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

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

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

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

Ira Robinson, professor emeritus of Jewish Studies, Concordia University 

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

Tamar Hermann, senior fellow, Israel Democracy Institute 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

Csaba Nikolenyi 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

Ira Robinson 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

FIFA World Cup 2026™ Vancouver

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

"Carry naloxone and know how to use it."

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

FIFA Vancouver website : Know Before You Go 

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

 

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

 

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

 

  Friendly injection /The Telegraph

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

@FIFAWorldCup

@FIFAcom Brother Rachid, X

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

ASIO director general Mike Burgess  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Australian Security Intelligence Organization director general Mike Burgess 

 

 

"They were conducting some searching which is routine for us, and while searching, they found an inmate in possession of narcotics. The inmate became combative as soon as the officers tried to deal with the situation and basically, it turned into a fight."

"And in that fight the drugs went everywhere, basically went airborne, it's almost like throwing flour in the air and it's just floating in the air."

"It covered the officers physically and then they also inhaled it."

John Randle, president, Pacific region, Union of Canadian Correctional Officers  

Pacific Institution in Abbotsford, British Columbia is about 80 kilometres east of Vancouver. The institution has a capacity of 508 inmates. Correction Service of Canada's Regional Treatment Centre is part of the Pacific Institution; the first prison institution in North America to gain full accreditation as a hospital. And in British Columbia, provincial laws are such that drugs are permitted to be in the possession of hospitalized patients. Medical workers are prohibited from confiscating drugs from patients, in the province's 'experimental' treatment of those addicted to drugs.

 

On June 11, during the search of a cell at the Pacific Institution, five prison guards were taken to hospital after exposure to a cloud of toxic drugs thought to be fentanyl. An inmate attempted to destroy evidence by dispersing the contraband substance into the air. Three of the officers were taken to hospital by ambulance. One of the officers needed emergency chest compressions in the ambulance, and three others required treatment with the emergency medication naloxone to restore breathing. While two other officers who had arrived to give assistance were also treated as a precautionary measure. 

 

All three of the original officers involved in a routine search demonstrated overdosing symptoms of what the officers believed at the time to be fentanyl; one of them nearly passed out. The five prison officers had been exposed to a substance and treated at Abbotsford Regional Hospital, including the use of naloxone. Later laboratory tests determined that the substance was not fentanyl, but rather a mix of stimulants.  

"This is near the top end, or on the higher end, of worst-case scenarios."

"The abundance of dangerous drugs inside our institutions is putting officers' lives at risk."

"Our members were simply doing their jobs when they were exposed to one of the most lethal drugs on the streets."

"This should never happen." 

John Randle, UCCO Pacific region president 

As for the male inmate whose presence occasioned the search, he was being held in the reception unit, assigned to inmates while they are assessed to determine their security classification and prison placement. It can take weeks for the process to be completed. No word of what the inmate had been convicted of before his imprisonment. According to the union, the incident did not represent an isolated event; there is a crisis of illicit drugs in Canadian prisons, worsened by government cutbacks.

 

"At the very moment that illicit drugs are becoming more prevalent and violence is increasing, CSC (Correctional Service of Canada) is moving in the opposite direction", charged Frederick Lebeau, national president of the union, who also stated that prison intervention for drugs has been complicated by a CSC directive that interferes with disciplinary measures against inmates for institutional drug use in pursuit of a harm reduction model, set by the government of British Columbia.

 

CSC spokesperson Lucinda Fraser stated that the federal government had budgeted funding of $60.4 million over three years for the purpose of enhancing prison security technologies in support of the capacity to detect and disrupt drone-related delivery activities into the prison system by technological stealth. At the Mission Institution in B.C.’s Fraser Valley, RCMP discovered a package dropped onto the prison grounds disguised to look like a patch of loose grass. In the package, guards found 300 grams of contraband methamphetamine, razor blades, and an iPhone. 

"Last week, officers discovered another package of drugs at Mountain Institution in Agassiz, also in the Fraser Valley, but it’s happening so often that it’s no longer a surprise for guards who work there."

"It was worth probably almost $300,000. We’re hearing numbers like that — where the 300,000-plus-dollar packages, it’s now regular to have that reported."

"It’s not even a surprise to us anymore to hear that we’re seizing those kind of packages, which is crazy."

John Randle, UCCO Pacific region president 

The Pacific Institution federal penitentiary is seen in Abbotsford, B.C. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

 

"CSC is taking measures to address the concerns raised, particularly regarding contraband -- such as drugs -- being introduced into our institutions."

"To support our employees,we must do more than respond to incidents. We must invest in safer workplaces, modern tools, and strong mental health support services."

"We remain committed to ensuring that our staff have the tools and resources they need." 

Lucinda Fraser, spokesperson, Correctional Service of Canada

Montreal police take cover during the shooting. Photograph: Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press/AP

 

"Behind the uniform was an exceptional and a dedicated police officer, a loyal friend, a loving partner, and an extraordinary father. Today, he leaves behind a pregnant partner who was preparing to build a future with him, and a young child of only 3 years old who will grow up without his father."

"[...While no amount of money can fill this immense void [it hopes to] ease the burden now on [Benredouane's] family and offer some support during this heartbreaking ordeal."

"It is with immense sadness and heavy hearts that we launch this fundraising campaign to support the family of our friend, colleague, and brother-in-arms who tragically died in the line of duty."

Montreal Police Brotherhood, GoFundMe campaign 

Residents of the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood are mourning the death of 34-year-old Montreal police officer Mohamed Lamine Benredouane who was killed in a shooting Monday. A civilian and the suspect also died that day.  CBC

 

"Born in Lebanon, Michel eventually made his home in Israel before settling in Montreal. He remained deeply devoted to Israel throughout his life, maintaining close ties to his children and family there. Almost every year on the anniversary of his father's death he travelled to Israel."

"It is therefore especially heartbreaking that violence would ultimately claim Michel's own life here in Montreal. Having already borne the pain of losing loved ones to conflict overseas, he himself became the victim of senseless violence in the city he called home. His passing is a reminder that hatred, wherever it appears, knows no borders and spares no innocent."

Beryl P. Wajsman, president, Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal

Sixty-eight-year-old Michel Mizrahi is being remembered as a generous and committed community member, especially at his synagogue in a Montreal suburb. Mizrahi was killed Monday in the shooting that also took the life of a Montreal police officer.  CBC

 

Michel Mizrahi, 68, a Montreal businessman, was the lone civilian killed by a gunman who suddenly appeared Monday morning in a newly developed commercial hub in Cote-des-Neiges, central Montreal, an area known as a Jewish district. The shooter, dressed in military fatigues and carrying a long gun, opened fire, shooting in all directions, while the busy thoroughfare quickly relinquished its many passerby to a desperate rush to shelter from the gunfire. A 911 call to police saw a response within minutes, police squads on the scene swiftly become the target of the shooter.

 

As a passerby, Mr. Mizrahi was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Born in Lebanon, he was remembered by those who knew him well, as a kind and gentle man. A man who had suffered his own losses in the near past, when his father was killed in a missile attack during the Gulf War, in 1991, in Israel. Another staggering blow arrived on the news that one of his siblings' child had been slaughtered on October 7, 2023 at the Nova music festival during the Palestinian invasion comprised of thousands of terrorists, led by Hamas.

 

The police officer victimized by the gunman was 34 years of age, Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, a member of the Montreal Police Force since 2021. Not scheduled to work on Monday, he had decided to take an overtime shift. Benredouane went to school in the neighbourhood where he was killed. "You have someone that grew up in the neighbourhood and decided to serve his community in the way that he did, by ultimately losing his life. It was an act of heroism that I can't highlight further",  said Notre-Dame-deGrae borough Mayor Stephanie Valenzuela.

 

Montreal shooting leaves three dead including a police officer – video

Eyewitness videos posted to social media showed one police officer shot, as another, female officer crouched behind a waist-level concrete planter, exchanging fire with a man in camouflage. Another video showed the downed officer rolling on his back, then his stomach, in an effort to crawl away from the direct fire, where at least 30 shots were later documented. That officer in the end, died of his wounds; Mohamed Lamine Benredouane. And with him, Michel Mizrahi who had been standing beside the female officer who was also shot in the exchange, but survived her wounds in hospital.

 

The attack had taken place at the Hilton Hotel on the corner of De Courtrai and Trans Island avenues. On the arrival of police a lockdown was ordered, people warned to remain in their apartments, doors locked, nearby stores with shoppers the same. Police were uncertain whether there was a lone shooter, or another with him close by. The lockdown with people sheltering in place lasted in fear and confusion for hours before it was lifted with the assurance that one shooter only was involved, and he had been lethally shot by police at the scene.

 

Seth Hatfield, 25 years of age, from Alberta who had attended Lethbridge University, recognized as an outstanding student, who had set out to put into action a plan of vengeance against capitalists, the elite, and Zionists and Jews who were behind all manner of nefarious social constructs he set out in a lengthy manifesto which also extolled the virtues of communism and the evils of "high capitalist" societies, urging readers of his screed who shared his grievances to "Be unflinching, go forth, and KILL THEM ALL!"

 

The document this class-action terrorist left behind listed "valid potential class A targets", that included international real-estate brokerages, private equity firms, elite bankers and politicians, influential Zionists, private health and oil CEOs, plastic surgeons, cryptocurrency leaders, the headquarters of all corporations with ties to Zionism (IBM, Microsoft, Boeing) and "pick-up artists", as well as pornographers. Among other targets: "the headquarters of international pornography companies", and those who "actively promote pornography to the public".

 

Montreal police work the scene of a shooting, June 22, 2026. CHRISTOPHER KATSAROV / CHRISTOPHER KATSAROV/THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP

  

"This is gruesome."

"We don't yet know enough to suggest the motivation of the shooter, but I know that neighbourhood. I stayed in that hotel two weeks ago."

"That is a heavily Jewish neighbourhood of Montreal." 

Ben Mulroney, national radio host

 

"Police officers showed up at our entrance because, obviously out of precaution, they have to secure the entire perimeter. And they broke the front entrance of the store."

"They went through our entire store, they made everyone get down on the ground [and leave their baskets behind. Everyone in the store was ordered to go to the loading dock area in the back where there are no windows]."

"We gave them food. We gave them water. I mean, it's not a fun situation to be in, but you don't choose whether or not this situation happens to you."

Nicholas Erimos, spokesperson for Supermarche PA

 

"We preferred to enlarge all of the crime scenes to be sure that we had the situation completely controlled."

"The threat is controlled. So the community is safe."

SPVM Chief Fady Dagher

Monday's shooting left Montreal police officer Const. Mohamed Lamine Benredouane dead. Michel Mizrahi, a civilian, was also killed during the incident in the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)

 

At around 3:15 p.m. the "armed threat alert" issued for the Cote-des-Neiges neighbourhood in Montreal was lifted, in recognition of  the fact finally, that "the immediate threat to the public is no longer present". Police were uncertain whether or not one individual only was involved and there had been a police search for the possibility of a second suspect in the event that had locked down the neighbourhood, residents being told to remain indoors and lock up their premises, until further notice.

 

It began on Monday morning, when gunshots were heard in the direction of the Hilton Hotel. Soon after the frightening incident was concluded, videos began appearing on social media, showing a shootout unfolding outside the Supermarche PA close t  the Decarie Expressway and Rue Jean-Talon. "There seemed to be someone shooting in all directions", the manager of a paint store on Decarie Blvd, Jean-Pierre Maca, said after hearing gunshots. "It was frightening."

 

Michel  Mizrahi was a victim in the Montreal shooting on June 22, 2026. The Quebec coroner identified the alleged shooter as Seth Scott Hatfield of Lethbridge, Alberta  as the shooter. Photo courtesy The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

 

It is now known that the subsequent shootout between police and a long-gun-armed man on a rampage in that busy Montreal area -- largely known as a Jewish area of Montreal -- saw one responding police officer shot dead, as well as an Israeli rabbi who had been rushed to hospital for emergency surgery, but his severe injuries took his life, nonetheless. Another police officer was shot and badly wounded, but she will survive, to everyone's relief. While the third person to die on scene was the shooter himself.

 

It had taken little time after an emergency call went out to police, for police squads to swarm the area,  uncertain what it was they were dealing with, the extent of the attacks and how many might be involved. As they arrived, they cautioned people to conceal themselves for safety inside the supermarket, and keep the doors closed. The supermarket building is also home to condominiums, where bullets had struck some windows.

 

This image was obtained by Radio-Canada, showing the suspect who appears to be on the move and holding a weapon. (Name withheld)

 

One witness had heard over a dozen gunshots before he began recording the event where he watched a man shooting into ground-floor businesses close to the hotel. One video in circulation recorded multiple gunshots from a balcony in the condominium building across from the Supermarche PA on de Courtrai Ave, while other videos showed police entering the grocery store. Broken windows could be seen above the store where other businesses and condominiums were located in the building as well.

 

St.Joseph's Oratory nearby was closed amide the melee. For much of the afternoon, the main thoroughfare Decarie Expressway remained closed in both directions. Shortly after 11:30 am. near the intersection of Trans-Island Ave. and Courtrai Ave. one of the officers had been fatally shot. 

 

"My sincere condolences to the family friends and colleagues of the police officer killed on duty in Cote-des-Neiges", conveyed Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada. "My thoughts are with the families of those who have died, the injured, the police force, and all those affected by this  tragedy", wrote Quebec Premier Christine Frechette online. The horrendous event, a symptom of the nation's governments at all levels, failing to respond to the swelling tide of Jew-hate that have overcome the land, incited courtesy of Middle Eastern immigrants/refugees/migrants and their cultural/religious antipathies.

 

Montreal Police exit the scene of an active shooting situation with a stretcher in Montreal on Monday, June 22, 2026. Evan Buhler/Montreal Gazette

 

"Four years since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia still occupies roughly 20 percent of the country after gaining almost five thousand square kilometers of territory in 2025." 

"Russia continues to bombard Ukrainian cities, while Ukraine maintains drone attacks on Russian oil infrastructure and military sites."

"Since January 2022, Ukraine has received about $188 billion in aid from the United States and $197 billion from the European Union."

"Fighting and air strikes have inflicted nearly 56,000 civilian casualties, while 3.7 million people are internally displaced, and 5.9 million are registered as refugees. 10.8 million people need humanitarian assistance."

Global Conflict Tracker 

 

"In many respects, this war in Ukraine is the one that most closely resembles World War I."

"[In both wars it was the intensity of firepower that forced armies to turn to trenches]: You bury yourself to protect yourself."
Michel Goya, former French colonel, historian 

People visit the graves of their relatives, who were killed during Russia's attack on Ukraine, as a large-scale light installation illuminates the Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine, on Feb. 23, 2026, marking the fourth anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion. (Roman Baluk/Reuters)

 

The heavy casualty counts and brutal infantry assaults of the ongoing war in Ukraine strikes some war historian as comparable to conflict conditions experienced during World War I. By June 11, the war in Ukraine -- Vladimir Putin's 'special military operation' -- saw a point in time where it has been prolonged for four years and three months, its duration outlasting World War I's epic conflict. 

 

Mr. Putin's expectation that his large operational full-on incursion of February 2022 would swiftly see Ukraine surrendering, his goal accomplished in a mere matter of months if not weeks. The Ukrainian counter offensive which saw Russia effectively opposed and the conflict became a war of attrition, it would have seemed inconceivable to any strategists, much less servicemen fighting for their lives on either side of the hostilities that the war would drag on for so many weeks, months and years. 

 

Yet the war has a life of its own, reflecting the level of determination on both sides; Moscow's to achieve its objective; Kyiv to sustain its sovereign rights and push its aggressor entirely out of its geography, including from Crimea and Donetsk, both of which fell to Russia in 2014. 

 

Ukrainian servicemen of the 33rd separate assault regiment participate in a training at an undisclosed location in Zaporizhzhia region on Jan. 30, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP via Getty Images

 

Recent polls indicate that almost fifty percent of Ukrainians feel the war will not end before 2027. Among Ukrainians many are prepared to argue that the war's beginning in reality was 2014 when Russian troops with the assistance of Russian-Ukrainian rebels swept Crimea to seize it for Greater Russia, complementing Vladimir Putin's yearning for the days of firm control of eastern Europe during the Soviet Union, and he a modern-day Czar. 

 

According to Ukrainian historian Yaroslav Hrytsak, the conflict that Russia imposed upon Ukraine will rank in historical accounts as among the most consequential in modern European history. Alluding to both wars, having altered geopolitics in Europe through the reshaping of military alliances, driving a feverish defense buildup through NATO, unseen since the end of the Cold War. 

 

The war in Ukraine has now exceeded the first world war in duration. And while the comparison between these two conflicts is imperfect, it is becoming difficult to ignore.

 

 A century earlier, point out military analysts, it was the new technologies of warplanes and tanks that drove the fighting antagonists, while today advances in unmanned aerial war machines have taken centre stage in an increasingly brutal onslaught against humans more attuned to conventional warfare. As in 1914, so too in 2024, where a frozen front line maintains a status quo and where neither attacker nor defender can claim the upper hand. 

 

Historians see World War I trench warfare repeated in the trenches and bunkers that Ukrainian soldiers have been using where assaults with artillery barrages followed by storming enemy trenches by infantry squads were the elemental formulaic schemes brought to play in the early years of the current war, echoing what had been current a hundred years earlier. 

 

Once drones were brought into play, trench-like networks became outdated as unsafe, where drones monitored the battlefield, striking with precision greater than that of artillery shells. Survival now depends on smaller, more discreet and deeper trenches to outfox the drones; shelters now house a handful of soldiers in dugouts. As for the fearsome tanks of WWI, they have become targets for drones, and have been largely retired. 

 

According to Admiral Pierre Vandier, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation in NATO, the Ukrainian front has been lethalized by drones. And the strategy that Ukraine relies upon to use drones to strike deep into Russia to hit its oil assets, strikes at its very economy which funds Putin's special military operation. The battlefield has been flooded with small attack drones of Ukrainian design and forward technology. "This is World War I, but with drones", said historian Yaroslav Hrytsak.