"Engagement is not endorsement. Having an embassy, having consular services in a country does not mean we endorse the policies of that country."

"There are a series of countries with whom we have not seen eye to eye, to put it mildly, where we do not have representation. Iran, Venezuela [are] two examples. There are others."

"That puts us at a disadvantage, first and foremost, to helping Canadians that are in these countries."

"[In some consular cases Ottawa has leaned on countries that] aren't our natural allies [to help Canadians leave Iran]."

Prime Minister Mark Carney

 

"[The government is looking at alternative options to improve consular services for Canadians in countries like Iran]."

"We've taken no decisions, but we are looking at how best to serve Canadians, not only within this country, but internationally and that will be a process that occurs over the next number of months."

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand 

 

"Nothing about the regime has changed."

"The problem that Canada has with this regime goes much deeper [than geopolitics]."

"This is a regime responsible for flagrant human rights violations, and this is a regime with which normalizing relations may not be possible."

Masoud Zamani, lecturer in international relations, University of British Columbia

 

"[Reopening an embassy in Tehran could be part of a broader restoration of diplomatic relations, which could allow Iran to re-establish an official diplomatic presence in Canada]."

"What they want is a political footprint here in Canada through an embassy. I don’t know if we gain anything by allowing them to do that.  I don’t think that there is a real intention to do that."

"This issue of inconsistency in the positions adopted by the prime minister is itself quite a serious matter."

Kaveh Shahrooz, senior fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Protests erupted in Iran on 28 December 2025. People across the country, outraged at decades of repression, were demanding fundamental change and a political system that respects human rights and dignity. Iranian authorities have responded with an unprecedented deadly crackdown. Security forces have used unlawful force, firearms and other prohibited weapons, against protesters, which resulted in mass killings and serious injuries. Amnesty International

 

 Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper responded to the Islamic Republic's well-known abuse of human rights in Iran, and the regime's role as the foremost sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East by shutting down the Iranian Embassy and Consulate in Toronto, and withdrawing Canadian diplomats from the Canadian embassy in Tehran in 2012. Then-Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird declared the Iranian legation persona-non-grata in no uncertain terms. "Canada is committed to fighting global terrorism and to holding perpetrators of terrorism — and those who provide them support — accountable for their actions. Iran is among the world's worst violators of human rights. It shelters and materially supports terrorist groups."

 

When Mr. Harper left office and PM Justin Trudeau became prime minister, he mused about re-opening relations with Iran, despite that nothing had changed in the Islamic Republic's favour; it remained the stridently repressive government in Tehran, suppressing its public and enforcing strict totalitarian Sharia government, while its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps kept order along with its Basij branch, and its al-Quds arm continued training, funding and arming terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

 

Fast forward to the courage displayed by mostly young Iranians who spontaneously began to mount protests against the regime in December of 2025, demanding that it step down from office. Before long the protests spread from the capital to other areas of the country, with greater participation from the regime-hating population. The initial crowd-control protocols soon gave way to violence in the IRGC and Basij and national police responses, when live firearms were increasingly used to 'restore order'. In the end, an estimated 30,000 Iranian protesters were killed and many thousands arrested and tortured for their insubordination. 

 

Protests were also reported in several other provinces, including Kermanshah - Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Image

 

More latterly, with current prime minister Mark Carney musing publicly that Canada should consider reopening an embassy in the Islamic Republic for the sake of 'engagement' seems a stretch too far, even for him; restoring relations with the largest state sponsor of terrorism in a Canada that has become progressively less wedded to its traditional values of democracy, rule of law, public security, equal support for all its ethnic groups within its great ongoing experiment of multiculturalism and prepared to jettison its respect and support for the Jewish-Canadian community while sanctioning the viral antisemitism, anti-Israel fulminations of the now-more-populous Muslim-Canadian community.

 

The speedy, sudden growth of the latter demographic itself a product of Liberal-progressive permissiveness that has led to societal division, cultural-religious antagonism and public displays of illegal threats by one group against another which politicians and government institutions appear not to notice is fraying the mantle of multiculturalism held so dear by government that groups living in silos opt out of the normal social contract in the belief that cultural-traditional mores of racist invective are perfectly normal in a democratic society

 

Men stand amid rows of corpses in a morgue in Tehran following mass killings of protestors by security forces in this undated image obtained by Iran International

 

The Islamic Republic of Iran stands alone in financing terrorist groups whose oft-stated raison d'etre is the destruction of the State of Israel. This doesn't trouble the Liberal government of Canada, but understandably it does the Jews of Canada. All the more so that they are made victims of this new lashback of anti-Zionism/antisemitism that appears not to trouble mainstream Canada, much less academia and unions in Canada, all complicit with Palestinian student groups inciting hate against other Canadians.

 

Among other minorities, Canada has a substantial number of Iranian-Canadians within the population, many of whom arrived as new immigrants to Canada shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution. To these Canadians of Iranian birth, Canada has become a haven, but it is also more latterly, a country which, although it has placed the IRGC on a terrorist list, permits members of the IRGC and their families to enter Canada at will, to live or vacation there, while supporting the Islamic Republic. Their presence in Canada threatens the well-being of anti-regime Iranian-Canadians. This government is not interested.

 

It has been revealed that more than 700 IRGC members ore operatives are in residence in Canada. How they were able to enter, and how they are entitled to be resident in Canada is the Liberal government's little mystery, not to be shared to the public.  Who might ever have imagined that Canada has anything in common with a country governed by human-rights-abusing, terrorism-enabling, peaceful population protesting slaughterers?  

 

 

"Prime Minister, there’s a fine line between engaging the Iranian regime to further our interests - which you already have the tools to do under Canada’s controlled engagement policy, versus opening a mission, conferring legitimacy on a regime that brutally murdered more than 30,000 people just months ago. And a regime Canada has rightly designated a supporter of terrorism."

"If the clerical military dictatorship wants more structured engagement, it should take demonstrable steps towards earning that. Like actually divesting the uranium it enriched for warheads it continues to produce, ending its terror network also operating in Canada, and ending the repression of its own people."

"Having any Iranian presence in Canada would be a national security threat. Period."

Shuv Majumdar, Conservative Member of Parliament for Calgary Heritage  

 

When Arrogance Supersedes the Neutrality of Judgement

Supporters cheer on drivers in the protest convoy headed for Ottawa from an overpass in Kingston, Ont., on Friday, Jan. 28. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press)

 

"I think it's important for the chief justice to review the circumstances and make his own determination about whether it would be appropriate or whether it could give rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias by any of the litigants."

Alexander Boissonnea-Lehner, lawyer for Canadian Frontline Nurses litigants

 

"Chief Justice [Richard] Wagner has advised that he did not, at any time, either directly or indirectly, comment on the Emergencies Act ... or matters at issue in the proceedings."

"Chief Justice Wagner has considered the certificates and letter, and has concluded that there is no actual or reasonable apprehension of bias that would require  his recusal under the applicable legal test."

Chantal Carbonneau, registrar, Supreme Court of Canada

The chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Richard Wagner   Photo by Via Supreme Court of Canada

 

What would an informed person, viewing the matter realistically and practically -- and having thought the matter through -- conclude."

"Would he think that it is more likely than not that [the decision-maker], whether consciously or unconsciously, would not decide fairly."

Test of apprehended bias 

When a  convoy of truckers arrived and assembled near the Parliament Hill Precinct to showcase their dissatisfaction with many of the government's COVID 19 edicts, including a provision that would revoke the licenses of long-range truckers who refused COVID vaccinations, their purpose was to demonstrate citizens' right to free speech, assembly and to protest government actions that they construed as impeding their rights under constitutional rights and freedoms.

 

The-then Liberal government of Justin Trudeau was dead-set against sending out an emissary to meet with the truckers, to discuss the situation to calm the troubled waters before matters got out-of-hand. Which it did, according to nearby residents whose peace was shattered by the deliberate constant honking of big rigs' horns, and the often-celebratory atmosphere that prevailed as the congregant truckers socialized among themselves, their trailers stationary for weeks.

 

Locals complained about the noisy crowded conditions, truck fumes and interruptions in their daily routines given the presence of so many out-of-towners. In exercising their right to freedom of assembly and free speech, what became known as the Freedom Convoy was hugely unpopular locally, despite a good level of support by other locals. The federal government panicked at the presence of so many Canadians scornful of their political leaders' autocratic rules, and invoked the Emergencies Act.

Police move in to clear downtown Ottawa near Parliament Hill of protesters after weeks of demonstrations.  THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

 

That forced other truckers to haul away the offending trucks, forced police to take action they had already taken to address the situation, forced the dispersal of all those citizen-truckers and their supporters from across Canada who assembled to express their frustration with the government. In the process, banks were authorized to freeze people's bank accounts who were involved in the convoy, and the government brought legal action against those they considered to be convoy leaders; a turn of event that amounted to unjust and undue persecution.

 

The invocation of the Emergencies Act, which was never, ever meant to be used for such a purpose, became the subject of other lawsuits that balked at government overriding the limits of state power. That response to rights of citizens to exercise free expression was not the action of a liberal democracy. Around that time, in 2022, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada described the participants in the convoy as 'anarchists'. He failed to heed the warning that "Judges should be cautious in their communications on social media relating to matters that could come before the court", a caution that he himself helped write in Ethical Principles of Judges.

 

Now, because two courts ruled that the federal government was unreasonable in invoking the Emergencies Act, the current Liberal government under prime minister Mark Carney has appealed to the Supreme Court, now considering whether to hear the case. According to lower courts, the protesters' Charter right to free expression had been breached. The Federal Court of Appeal cited a case that held that the meaning of freedom of expression "is to ensure that everyone can manifest their thoughts, opinions ... however unpopular, distasteful or contrary to the mainstream".

 

A fence cordons off Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 21, 2022, after police cleared truckers from the area following the invocation of the Emergencies Act.  THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

 

Yet, in 2022, the Chief Justice of Canada's Supreme Court relieved himself publicly of his personal opinion that some of those in the Freedom Convoy protests were 'remote-controlled' people attempting to short-circuit the government's politics, which "does not fill me with good feelings. What we saw recently on Wellington Street, here, is the budding start of anarchy where some people decided to take other citizens hostage, to take the law into their own hands, to disregard the system … I find that worrying", he said in an interview.

 

Having said which, to be perfectly logical, ethical and principled, he should be more than willing to recuse himself from the Supreme Court's hearing of the case, should it decide to do so. Yet he adamantly claims he has no reason to do such a thing. Claiming neutrality, non-bias as his defence, a defence more than neutralized by his obvious bias expressed in a public forum. An expression totally unbecoming his position as a jurist, infinitely more so as the Chief Justice. 

 

He had gone on to utter additionally 'non-biased' statements respecting the convoy, such as stating that the downtown Ottawa 'occupation' was partially fuelled by a "certain ignorance", a "bad understanding" of Canadian law. The impact of the Freedom Convoy's blockades on  Ottawa business and individuals -- particularly "the most vulnerable" was "deplorable". But of course no one should expect that in full compliance and respect for justice, that this man is prepared to recuse himself honourably.  

"Judicial independence is not the private right of judges. It is the foundation of judicial impartiality and a constitutional right of all."

"[Judges should] be mindful of the ways in which their conduct would be perceived by reasonable and informed members of the community and whether that perception is likely to lessen respect for the judge or the judiciary as a whole."

"[Judges should] avoid conduct which could reasonably cause others to question their impartiality." 

Ethical Principles for Judges 

"The Gordie Howe Bridge has been a bipartisan priority because it supports jobs, makes transport easier, and will lower costs."

"At the last minute, the President wants to derail this hugely important project because a billionaire campaign donor told him to."

"This kind of blatant corruption hurts working families, and needs to end. For the sake of Michigan's economy, let's pass this bill."

Kristen McDonald Rivet, Democratic U.S. Representative 

 

"Twenty-five years in the making. Seven years of construction, and, at its peak, 2,500 workers on-site. Costing $6.4 billion and stretching 2.5 kilometres—the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America, rising 46 metres above the Detroit River—the Gordie Howe International Bridge is much more than these impressive numbers."

"“The Gordie Howe International Bridge is a symbol of the friendship between Michigan and Canada and a testament to what’s possible when we work together,” said Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer when the bridge deck was completed last July."

"Construction started on October 18, 2018, and after more than 19 million work hours, the structure is complete. What remains before the first vehicle crosses the bridge is testing, re-testing and training."

David McPherson, ReNew Canada

Could Trump block bridge opening? Workers are shown at the Gordie Howe International Bridge in Detroit on Tuesday, February 10, 2026. Photo by Dan Janisse /The Windsor Star

 

After having praised the building of the Gordie Howe International Bridge linking Windsor, Ontario to Detroit Michigan, as a second bridge crossing, after the century-old Ambassador Bridge, in 2017, President Trump suddenly diverted from pushing for the "expeditious completion" of the bridge, to posting outraged messages on his social media site. His apoplectic charges have no base in reality, however.  

Canada, he states, has treated the U.S. "very unfairly for decades", including the charge that the bridge was built "with virtually no U.S. content". "With all that we have given them, we should own, perhaps, at least one half of this asset", he grumped. Well, in fact, Detroit does 'own one-half' of the bridge, a gift from Canada. Canada, as it happens, footed the entire $6.4 billion cost of the bridge, but has granted joint ownership between Canada and the state of Michigan. Once the cost of the bridge has been paid through collected tolls, toll receipts are to be divided evenly between Canada and Michigan.

This is called mutual partnership generosity. In the building of the bridge, American workers were employed alongside their Canadian counterparts. The bridge was built with the use of American steel included in the process. "I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them", thundered the American president in righteous fury on a Truth Social post. 

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to the Detroit Economic Club on Jan. 13. (Ryan Sun/The Associated Press)

"I know the importance of Michigan manufacturing and that's why I'm demanding Trump drop this reckless threat, let the bridge open, and stop playing games with our jobs and our economy." 

"[By threatening to block the opening of the bridge, Trump is] unsurprisingly [placing jobs and] billions of dollars in economic growth at risk."

U.S. Representative Haley Stevens 

It has been reported by the New York Times that the president's post was prefaced by a meeting mere hours before, when U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik and Matthew Moroun, the billionaire private Lebanese-American owner of the Ambassador Bridge, took place. This is a bridge that rivals the new Gordie Howe Bridge which has enjoyed its monopolistic trade conduit between Windsor and Detroit since 1929. The company representing the owners has parted with millions of dollars over the past decade in an attempt to thwart government plans for a competing, publicly-owned bridge.

 

Trucks line up to clear customs and cross the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest commercial vehicle crossing between Canada and the U.S. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)

 

Major Republican donors, the Moroun family expended some $30 million on a failed Michigan ballot proposal in 2012 to block construction of the Gordie Howe Bridge. Dozens of lawsuits toward the same end have also been launched. In the background is the fact that Michigan entered a bilateral agreement in 2012 to advance construction of the bridge, with no direct cost to the taxpayers of Michigan. The project was known for "demonstrating the project's nonpartisan importance to American workers, manufacturers, and national competitiveness". 

 

The Gordie Howe Bridge between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit, seen here on May 10, 2024, is expected to open sometime in 2026 after almost a decade of construction. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)

 

Liberal Gov't of Canada Where Freedom of Speech and Protests are Protected -- Just Not Against the Gov't

"It is Mr. Barber's position that he followed the instruction of the police as to where to park Big Red and that he moved Big Red at the request of the police when it was safely feasible for him to do so; as such Big Red was not used in the commission of the offence of mischief."

Defence documents filed in Gov't suit

 

"It would amount to, in my opinion, cruel and  unusual punishment. [If the judge sentences Barber to prison time and he loses his truck], that would be a really harsh financial hardship for him and his family."

"[Taking his truck would be] totally out of proportion [to the mischief caused]."

"Now his son is also driving, and he has a couple of employees that sometimes drive it too, so it's a legitimate source of business for himself, his family and his employees. [Taking away Barber's truck would cause his family] extreme financial difficulties."

"That truck's been part of his family for over 20 years. His children grew up in that truck. One of his dogs died in the truck. He had wedding pictures by the side of the truck. So, that truck is part of the family. It was named Big Red by his children when they were younger." 

Lawyer Diane Magas  

Government of Canada

The Government of Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic prioritizes the health and safety of Canadians. We are committed to keeping our transportation sector, including employees and travellers, safe and secure.

Transport Canada has taken action in all modes to protect passengers and essential transportation workers while continuing to support the flow of critical goods and services during this unprecedented global crisis. 

Vaccination plays an important role in keeping each other and our transportation system safe and secure. That is why we are ensuring travellers and workers in the transportation sector are vaccinated against COVID-19.

Since October 30, employers in the federally-regulated air, rail and marine transportation sectors have been required to have vaccination policies in place for their employees.

The vaccine mandate that came into effect in October has helped to protect transportation workers from the impacts of Omicron by reducing the frequency and severity of the COVID-19 illness.

With vaccination rates at home and around the world increasing, and the epidemiological situation continuing to evolve, it is important that Canada’s border and travel related measures reflect the current global and domestic context.

 

During the height of the COVID pandemic, Canada's federal lockdown strategies and inoculation mandates infuriated many Canadians. In particular a mandate that all truckers, including long-haul be vaccinated in line with government orders. Non-compliance would result in the nullification of truckers' licenses; they would effectively be put out of commission, jobless. It might have made sense for drivers of buses or any other vehicles where the drivers came in contact with other people, but truckers sit alone in their rigs, delivering goods, seeing few other people other than at delivery ramps.

 

A coalition of dissenting truckers began a cross-Canada journey in a convoy of like-minded people, all seeking to protest the government's mandates on COVID-19 infection prevention in a joint agreement that the government had gone too far, impacting the lives of tens of thousands unnecessarily and their plan was to confront the government directly, as they headed to Ottawa. Once there, the convoy parked their vehicles in the downtown area close to Parliament Hill, asking to speak to the prime minister who soon made his contempt for them and their mission a matter of public display.

 

In the central downtown area where the convoy was parked, friction between residents and convoy participants soon arose; commotion, blocking access to local businesses, noise emanating from the honking of the horns of the rigs, all conspired to arouse resentment and anger in locals. Justin Trudeau refused to meet with or speak to the organizers, one of whom was trucker Chris Barber. The upshot of a standoff where the convoy invoked their right to peaceful assembly and protest and freedom of speech, and the municipality of Ottawa dealing with neighbourhood complaints came to a head when the Trudeau government invoked the modern version of the War Measures Act (Emergencies Act) enabling government to put an end to the convoy's presence.

Protesters participating in a cross-country truck convoy walk near Parliament Hill on January 29, 2022. (Adrian Wyld/CP)

 

Part and parcel of the Emergencies Act implementation was to bring court cases against two of the more prominent convoy organizers, Chris Barber and Tamara Lich. As for citizens who supported the convoy with donations, they were identified and their bank accounts frozen. Draconian measures were imposed by government on any individual or group or company that had been involved in support of the convoy and its protests. Dramatic persecutory actions belying the democratic nature of the country. The Crown seeks a 7-year sentence for Lich, and eight years for Barber. 

"I’ve worked hard all my life as a trucker, and ‘Big Red’ is the heart of my business."

"Taking it away wouldn’t just be punishing me — it would take away my ability to provide for my family and employees." 

"The Crown is trying to forfeit this truck and then destroy it," Chris Barber says. Photo by Courtesy Chris Barber // JUSTIN TANG / The Canadian Press

 

More recently Canadian cities have been witness to thousands of keffiyeh and mask-clad supporters of a terrorist-proscribed Palestinian group, Hamas, assembling time and again to block intersections, interfere with traffic, threaten Jewish Canadians, picket synagogues and Jewish parochial schools, vandalize Jewish businesses, call for a global Intifada, chant slogans calling for the destruction of Israel, intimidate and threaten those who disagree with them, and no government or police action has ever been taken. 

 

In those protests it is not uncommon to see the flags of Palestinian and Yemeni terrorist groups flown, even though these are recognized terrorist groups and are present on Canada's terror list, including Samidoun, which continues to have its headquarters in Vancouver, and continues its agitation, with the federal government looking the other way. Palestinian supporters have protested in front of the offices of Members of Parliament, they have interfered with public events and shut down special events, yet no official action is taken, even when pedestrian and vehicular traffic is blocked off for mass Islamic street prayers.

 

The long-standing persecution since 2022 of the convoy principals continues with a Crown forfeiture application to take the 2004 Kenworth long-haul truck valued at over $150,000 from the ownership of Swift Current, Saskatchewan trucker Chris Barber. Should Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey judge that the truck was used in the commission of mischief, the truck called Big Red would be seized. "The Crown is trying to forfeit this truck and then destroy it", states Mr. Barber, pointing out "It's been my home fore the better part of 22 years". Where the collar of his dog Buddy, hangs from the ceiling. "The dog travelled with me for the better part of 17 years".

 

Both Barber, 50, and Tamara Lich, both Freedom Convoy organizers, convicted of mischief under the argument that the protest was the cause of broad community harm, have had many court appearances during their prolonged trials. Any unaffected objective observer would come away from the charade of government upholding the law on civil disobedience with its determined persecution of these people bearing the indelible impression that this is a government bent on vengeance, not upholding the law, applied unevenly to suit the mood of the government apparatus. 

 

Convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber outside the courthouse in Ottawa in a file photo. Photo by Justin Tang /The Canadian Press 

"There's a great divide between the two sides. There are citizens of Ottawa that really took it to heart and felt interfered with and still some have a hatred. He's got death threats."

"I've got emails from people that were very hateful to me as a lawyer for him. I've been a criminal lawyer for over 30 years, defended a lot of different types of crimes much worse than this, and never got that type of attention and hatred from regular people."

"Mr. Barber has to cross into the United States for his work purposes. [A criminal record might see him turned away at the border]."

Lawyer Diane Magas 

Victims of Communism -- Complicit with Nazism

"Over the years, we have submitted documentation detailing the atrocities committed by several individuals on the [memorial] list -- including in 2021, when we provided comprehensive evidence of the war crimes committed by Janis Niedra against Latvia's Jewish population."

"It is deeply disturbing that, despite our repeated warnings and the clear, documented evidence, the name of a Nazi involved in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust was ultimately engraved on the Memorial."

"This is simply unacceptable."

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center 

The Victims of Communism memorial opened to the public with no names inscribed. Photo by JULIE OLIVER /POSTMEDIA

 

The seemingly endless saga of the The Victims of Communism Memorial's Wall of Remembrance goes on and on, with no end in sight, and no enlightenment by the Department of Canadian Heritage. More latterly revealed is that despite having been warned in 2021 that a Nazi collaborator who actively took part in the execution of Jews during the Holocaust, his name nonetheless was engraved to be placed among hundreds of others purporting to be victims of Communism, on a monument that sought to sanctify them as heroes for opposing Communism.

 

The nameplate that was meant to commemorate Janis Niedra had been installed on the memorial in 2023, according to government records obtained under the Access to Information Act, then later removed. By the time the memorial was formally opened in late 2024, no names were installed on the memorial. The inexplicable reason that Canadian Heritage permitted the commemorative nameplate for Niedra -- despite warnings from the Friends of Sion Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies -- to be originally installed has never been explained. 

The Department had been provided with research data indicating that Niedra had led a group of some 40 men on a mission to assist the Nazis in rounding up and executing about 350 Latvian Jews; mostly women, children and seniors. Niedra died in 1969, but it was known that he served the Nazis in various positions in Latvia. He arrived in Canada following war's end. Ricochet Media, an investigative online news outlet, had reported the existence of the nameplate.

 

Niedra's name had been removed before the public inauguration of the memorial after having been flagged in 2023 when a Canadian Heritage employer raised concerns regarding the man's Nazi connections. The main concern in the department was that the public, or news media, might recognize the name engraved on the memorial. That nameplate, as well as others for the memorial "are being stored at a National Capital commission facility" Canadian Heritage spokesperson Caroline Czajkowski confirmed. 

 

The memorial sits on the west side of the Garden of the Provinces and Territories in downtown Ottawa. Photo by JULIE OLIVER /POSTMEDIA

 

Canadian Heritage had been repeatedly warned that numerous individuals slated to be honoured on the memorial did not represent victims; they were instead Nazi collaborators responsible for having played significant rules in the Holocaust and in perpetrating other crimes against humanity. Concerns were raised by Jewish organizations and historians that names of eastern Europeans who had collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust had been nominated in a deliberate move to whitewash their past. 

Roman Shukheyvych, a Ukrainian nationalist who collaborated with the Nazis and who was linked to the massacres of Jews and Poles, was among those being commemorated. Only after, in 2021, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center repeatedly raised the matter with the department, had Shukheyvych's name finally been removed. Ludwik Klimkowski, chairman of Tribute to Liberty, posted on social media platform X his sentiments regarding concerns that the monument was honouring Nazi collaborators: "Let's stop the nonsense of the Nazi commemoration perpetrated by Canadian Marxists and the agents of the Kremlin's regime", he wrote.

 

"It's important to note that many anti-Communist and anti-Soviet advocates and fighters were also active Nazi collaborators, who committed documented massacres", Global Affairs Canada officials warned their counterparts at Canadian Heritage in 2021, as federal officials in other departments also continued to warn Canadian Heritage that including Nazi collaborators on the memorial would be the cause of international embarrassment for Canada. 

A report prepared for Canadian Heritage in 2024 had recommended that over half of the 550 names proposed for inclusion on the memorial should be removed because of potential links to Nazi Germany's 'Final Solution'. There were originally to be 553 entries on the memorial's Wall of Remembrance. Some 50 to 60 names or organizations had already been determined by the department itself, to have likely been directly linked to the Nazis, according to the documents. 

"In 2021, we discovered that one particular Nazi leader was being honoured by the Memorial and it took us more than a year of very active advocacy efforts before his name was finally removed."

"We told officials repeatedly that we believed there could be a great number of Nazis being commemorated but sadly this problem did not appear to be a priority for the department."

"[The recent report commissioned by the department confirmed her organization’s worst fears], It finds that more half of the individuals commemorated in the memorial may have been Nazis or Nazi collaborators."

"It is totally unacceptable for Nazis and collaborators to be honoured by a Canadian public memorial, especially one meant to recognize victims of state violence and tyranny."

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts

The memorial opened in late 2024. Photo by JULIE OLIVER /POSTMEDIA

Terrorist Group and Don't Know Where to Peddle Your Wares? Try Canada!

"Enough is enough. Samidoun's ties to the PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine] terrorist entity are self-proclaimed and explicit. The group does not even attempt to hide them."

"What is unclear is why the [Liberal] government has yet to take action to outlaw the group's activities in Canada."

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, (CIJA) Canada 

 

"We have long alerted the government to Samidoun's incitement to hatred against Canada's Jewish community and affiliation with the PFLP."

"Emboldened by impunity and inaction, Samidoun is now hosting its first major North American demonstration, here in the capital [Ottawa] of our country."

Shimon Koffler Fogel, president, CIJA 

"This conference is not organized by Samidoun."

"Throughout my years here, and I've been here for almost a decade, any kind of Palestinian-themed event here meets some sort of resistance, from either B'nai Brith or other organizations, so we've come to hear all kinds of complaints."

"We work with all kinds of progressive movements here in the city."

Jason St-Laurent, SAW curator

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is honoured to join with the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, in calling all activists, organizers and supporters of Palestine in North America to join us in Ottawa on Algonquin Anishinaabe Land, April 28-30, 2023, for the Liberation Conference. Samidoun Website

The tip-off is the 'progressive' designation and affiliation. The PFLP is a recognized terrorist organization, infamous for its plane highjackings and other high-profile stunts to draw attention to the existence of a 'Palestinian' extremist group whose purpose is the destruction of the State of Israel. As a terrorist entity Canada, among other democratic nations of the world have placed the group on a terrorist list forbidden entry to those countries.

 

Jewish groups, in view of the NGO group calling itself Samidoun, heavily affiliated with the PFLP which purportedly defends the human rights of Palestinians in Israeli prisons (where conditions are such that prisoners may pursue academic upgrades among other 'progressive'-welfare conditions of their imprisonment for major terrorism events) and for whom propaganda slandering Israel and Jews is a major activity -- call on the government to investigate it under Section 83.05(1)(b) of the Criminal Code for acting on behalf of and/or associating with a listed terrorist entity, the PFLP.

The SAW Centre is an avant-garde Ottawa arts centre, preparing to play host to an international conference organized by a shadowy terror-affiliated network whose purpose is defaming Israel preparatory to its destruction. It has wide appeal among 'progressives' and those for whom antisemitism is a natural reaction to the presence of Jews. Yet Public Safety Canada is disinterested in acting in any capacity, whether it be an investigation of the presence of these outlawed terror groups or their purpose harmful to the Canadian-Jewish community in inciting against Jews and Israel.

According to the SAW Centre, the Jewish Federation of Ottawa is busy spreading a "fallacy" about the central role that Samidoun has taken in the conference organization. The Ontario Public Interest Research Group at Carleton University booked the SAW venue, Samidoun simply an endorser of the conference among about 30 "antiwar" and "anti-imperialist" groups organizing and attending the conference whose focus is the victimhood of Palestinians.

 

From its inception in 1973, the artist-run centre SAW has supported politically and socially engaged art, focusing on the performance and media arts.  SAW Website

 

The website for the conference is festooned with Samidoun flags; its European coordinator announced the plans for the event months earlier, the first such conference in North America of "the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement". A fairly new group of Palestinian militants, Masar Badil, who reject Palestinian Authority legitimacy, oppose peace talks with Israel and call for a resumption of the intifada of 1987. After the intifadeh that saw the deaths of both Israelis and Palestinians, 822 Palestinians were executed by their leaders, who charged them with collaborating with Israel.

The co-founder of the group is Khaled Barakat, key in the rejectionist militant movement, who has been resident in Canada off and on for several decades; a ubiquitous figure at Samidoun events globally. According to Israeli intelligence, Barakat is a high-ranking PFLP member, and Samidoun the PFLP's overseas fund-raising and recruitment proxy. Fund raising is vital to Samidoun and they've run into constraints since Visa and MasterCard cut the group off.

Three days before Samidoun was registered as a charitable group with Corporations Canada as a non-profit corporation, Israeli authorities listed Samidoun as a terrorist entity, given its PFLP connections. The event taking place at the SAW Centre this weekend describes itself as focusing on "building the liberation struggle in North America", linking with Indigenous and Black "liberation movements". 

Sessions at the conference include: Anti-Imperialism and the International People's tribunal on U.S. Imperialism; Palestinian Prisoners and the Resistance; Organizing for Return to Palestine; Building the Boycott Movement; and Anti-Zionism: An Anti-Colonial Struggle.

Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine stand guard during an Al-Quds Day parade in Beirut on April 14. Photo by Mohamed Azakir/Reuters

Israel's Diplomatic Mission to Canada

"The RCMP's Protective Operations [branch] is constantly assessing and adapting its security and protective posture."

"This is done in a manner that is based on current and evolving threat and risk environments."

Royal Canadian Mounted Police, federal policing agency 

"History reveals that antisemitism intensifies at times of social disruption. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen an alarming increase in antisemitic acts. In 2019, Statistics Canada found police-reported hate crimes against Jewish people accounted for the highest number of religion-based hate crime in Canada. Recently, the B’nai Brith Canada 2020 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents reported a record number of antisemitism cases last year, up 18.3% from 2019. In 2020, over 44% of antisemitic violence was COVID-related, including incidents of Jewish people being spat on and assaulted with weapons."

"More severe forms of creed-based prejudice, including antisemitism, have emerged in recent times, often shaped by international events and transmitted through media, especially social media. A pernicious theme repeated this past year was to blame the Jewish community for the pandemic. For example, Bnai Brith reported graffiti on a trail sign in Milton that said: “There is no deadly virus. The Jew owned media lies to you.” Other graffiti in public sites included “Blame the Jews” and “Jews should be ashamed"."

"Ontario has witnessed an unprecedented increase in antisemitic incidents this past year, such as the vandalism of the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa. A Jewish person in Toronto was randomly hit in the face by a man who shouted “f--- Jews.” In North York, a city worker threatened to circumcise a Jewish boy for “a second and a third time.” In the Hamilton area, someone painted a red swastika on the hood of a car parked near a synagogue."

"The media is full of reports of the many ways Jewish communities continue to be the targets of hate. We have seen antisemitism erupting at pro-Palestine events in Toronto and Montreal, hateful banners unfurled in Vaughan and businesses, parks and schools defaced with antisemitic graffiti. We see assaults and other life-threatening behaviour that has no place in Ontario."

"Denouncing and fighting hate and discrimination, especially antisemitism, was why the Ontario Human Rights Code was enacted in the first place. In the early 1960s, the world was still dealing with the shocking aftermath of the Holocaust. Jewish people were barred from entry to Canada, including at times of greatest need fleeing Nazi Germany in WWII. They were routinely denied access to jobs, facilities and services, because of virulent antisemitism. The first Code, in 1962, envisioned a better path forward for Ontario and the majority of the complaints the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) pursued in the 1960s were on behalf of Jewish people."

"Governments and community leaders have consistently spoken out against the hate that continues to erupt in our communities – all because of someone’s beliefs. But history has shown that saying the right things is meaningless, unless the words are tied to action."

OHRC (Ontario Human Rights Commission) statement on the National Summit on Antisemitism

The Israeli flag flies with the Peace Tower in the background as thousands of Israeli supporters gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sunday, April 21, 2002 to show solidarity with Israel. About two hours later, Palestinian supporters were planning a rally. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)

 Jews are targets on an ever-increasing scale for aggravated persecution in the public sphere in Canada. The rising incidence of antisemitism makes that clear. Verbal harassment, public mischief in the desecration of a monument to the Holocaust, synagogues and Jewish centres being marked with Nazi symbols, and BDS sweeping through academia, from grade school to university campuses. Palestinian groups living in Canada as landed immigrants and/or citizens focus exclusively on demonizing Israel, slandering the Jewish state, and targeting Jewish Canadians with venomous blame and hatred.

Annual al-Quds marches lamenting the return of Jews to their ancestral homeland with the re-establishment of the State of Israel is commemorated by Palestinians in Israel and elsewhere around the world including Canada as a catastrophe for Arabs living in the geography of the Jewish homeland, claiming it for their own. In this venomous atmosphere of libelous slander where Israel is called an Apartheid State despite that 20 percent of the population of the Jewish state is not Jewish, with millions of Arab 'Palestinians' having Israeli citizenship, the right to vote and have representation in the Israeli parliament, hatred booms.

That venomous hatred incited by Canadians of Arab-Palestinian background creates an atmosphere of suspicion, accusation and victimhood that spells danger for Israeli diplomats assigned to Canada. Where it makes sense that the federal government through its department of Foreign Affairs and its federal policing agency would place a special emphasis on security for Israeli diplomatic missions in Canada and their personnel.

As a multicultural society with a population as diverse as the global community, Canada has an obligation to be aware of its responsibilities as a host country of diplomats abroad and within. In 1982 the Turkish ambassador to Canada was assassinated on his way to the Turkish embassy from his home in Ottawa. Ottawa, on a world scale, is considered a 'safe' country for foreign diplomatic assignments. But that depends on circumstances and the temperature of world affairs. Jews increasingly feel unsafe in their home country of Canada despite living there for generations.

And nor does the Israeli embassy in Ottawa staff feel comfortable with the level of security assigned to its personnel. It has attempted for years to persuade the federal government in Canada to increase the level of security assigned to the embassy. Diplomats representing Israel in Canada are wary and prefer to stay out of any news because of the hostility the diplomatic mission knows is directed its way which could readily become a violent attack against its staff. 

When the Israeli head of mission returned to Israel from Canada in 2019, security was relaxed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and the RCMP. Following the appointment of the current Israeli ambassador to Canada in 2021, Israeli Embassy officials requested protection be restored at the level it had been provided for his predecessor. Canada's Foreign Affairs and the RCMP both rebuffed the formal diplomatic request. 

This, despite the embassy making media postings available to the RCMP; of activists engaged in opposing Israeli policies viz a viz Palestinians. Where floor maps of the embassy's location in an office building are published along with photographs of the building hallway leading to the embassy offices. In a recent voice mail, an unidentified voice warns: "We will kill you wherever you are; we will get you".

What is Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations?

The person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. He shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. The receiving State shall treat him with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, freedom or dignity.

Protesters carrying a large sign that reads 'Justice for Palestine' marched dpwn Elgin Street in downtown Ottawa August 2022. (Uday Rana/CBC )