"Tesla Takedown"

"All of the platforms in which we communicate and talk to one another are controlled more and more by the tech oligarchy."

"Were seeing that the press is being owned by billionaires, the social media we use is owned by the same billionaires, and the alignment that is happening in the United States ... is just a more overt version of the same kind of thing that's happening in Canada." 

Juan Alperin, professor, faculty of communication, art and technology, Simon Fraser University

 

"[It's my belief that billionaires are] interfering [with politics in North America and Europe in ways they should not be involved]."

"I'm also against the attacks on Canadian sovereignty ... by saying Canada is not a country and that our prime minister is a governor [Musk quips]."

Andrew Balakshin, Vancouver resident 

Over 80 Tesla vehicles were damaged at a Hamilton, Ontario dealership in a vandalism spree. Carscoops

The backlash against Elon Musk's support of U.S. President Donald Trump's war on Canada begins to mirror a rising tide of popular dissent within the United States that has begun targeting the appointed head of DOGE, through targeting his Tesla electric vehicle car production facilities in a series of protests outside Tesla dealerships to deliver a message of rejection. Those protests are par for the course with a disgruntled public expressing their opinion. It is the accompanying and linked violent criminal acts of sabotage, of puncturing tires, keying paint jobs and most of all fire-bombing vehicles that tell the story of matters getting out of hand.

 

Now Canadians in cities including Ottawa and Vancouver have linked themselves to the growing rejection of Tesla as representative of government-cost-slashing actions of DOGE, under the direction of Elon Musk that speaks to a spreading global rejection of U.S. President Donald Trump's abrasive and volatile style of government.

 

Surrey, British Columbia saw residents holding signs with messages including "elbows up", "Elon be-gone", and "democracy dies in apathy". President Trump has proceeded with his threat to slap steep tariffs on Canadian goods, the result of which has predictably been a trade war. His repeated barbs that Canada would be better off as the 51st state, and that Canadians would love to become Americans, surrendering their sovereignty for the 'greater good' of immersing within the U.S. has struck most Canadians as an unforgivable assault by a former friendly neighbour. 

 

A number of the most prominent incidents in the U.S. have been reported in left-leaning cities in the Pacific Northwest, like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, where anti-Trump and anti-Musk sentiment runs high. In this image, a member of the Seattle Fire Department is seen inspecting a burned Tesla Cybertruck at a Tesla lot in Seattle, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

 

Ordinary Canadians have retaliated by refusing to buy American products, seeking out Canadian-produced goods or alternately foodstuffs arriving in Canada from other parts of the world rather than the United States. Musk, the self-described "free speech absolutist" faces criticism from hate-speech watchdogs, seething with outrage that his social media platform X allows extremist, dangerous and antisemitic comments to flourish on X.

 

The world's wealthiest individual has been advising President Trump on overhauling the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency, newly created to install Mr. Musk as a special government agent dedicated to reducing the costs of government services. There are those who cite a post Musk shared originating with another X user that posted: "Stalin, Mao and Hitler didn't murder millions of people. Their public sector workers did."

 

Tesla dealership in Austin, Texas. Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

 

Few individuals have the high profile internationally as does Elon Musk. His partnering with the new U.S. president has only increased his visibility and the suspicions surrounding his intentions. Resulting in the auto production company directly associated with the man becoming a target for protests and vandalism. In Oregon gunshots were fired at a Tesla dealership. In Seattle four Cybertrucks were destroyed in a deliberate blaze.

 

Action Network website hosts the "Tesla Takedown" protests where events are posted, used by individuals and community groups to promote what the site describes as 'progressive causes'. Dozens of protests are shown scheduled across the United States and Europe through the remainder of March and into April. 

 

Law enforcement respond to reports of incendiary devices at Tesla showroom in Austin, Texas, March 24, 2025.  @DocumentingATX / X

"The FBI will be relentless in its mission to protect the American people. Acts of violence, vandalism, and domestic terrorism — like the recent Tesla attacks — will be pursued with the full force of the law."

"These criminal actions appear to have been conducted by lone offenders, and all known incidents occurred at night."

"Individuals require little planning to use rudimentary tactics, such as improvised incendiary devices and firearms, and may perceive these attacks as victimless property crimes." 

Federal Bureau of Investigation statement

In the Fine Tradition of Literary Antisemitism

"Canlit Responds, originally formed as the literary community’s protest against charges laid against demonstrators who disrupted the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize over it’s main sponsor’s substantial investment in Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems, has released a statement signed by 20 Canadian authors withdrawing their work from the 2024 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and refusing to participate in the Giller Foundation’s ongoing programming."

"Fifteen authors have pulled their 2024 fiction releases from contention for the prize. The other five signatories are authors who have prior relationships to the prize – one is a former Giller winner, and the remaining authors have either been shortlisted or longlisted for the prize."

"The letter states that the authors 'cannot abide [their] work being used to provide cover for sponsors actively investing in arms funding and Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians'."

"The authors call on the Giller Foundation to 'use their organizational leverage to pressure their main sponsor, Scotiabank, to fully divest from Elbit Systems' and to 'cut ties with all funders directly invested in Israel’s occupation and genocide in Palestine, including the Azrieli Foundation, Indigo, and Audible'."

Atilla Berqi, Quill & Quire 

Elana Rabinovitch, executive director of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, says she will maintain her partnership with the bank despite protests from authors, several of whom have withdrawn their works from consideration. over the bank's investment in an Israeli weapons manufacturer. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)

 

So it is that in their conscientious proselytizing for compassionate regard for the Palestinians in Gaza -- beset by an industrialist-military complex contiguous with the territory that Arabs who call themselves Palestinians insist is their exclusive patrimony of ancestral heritage although history documents the rightful indigenous population as 'Palestinian' Judaeans -- David Bergen, Noor Naga, Aimee Wall, André Forget, Catherine Hernandez, Farzana Doctor, Sheung-King, Jacob Wren, Nour Abi-Nakhoul, Colin Barrett, Frankie Barnet, Greg Rhyno, Jen Currin, Jess Taylor, John Elizabeth Stintzi, Julie Delporte, Kazim Ali, Lily Wang, and Sydney Hegele call upon the Giller Foundation to pressure  Scotiabank to fully divest from Elbit Systems.

 

 

Their stern voices condemning Israel as an occupier of Palestinian-designated territory -- above all, "Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians", is testimony to their deep ignorance of reality, much less that of history and a recognition of actual events as opposed to aggressive and malignant propaganda. That no fewer than 40 Canadian authors signed a letter protesting the Giller Prize representing a group specifically formed in support of protesters charged for disrupting the Giller Prize ceremony of the year previous speaks to utter arrogant sanctimony in a veneer of humanitarian concern for human life.

 

Tellingly, the group's 'progressive' ideological embrace condemning Israel for its temerity in assuming it has the right to defend itself from forty decades of violent hostility from a Palestinian population that feels in the aggregate that the Jewish state has no right to exist, speaks volumes about their love affair with antisemitism. Equating the Palestinian 'struggle' against an 'aggressor' with a legitimate nation's counter-struggle to deter murder-minded terrorists from claiming greater numbers of Jewish lives describes vulnerable victims of Jewish terror, a complete and deliberate inversion of reality.

 

Protesters are escorted out of the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto by police after interrupting the Scotiabank Giller Prize ceremony in November 2023. Three of them were later charged in connection with the disruption, CP24 reported. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)

Their intention to force Scotiabank as the major sponsor of the Giller Prize in literature to divest from Elbit Systems, the Israeli arms manufacturer, is merely a veneer to gloss over hatred of Israel and of Jews. Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank have long demonstrated their hostility toward Israel and Jews and done so at the behest of their leaders who have groomed them from cradle to grave to view Israel as an illegitimate nation squatting on Arab territory. The horrors of the October 7 mass atrocity masterminded by Hamas and joined by other terrorist groups such as the PLFP and PIJ had the full support of the larger population.

It is not Israel for which 'genocide' is a goal, but rather it is Palestinians supporting their terrorist groups whose purpose is the eradication of Israel from its heritage soil. Israel is living proof that a Jewish state is capable of viewing non-Jewish inhabitants of a Jewish state as citizens, be they Christian, Druze, Kurds, Bedouin or Palestinian Arabs. Along with the right of electing their own representatives to the Knesset (Jewish parliament) to represent their interests; to sit on the judiciary; to have full respect as members of important professions, to serve in the military as trusted colleagues.

Scotiabank may invest in an Israeli arms manufacturer as an astute financial choice for its investors, but it also invests in Boeing and Lockheed Martin as well as Raytheon Tech. If CanLit Responds views weapons manufacturing as deplorable, do they also call on divesting from those weapons manufacturers? Elbit after all, manufactures weaponry used by the United States and NATO countries as well as by Israel. U.S. weapons manufacturers supply planes and bombs; do they not also merit attention? 

Does it not disturb CanLit Responds that Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas deliberately place Palestinian citizens they reportedly care so much about in harm's way with a deliberate focus on numbers that they then use to stir the humanitarian concerns of groups like themselves? Their lens is so fixed on a belief of Israeli malevolence against Palestinians that they cannot -- or will not -- recognize that to Palestinian terrorists their own citizenry is expendable in their longer vision of annihilating Israel by any means possible -- including propaganda distribution to stir the rage of antisemites eager to isolate Israel on the international stage.

The associated targets this group of Israel-haters focus on, from the Azraeli Foundation, Indigo and Audible all support the ancient homeland of the world's Jews reborn. As why would they not? Since diaspora Jews from antiquity to the present have always faced the headwinds of antisemitism to survive -- and millions did not survive. A people whose existence is barely tolerated and between lulls of tolerated co-existence face dread times of resurgent threats, hate and existential violence. 

CanLit Responds is just yet another of the many groups that have arisen in the past to the present, to exalt themselves as principled humanitarian examples of global compassion for the oppressed and whose identity as warriors for justice is beyond question. The target of their wrath and condemnation just always happens to be Jews, a mere coincidence that speaks to the tired old, but always-useful contention that Jews are responsible for whatever occurs that reflects human dysfunction. 

A protest at November's Scotiabank Giller Prize ceremony in Toronto sparked calls from authors for the prize to cut ties with the bank, because of its investment in Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. On Thursday, more than 20 authors pulled their books from consideration for this year's prize. (Rob Gillies/The Associated Press)

 

Trudeau: "We strongly condemn this hate and its manifestations"

"Trans people -- they exist in society, and they deserve inclusion, just like everyone else."

"We need to talk to people, teach them the right vocabulary, the proper words, at an age-appropriate time, in order to explain that inclusion is a good thing."

"We need to make sure that their trans and queer peers at school feel welcome."

Trans activist Celeste Trianon 

"Transphobia, homophobia, and biphobia have no place in this country."

"We strongly condemn this hate and its manifestations, and we stand united in support of 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians across the country -- you are valid and you are valued."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

 

"We know that there are a lot of folks that don't feel safe because of the rise in hate and division that's targeting vulnerable people."

"But then you see a lot of people coming together, and it shows the strength of solidarity, of us supporting each other, of having each other's back."

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh

 

"I think our parents should become knowledgeable about what their kids are being taught and what is important for them to learn in schools and what's important for parents to make decisions on with kids that are under 16 years old."

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs

 

"I don't want them to be educated on whether they are a girl or a boy."

"Let them be what they want to be."

"If he [her son] decides in his life, when he's an adult, if he wants to change, I'm OK with that."

Jashandeep Dhillon, mother in Regina

 

"[Children were being] bullied by teachers into changing their pronouns]."

"It's one thing to say, well, we have various people who have different feelings about sexuality." 

"It's a different thing to teach everybody that it is perfectly normal, and that you [the student] should look into that, if it's applicable to you."

David Low, rally organizer, Prince George

Protests and counter-protests over LGBTQ school policies took place in Toronto on Wednesday, with many more happening across the country. The initial protests were organized under the banner of '1 Million March 4 Children' to 'protect our children from indoctrination and sexualization,' according to the group’s website. Counter-protests took place in response, with thousands gathering at places like Queen’s Park. CBC

 

Everyone is invested in the education of society's children, starting with their parents, and ending with the schools they attend where children in public schools are trusted to be introduced to and instructed in the most basic requirements of literacy and numeracy, geography, practical economics, history and enrichment programs associated with sports, nature, and social culture. This is all preparation for adulthood, for children maturing and accepted within their greater society. The stern educator of long ago demanding instant obedience from his classroom has long since been replaced by an easy-going instructor encouraging students to familiarize themselves with themselves. 

Where once unruly children were sent to the principal's office for the vice-principal to mete out appropriate punishment for anti-social and/or destructive or disruptive behaviour, it is now verboten. Students whose classroom performance is mediocre are now encouraged not necessarily to study more diligently and take part in classroom discussions, but to consider themselves special and extraordinary. In today's classrooms students can be disruptive and even physically abusive and face no penalties. Stories of teachers being assaulted physically and a general aura of violence have become common. There seem to be no penalties, children will be children.

 

Protesters march down Elgin Street in Ottawa as they demonstrate against sexual orientation and gender identity programs in schools on Wednesday. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

"Safety can't be guaranteed in class; the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario says three-quarters of its members report having experienced or witnessed violence committed against colleagues."

"On Monday, a 14-year-old girl in Whitby, Ontario stabbed another girl in school, seriously injuring her; meanwhile, in Oshawa, a 12-year-old girl had to be subdued with a taser after she attacked fellow students and a teacher with scissors, sending one child to hospital." 

Tasha Kheiriddin, journalist, National Post

Parents over the past several years have become increasingly perturbed over the agendas in schools their children attend. Where once parents scrutinized report cards for results, they now wonder what has been happening with their children as students in public schools when they read reports of school boards mandating that teachers not reach out to parents to discuss their child's newly-emerged preference to change their birth biology by assuming the persona of a gender other than that they were born with. The child requesting to be addressed with specific pronouns rejecting their birth gender has the final word.

 

Protesters and counter-protesters are shown in Charlottetown. (Alex McIsaac/CBC)

 

 At one time students in Canada's public schools were in the high percentiles of successful learning, passing their grades in above-average numbers, indicating that the Canadian education system was in fine form and doing justice to the needs of the active minds of their students engaged in learning basic academic subjects. That is no longer true. Canada has distinguished itself of late by being identified as the sole G7 country whose scores in math and science are "steadily declining", according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, a concerning reality for parents expecting their children to be properly educated.

What does now also hugely concern parents of school-age children is the new acculteration dominating the news of children being encouraged through the school system to think deeply about their sexual identity; whether it coincides with their ideas, thoughts, proclivities and orientations. Boys with girlish tendencies, and girls who emulate boyish behaviour are now engaged in the kind of introspection that leads them to question their gender realities, boosted by the literature they are now exposed to in their school libraries.

Young children are now introduced to aromantic (absence of romantic attraction), asexual (absence of sexual attraction), pansexual (attraction to any gender) or demisexual (attraction requiring an emotional bond) 'normalcies'. The atmosphere in the classroom is one of complete abandonment of biological determination based in science and nature, in favour of gender fluidity and the ease with which children can decide they prefer to alter their gender identification because it's alluring to them, and fits more neatly into how they perceive themselves after exposure to the alternatives available to them.

Transitions in fundamental biology that puzzle their parents and who have finally come to the conclusion that their role as guardians of their children's well-being, as nurturers and parents guiding their children into the future has been taken from them by a school system that cautions teachers and students not to inform parents of their children's preferences and decision-making. And so parents, some teachers who disagree with the system, and other concerned individuals mounted country-wide protests, called 1 Million March 4 Children.

True to his infamous virtue-signalling and condemnation of any who disagree with his social and cultural proclivities, the prime minister of Canada has denounced these hundreds of thousands of protesting parents as hateful and racist. Those who protest at school classrooms and libraries presenting drag queens acting out the theatrics of sexual exhibitionism and sex change, concerned for the welfare of their children being exposed to orientations of poor taste and no value, find themselves being told that there is no place for them in Canada, by their prime minister.

 

Hundreds demonstrated in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa Wednesday morning, one of several similar events across the country  CBC

 

Swedish Freedom of Expression

Indian Muslims protesting in Sweden    Associated Press

"In Sweden, we have the freedom of expression."

"We also respect people who have a different opinion and the fact that it may hurt some feelings."

"We have to look at the law. That is what we do."

Helsingborg Sweden local police Chief, Mattias Sigfriedsson 

"[The Swedish government] strongly rejects the Islamophobic act committed by individuals in Sweden."

"[The burning of a Koran] in no way reflects the opinions of the Swedish Government."

Swedish Government statement

"I think it is exceptional and extremely inappropriate for the government ... to criticize an individual demonstration carried out by a person who, by all accounts, has stayed within the bounds of the law, who has only used his constitutional freedom of expression."

Nils Funcke, Swedish freedom of speech advocate

"It is a very serious situation for Sweden."

"We have foreign powers, like Russia for example, which spread information in Arabic about this."

"We have Turkey, which is using it for leverage in the NATO debate."

Magnus Ranstorp, terrorism expert, strategic adviser, Center for Societal Security, Swedish Defense University

 

"In general, the Swedish Security Service sees how authoritarian states like Russia use proxies in order to destabilize or influence Swedish public opinion and decision-making."

Swedish Security Service

Salwan Momika protesting outside a Stockholm mosque on 28 June to ‘express [his] opinion about the Qur’an’. Photograph: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images

Sweden is in a diplomatic and political uproar in the wake of a string of requests for approval of protests involving the destruction of sacred religious texts after an Iraqi Christian immigrant burned a Koran outside a Stockholm mosque during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. The man had decided to destroy a copy of Islam's scriptures in a display of his feelings about the Qur'an. Sweden is nominally protestant, but it is a secular society which believes in freedom of expression.

The event has dragged Sweden into a greater issue complicating its application to join NATO, a decision it took following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in the credible belief that it might be next. Any country wishing to join the military alliance can do so only with the unanimous consent of NATO's member nations. And thus far, both Hungary for reasons of its own have refused Sweden's request, and Turkey for stated reasons of charging Sweden with sheltering Kurds which Turkey refers to as terrorists, Turkey's sworn enemies.

 

Condemnation in response to the copy of a Koran being destroyed, were immediate and widespread in the Muslim world. A debate is now swirling in Sweden regarding limits of Freedom of Speech, with Swedish police having received new requests by individuals who would like to burn the Qur'an, as well as the Jewish Torah and the Christian bible. Bans are being urged on Sweden by Muslim countries, with Pakistan calling for a daylong protest in defence of the sanctity of the Koran.

The irony here is that in Pakistan there is a standing death sentence in law against any form of blasphemy against Islam, its Prophet or Allah. Christians have been stoned and clubbed to death by hordes of raging Muslims in Pakistan as punishment for insulting Islam. Many Swedes insist that even offensive criticism of religion should be permissible in the Scandinavian Lutheran nation, and any notion of re-introducing blasphemy laws should be resisted.

When police in Stockholm earlier in the year attempted to stop Qur'an-burning protests they were overruled by a court stating such actions were protected by Swedish law. It was that decision which directed police to allow last week's protest where a Christian from Iraq burned the Qur'an on an important Muslim holiday leading Muslim leaders in Sweden to deplore the incident.

In Baghdad, the Swedish Embassy was stormed by angry protesters, while the Organization for Islamic Cooperation condemned and criticized Swedish authorities for allowing the Koran to be burned. Pakistan has asked the U.N. Human Rights Council to schedule a special session on the issue. The current controversy is reminiscent of the fury faced by Denmark in 2006 after publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that led to Danish consulates and embassies being torched, with cartoonists facing death threats.

Now, suddenly Sweden has taken placatory steps toward Turkey in its decision to charge a Kurdish man, Yahya Gungnor, with terrorist financing of the Kurdish PKK. The PKK is Turkey's avowed enemy and Turkey returns the feelings with emphatic fury. The Kurdish man was sentenced by the Stockholm District Court to four-and-a-half years in prison for the crime of financially supporting the PKK. After his prison term he is to be expelled and banned from returning to Sweden. 

Turkey will be pleased.

Demonstration front of the Swedish Embassy, Tehran, Iran    Associated Press

Parents, Call Your Children Home!

Still from video: Violent riots continue to erupt at night in the French capital of Paris and nearby suburbs after police shot and killed a 17-year-old driver on Tuesday. (Associated Press)

"At 1:30 a.m., while I was at the city hall like the past three nights, individuals rammed their car upon my residence before setting fire to it to burn my house, inside which my wife and my two young children slept."

"While trying to protect the children and escape the attackers, my wife and one of my children were injured."

"[I have] no words strong enough to describe my emotion towards the horror of this night [and thank police and rescue services for their help]". 

Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun of L’Haÿ-les-Roses, commune in Paris southern suburbs

 

"[Initial findings of a police investigation suggest a flaming car] was launched to burn down the pavilion [entering Jeanbrun’s property at around 1:30am local time]."

"Hitting a low wall, the vehicle stopped… before it could reach the veranda of the house. Only the front gate was hit, along with the family’s vehicle."

"[The mayor’s wife and two children, aged 5 and 7, fled through the back garden. While running away, the mayor’s wife hurt her shin which] appears to be broken."

"Every effort will be made to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice."

Prosecutor Stéphane Hardouin  

A police officer enters the house of L'Hay-les-Roses mayor, outside Paris, Sunday, July 2, 2023. Young rioters clashed with police and targeted the mayor's home with a burning car as France saw a fifth night of unrest sparked by the police killing of a teenager Christophe Ena / AP

Parents of the rioting youth, mostly Black and those of Algerian heritage, have been urged by French President Emmanuel Macron to keep their teens at home. Restrictions on social media have been proposed, to help in the battle to quell rioting that has been steadily spreading across France in the wake of the fatal police shooting of the unlicensed 17-year-old driver who ran a red light and refused to stop for motorcycle traffic police. A confrontation took place when the youthful driver defied police orders to emerge from the yellow Mercedes he was driving.

 

Video footage captured two police officers confronting the youth, both holding guns. Sound on the video implicates both officers in the shooting to death of the defiant teen; one shooting him dead, the other encouraging the fatal shooting. The shooter is in custody, accused of what amounts to manslaughter. The shocking event triggered instant reaction from the Paris suburban areas known as banlieues, effectively ghettoes housing a poverty-stricken immigrant class that has failed to integrate into French culture and society.

 

Charges of racism in the past and lack of government interest in uplifting the banlieue residents from unemployment and poverty, saw the government spending millions of euros to improve public transit for the residents, to hire minority members for the police, to encourage youth to attend schools and universities, but none of these efforts have materially altered their prospects nor the culture of hostility and violence that runs rife through these  underprivileged communities.

 

The death of the 17-year-old Algerian teen has had an oversized impact on the wild nature of housing-project youth who welcome any opportunity to break out in paroxysms of violence, taking to the streets, setting vehicles and shops ablaze, looting and defying authority. The government has deployed upwards of 40,000 police officers responding to the rioters -- who have erected barricades, lit fires and shot fireworks at police -- with tear gas, water cannons and stun grenades. An estimated 270 police officers have been injured in these violent confrontations.

 

And some 3,000 rioters have been arrested for their part in the violent confrontations. No figures have been offered for the number of protesters injured. Although the declaration of a state of emergency was thought to be imminent after cabinet meetings and no cessation of the nightly riots, none was in fact declared although a complete shutdown of all public bus and tram services cross-country was ordered. That kind of transit shutdown to protect transportation workers and passengers had already been passed in the Paris region. 

 

Protesters march during a rally in Paris on Thursday night. (AP/Aurelien Morissard)

President Macron identified social media platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok as playing a "considerable role" in fuelling copycat acts of violence throughout the unrest taking place this week. A type of sympathy riot was said to have occurred in Sweden, where youth there of the same class emulated their French counterparts. Iran delighted in messaging France that it should take care not to overextend the violence it was committing against peaceful protesters.

"[A third of the individuals arrested were] young people, sometimes very young], it's the parents' responsibility [to keep their children at home."

"We sometimes have the feeling that some of them are living in the streets the video games that have intoxicated them."

President Emmanuel Macon

Armoured police vehicles rammed through charred remains of cars flipped and set ablaze in Nanterre, where the teen known as Nahel was shot to death last week. Pascal Prache, the Nanterre prosecutor explained that officers attempted to pull Nahel over because he appeared so young, driving a Mercedes with Polish licence plates in a bus lane, running a red light to avoid being stopped, before he got stuck in traffic.  

 

 Dozens of towns and cities across the country have experienced rioting, extending as far as Brussels, the capital of Belgium where several fires were brought under control and about a dozen rioters were detained. Groups of people hurled firecrackers at security forces in several of Paris neighborhoods. The 12th district police station was attacked, shops were looted along Rivoli street near the Louvre museum and at the forum des Halles, largest shopping mall in central Paris.

 

Bans were ordered on the sale and carrying of powerful fireworks. Sales of canisters of gasoline, acids and other chemicals and flammable liquids were also banned. And the end of the rioting is as yet nowhere in sight.

 

Firefighters extinguish burning vehicles during clashes between protesters and police after the death of Nahel M. in the Paris suburb of Nanterre in France on June 28, 2023. (Reuters/Stephanie Lecocq)

The French Population Revolts!

"[For the French] it was never about the age of retirement, but the balance between work and life."

"I don’t think in the history of the Fifth Republic, we have seen so much rage, so much hatred at our president."

"And I remember as a young student, I was in the streets of Paris in May ’68, and there was rejection of General de Gaulle but never that personal hatred."

"He [French President Emnanuel Macron] failed to sell his logic and rationality."

French political scientist Dominique Moïsi

French trade union officials take part in a demonstration in Paris on May 1, 2023, after the government pushed an unpopular pensions reform act through parliament.  Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images

Once the state grants a privilege it takes a courageous -- or foolhardy -- government to revoke that privilege. Once an entitlement is given, it is taken for granted, and it is the rare population in a wealthy country that can be persuaded that such privilege be surrendered, even if the state insists it cannot afford what it terms is an unneeded luxury for its working population, that the nation's treasury burdened by the cost will be unsustainable. The French are extremely dedicated to their privileges; long vacation time, generous sick leave -- and early retirement. 

 

Re-elected in 2022, President Macron will not face election again until 2027. The standoff of the outraged public against a government determined to claw back some of the benefits that are the  highest in the OECD has become bitter and protracted. On Monday, May 1st, traditional Labour Day in many countries, the scheduled protests had an enormous turnout. 

 

Prefacing the protest French police gave due warning of a high risk of violence. In the event, there were 291 detentions across the country, 90 in Paris alone. Over one hundred police officers were injured in the May Day protests, 19 in Paris; one policeman with serious burns from a Molotov cocktail.

Policemen look on during Monday's demonstrations, with fierce clashes between security officials and protesters leading to dozens of arrests.   Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images

 

French unions have joined the fray, leading to work stoppages, and uncollected garbage piling up on the streets. The French voting public see France’s Constitutional Council having raised the nation's retirement age from 62 to 64 as a hugely unacceptable attack on the French way of life, what they insist is the balance between private and public life. The enraged public simply will not have it. Until that time when tempers hot with rage, cool enough to finally accept what the government feels is inevitable. Or not.

French police faced off with hundreds of anarchists in Paris, clad in black, along with other cities during the union-led protests while hundreds of thousands of other workers staged their Labour Day rallies across Europe. In France, demonstrators pelted Paris police with Molotov cocktails and fireworks. Building materials were torched and bus stops smashed. 

Those protesters who were satisfied with marching peacefully, shouted at police responding with tear gas. Water cannon was used to extinguish a fire that blackened windows of nearby apartment buildings. When a fiery projectile struck one officer he was left badly injured. In Lyon and Nantes vehicles were set on fire, while business premises were trashed, leading to the arrest of close to 200 people. These are anything-but lawful protests against a duly elected democratic government.

 

Demonstrators at the May Day labour march, a day of mobilization against the French pension reform law, in Nantes on May 1, 2023.  Stephane Mahe, Reuters

"I invite all French men and women... to go out and catch the sun, to tan while pushing their baby strollers in the streets of Paris and the rest of the country."

"We are making sure 2023 goes down in the country's social history."

Francois Ruffin, member of parliament for the hard-left France Unbowed part

Dividing a Nation

"[In Israel at the present time] judges are appointed by the president [an otherwise-ceremonial executive position] on the advice f the judicial selection committee, composed of nine members including three Supreme Court justices and two representatives of the Israel Bar Association."

"Given that Supreme Court appointments require the consent of seven members the legal profession maintains a de facto veto over the makeup of the court, a situation unique to Israel."

"The proposed legislation would turn the committee into an 11-member panel, six of which would be controlled by the governing coalition. The bill was amended earlier this week to give the government control over the first two Supreme Court appointments that come up during its tenure, but require the support of an opposition member for a third and both a judicial representative and an opposition MK for a fourth"

Jesse Kline, National Post

 

"We are on the path toward a dangerous collision in Israeli society. We are in the midst of a crisis that endangers the basic unity between us. Such a crisis requires us all to act responsibly."

"When there's an opportunity to avoid civil war through dialogue I, as prime minister, am taking a time-out for dialogue."

"[I remain determined to pass a judicial reform but in the interim we opt for] an attempt to achieve broad consensus."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

           

Israel's fifteen-member Supreme Court is free to serve until age 70. Given the notoriously short term governments thanks to the electoral system of proportional representation, and the number of political parties representing every facet of Israeli society, governments have a tendency to instability. When elections take place, the party receiving the most votes of a fractured total vote count representing all the competing parties with their partisan interests, must seek a coalition in support of a shared government to gain sufficient seats to govern.

In the instance of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, with him as head having received the the most votes, alliances were made with right-wing parties, chief among them the ultra-orthodox. Prime Minister Netanyahu was minded in agreement with his government partners to make judicial reforms for the purpose of reasserting elected government authority in enacting legislation, often usurped by the unelected social-justice-focused Supreme Court. 

PM Netanyahu & Justice Minister Yariv Levin (Flash90)

The previous government and its coalition partners were focused on the left. In the last general election a majority of voters indicated they were intent on a change of government. Which was not hugely celebrated by the outgoing government whom the electorate had just 'fired' from office. They viewed the current government's move to amend the appointment capabilities of the judicial selection committee inconvenient to their perspective, in the process muting the authority taken by the Supreme Court to challenge the elected government.

Claiming that such a change would deleteriously affect the nature of Israel's democracy and neuter the Supreme Court, the opposition in the Knesset set about persuading their supporters among Israel's left wing that should this change take effect, their rights would be impacted and the country they love would be democracy-impaired, while the government in power would become increasingly autocratic. The protests began, with thousands and tens of thousands of Israelis taking to the streets in protest.

While Prime Minister Netanyahu sought repeatedly to reassure the protesters that Israel's democracy would remain unchanged, asking for patience, the opposition continued to incite people to remonstrate and the protests continued and grew with people expressing their vehement denial of the government to proceed with legislating the change it envisioned to deter the Supreme Court from its activist agenda, impairing government initiatives.

Before long, reservists in the Israel Defence Forces joined the protests, refusing to show up for duty. Then the pilots began their agitation, refusing as well to allow the government to proceed with its plans. Historically the Israeli Supreme Court played an important role in protecting the rights of Arab-Israeli citizens, of women, of non-Orthodox Jews and of the gay community. Now, thanks in part to the agitation caused by the Knesset opposition so recently tossed out of power, protesters believe this work of the Supreme Court would become imperiled.

 

There is also suspicion that forces outside the country have been involved in supporting and promoting the protests; specifically charges have been made that the U.S. State Department is involved. Infamously, during the Obama administration, in his earlier stint at government, Benjamin Netanyahu was treated with contempt and diplomatically insulted repeatedly. President Joe Biden, Barack Obama's successor in the Democratic Party, inherited all the anti-Netanyahu bias of his predecessor.

 

A Democratic-ruled United States is in no mind to see a right-wing Israeli government interacting with it. The situation in Israel has become seriously destabilizing. All the more so when members of its military, as professional an army as any of the best anywhere in the world, is facing mass insurrection. A nation surrounded by terrorist groups, funded as proxies by the Islamic Republic of Iran with its stated goal of destroying the Jewish state is not in a good place when it cannot function to its full professional capacity. 

 

Hamas and Hezbollah have both tested the waters of this sea-change in the professionalism of the IDF. Exploratory forays by each were apprehended but if the situation in Israel continues to deteriorate further, chaos will erupt, leaving the country vulnerable both to its own destabilizing hysteria with political/sectarian factions becoming ever more polarized, and from the exterior always prepared to take any advantage they can detect to pursue their agenda of violence.

With Monday's decision to explore further negotiations with the official Israeli opposition in an effort to cool down the fires of partisan outrage over a decision by the new government to bring the outsize influence of the Supreme Court into line with those of most other democratic nations of the world, the impasse must come to a mutually agreeable conclusion, one that will forestall further disintegration of civil discourse and continue imperilling the nation.

Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial overhaul plan outside the parliament in Jerusalem, March 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

"Waging War Against God"

"Last night [Dec. 12] the brutes of the Islamic Republic attacked #MajidrezaRahnavard’s grandmother’s residence, arresting his uncle and brother for a few hours. They took away all the banners and flowers for the ceremony and then forcefully evicted the family from their own home."

"The Islamic Republic held #MajidReza’s “trial” 13 days ago. 3 days after conviction and sentencing by the “court” of first instance, he was executed for “Waging war against God.” Please don’t be silent."

"They allowed #MajidRezaRahnavard’s mother to visit him, and didn’t speak of execution at all. She left smiling and hoping that her son would be released soon. This morning she arrived when her son’s murderers were burying his dead body alone."

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7-year-old Hasti Narouei was also from the Baluch community. This picture shows her wearing a traditional Baluchi dress. According to local activists, Hasti was hit on her head by a tear gas canister. She suffocated. HAALVSH

 

The public furor over the murder of a young Kurdish woman arrested by Iran's Morality Police for what they construed as a moral offence when she wore her hijab too loosely, revealing a few strands of hair, led to a courageous uprising in Iran's Kurdish geography that rapidly spread in moral indignation and numbers until every major city in the country hosted its own protests against the human rights abuses that the theocracy forced on its people in the name of the faith of Shi'ite Islam. 

In efforts to speedily put down the growing insurrection where enraged Iranians called for "Death to Khamenei" and the end of the Islamic Republic, the Basij, an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was  tasked to counter the protestors using any means useful to the purpose. Predictably, this has led to unrestrained brutality on the part of the Basij, motorcycle-driving 'police', not known for gentle remonstration. Close to 500 people have been killed while protesting so far, by the Iranian Security Police.

Two days ago Iran executed a second prisoner who was convicted for crimes they claim were committed during protests challenging the theocracy. He was publicly hung from a construction crane. A grim medieval punishment meant to give warning to all other protestors that this could be their fate as well. Majidreza Rahnavard's execution followed a month after he was charged of the fatal stabbing of two members of the Basij paramilitary.

 

Speedy 'trials' followed by the death penalty obviously considered an effective method of cooling the ardour of the public in its attempts to unseat the ruling theocracy. According to Iranian activists, a dozen people, perhaps more, have already been sentenced to death at closed-door hearings. 488 people have been killed since the demonstrations broke the complacency of the Ayatollahs in mid-September. Authorioties have placed another 18,200 people in detention.

The Mizan news agency under the country's judiciary influence, published images of Rahnavard hanging from the crane, hands and feet bound, black bag covering his head. In front of concrete and metal barriers to hold back a gathered crowd, masked security force members stood guard early Monday morning in the city of Mashhad, a Shi'ite holy city located east of Tehran.

The hanged protestor, according to the newspaper, had stabbed two security force members to death in Mashhad, wounding four others. State television aired footage of a man chasing another around a street corner then standing over him and stbbing him after he fell agains a motorbike. Another video showed the same man stabbing another in quick succession with the assailant finally fleeing. State TV iterates the man with the knife was Rahnavard.

The dead men were identified in the Mizan report as "student" Basij, the paramilitary volunteers deployed in major cities, attacking and detaining protesters who have been resisting and fighting back. After Majidreza Rahnavard's execution, state television showed him in the courtroom where he declares  his hatred for the Basijis following video clips he had seen on social media of the forces beating and killing protesters.

Activists speak of Mashhad of hosting strikes, of shops closed and demonstrations that began over the death in custody on September 15 of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Rahnavard was convicted in Mashhad's Revolutionary Court, tribunals that have been criticized internationally for disallowing those on trial to have their own lawyers, much less see the evidence against them.  Rahnavard was convicted of 'moharebeh', meaning "waging war against God". 

"[The public execution of a young man so soon after his arrest indicated] a significant escalation of the level of violence against protesters."

"Rahnavard was sentenced to death based on coerced confessions, after a grossly unfair process and a show trial.This crime must be met with serious consequences for the Islamic republic."

"[There is] a serious risk of mass execution of protesters [as thousands were in custody]."

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director, Iran Human Rights, Oslo, Norway

Iranians protest the death of Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the morality police last month, in Tehran, on October 27.  Stringer/Middle East Images/File