fear of Jewish threats, most were convinced by Arab leaders they would return triumphant to take possession of the entire geography once Israel was destroyed. At the same time, there were hundreds of thousands of Arabs who made no move to leave, and remained where they were, becoming citizens of Israel, while still calling themselves Palestinians. During that period, Arab countries where Jews had lived throughout the diaspora for millennia were exiled, their properties confiscated, some 850,000 Arabized Jews from Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Libya.

 

While Palestinians, aided and abetted by the United Nations, became permanent 'refugees', demanding a right of return and the dissolution of Israel, their Jewish counterparts from Algeria, Tunisia and elsewhere, found refuge in Israel and other destinations around the world. Their loss has never been internationally acknowledged, while that of the Palestinian Arabs became a legendary injustice to be used as a cudgel against Israel. That Palestinian Arabs today make up over 20% of the Israeli population does not stop the compassionate left from labelling Israel an apartheid state, happy to chorus Palestinian propaganda.

 

And it is Palestinian propaganda and the functioning aggressive ill-will of its slanderous campaign to delegitimize Israel and convince the global community that Israel is committing 'genocide' against the Palestinians when it is the Palestinian leadership that has for 70 years incited their population to 'resist the occupation', an 'occupation' necessitated by the patterning of the leadership toward martyrdom in convincing their youth, both male and female of their duty to kill Jews, to destroy the Jewish state, to reclaim 'Palestine', 'from the river to the sea'.

 

That is the packaged message weaponized in the Nakba exhibition at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights which was originally dedicated to educating the public about the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust. The very genocide that President Mahmoud Abbas mocked and minimized in his doctoral thesis at the Patrice Lamumba University in Russia. The leader of the West Bank whose martyrs' fund pays the families of Palestinian murderers of Jews as rewards, along with those imprisoned in Israeli jails for crimes against Israel in its 'Pay for Slay' program.

 

Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present’ exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, June 26, 2026. (Credit: Izzie Helenchilde).

 

What the public visiting the exhibit, Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present will see is the juxtaposition of the exhibit against that of the original Holocaust memorialization of a historic tragedy of intense proportions that ended in the death of almost half of the world's Jewish population; most of the Jewish-European diaspora. That is the meaning of genocide. The Nakba exhibit pretends to equate Palestinian trials and tribulations caused by their insistence that murdering Jews will restore the land they claim to be theirs, not that of the Jews of Israel, with the immeasurable loss of Jewish lives through the state channels of an ancient hatred. 

 

"Around 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced during the creation of the State of Israel", the displays proclaim in a perspective that suits the purpose of damning Israel for victimizing Arab Palestinians. That historically, the term Palestinian was always interpreted as Jews living in that area of the Middle East, later shared by others who had migrated to the area by Arabs from Egypt, Syria and Lebanon looking for opportunities, and devout Christians wanting to live where their faith resonated, that designation was totally co-opted by Arabs now claiming the title of Palestinians.

 

Jewish prophets, their burial grounds in memoriam, place names, histories, cultural traditions, history, have all in turn been co-opted by Arab Palestinians claiming all to be theirs. The refusal to recognize and acknowledge Israel's right of existence, the never-ending plaints of victimhood, the inversion of truth and reality, somehow seem to resonate with an international community seasoned by latent leftist 'compassion' for a people whose uncompromising fealty to violence as a solution to all their problems never seems to be recognized by 'progressives'.

 

A memory box containing artifacts and recorded personal stories at the ‘Nakba Past and Present’ exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, June 26, 2026. (Credit: Izzie Helenchilde)

 

In Canada, the Liberal-led government that equates 'Islamophobia' with Antisemitism despite that it is largely the former that commits the latter, and enjoys intoning that immigration groups while adding to Canada's vaunted multiculturalism -- certainly not homogeneity -- must leave their heritage animosities behind when they become Canadian, simply chooses to overlook fact, preferring fiction. That same government has enabled over the past decade and more, the immigration, refugee acceptance and migrant haven claims to people Canada, with groups whose cultures and values are averse to Canada's. Yet their numbers are such that to offend them represents ballot box suicide.

 

That same government has willingly surrendered its obligation under the law to ensure equality and security for all its demographic population groups, in favour of abandoning the human rights of a smaller minority group for the encouragement of a larger minority group, irrespective of outcome. The result being that the Canadian Jewish population now finds itself under constant threat by the venomous actions of some segments of a vocal threatening, Jew-hating Muslim population, guided by Palestinian students on study visas in Canada.

 

When the Nakba exhibit can publish such incendiary statements as "Following the Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 people on October 7, 2023, Israel launched a large-scale military campaign in Gaza. Today, more than 240,000 people have been killed or injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health and UN agencies", without the realization that these figures, the omission of the fact that a terrorist group on Canada's own terror list, Hamas, is being quoted, leaving a public to digest these misconstrued statements as fact, Canada's government itself is complicit in furthering the agenda of Palestinian public relations. 

 

The situation is agonizingly blasphemous, taking place at the very institution in Winnipeg meant to ensure that the world not forget history as it was, the most dreadful human  tragedy enabled by lack of interest or any method of intervention to interrupt a Fascist death-cult from its Final Solution to destroy the lives of world Jewry by a dominant threat to world peace that almost succeeded in installing itself as a world-leading totalitarian presence of ubermensch in command of human rights everywhere. 

 

Gail Asper protested the exhibit ‘Nakba Past and Present” at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, June 26, 2026. (Credit: Izzie Helenchilde)

 

All The Markers Of A Failed State

"There are different categories of starvation."

"We are only able to reach those who are really on the verge of, if you don't give them something now, they will not be there tomorrow."

"[In some areas, children are still getting food, but not pregnant mothers]. Literally, it's who dies first, and who dies next."

Hameed Nuru, Somalia director, World Food Program 

 

"The situation has become unbearable."

"The American regime is led by a person who really doesn't care about anything happening outside his gates."

"The Americans are not honoring their commitment to the world." 

Adan Bare Ali, deputy mayor, Dollow, Somalia

In northeastern Somalia, the Jeexdin Health Center is a critical medical and nutrition clinic serving children and adults near Garowe and Galkayo. Photo by Abigajla Conway)

 

In Somalia, one of the world's poorest and least stable countries, acute hunger is set to increase beyond its current state. When Russia invaded Ukraine four years ago the global supply of fertilizers and cereal grains was disrupted leading to fears of hunger, from Africa to South Asia. A $43 billion humanitarian assistance drive led by governments and multilateral institutions limited the human damage of primary scarcities of the substances of life-sustaining provisions. Food aid, water and medical care was delivered o the desperately needy, with $17 billion of that total supplied by the United States.

 

Currently, humanitarian funding saw a disastrous drop to $28 billion, with the share provided by the United States diminished to $4 billion. "The system has been eviscerated", stated the head of global advocacy at Mercy Corps, Kate Phillips-Barrasso. "This is the era of indifference", she concluded.

 

For decades, Somalians have suffered through a brutal civil war, through famine and the attacks of the fundamentalist Islamic group Al Shabab. The country's most recent harvest was ravaged by drought. Approximately one-third of the Somali population -- 6.5 million people -- encountered hunger at levels described as an emergency, with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization warning that over 1.8 million children under 5 were facing acute malnutrition. That was back in February, with the situation since exacerbated due to the war in Iran.

 

An increasing number of displaced families in Somalia are experiencing severe hunger. Near Garowe, Somalia. 2025 Photo by Abigajla Conway

 

A mere 2 percent of all relief from international donors for Somalia was derived from the United States. From providing humanitarian assistance to Somalia in 2024 of $467 million, last year the U.S. administration slashed that aid to $70 million. Dependent on oil from the United Arab Emirates, Iranian strikes on production facilities in the Persian gulf affected transport cessation, leading to the price of gasoline and diesel over-doubling in price.

 

The predictable response was trucking companies doubling and tripling costs for trucking sacks of corn from Ethiopia over the border to Somalia. Rice shipped into Somalian ports rose similarly. The price of water at public wells tripled since many of the pumps use diesel for energy. One third of fertilizers for Somalia's farming sector is derived from the Persian Gulf so with stocks marooned at the Strait of Hormuz, farmers face steeply higher operating costs.

 

Unaffordable food in combination with fewer medical clinics in operation resulted in children likelier to suffer malnutrition. Infants and toddlers with severe cases of malnutrition were given therapeutic milk formula and antibiotics, while those in greatest danger went to a stabilization unit operated by UNICEF within a local hospital. Children on cots with feeding tubes and some attached to oxygen, fought for their lives and their futures. 

 

The largest source of aid in Somalia, the World Food Program, has sufficient funding to support 300,000 people monthly through to July, representing a fraction of the close to two million people a month it was serving in early 2025. Somalia depends on imports for 70 percent of its food, at a time when staple goods like rice and wheat have doubled in price.

 

Three years ago, Tahliil Abdulahi Cali had 250 goats. Today he has 100. The rest died as the rains failed, season after season, across his community in the Mudug region. Mohamed Said Barkhadle

 

On Tenterhooks of Suspense: Israel ... 27 October 2026

"Surviving the Israeli political scene for so many years has taught him a number of tricks, and he is, once again, like him or dislike him, a survivor."

"[In Israel's multi-party parliament, disparate factions reach delicately balanced compromises, where] simply somebody sneezing can make a coalition crisis."

"Netanyahu has faced probably dozens, if not hundreds, of coalition crises in his career."

"He knows the Israeli political scene like the back of his hand."

Ira Robinson, professor emeritus of Jewish Studies, Concordia University 

 

"The civilian leadership is putting the blame on the military, whose job and task it is to protect the borders of the nation on any given day."

"There is a leadership, a national leadership under whose watch this tragedy [7 October 2023] happened and under whose watch the successive wars have unfolded, so it's in this context that the MOU between the United States and Iran is coming."

"There are no major pieces of legislation that could be associated with him, or, or even opposing some, but people will judge him as on his record as a former IDF chief, and in Israel that matters a lot."

"[Bennet has no established party organization behind him and is a] one man show. To do well and to succeed well in Israeli politics in the long run, you need a party organization, because it's a very party-centred and party-oriented political system." 

Csaba Nikolenui, political science professor/director, Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies, Concordia 

 

"There is much overlapping between the public who prefer, for example, Eisenkot or Bennett or even [Avigdor] Lieberman. The division lines are not clear, and there is no agreement between these leaders who is going to become prime minister if they will eventually get more votes than the other side."

"He [Bennett] does have failure written under his name, but he seems to be a good compromise for people who would like to have someone of the moderate right who is capable of really managing things."

"Unless there is some dark horse around the corner [Netanyahu is seen as] irreplaceable [by his supporters]."

"[Ben-Gvir] is really pushing Netanyahu into making decisions and taking actions that were unthought of. Netanyahu doesn't like him, nor Smotrich, but he didn't have any other possibility [to form government]."

"In order to replace them, he should bring over party leaders from the other side, and [it] doesn't look as if he is going to get it."

Tamar Hermann, senior fellow, Israel Democracy Institute 

Deep gulfs among Jews, as well as between Jews and Arabs, over political values and religion’s role in public life   Pew

 

Israel's system of government voting is guaranteed to make election outcomes difficult, and they always are, with much uncertainty and a great deal of negotiations taking place between the parties that generate the most popular vote and those that bring up the rear. It's not just that Israel is wedded to proportional representation, it's also that Jews themselves are culturally and habitually among the most argumentative people on Earth. Complicated yet further by the divisions in society of religious devotion in the Judaic tradition. Secular Jews dominate society in Israel, but there are large blocs of Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Jews and divisions in between.  

 

And to complicate matters yet further, although Israel is a democratic Jewish nation, it also incorporates into its citizenry Arab Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin, Circassians, Kurds, B'hai, and other minority groups, all of whom have voting rights and for the most part exercise them. Israel's standing army, the Israel Defense Forces is mostly staffed by Jews, but also include Druze and Israeli Arabs in the military. It is the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish element in Israel from among whom resistance to join the military ensues. For non-Jews, military service is generally not a requirement, but is volunteer-driven as loyal Israelis. Not so for the ultra-religious. Israel is a complex country.

 

Protesters supporting the conscription of ultra-Orthodox men into the military block a road in the Haredi city of Bnei Brak, central Israel, clashing with locals, on June 26, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

 

And it is set to go to the polls by October 27 when a divided electorate will make the decision with their votes whether or not Benjamin Netanyahu will continue on as Prime Minister. The man is both popular and disdained among segments of the population. It is not an easy task to govern a nation that is so perpetually politically, socially, culturally divided. The 7 October assault by thousands of Palestinian terrorists and ordinary Palestinians, led by the Hamas terrorists who govern Gaza traumatized Israelis in the scope of its savage brutality and sadistic fury.

 

The much-vaunted Israeli intelligence services, and the IDF, much less the government-of-the-day -- Netanyahu's, failed to detect suspicious activities leading up to the horrors of that day; this, despite the fact that border guards had reported alarming and potentially dangerous actions taking place, only to have their concerns set aside by government authorities. And that undeniable failure haunts the government to this day. As with any responsible governing authorities -- the buck stops at the top. The succeeding wars with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Islamic Republic and the Houthis have all been inconclusive, largely given U.S. White House interference.

 

Benjamin Netanyahu has the hearts of many Israelis as well as diaspora Jews, while others loathe him. He has been a resolute, courageous leader of a people facing international opposition, left to fend for themselves against forces of violent opposition both regionally and globally, emanating from both foes and purported allies. That he has also been under indictment in a corruption trial ongoing for six years has been an additional burden -- for him personally and for Israelis wanting to see that put behind them. The corruption charges represent an excess perhaps linked to personal political vendettas. 

"[Netanyahu] is cautious not to push this draft issue on the agenda, because he doesn't want to alienate the ultra-Orthodox, and the ultra-Orthodox are strong."

"So long as he has that, and the support of the religious Zionist community, which is kind of unshakable, because these parties have nowhere else to go -- they will never support anyone to the left of Netanyahu -- Netanyahu kind of has them, has that corner fairly, fairly well guaranteed for him."

Csaba Nikolenyi 

Mr. Netanyahu has been forced by the Israeli political voting system to make a governing coalition with groups he would normally prefer to have no relationship with; their agendas are not necessarily his. The system demands compromises, some manageably attainable and others painful, the result of  awkward collaborations to maintain a government in power. Israelis, according to a recent poll, anxious as always for national security accept that war must be waged to secure that security. Israel has never known any other way of life, since 1948 with successive waves of military onslaughts from neighbours, then proxy militias of the Islamic Republic. 

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an IDF officers’ graduation course in southern Israel, June 25, 2026. (Flash90)

 

As for PM Netanyahu's coalition government; none other was available for him to maintain his government. In the current administration, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has overseen a surge of settlement construction in the West Bank where mounting violence has emanated from. These are the leaders of the extreme rightwing parties serving in Netanyahu's government. The second is Itamar Ben-Gvir as national security minister, convicted of anti-Arab incitement in 2007. 

 

In this era, there has been no Israeli party capable of winning an outright majority to enable it to govern according to its distinct political views, without being forced to resort to coalition-making to preserve its government with the understanding that its coalition partners' support will last only as long as their demands are met in reflection of their own political agendas. As it is, Netanyahu's government lost two of its ultra-Orthodox parties when he refused to legalize exemptions from mandatory conscription for religious students. 

"The major small parties that you would want or probably need in a coalition are the religious parties, and that's a very volatile issue."

"And these parties will tell whoever it is, be it Netanyahu, be it Eisenkot, whoever it is -- 'You've got to give us what we want', and now the negotiation becomes, do you get 100 percent of what you want? Do you get 80 percent of what you want? What are the parameters."

"That's all backroom politics and Israelis are used to it."

Ira Robinson 

Left to right: Former prime minister Naftali Bennett speaks during a press conference at the Knesset in Jerusalem, May 20, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90); Opposition Leader Yesh Atid MK Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on May 25, 2026 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90); Gadi Eisenkot, head of the Yashar party, speaks during a conference at Tel Aviv University, May 12, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90); Leader of the Democrats party Yair Golan leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on May 25, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90); Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on May 25, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

 

 

Oh, Canada -- Our Home and Native Land!

"As a group of Canadian business and community leaders who are not Jewish, we ask our colleagues to join us in condemning any act of antisemitism in this country."

"Hate and intolerance have no place in Canada's workplaces public spaces, anywhere."

"Canada is strongest when the law is applied fairly and consistently, every citizen is equally protected and mutual respect is upheld without exception." 

"Zero tolerance for hate. Antisemitism must be named clearly, condemned unequivocally, and met with decisive action."

Canada must adopt a consistent national approach to law enforcement prosecution and sentencing. It must ensure that terrorist organizations, their proxies and adherents do not operate here and are not funded by any sources public or private."

"Words from political leaders matter. This is not about restricting free speech. No Canadian should be threatened, harassed or attacked because of their faith. In Canada, we need to treat each other equally and with respect, regardless of one's religion, ethnicity or cultural heritage."

JOIN US IN CALLING FOR A CANADA WHERE EVERYONE CAN LIVE SAFELY AND WITH DIGNITY.

Open Letter to Canadians and Government ... StoppingAntisemitism.com

Talia Ben Sasson, right, hugs Ayellet Tzur as they attend a rally in support of Israel in Montreal, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)

 

Finally. After years of Canadian governments at all levels, from federal, to provincial to municipal tolerating the spectacle of massed protests against Israel, claiming it is engaged in genocide against Palestinians, calling for a global Intifada, chanting 'From the river to the sea Palestine will be free', chorusing 'Final Solution', tormenting and threatening Canadian Jews, while insisting on their right to ventilate through 'free speech', it has taken a group of non-Jewish Canadian corporate heads and their influential companies to counter the public Jew-hate-fest in demanding a cessation to the vile and viral antisemitism that has overtaken the country since the Palestinian terrorist attacks on southern Israel on 7 October, 2023.

 

Prominent Canadian business, political and educational leaders condemning antisemitism, speaking out for enforcement of anti-hate laws. These are requests made time and again by Canadian Jewish leaders in appealing to the federal government to take action against the constant agitation and slanderous charges made in public since Israel suffered its worst mass pogrom in memory. Where it has taken a carefully constructed and orchestrated public relations mission by fundamentalist Muslims and Palestinian-student-led groups to delegitimize Israel and threaten the security of Jewish Canadians to create a split in Canadian society of 'victim' and 'oppressor'.

 

Jews who have for years on end, decade after decade, been victimized by Palestinian-led deadly violence presented by their persecutors as 'oppressors', and themselves not as the vectors of hate and sadistic savagery in mass rape and murder, but the victims of a people asserting their historic place in the Middle East as ancestrally indigenous. While migrants from Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq settling in historically Judean lands call themselves the original Palestinians, inheritors of Judea, Samaria and Gaza with a mission to slaughter Jews in pursuit of their aims of conquest of all that is not theirs.

 

demonstration outside the Israeli Consulate in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks became the first of many in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza over the next two years. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

 

Under the Liberal governments of the past decade a vast influx of Muslim immigrants, refugees and migrants have swelled the Canadian population where they now represent two million in total as opposed to the Jewish Canadian population of 400,000. Where in political terms two million become more influential at the ballot box than a group many times smaller, despite that the latter has had a much longer presence in Canada, helping to make it the country it has become, integrating within the general population while to the former the laws of the country become subservient to that of Sharia. 

 

This is the Canada that prides itself on multiculturalism and equality under the law, guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Yet although the Jewish Canadian community has been under unspeakable levels of duress and threats, existing laws, more than capable of addressing the situation fail to be invoked by any level of government, and police have acted to protect those emitting threats, while giving short shrift to the threatened, with rare exception. 

 

Following the publication of that letter in the select newspapers of the Postmedia Network, Prime Minister Mark Carney has suddenly come alive, responding to the direct action demanded by the corporate signees. This is the prime minister who equates his rejection of antisemitism equally with that of 'Islamophobia'. And while it is Islamists that have lit the explosive social disgrace of antisemitism in Canada, to name them as such represents a clear instance of nothing short of 'Islamophobia'. A cardinal sin that will not be committed by Mark Carney.  

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks against antisemitism during a visit with members of the Jewish community and law enforcement leaders at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto on Monday, June 1, 2026. Photo by Peter Power/Postmedia News

 

Incomparably Beautiful Naturally Scenic British Columbia and Atlanta's FIFA Islam Compliance

FIFA World Cup 2026™ Vancouver

"The unregulated drug supply in Vancouver is unpredictable and may be more dangerous than what visitors are used to in other countries or regions."

"Carry naloxone and know how to use it."

"Start low, go slow [use only] one substance at a time."

FIFA Vancouver website : Know Before You Go 

Vancouver is being ravaged by an opioid crisis that makes the United States' epidemic pale in comparison Credit: Simon Townsley

 

These tips to sport tourists arriving in Vancouver hosting its portion of the FIFA World Cup instructs visitors to the city on how best to use illicit drugs, and the wisdom of having naloxone in one's possession.  The website goes so far as to recommend that tourists submit their cellphone numbers to the Province of B.C. enabling receipt of public health alerts should a batch of illicit drugs be discovered of particular potency. How very considerate.

 

Of course, illicit drug use is particularly widespread in the province and the province responds to that reality by extending its concern to all drug users to be aware of best practices in pursuit of stemming the tide of drug overdoses, particularly with the use of fentanyl and street drugs laced with the artificial opioid. An alert just happened to coincide with the World Cup when Vancouver Police reported a cluster of overdoses in East Vancouver.

 

  Friendly injection /The Telegraph

The website does not confine itself to concerns over safe drug use, but adds tips on fraudulent game ticket avoidance, drawing police attention to use of drones, aside from the "information on safer substance use and laws", where the section informs visitors that the province is in the midst of a "toxic drug public health emergency" (aka "overdose crisis").

 

Even Vancouver Police get in on the action, since it's also a concern of theirs: "For questions about what drugs are allowed in Canada, see this list of controlled and illegal drugs", alongside a link to a Government of Canada database of illicit drugs.  Will seasoned drug users and sport aficionados really distract themselves with the nuisance call of educating themselves for the purpose of self-protection that will likely recall their mothers' cautions when they were impressionable kiddies?

 

Vancouver stands out as a host city to include illicit drug tips in its FIFA guide, when San Francisco and Baltimore, also experiencing fatal drug overdoses, tent cities and fentanyl addicts featuring their urban core, wouldn't think of it. Perhaps they're not as nice-addicted. Public health officials in New York City reported in February all-time highs of fatal overdoses. "From world-class entertainment to iconic landmarks and rich cultural experiences, this is more than a tournament, it's a once-in-a-lifetime celebration" New York's guide touts.

 

Vancouver's B.C. Place where seven 2026 FIFA matches are taking place, is a 15-minute stroll from the Downtown Eastside, the core of the city's drug addiction conundrum and there the third-of-million-estimated visitors will encounter the city's approved open-air drug use and squalid street disorder. Case in point -- when two U.S. visitors praised the sushi and the "beautiful, beautiful stadium", but what was even more memorable for them was the "drug zombies walking all over the place".

 

Perhaps, on the other hand, Vancouver isn't so remarkable in its focus, even as Toronto, the other host city in Canada, has its website appearing as a tourism brochure where illegal drugs are mentioned on a list of "prohibited items" allowed at sanctioned viewing sites. Neither is anything like Atlanta's venue, however, where well-organized Muslim groups have FIFA's permission to greet all incoming ticket-holders with publications on Islam. And where posters informing visitors where prayer rooms are located for their convenience at the venue. 

"I went to the Morocco vs. Haiti game in Atlanta yesterday. One thing immediately caught my attention. Right after scanning your ticket at the entrance to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, there were groups of people handing out "Muslim Hospitality" pamphlets. They showed where to pray and which food was halal. Then, just a few steps inside, there was a large sign with the same information."

" It didn't feel like simple visitor assistance. It felt like the promotion of a religion. The stadium doesn't hand every fan a printed map, stadium rules, or event information, those are all available online. Yet for Islam, there were printed pamphlets being handed to everyone and an entire team dedicated to distributing them."

"No other religion had volunteers handing out pamphlets at the entrance. There were no Christian hospitality teams, no Jewish hospitality teams, no Hindu or Buddhist pamphlets, only Islam."

"This is a soccer match, not a religious event. If someone wants to pray, there are churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques for that."

"The irony is even greater considering that, according to many Islamic scholars, professional soccer itself is considered haram, and FIFA generates revenue from sponsors such as Budweiser. Yet instead of addressing that contradiction, there is an organized effort to promote Islamic practices inside the stadium."

@FIFAWorldCup

@FIFAcom Brother Rachid, X

 

Border-Crossing Drugs -- Transnational Criminal Operations

"There's a lot of frustration and it, in and of itself, lends itself to facile responses that look good, but in the end don't really do anything."

"Blowing up drug boats ... is a perfect example of a facile response that does absolutely nothing."

"We often think of [fentanyl] as just a border issue, and it's not just a border issue. These are transnational criminal operations."

Regina LaBelle, professor of addiction policy Georgetown University 

 

"The biggest concern we see is what's happening on our southern border being pushed up to our northern border."

"Over the last year, we've apprehended enough fentanyl that would kill 17 million Americans on our northern border." 

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said this week that more fentanyl is coming into the U.S. from Canada, which is not reflected in the latest data from U.S. border officials (Manuel Balce Ceneta/The Associated Press)

 

"I mean, it just really isn't happening."

"It's way too much trouble to ship [fentanyl] around and put it through Canada and then take it into the United States."

Mark Tyndall, public health scientist, professor of medicine University of British Columbia

 

"The flows that we know of across the U.S.-Canada border are token and trivial compared to the flows into the U.S., primarily across the southwest border or the flows into Canada of the precursors, not through the U.S."

"The fentanyl killing Canadians is mostly made in Canada with precursors that came from China."

"The U.S. supply chain is independent of the Canadian supply chain once the precursors leave China, but the manufacturing for U.S. markets mostly happens in Mexico." 

Jonathan Caulkins, drug policy researcher, Carnegie Mellon University

A bag filled with drug paraphernalia  (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

 

There has been a realization of a drop in overdose deaths in both Canada and the United States. Drug policy experts can only theorize what the cause might be. The recently identified decline may be attributable to supply shifts alongside public health measures, eliminating tariffs or border crackdowns as part of the cause. The fearful public menace of overdose deaths has strike across all measures of society in both countries; everyone knows someone who knows someone who died of a drug overdose caused by synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

 

While Canada has developed no system of gathering statistics, the worst-hit province of British Columbia can boast that one in five residents knew someone who died from an overdose, in 2023. In 2024, close to half of Americans knew of someone who died from an overdose. Those who study the societal impacts of the drug trade tend to differ in their understanding of the situation, its impact and its victims and the possible causes, from politicians who view the subject from the perspective of ... politics.

 

And while Homeland Security Secretary Mullin claims pressure on the southern border drives cartel actions northward, including toward Canada, citing a surge in fentanyl moving across the northern border, he is contradicted by his Canadian counterpart who states data "really haven't borne that [Mullin's contention] out". 

Kevin Brosseau, Canada's fentanyl czar, says his goal is to eliminate all fentanyl in the country. 'It's killing kids every day and destroying families,' he said. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

 

Canadian fentanyl czar Kevin Brousseau cited U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures indicating some three kilograms of fentanyl seized at the northern order since October 2025. Which makes quite a comparison with over 3,000 kilograms seized at the southern, Mexican border. Nor are epidemiologists other than skeptical of charges that fentanyl trafficking has been shifting north.  

"We're talking about an illicit supply market that is entirely in the hands of illicit production traffickers, criminal organizations, and there's no regulation."

"[Supply conditions] can change very quickly again."

"A little change or an added highly toxic component to the drugs distributed could drive that toward an uptick."

Regina LaBelle

 

"From all I can gather, it's a mix of things, but the most likely driver of the drop in overdose deaths, at least on the Canadian side, has been changes in the fentanyl or in the synthetic opioid supply."

"[That could be construed as lower purity or products mixed with less lethal substances]."

Benedikt Fischer, professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University  

Precursor chemicals, usually shipped in from China, are generally available widely, enabling local production of fentanyl. The potency of the opioid calculates to a tiny amount able to supply the U.S. market. According to Professor Caulkins, trafficking capacity  and the criminal organizations that are involved are logically the most effective target by law agencies. 

 

Sharp declines in overdose deaths seen in both Canada and the U.S., since late 2023 where in the U.S. deaths involving synthetic opioids fell from 74,702 in 2023 to 48,422 in 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while positive in outlook, remain a puzzle in understanding why. The Canadian Public Health Agency data reflect 7,146 opioid-related drug toxicity deaths in 2024, 17 percent fewer than 2023, followed by another 2025 decline to 5,630.

The factors that may be assigned to these drops in fatal overdose occurrences range widely; expanded naloxone access, supervised consumption sites, drug supply prevention efforts, and increased public awareness among them. A 2026 study in Science magazine revealing a shock to the fentanyl supply having occurred in 2023 attributed to Chinese regulatory changes affecting access to precursor chemicals, another possible reason. 

 

In late 2023, deaths suddenly decreased in both countries, making it unlikely to point to one of the countries' policy changes, as a causative. Making it more likely that it is the supply that likely had an effect on the death rate. If so, this is a condition that may not continue. Academics now appear to favour the opinion that the fentanyl crisis is not vulnerable to border crackdowns, but more likely reacting to illicit market shifts and the capacity of public health systems to react accordingly. 

"If vigilance at any border drops, traffickers could use it as a transshipment route."

"Things that disturb the ability of the two countries on either side of the border to partner effectively are counterproductive."

"[Canada and the U.S. should refrain from allowing trade tensions to impair working in tandem at the border]." 

Jonathan Caulkins, Carnegie Mellon University 

A man sits on a sidewalk along East Hastings Street in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

 

"Politically Motivated Violence in Australia Which Incorporates Terrorism, Acute Concern"

"[Iran had recruited the man through a] complex web of Iraqi-based militia groups."

"Valuing his high wealth and criminal connections, the IRGC protected him and supported his illegal enterprises."

"That changed dramatically after ASIO publicly named Iran’s involvement in the arsons."

"This person’s Iranian backers lost their enthusiasm and after further pressure from Australian and local law enforcement, they threw him in prison."

"[The investigation into the Sydney and Melbourne attacks was] one of the most difficult and detailed in recent ASIO history."

"[Iran continued to view Australia as a target and could] conduct or inspire acts of arson, vandalism or even assassinations on Australian soil."

"[Antisemitism was often seen through a narrow lens. But it could come from] diverse sources simultaneously, challenging traditional definitions, assumptions, and approaches."

Mike Burgess, director general, Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO)  

Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) Mike Burgess (L) speaking next to the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police Reece Kershaw during a press conference in Canberra. (Handout / AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE / AFP)

 

Australia's chief of its spy agency, speaking on Wednesday revealed that an Australian citizen in Iran, a senior member of the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard, had orchestrated a major antisemitic firebomb attack on a Sydney synagogue, during Mike Burgess's annual threat assessment. Of great concern was the fact that an Iranian group actively engaged in terrorism could orchestrate additional attacks, even an assassination, in Australia.

 

Following the mass murder of 15 people at Bondi Beach in December of 2024, in an antisemitic-inspired terror attack carried out by a father-and-son attack team, ASIO had faced public scrutiny with the revelation through a report by an independent inquiry into antisemitism that pointed out counterterrorism investigations had seen a reduction in funding. 

 

Speaking in Canberra, Mr. Burgess defended the agency he represented, pointing out that it faced "concurrent, cascading and compounding threats", as he revealed details of investigations conducted into two firebombing attacks with clear antisemitic motivations, traced to the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

 

In 2024, revealed this chief of the country's spy agency, an Australian citizen based in Iran had planned, recruited and ordered the firebombing of a Bondi restaurant -- Lewis' Continental Kitchen --which became the first major antisemitic attack to take place in Australia. "This person is a senior agent of the IRGC al-Quds Force, running its networks around the world". 

 

Mr. Burgess described state hackers penetrating a critical infrastructure network, outlining how a country -- obviously the Islamic Republic -- had attempted to coerce eight people, five of them Australians, to return to their birth country, in an effort to silence them. In the same token, he described the situation where foreign agents sought to recruit Australians to reveal to them official secrets relating to AUKUS, Australia's security partnership with Britain and the United States. 

"This person is a senior agent of the IRGC Qods Force, running its networks around the world.

"We know more about him than he realises, including the name of his superior in Iran and the department he works for. Department eleven-thousand, a covert unit within the IRGC Qods Force, is responsible for coordinating operations in the West."

"[Unable to name him due to investigation], But I want them to understand this: we know who you are, we know what you’ve done and we know who you work for." 

"Whether online or in the real world, when intolerance is tolerated, when violent language and violent acts are left unchecked, they become normalised, reinforcing the impression they are acceptable and compounding the likelihood of further violence."

ASIO director general Mike Burgess  

This handout photo taken and released by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on December 10, 2024, shows Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (2nd R) and Rabbi Shlomo Kohn (R) visiting the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on December 10, 2024, after it was set ablaze on December 6. (Handout / DEPARTMENT OF PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET / AFP)

"[Australian companies seen to have links to Israel were being targeted with] repeated acts of vandalism and arson by far-left activists."

"My point is that violent antisemitism is not a single, or simple, intelligence problem."

"[The firebombing of a synagogue] can simultaneously be criminal arson, foreign interference, the promotion of communal violence and politically motivated violence."

"And when Iran directs the arson, it’s an act of state-sponsored terrorism."

"Great power competition is driving an insatiable appetite for strategic advantage. As a result, espionage and foreign interference are at extreme levels, while preparation for sabotage is growing in scale and sophistication."

"At the same time, politically motivated violence – which incorporates terrorism – remains an acute concern."

Australian Security Intelligence Organization director general Mike Burgess