"The scope of the Permanent Joint Board on Defence's [PJBD] work also encompasses policy, operations, financial, logistics and other aspects of Canada-U.S. defence relations."

"Bilateral defence recommendations are forwarded to respective Heads of Government or appropriate officials for consideration."

Permanent Joint Board on Defence 

The Pentagon has announced it has paused its participation in a joint Canada-U.S. defence board that's been around since the 1940s, accusing Canada of not making enough progress on its commitments. Canada says it's always ready for constructive discussion on how to strengthen mutual security. CBC

 

"[The PJBD] was created at a time when the future of Britain's place in the world was uncertain, and from the real recognition and realization by both [President Franklin D.] Roosevelt and [Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie] King that the Canadians and Americans needed to work together and formalize their relationship."

"Throughout the war [Second World War] this was a really important body for co-ordinating all sorts of aspects of wartime production, but especially defence issues, and why this maters so much for Canada is that it provided a formal body through which American requests needed to be made and then to be taken from the Canadian representatives on that board back to the government in Ottawa."

Prof.Timothy Sayle, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto 

 

"Canada and the U.S. have a long history of robust cooperation and collaboration on continental defence."

"Canada will work with trusted partners who are ready to work with us, always remaining ready to come to the table for constructive discussions about the best ways to strengthen mutual defence and security."

Canadian Defence Minister David McGuinty 

 

 

It came as a surprise, a shocking surprise, a wake-up call when the United States declared its intention to 'pause' the U.S.-Canada Permanent Joint Board on Defence "to reassess how this forum benefits shared North American defence". As the senior advisory body on continental defence the PJBD is a formalized historical mutual assurance pact signed by both countries that each must be fully involved in continental defence in lock-step with one another.

 

Set up to meet twice annually, meeting locations alternating between both countries, co-chaired by a Canadian and an American civilian, with both military and civilian representatives of the U.S. Defense and State Departments, Canada's Department of National Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade among others, this pact has represented the importance of military cooperation in a shared trust by neighbours in defence of their shared geography. 

 

Established in 1940, the PJBD came out of the Ogdensburg Agreement during the Second World War. Elbridge Colby, as the undersecretary of American defence for policy stated that: "A strong Canada that prioritizes hard power over rhetoric benefits us all. Unfortunately, Canada has failed to make credible progress on its defense commitments. We can no longer avoid the gaps between rhetoric and reality. Real powers must sustain our rhetoric with shared defense and security responsibilities."

 

There is little question but that this decision is linked to the Davos speech by Prime Minister Mark Carney months ago when he spoke of the place of 'middle powers' in the world, claiming that "If we're not at the table, we're on the menu". The import of which was an obvious critique of the Trump administration's incendiary decision-making and musings which have roiled world markets and left traditional U.S. allies confused over the seeming irrationality of many of Mr. Trump's declarations. Tariffs and the war in Ukraine have left a decidedly unfavourable impression in the minds of global leaders.  

"[There were two aspects to the board's annual or semi-annual discussions: firstly did the two sides view the world the same way, and if they didn't what was to be done]. That was mostly congenial and there was not that much asked of us."

"[Secondly, there was a] to-do [list of North American issues, centred around the North American Aerospace Defence Command [NORAD]."

"We were always doing a tap-dance around two percent [NATO's two percent of GDP defence spending benchmark]. But on a military-to-military basis, we still got a lot done."

"They realized they couldn't defend the Arctic without involving Canada." 

"The military rupture is just following the political rupture."

"NORAD will be next on the chopping block. And there is no question that will undermine Canada's security. It's dangerous politics."

Former Liberal MP John McKay, Canadian chair of the PJBD, 2016-2024 

Immediately following the end of World War II, the PJBD served as a strategic-level board tasked with ongoing considerations of land, sea, and air space security. Personnel and defence materiel relating to the northern half of the Western Hemisphere was its focal point, including the Distant Early Warning Line, the North American Air Defence command (Aerospace) in 1958, the underwater acoustic surveillance system and the North American Air Defence Modernization program (NORAD) in 1985. 

 

Co-chaired by MP John McKay and the U.S.'s Rebecca Zimmerman, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, the November 2024 242nd PJBD meeting in Ottawa discussed topics such as NORAD modernization implementation, Arctic security, climate change, defence, co-operation in the Indo-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean along with critical minerals. There followed an 18-month gap with no meetings, coinciding with President Donald Trump's second presidential term.  

 

U.S. Undersecretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby waits for the start of a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Feb. 12. Colby announced Monday that the Pentagon is 'pausing' participation in the Permanent Joint Board on Defence, an advisory body on North American continental defence that was established in 1940. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/The Associated Press)

 

"The person who made the statement here is not Donald Trump, not somebody just shooting off the handle, not someone who is uninformed."

"this is a person who is not only highly educated but also has focused on the details of defence spending."

"What Eldridge Colby [is] saying is: 'This is a reality check, Canada. You have a prime minister who travels all over the world, makes these grand promises, but promises are not policy."

"Promises are not impressing Russia, they're not impressing China."

"Canada's not bringing enough to the table, not just in order to satisfy the United States, we are not bringing enough to the table in terms of our defence capacity."

Aurel Braun, professor of international relations and political science, University of Toronto 

"As usual... there was no timetable, no enforcement mechanism, and no concrete political roadmap. Once again, reform appeared to function more as a slogan aimed at reassuring Western governments than as a serious political process."

"Would elections solve the problem? Many Western officials continue insisting that elections are the answer to the Palestinian crisis. Recent Palestinian history, however, suggests otherwise. The last parliamentary elections, held in 2006, brought Hamas to power. One year later, Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip after executing opponents, throwing Fatah rivals off rooftops, and establishing an Islamist dictatorship that remains in place to this day."

"In several polls, Hamas leaders have enjoyed greater popularity than Abbas and Fatah."

"[T]he Palestinian national movement historically presented itself as a collective "liberation struggle" rather than a family-based political enterprise. The rise of Yasser Abbas, therefore, symbolizes for many Palestinians not renewal, but the deepening personal entrenchment of power."

"The Palestinian Authority continues every year to pay hundreds of millions of dollars, now disguised as "social welfare," to Palestinians and their families involved in terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.

The Fatah election of Barghouti and Zubeidi sends a dangerous message: that inside Fatah, terrorism and "armed struggle" continue to confer political legitimacy."

"The Palestinian movement, rather than distancing itself from violence, continues to celebrate and glorify individuals associated with attacks against Israeli civilians. It is a reality that should finally put a stop to all idiotic Western claims that Fatah represents a "moderate" alternative to Hamas."

Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute

The Palestinian Authority still pays monthly stipends to Palestinians imprisoned in Israel for their involvement in terror attacks. Mahmoud Abbas frequently refers to these prisoners as national heroes who made significant sacrifices for the Palestinian cause. "[I]f we have only a single penny left," he said in February 2025, "it will go to the prisoners and the martyrs. I will not allow a reduction in our commitments to them." (Image source: MEMRI)

 

Mark Carney, 'X'

May 7, 2026

Ottawa, Ontario

Today, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, spoke with the President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas.

The Prime Minister expressed Canada’s deep concern over the continued humanitarian crisis in Gaza and reaffirmed its opposition to Israeli settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank. He emphasised that unilateral actions undermine prospects for a lasting peace.

Prime Minister Carney underscored Canada’s unwavering support for a negotiated two-state solution – an independent, viable, and sovereign Palestinian state living side by side with the State of Israel in peace and security.

The Prime Minister welcomed the measures taken by the Palestinian Authority to strengthen accountability, governance, and democratic institutions, in which Hamas can play no part. He conveyed Canada’s support and the importance of further reforms.

Canada will continue to promote peace and stability in the region, and work closely with partners toward this goal. The two leaders will remain in contact.

Prime Minister of Canada 

 

Makes democratic sense, does it not, for the Canadian prime minister to express his deep admiration for the president of the Palestinian Authority for having taken measures to "strengthen accountability, governance and democratic institutions". This, of an autocrat who having been elected to head the PA 21 years ago has yet to call  another election. That's some four-year term indeed... As for having implemented democratic reforms on the part of Mahmoud Abbas, none come to mind. Nor does the record show any. As for the matter of the 'two-state solution', the PA adamantly refuses to even recognize Israel.

 

Canada's Privy Council Office says that: "The Palestinian Authority continues to advance elements of a UN-supported reform agenda focused on social protection, education-sector adjustments and improvements to transparency and service delivery". On the social protection side, there is evidence of Palestinian journalists and just ordinary Palestinians inciting against the continued presidency of the 83-year-old Abbas facing arrest and imprisonment. Oh, and school curricula in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has undergone no refreshing change; Palestinian children from toddlers to teens are still inculcated with Jew-hate and encouraged to envision a future as 'martyrs'.

 

A scene from an UNRWA summer camp play

 

As for social welfare, it has been demonstrated time and again that the PA has an ongoing, proud record of paying lifetime financial support to terrorists who have killed Israelis, naming streets and public buildings in their honour. "Pay for slay" rewards those Palestinians with a lifetime salary while they're imprisoned, or if they've died as a vaunted martyr, to their families go those financial benefits. Although Mahmoud Abbas has informed the European Union which condemned the practise of paying terrorists, that he would no longer do so, those payments continue to this day. And the West, through its generosity to the PA, pays for that reward program.

 

Mark Carney's May 7 congratulatory telephone conversation with Mahmoud Abbas saw publication in the PA's WAFA news agency, in an article magnifying and congratulating the Canadian prime minister for his support for the Palestinians, highlighting "the Canadian government's condemnation of Israeli colonial settlement activities in the Palestinian territory, describing them as illegal and illegitimate". The Liberal Mark Carney has been fulsome in his criticism of Israel, transgressing the human rights of Palestinians.

 

Hezbollah, Council on Foreign Relations

Oh, and not just Palestinians, since Mr. Carney spoke also to the president of Lebanon where he condemned Israel and its "illegal invasion" of southern Lebanon. This, to the president of a country which has been strangulated by a Shiite terrorist group whose focal agenda is the destruction of Israel, in tandem with the Islamic Republic of Iran, its sponsor. That southern Lebanon has become the military den of Hezbollah as it lobs rockets continuously into northern Israel, threatening the lives of Israeli citizens is a bit of an inconvenience that doesn't bother Mr. Carney one whit, however. 

 

 

"I found out recently that I was deceived by social activists in an elaborate scheme dating back to January. A production group with what I now know has a fake name and fake identities gave me a friendly interview about my book A Day with Sir John A, and about Sir John A. Macdonald, back in February. They connected me with a fake company called Heritage Figures Canada with a fake website and 'hired' me to perform consulting work for them. We had what I now know were fake meetings, fake documents, fake commercial shoot, fake prototype of a Sir John A. collectible. Then in a second filmed interview last week, they turned on me, and it was revealed to have all been a setup in order to demonize Sir John A. and smear me."

It turns out this is a taxpayer-funded CBC and [Aboriginal Peoples Television Network] project."

Conservative Party of B.C. staffer, Lindsay Shepherd

 

"These pranks have their place, to challenge the powerful, but the CBC is going after those of us who are trying to speak the truth in the face of institutional censorship."

"Public funds should not be spent to silence dissidents and prevent a reckoning about the Kamloops '215' deception that has been promoted by universities and the media for five years."

"I have nothing to hide. I'm an honest academic who is trying to understand Aboriginal non-Aboriginal relations." 

Mount Royal University (fired) Professor Frances Widdowson

Questions are being asked about taxpayer-funded activism and media ethics after former Mount Royal University professor Dr. Frances Widdowson and author Lindsay Shepherd alleged they were specifically targeted in an elaborate prank operation.  Image generated by ChatGPT AI

 

Outspoken critics of unverified claims of 215 Indigenous children's bodies 'discovered' by ground-penetrating radar on the property of a Kamloops, B.C. Indian Residential School have found themselves isolated, unemployed, shunned and now targets of the nation's public broadcaster in league with an Indigenous media entertainment group. Punishment for denying the received wisdom of Canada having committed a 'genocide' against First Nations; colonialists versus indigenous peoples.

 

Lindsay Shepherd, in defense of Canada's first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, recently published a children's book to set the record straight; that Sir John A. was a man to be respected as far as the Indigenous population was concerned; while being a man of his times, he was also an authority figure who cared for the future of Canada's aboriginal people, hoping to bring them into mainstream society, to share in all the opportunities available to those with good educations who could participate at all levels of society in equal opportunities to flourish.

 

Despite which, the man who, during his time led Canada to a prosperous future, has been maligned as a 'white imperialist' colonialist, one of the architects of the Indian Residential School system, administered for the most part by the Catholic Church, for the purpose of giving Indian children a sound education that would lead to their integration into general society with all the opportunities for social and economic advancement to their credit. An aura of raging rejection saw his name taken off schools, his memorial statuary defaced and then toppled.

 

Despite denials from the CBC that there was no underhanded purpose in their participation in a scheme to humiliate and falsely accuse the two women of right-wing bias in their denials of the truthfulness of the two issues -- that of the unproven claims of Indigenous children being buried in unmarked graves, and the connection to Canada's first prime minister -- Lindsay Shepherd had an email exchange with the CBC's director of public relations, Katherine Wolfgang who wrote "(the CBC) can confirm that this project is in early production for CBC entertainment and (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network/APTN)".

 

Those involved in this 'prank' evidently knew Shepherd's home address, her children's names, and her bank account information...despite privacy laws that appeared to be no concern of the CBC. Frances Widdowson was flown from Calgary to Vancouver for a supposed documentary project to be filmed, where a fake production company, Forge Media, paid for her flights and hotel room, handing her a $1,000 honorarium. During a filmed studio interview, two people entered the set to dump boxes of children's shoes on a table.

 

A memorial is seen outside a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., on June 13, 2021. In May that year, the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation shared that preliminary findings from a ground-penetrating radar survey found some 200 potential unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)

 

This was to represent the popularized piles of children's shoes that appeared in various places as public memorials to the "murdered" aboriginal children whose graves were illusional; where despite funding given to investigate fully and find evidence to support the allegations, no such action was ever taken. Believe, and respect the claims of murdered children or be labelled racist and worse; condoning the deaths of innocent children. This was the point at which Professor Widdowson realized the extent of the 'prank' she had been subjected to; brought to the studio under false pretences.

 

Her reaction was to livestream her experience. "I don't quite understand what you're going to do with it ... I don't understand what the context is. What is the program it is going to be released on"? she asked "culture jammer" Igor Vamos in a videoed interview. When she revealed that she was livestreaming the conversation, suddenly the studio lights were shut off, and as she was being walked out of the studio she continued to film.  

"Northland Tales [working title] is an Indigenous-led unscripted, half-hour comedy series in early production for CBC Entertainment and APTN. For clarity, CBC News and APTN News have no involvement in this production or prior knowledge of it. The project was first pitched at the Indigenous Screen Summit -- part of the Banff World Media Festival in 2024."

"CBC Entertainment joined APTN as a partner shortly thereafter. Social experiments and satirical prank shows are a long-established television format used by broadcasters and streamers around the world, including many public broadcasters. In this case, the Indigenous creators are using the format for Northland Tales. A form of comedy is being deployed to increase better understanding of historical injustices against Indigenous peoples and support truth and reconciliation in Canada."

"It is important for us in the execution that this entertainment series does not negatively impact our news brand. As the show is still in production, it's premature for us to comment on the creative."

Head of Public Affairs, Chuck Thompson, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) 

The CBC is being criticized for its role in an upcoming comedy series that conducted prank interviews with two women who have drawn controversy for their views on Canada's residential schools. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

"The Government of Canada does not tolerate any misuse or diversion of international assistance. Canada exercises enhanced due diligence for international assistance funding through established funding agreements, ongoing oversight and a systematic screening process."

"[There are] established mechanisms [through which Canada and other donors] ensure that relief and reconstruction efforts are not diverted and are used for intended purposes.:

"Global Affairs Canada officials in the region closely monitor programming activities to ensure compliance [with Canadian anti-terrorism legislation]."

"Because delivering humanitarian assistance is complex and often involved partners working in unstable and high-risk environments [every humanitarian organization Ottawa partners with] must have strong safeguards in place and report suspected misuse immediately."

"Canada has a no-contact policy with Hamas, as a listed terrorist entity."

Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Alexandre Fournier 

Excerpts and translations from leaked Hamas documents  NGO Monitor

 

Internal Hamas documents seized by the Israel Defense Forces during its Gaza counteroffensive render details on how it was that the terrorist group has infiltrated and exploited international NGOs in their humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip. Electronic scans of the documents in Arabic along with English translations by NGO Monitor, a non-profit based in Jerusalem that focuses on holding non-governmental organizations accountable with a particular view on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been extremely revealing. 

 

NGO Monitor

It would seem that the Canadian government donated over $300,000 to a proposed project through the U.S.-based Catholic Relief Services, implemented by the Ajyal Association for Creativity and Development, an NGO based in Gaza. According to the Hamas documents, the project's beneficiaries were selected from a Hamas-operated Ministry of Social Development list, which includes security screenings conducted by Hamas on all the Ajyal staff operating on the project.

 

For the project, 37 'team members' were involved, including one listed as aligned with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, like Hamas itself, a listed terrorist organization in Canada. Canadian government records reveal that the Catholic Relief Services was the recipient of grants close to $6.5 million  in 2014, about $10 million in 2018, and some $210,000 in 2020, courtesy of Global Affairs Canada.

 

Another document dated December 14, 2022 identifies the AISHA Association for Woman and Child Protection, an NGO based in Gaza, having received over $1 million between 2018 and 2019 from the Government of Canada, despite that AISHA was listed as 'co-operating with the Hamas Ministry of Interior and National Security'. 

 

Dozens of workers from a number of NGOs were listed in the Hamas memos secured by the IDF, among them individuals whom Hamas identifies as its operatives. Among them an international emergency medical services NGO which employed a Hamas captain. The medical aid group based in Britain had an employee "affiliated with Hamas" who "works" with the Al-Qassam Brigades; the so-called military arm of Hamas. Also named as a Hamas member in the documents was the director of an Australian charity.

 

A 53-page report released by NGO Monitor in December titled "Puppet Regime: Hamas' Coercive Grip on Aid and NGO Operations in Gaza", reference the revealed Hamas documents, describing how Hamas targeted numerous NGOs, among them some funded by the government of Canada -- to be infiltrated for the purpose of controlling and maintaining  tabs on them. Embedding its operatives into the NGOs through the use of 'guarantors', Hamas handpicked Gazans to serve as point-persons with the charities, required to hold senior roles at the organizations.

Excerpts and translations from leaked Hamas documents  NGO Monitor

 

A December 14, 2022 document stated that those individuals "can be exploited for security purposes, in order to infiltrate associations", originating from the Hamas Ministry of Interior and National Security. Also listed was a female guarantor listed as "affiliated with Hamas", as a lecturer at the University of Palestine, married to a Hamas sergeant. At the Canadian-funded Handicap International/Humanity & Inclusion, "affiliated with the Hamas movement", according to the documents in the hands of the IDF. Handicap International received over $28 million in grants from Ottawa between 2019 and 2024, according to government records.   

"NGO Monitor's research underscores the danger of oversight failures for humanitarian aid projects involving hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds."

"As the evidence demonstrates these often become pipelines for the diversion of Canadian money by heinous terrorist groups and their affiliates."

"[The documents captured by the IDF in Gaza] clearly delineate the process by which Hamas systematically diverts aid from international NGOs, and how personnel from these organizations were aware of, and often co-operated with, this manipulation."

"[The evidence is] now too obvious to ignore; [the] blind approach to aid in areas controlled by tyrants and terrorist regimes [needs to change. Canada, in addition to other aid-giving countries, must] implement changes in order to ensure that stolen aid does not continue propping up Hamas in Gaza."

Gerald Steinberg, president, NGO Monitor 

Hamas terrorists secure an area in a square before handing over four Israeli hostages to a Red Cross team in Gaza City on January 25, 2025. Photo by OMAR AL-QATTAA /AFP via Getty Images

"The children are smiling now, they are having fun, they love their school."

"The biggest challenge facing the [school service centre] will be maintaining these new management practices, especially since none of the members of the management team in place in October 2024 will still be in office as of January 2026."

"Without rigorous educational management, the situation of non-compliance with curriculum could repeat itself at Bedford school or in other establishments."

Quebec Ministry of Education report

École Bedford was placed under watch in October 2024 after an investigation by Quebec's Ministry of Education found that a group of 11 teachers had created a climate of intimidation and weren't applying the curriculum correctly. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)

 

 A "climate of fear and intimidation" was perpetrated in a Quebec elementary school when teachers of North African descent decided to expose students to Islamic religious concepts when they took to imposing strict rules on the students under their tutelage. Eleven of the school's teachers were identified as representing the cabal behind the the situation at Bedford Elementary School located in Cote-des-Neighes, a Montreal borough.

 

Those eleven teaching staff had their teaching licenses suspended in 2024 while they were still being paid their teaching salary. More latterly the licenses were revoked. In May of 2023, radio journalist Valerie Lebeuf revealed the unorthodox teaching situation on her radio show. She had investigated the rumoured issue, speaking with eight individuals who had attended the school, eager to denounce the situation, but yet fearful of speaking of it in a public venue. 

 

Tensions rose between Muslim and non-Muslim school staff. Ms.Lebeuf revealed that harsh teaching methodology was implemented that had the effect of creating a toxic learning environment when a "dominant clan" of North African teachers had imposed strict rules on students, and brooked no opposition, employing intimidation methods if those of opposing views attempted to intervene. 

 

Some of the Muslim teaching staff attended a local mosque. According to a subsequent report, the mosque wielded a "strong influence" on those of the school's staff that attended services there. Mosque representatives had at a point visited the school administration for the purpose of convincing them of the importance of the school maintaining good relations with Muslim families whose children attended the school.

 

The nature of the teaching cabal's intimidation was such as to have included psychological and physical abuse; pushing, shouting, bullying of students. Bernard Drainville, at the time the province's education minister, spoke of a horrifying environment where the teachers would not recognize the reality among the children of autism, and nor would they agree to teach that part of the curriculum where science or sexual education was involved. 

 

When the situation was recognized, reported and warranted the intervention of the Quebec Education Ministry, an investigation was launched, resulting in an 89-page report confirming the allegations. The report reflected 38 cases in which teachers refused to teach the provincial curriculum and of 30 teachers investigated, ten only were found to have planned lessons in a manner that respected provincial standards. 

 

For the last 20 years, one issue has kept resurfacing in Quebec politics. It’s not language or separatism, but the relationship between Quebec society and religion — often one religion in particular. CBC

 

 Several witnesses reported that mosque members intervened to make certain that the school followed a "cultural model" in line with what the community had expectations of. Other school staff were said to have witnessed religious practices taking place in the school; teachers performing religious rituals in bathrooms and praying in empty classrooms.

 

Those students who failed to do their homework could be asked to stand against a wall, or were belittled before their classmates, making for an environment sufficiently intense to persuade students they would do well to work in  fearful silence rather than draw the attention of their teachers, and risk subsequent punishment. Physical punishment included having ears pulled, shirt sleeves tugged briskly, and even students shoved on the floor.

 

Courses such as those revolving around sex education, science and religion were either barely taught or entirely neglected. Young female students were informed soccer was "reserved for the boys", and they had no business in the game. Then-premier Francois Legault in 2024 described the school environment as a group of teachers focused on an effort to "introduce Islamic religious concepts" at the school. 

"Religion has no business in our schools."

"What happened in Bedford [elementary school] was terrible on so many levels ... we don't want these teachers around our children." 

Liberal MNA Michelle Setlakwe  

Imagine sending your child to school only to find them caught in a political firestorm. That’s the reality for families at Bedford Elementary in Montreal, where an apparent investigation into a toxic school environment has spiraled into a debate over religion and secularism. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 

"Atrocities do not begin with the machinery of killing."

"They begin with a failure to believe victims. In the months following October 7, that failure has repeated itself with alarming speed: the silencing of testimony, the politicization of sexual violence, the grotesque inversion in which perpetrators are valourized and survivors shamed into silence."

"As Elie Wiesel taught us, silence in the face of evil is complicity with evil itself." 

Irwin Cotler, human rights activist, former Canadian attorney-general 

 

"There are moments in history that rupture the moral order by which societies define themselves."

"Moments that do more than shatter lives; they unsettle the very boundaries by which human conduct is understood."

"October 7, 2023 was such a moment."

Cochav Elkayam Levy, chairman/founder The Civil Commission 

 

"What emerges is not a collection of isolated incidents, but a coherent and repeated pattern of violence, carried out across multiple locations and phases, from the initial attacks, through abduction and transfer, to prolonged captivity and deliberate digital circulation of abuse." 

"Perpetrators recorded, livestreamed and distributed acts of abuse and torture through social media and victims' own digital accounts." 

"In many cases, families first learned of the fate of their loved ones through images and videos sent by perpetrators."

Silenced No More -- October 7, 2023 Report

Jehad Alshrafi  2024   AP

 

 A report on the thorough investigation of the horrific events of 7 October 2023 has now been released; its contents seek to 'prove' to an disbelieving world that the most unbelievably barbaric, planned sadistic violence took place in southern Israel on that fateful day, violence of a nature so savagely inhumane that it becomes difficult to comprehend how any but the most profanely psychopathic of sub-humans could possibly have taken part in the mass demonstration of hell-on-Earth. And even though many of the perpetrators used body cams to videotape the atrocities that they and others were gleefully engaged in while they committed gruesome acts of bestiality, soon afterward to make them publicly available on social media, the world turned away.

 

Women's groups gave short shrift to the reality of the mass atrocity. The United Nations special Human Rights commission eventually expressed its dismay at Israel's response in Gaza to the October 7 Palestinian terrorist invasion. Western media shifted to questioning the commission of such atrocities in lock-step with Muslim groups denying any such event had taken place where children and women and men were systematically raped and tortured, maimed and murdered. The world's indifference and preference to cite Palestinian propaganda of victimhood and oppression justifying violence left Jews stunned and abandoned.

 

Over 430 interviews were conducted by the commission where survivors, witnesses, returned hostages and family members told of their experiences. A vast total of 10,000 photographs and video segment of the attack were reviewed. Recurring patterns of sexual abuse were identified in the report to establish that "The repetitions of these patterns demonstrates that their crimes were not isolated acts of brutality but formed part of a broader operational method used during the attack and its aftermath". 

 

The site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, as Israel marked the annual Memorial Day, near Kibbutz Reim in southern Israel, April 21. (Ohad Zwigenberg/The Associated Press)

 

The 300-page report details rape, gang rape, sexual torture, intentional burning and mutilation, deliberate shots to the head, face, and genital area; killing and execution following or in conjunction with sexual and gender-based violence; post-mortem sexual abuse, humiliation, and desecration of bodies; forced nudity and exposure; handcuffing, binding, and restraint; public display and parading of women and children and the abduction of mothers and children; filming and digital dissemination of sexual and gender-based violence, including the use of social media to document, glorify and amplify the atrocities; threats of forced marriage and as well rape and other forms of sexual violence against boys and men. 

 

A new word made its presence in the report, a word whose meaning becomes clear in consideration of acts geared to destroying the family unit through torture and other associated means where the death of a grandmother appeared on her Facebook account, a picture of a murdered son was sent to his mother, and where relatives were forced under threat of death to sexually abuse one another. The appalling lack of conscience, of humanity in carrying out and delighting in these atrocities speaks volumes of the level of hatred consuming human souls, of people who felt triumphant and proud of their inhumanity, eager to demonstrate proof of their involvement in despicably degraded acts of vicious malice.

 

It took 1,800 hours of visual material where researchers found evidence of sexual torture and mutilation, executions linked to sexual violence, gang rape, and sexual assaults taking place in the presence of family members. From the initial pride of nightmarish acts of inhumanity, to turning around to claim that these horribly morbid acts were perpetrated by Israelis on Palestinians typifies Palestinian propaganda-craft so welcome to some Western news sources. And so, just as the Silenced No More report reached the public so too did a hideous 'opinion piece' see publication in The New York Times, alleging rapes of Palestinian prisoners by their Israeli captors. 

 

Moral shame is a civilizational virtue that has escaped the Palestinians and their supporters, along with much of Western legacy media, along with academic institutions and trade unions which allow their once-respected institutions to be turned into frenzied anti-Israel hotspots with accusations of 'genocide' against the world's favourite 'victims' of Israeli 'occupation' and genocidal intentions.

 

An Israeli soldier patrols one of the sites of the October 7 attacks.

Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

 

In one particularly harrowing example, the report details three separate incidents of rape at the site of the Nova Music Festival near the Gaza perimeter, citing a survivor who was hiding in the immediate vicinity of the attack.

“I heard one rape where they were passing her around. She was probably injured, judging by her screams—screams you have never heard anywhere,” the survivor is quoted as saying. Their account is corroborated by another survivor, according to the report, who also spoke about hearing the rapes, as well as others who later saw the bodies of the victims, their clothes torn, legs spread and intimate areas mutilated.

At least six other incidents of people directly witnessing rapes and gang rapes are outlined in the report, with all of the witnesses describing victims being shot dead. In one case, a witness said she saw a young woman being raped by several men, mutilated and shot dead.

CNN Report Review 

Homes looted and destroyed during the October 7 Hamas attacks against Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel.   Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

 

"We cannot prevent future atrocities if we ignore, deny, question, or look away from them."

"Nor can we begin to prevent what we do not know -- or choose not to fully understand."

Cochav Elkayam-Levy, The Civil Commission 

"Even 20 percent [of Alberta poll respondents in favour of separation] is double what it was 20 years ago."

"If we continue to be just a piggy bank for the Liberal party, support for leaving [Canada] will continue to go up."

"Despite everything my generation did -- the Alberta baby boom generation, which I was in the middle of -- our 'West wants in' initiative has failed."

"I think we're more vulnerable today to predatory and destructive federal policies than we were in the 1980s."

Ted Morton, former Alberta energy minister

 

"Alberta has no voice in the Senate or in the House [of Commons]."

"It doesn't matter what we do, we have no voice. We're under-represented."

"The system is set up for us to fail." 

Mitch Sylvestre, head, Stay Free Alberta

Mitch Sylvestre, head of the group Stay Free Alberta, is shown on Monday with boxes of petitions being delivered to Elections Alberta. The group wants to trigger a referendum on whether Alberta should separate from Canada, however, ongoing court battles have temporarily trapped the bid in limbo. (Alice Burgat/Radio-Canada)

 

Of the entire Alberta population, despite the resentment most of Albertans feel toward the manner in which the long succession of mostly Liberal governments in Ottawa has off-handedly treated the province, only 20 percent currently support the prospect of separating from Canada, according to recent polls. Previously that number was lower. A Pollara Strategic Insights survey a month ago found 27 percent of respondents in favour of making Alberta independent from Canada, while another 15 percent responded "yes" to sending a message to Ottawa of Alberta discontent in its role in Confederation.

 

According to Ted Morton, an early supporter of the federal Reform Party that was merged with the Conservative Party under Stephen Harper, much of the anger from Alberta can be attributed to failed efforts to readjust the Canadian federation to balance western interests; through initiatives such as the Reform Party's "the West wants in" campaign, to successive attempts by Alberta premiers to thwart Ottawa's federal power over the province.

 

From energy policy to Senate reform, through the courts and in the House of Commons, Western conservatives have attempted to challenge the federal government to no avail; each of those efforts were summarily rebuffed. The 2015 election of Justin Trudeau emphasized Alberta's dismal progress; the Trudeau government was viewed as actively hostile toward the oil and gas sector. Nonetheless the province transferred a net $244 billion between 2007 and 2022 in taxes to the federal government, according to the Fraser Institute.

 

Supporters carry boxes of signatures to submit for a separation referendum to Elections Alberta Monday May 4, 2026. Photo: AP

 

An organization called Stay Free Alberta submitted a petition to the electoral office of Alberta this week, having collected over 300,000 signatures from Albertans who could visualize the province separating from Canada. Representing well in excess of the 177,000 signatures (10 percent of the population) required to potentially force a referendum vote on the issue in October. The signatures must go through a verification process by Elections Alberta, whose completion could take months.

 

Should the referendum proceed in October, and should a majority of Albertans vote to leave, negotiations between Alberta and the Crown to determine the terms of a potential separation would take place. Alberta has a population of five million people and that has gained them no more than seven senatorial representation seats in the Senate of Canada. New Brunswick with its population of 900,000 has 12 senate seats, while Quebec has 24 senators with its population of nine million. Clearly, there is much awry in those numbers. 

 

If Albertans are looking for justification for their pro-independence move, the issue of hundreds of billions of dollars the province has transferred to Ottawa as a result of its oil wealth over the decades is one very good one. The federal government's environmental policies have served to choke off Alberta's fossil fuel industry; another. Likewise, Ottawa's out-of-control immigration rates and fiscal spending leading to endless multibillion-dollar deficits represent other issues worthy of discontent. 

 

Part of our work is a proposed carbon capture and storage network and pipeline  Photo location NAIT

 

Despite these setbacks, Alberta's economic productivity (gross domestic product output on a per-person basis) continues to outpace all other provinces, a major boon for the federal economy, while Canada elsewhere is mired in a productivity crisis. Alberta's royalties are set to rise against the backdrop of the Iran-conflict oil price upward spiral; its equalization payments doled out by the federal government to lesser economies in Atlantic Canada and Quebec are indispensable. 

 

Yet continued neglect of Alberta by the federal government will convert that indispensable to dispensable, advantaging no one at all. Little wonder that Alberta separatists are tired of being mired in the situation of the milch-cow that continues to be fettered by federal incompetence born of indifference to fair dealing. 

 

Christina Lake, Oil Sands Alliance

 

"Spend time in Ottawa and out East, and it's not even that there's a hostility toward the West, although I think some westerners think there is one. It's kind of worse than that. They don't even think about the West, we're not even a concern or a consideration."

"You can understand why they didn't respect the West [a century ago]. It was only about three or four percent of the national population." 

"But things have changed, and that comes full circle to my frustration."

"We're still working under a system that, in a lot of respects, reflects the values of 100-some years ago, when it was founded, rather than the much different dynamic today."

Cory Morgan, author, The Sovereigntist's Handbook: Charting the Course to Western Independence