JTF 10-7 -- U.S. Joint Task Force October 7

"The barbaric Hamas terrorists will not win—and there will be consequences."

"As Attorney General, I have had the solemn honor of meeting with several families of U.S. citizens whose loved ones were kidnapped by Hamas on that dark day."

"This task force will strengthen the Department’s resolve to achieve justice for these families and their loved ones as we continue to fight antisemitism in all its forms."

Attorney General Pamela Bondi 

 

"The victims of Hamas’s decades-long violent campaign of terrorism against Israel will always have the support of the U.S. government, and the Department will no longer permit illegal support of Hamas on our campuses and elsewhere in the homeland."

"Antisemitic acts of terrorism – whether here or abroad – will never go unpunished. This task force represents our unyielding commitment to those who have suffered at the hands of these brutal terrorists."

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche

 

"The FBI is committed to establishing the Joint Task Force October 7 to continue the FBI’s investigative and victim assistance efforts related to the horrific acts of terror committed by Hamas."

"Working with our federal and international partners, this task force is a collaborative initiative between agencies, and together we will work to accomplish our vital counterterrorism mission."

FBI Director Kash Patel

  

 

A powerful new task force designed to investigate the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist kidnapping and murder of over 40 Americans in southern Israel was launched along with a mission to investigate growing antisemitic attacks in the United States, shortly after U.S. Attorney-General Pam Bondi took office. Many of its resources, unfortunately, have gone missing; numerous prosecutors and agents either fired or redirected to competing administration priorities, by the following year.

 

Even as the  U.S. is facing an increase in antisemitic threats linked to terrorist groups as a result of the war in Iran, the task force has been made virtually inoperative. National security experts in the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have, under President Trump's watch been  reassigned or dismissed. Many speaking on the condition of anonymity spoke of the enthusiasm at the announcement of the task force creation last year, with wide support within the Justice Department. However, few resources and time to fulfill the mission followed.  

"[The task force's structure] has evolved but its mission remains the same: Prosecute those who fund or otherwise materially support terrorism."

"Counterterrorism prosecutors remain assigned to [the task force] full time where they provide critical support and guidance to ongoing investigations."

U.S. Justice Department spokesman

 

"In coordination with partners throughout the Trump administration, the dedicated prosecutors and other attorneys of the [national security] division will continue to aggressively pursue those who seek to harm our nation, disrupt hostile foreign actors, and ensure that the full weight of the law is brought to bear against anyone who threatens the safety and security of the United States."

Justice Department spokesperson

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Israeli-American   Reuters

 

Across the country, in cities like San Francisco, Dallas and New York among others, FBI field offices were assigned to work on the murder and abduction investigations; assigned to the cases full time was an analyst at FBI headquarters. According to Mary McCord, formerly of the National Security Division of the FBI, there is no need for the Justice Department to establish task forces to investigate terrorism. Even so, the year-long dismantling of the group reflects consequences of national security experts' departure. 

"When a person is assigned to this task force, they have the requisite experience to be involved in a counterterrorism investigation."

"When that person is fired, it shows that the higher goal is retribution and retaliation, even at the expense of counterterrorism investigations."

Mary McCord former acting head, FBI National Security Division 

Under the Biden administration, then-attorney general Merrick Garland filed charges against six senior Hamas leaders in September 2024. Many Justice Department officials, among them career staffers, felt the investigations were proceeding too cautiously, urging more aggressive proceedings -- by the time President Trump took office, leading to the Oct 7 joint terrorism task force, the intention was to speed matters to a conclusion: "The barbaric Hamas terrorists will not win -- and there will be consequences", vowed Pam Bondi. 

 

Some initial successes were attributed to the task force last year, credited with arresting and indicting a Palestinian man from Gaza living in Louisiana, allegedly involved in the Oct 7 attack, now awaiting trial.  And then the group began to unravel. One by one key members of the task force were fired from the Justice Department, resulting from involvement with investigations of Donald Trump prior to his taking office the second time around.

 

As for the FBI agents assigned to the task force, carrying out competing priorities of the administration have stretched their involvement with it increasingly thinly. Around-the-clock immigration enforcement and investigations of 'left-wing terrorism' have called them to a prioritization of duties. Some were deployed to other investigations, with the Justice Department simply not replacing them. The broader problems that engulf a department diminished by firings, buyouts, resignations and reassignments have had their inevitable impact on the task force. 

 

FBI Director Kash Patel, firing about a dozen agents and staff members with ties to an investigation of Mr. Trump, included agents specializing in addressing threats from Iran and its terrorist proxies, even as the Justice Department defends its expertise in national security, stating it remains more than capable of protecting the nation from violent attacks. 

 

Photographs of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October 2023, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on 12 October 2025. Photograph: Urman/Sipa/Shutterstock

"The United States reaffirms its unwavering support for Israel’s right to exist, to defend itself, and to ensure the safety of its people. As the United States marks this tragic anniversary and honors the victims, we renew our resolve to prevent such evil from ever taking place again."

"Since October 7, 2023, we have also witnessed a troubling surge in antisemitism threatening Jewish communities worldwide. As I have said, there can be no compromise with antisemitism. We continue to condemn all acts of terrorism and antisemitism against Israel, and we call on the international community to stand with Israel during this painful anniversary."

Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State 

"I was scheduled to participate and speak at a commemoration of the Shoah, the Holocaust."

"It was very disappointing that Vanier decided to cancel the commemoration in fear, I was told, of demonstrations and problems with agitators outside the college."

"When fear rules your decisions rather than conviction of what is right, that’s dangerous."

"We live in a very fractured world now, and I think that we have to remember our history. I think that an educational institution such as Vanier has an obligation to educate their students and help them see each other as human beings."

"My talk was really going to be about our responsibilities as human beings, about the importance of remembrance, and how if education is the only tool, are we using it to the best of its possibilities."

"If we don’t learn from our history, then we’re condemned to repeat it and we’re well on the way to repetition."

"I would hope that Vanier reconsiders this decision, if not for this year, then for next year, and allow students to learn from it."

Eva Kuper, 85, Holocaust survivor, volunteer, Montreal Holocaust Museum

Eva Kuper, seen at the Montreal Holocaust Museum in 2017, was scheduled to speak at Vanier College about surviving the Holocaust. Last week she learned Vanier called off the ceremony. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf /Montreal Gazette

"While the College was not the target of a specific threat, in light of the current geopolitical context and information provided by our security team, we elected to review the event’s scheduling and format to err on the side of caution."

"[We are] currently reviewing the format of [the] annual Holocaust commemoration ceremony. [An] important event [that] holds a significant place in our institutional history [as it] brings together a number of external guest and dignitaries, students, staff and members of the general public."

"We are working to develop an alternative that honours the significance of this historical event that aligns with our values of education, remembrance and community well-being."

Vanier College, Saint Laurent, Montreal 

SAINT LAURENT, Q.C. - Vanier College on March 24, 2026. Terry Newman/National Post

 

Vanier College in the Saint Laurent borough of Montreal issued a statement on Wednesday to the effect that its 34th Symposium on the Holocaust and Genocide is continuing as planned, but the commemorative event was postponed. This abrupt announcement took everyone involved by surprise, not the least the invited guests as well as the presenters. What had been a mainstay for decades has seen the 35th version of the Holocaust commemoration cancelled, evidently due to concerns over the perceived issue of its attracting a violent backlash from pro-Palestinian contingents that have been marching for over two years against the existence of the state of Israel, while intimidating the Montreal Jewish community in a replay of the very scenarios leading up to the Holocaust throughout the Third Reich.

 

Speeches scheduled for the commemoration of that signal event of historical horror, from Christian Wagner, consul general of Germany, Eliaz Luf, consul general of Israel, Eva Kuper, a Holocaust survivor, and two Vanier students, summarily cancelled. Memorial prayers and a candle-lighting ceremony, planned for the the event would obviously also not take place. During the college's 34th Annual Symposium on the Holocaust and Genocide, 17 allied events were scheduled between March 23 to 27.

 

An event meant to honour the memory of 6 million Jews who were murdered during World War II by a Fascist totalitarian government cancelled as the organizers cowered in fear that hateful mobs that call for another Holocaust might disrupt the proceedings, and conceivably overwhelm the security guards posted at the institute  for all events to maintain order and civility. For events such as this, however, where a whiff of Jew-hate raises its threatening spectre of violence and the possibility of a riot and injuries or even worse, tender souls shrivel in fear.

 

In contrast to the heightened trepidation and an enlarged number of security personnel for any event featuring a speaker in support of Israel, there are also anti-Zionist Palestine presentations, such as occurred at an International Women's Week event at Vanier College. Where there was a notable absence of security guards in numbers that might dissuade psychopathic reaction from disaffected outsiders. All those disaffected outsiders, in effect, were in attendance at the event. 

 

 

 

"[The situation has been a] misunderstanding, [the broader Holocaust symposium has gone ahead.."

"The Holocaust symposium has been unfolding this week as planned, with over 15 talks on different themes pertaining to the Holocaust and Jewish history."

"Most of those decisions are made by the executive team, composed of all the directors of all the departments, including the department responsible for the security. [The decision applied only to the commemorative portion of the event]."

"That came with parameters that we felt, given the geopolitical situation, were not optimal for us to ensure safety and security. We felt it would be best for us to explore alternatives to be able to hold it under safer parameters."

"I do understand that the misunderstanding that took place could have been very disturbing… and I’m sincerely sorry about that misunderstanding."

Benoit Morin, director general, Vanier College

 

"[This is a] disgraceful act of capitulation."

"When a Holocaust commemoration is deemed a ‘security risk,’ that is not a reason to cancel the event, it is proof that something has gone deeply wrong."

"One of the last living witnesses to history was ready to share her testimony, and an institution of higher learning decided that it was safer to cancel her than to stand behind her."

Jewish Community Council of Montreal 

"[The U.S. is] in negotiations right now."

"We have a number of people doing it. And the other side, I can tell you, they’d like to make a deal."

"The Iranian negotiators are very different and strange."

"They are begging us to make a deal, which they should be doing since they have been militarily obliterated, with zero chance of a comeback, and yet they publicly state that they are only 'looking at our proposal'. WRONG!!!" 

"[Iranian negotiators better] get serious soon before it is too late." 

U.S. President Donald Trump 

Donald Trump held a cabinet meeting at the White House. (Reuters: Evelyn Hockstein)

 

"Our first and last word has been the same from day one, and it will stay that way/"

"Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you."

"Not now, not ever." 

Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman, Iranian military headquarters 

 

"Do not call your defeat an agreement... Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?"

"You will see neither your investments in the region nor the former prices of energy and oil again until you understand this: stability in the region is guaranteed by the strong hand of our armed forces."

Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters 

People walk near Iranian missiles in a park in Tehran. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)

 

Dismissing the American offer to pause the conflict, Iran launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf Arab countries, even as Israel continued to pound Tehran with airstrikes, and the United States has undertaken the deployment of paratroopers and Marines to the region; a none-too-subtle warning of more to come, at the choosing of the U.S. Iran's Press TV quoted an unnamed Iranian official's statement: "Iran will end the war when it decides to do so and when its own conditions are met". 

 

The U.S. 15-point proposal addressed sanctions relief, a rollback of Iran's nuclear program, limits on missiles and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The proposal includes as well restrictions on Iran's support for its proxy terrorist groups. These details provided by Pakistan and Egypt, whose officials are involved as intermediaries between the U.S. and Iran, hoping to see the conflict come to an end. 

 

For its part, Iran insists it has no intention of discussing its ballistic missile program, much less its support of the regional militias; neither Hamas, nor Hezbollah, nor the Houthis, or the Iraqi Shiite militias doing its bidding. As for control of maritime shipping passing through the Strait of Hormuz representing one of its most stark strategic advantages in squeezing the world economy through scarcer oil and gas passing through the Strait to world markets, that in and of itself is a non-starter. 

 

Attacks on regional energy infrastructure coupled with its restrictions on passage through the Strait have worked to the Islamic Republic's advantage, frustrating and infuriating the world community and having the effect of placing stress on the American president in demands that the conflict come to a  speedy end to relieve the issue of critical energy, fertilizer and consumer products stalled while awaiting the opportunity to cross through the Strait. 

 

Smoke rises from Kuwait international airport after a drone strike on fuel storage in Kuwait City, Kuwait, Friday, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo)

 

En route to the Middle East, up to a thousand troops from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division. The process of sending some 5,000 Marines trained in amphibious assaults and thousands of sailors to the region is being worked out at the Pentagon. Meanwhile Pakistani and Egyptian officials are frantically attempting to arrange in-person talks between Iranians and Americans. The question is, who in the Islamic Regime now has that authority...given the extent of their losses among top-echelon figures. 

 

As for Iran's side of demands to end the conflict, Press TV cited a five-point plan from Iran for a ceasefire: a halt to assassinations of Iranian key figures; agreement that no additional conflict can be waged, war reparations, a cease of hostilities; and affirmation of Iran's "exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz". An exercise in sheer mockery of the U.S. plan. An implacable regime determined not to fade into history and prepared to take down with it as much pain as it can exert on its neighbours.

 

The Israeli military stated that a day earlier as part of its strikes, an Iranian submarine development centre in Isfahan had been struck through several waves of airstrikes. "There have been some days when the bombings are so intense you can't do anything", commented a 26-year-old graduate student in Tehran, a situation conducive to convincing him and his friends to remain safely at home. 

 

First responders inspect the remains of a residential building hit in an overnight strike during the U.S.-Israeli military campaign in Tabriz, East Azerbaijan Province, northwestern Iran, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Matin Hashemi)

 

In Israel. missile alert sirens sound multiple times daily as Iran and its creature Hezbollah launch attacks. Rockets have been fired into northern Israel around the clock by Hezbollah, with the February 28 inception of the war, disrupting hundreds of thousands of peoples' lives in Israel. 

 

And for Iran's Gulf Arab neighbours. Iran has not relented on the pressure it applies through drones and missile strikes. Saudi Arabia's Defence Ministry destroyed 8 drones over its Eastern Province -- and in Bahrain missile alert sirens sound. Although Kuwait shot down multiple drones, one hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sparking a massive fire. 

 

Dog salon workers take cover with the dogs in a bomb shelter as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strikes in Ramat Gan, Israel (Source: Associated Press)

 

"Where is all this going?" 

"The schools are closed, and air sirens are ringing multiple times a day, and distant booms keeps more people at home farther from public places."

"But my company is booming -- cashing in on the crisis -- as more and more people opt to leave, with land routes now the only way out."

Egyptian taxi driver in Kuwait

 

"Weeks into the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, alarm is mounting after a series of strikes targeting sensitive nuclear facilities, including reported damage last week metres from the reactor of Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant -- located just across the Gulf from Kuwait."

Mohamed Fahmy, journalist, Kuwait City 

An Iranian flag outside the building housing the reactor of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iranian port town of Bushehr, 1200 km south of Tehran, Iran. (AFP Photo)

 

Just 275 kilometres' distant across the Gulf from Kuwait, the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant's proximity is a threat to Kuwait; its geographic placement threatening that prevailing northwesterly wind has the potential to carry nuclear radiation contamination toward Kuwait in the event of a radioactive release should the plant be hit by a missile. According to nuclear authorities, should a severe incident occur at Bushehr, the result would be comparable to the breakdown of the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine. 

 

The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, calls for maximum restraint while warning continued strikes in the area risk a nuclear accident being triggered while conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran goes into its fourth week. "An accident at an operating nuclear power plant would be something very, very serious. This is the reddest line of all in nuclear safety", he warned grimly.

 

In its tit-for-tat responses, hours following the Natanz enrichment complex in Iran being struck on Saturday, Iran launched retaliatory ballistic missile strikes on the towns of Dimona and Arad in southern Israel, where 180 people were injured. This strike, as inaccurate as it was, served as a warning that the Islamic Republic's reach is as far as has been feared possible. A mere 13 kilometres from Israel's strategically sensitive Negev Nuclear Research Center.

 

Hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones have been launched by Iran across Kuwait and neighbouring Gulf states that include the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Oil refineries, gas installations and major ports and airports have been targeted across the Gulf by Iran. This is the face of Iran that its Gulf partners have always feared. Their cautious opposition and awareness of the Islamic Republic's drive to spread its volatile Islamist fundamentalism linked to its striving for uranium enrichment and resulting warheads for its ballistic missiles has created an atmosphere of fear and apprehension among its neighbours.

 

The scene where a missile fired from Iran impacted in the southern Israeli city of Dimona, March 22, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

 

Not the least of which is the State of Israel, which is itself a discreet nuclear power, knowing that its survival is in Tehran's Shiite-jihad crosshairs should they ever succeed in their nuclear mission. The Middle East Arab Sunni states, while relaxing their historic hostility to Israel's presence, have been content to watch on the sidelines as Israel and the Iranian regime confront one another, in the hope that Israel would prevail and solve their Iran-problem for them. 

 

Now, in the ongoing conflict where U.S. and Israeli aerial bombardment is bludgeoning Iran's government and military infrastructure along with its weapons caches, Iran, now in the complete control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warns that the region's infrastructure would be hit should the U.S. president's threats come to fruition. The most recent retaliatory barrage was a taste of what could be intensified. Air defence forces in Kuwait managed to intercept and destroy dozens of missiles and drones, though some slip through.

 

A number of major international and national organizations have been actively preparing for the possibility of a nuclear 'incident'. The World Health Organization is preparing for a "worst-case scenario" involving nuclear risks. It has taken to a repeat of staff training on emergency response protocols and reinforcing radiation-related health risk guidance. Contingency plans are  being updated across 13 countries in preparation for possible strikes on nuclear facilities ... even use of a nuclear weapon.

 

Facilities equipped with specialized ventilation systems, food supplies, bunk beds, prayer areas, medical clinics and decontamination and clothing disposal units are being prepared through the establishment of 195 public shelters in Kuwait for the protection of their civilians, using schools and university sites. More Gulf nations are being drawn into the kind of conflict they had long thought of and hoped to be able to avoid. The spectre of a direct hit on a nuclear site could result in a humanitarian crisis in more than one country in the Middle East, as Iran implodes while striking out to punish its enemies. 

 

Iranian flag flies at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, accessed on Feb. 1, 2026. (AFP Photo)

 

Protection for Toronto's Jewish Community from Rabid Islamists

"Due to the changing security landscape in Toronto in recent weeks, including increased volatility and heightened fear in our communities, demonstrations  moving into residential neighbourhoods in the Bathurst and Sheppard area presents an unacceptable risk to public safety."

"As a result, demonstrators will not be permitted to enter residential streets in this area."

"[This is a] measured step to reduce the risk of escalation and maintain public safety." 

Toronto Police Service spokesperson Stephanie Sayer

A pro-Palestine march makes its way through Toronto, Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

 

The issue of Toronto's Jewish community forced by disinterest from Toronto's mayor to 'notice' the ebbing lack of  safety and security imposed on that demographic by gangs of roving 'pro-Palestinian' demonstrators and the inaction of the Toronto Police Service to rein in the verbal insults and assaults ranging from 'Final Solution!' to 'Globalize the Intifada!' -- and other not-so-veiled threats that arose in the wake of the Palestinian Hamas terrorists governing Gaza committing an unspeakable mass atrocity in southern Israel -- had to wait over two years for action. And the Jewish community is supposed to be grateful that their distress under constant threat from openly-celebrating Islamist violence is finally being partially addressed.

 

Ostensibly the move to finally act to put an end to the mob incursion into streets housing Jewish Torontonians was the result of Jewish community group lobbying. In very fact those community groups pleaded with the municipality, the police, the province, to act in the face of intimidation and threats when the demonstrations first emerged and that was directly after the shocking massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023. The inaction of authorities at all levels to restore order and security from the federal government on down, was undoubtedly responsible for the kind of escalation that took place with synagogues, Jewish schools and community centres, along with privately owned Jewish businesses being shot at, firebombed and vandalized. 

A  protest at Bathurst Street and Sheppard Ave. West, a Jewish neighbourhood, featured one protester dressed as Yahya Al-Sinwar, the Hamas leader behind the October 7th massacre.  MSN

 

Each time violence erupted, authorities were quick to condemn the events, expressing solidarity with the Jewish community, piously declaiming that 'this (antisemitism and violence) is not Canada'. Yet it is what Canada has become under the watch of the decade-long reign of the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, followed by Mark Carney. Both of whom have a penchant for bemoaning antisemitism, and never failing to link it with the (to them) equally troubling 'Islamophobia', which in itself is rather absurd, since most of the antisemitic attacks come courtesy of the Canadian Muslim population.

 

The Toronto Police spokesperson explained that legal protests on main streets in the area where the Jewish community in the city is located will be permitted to continue. The same protests that have taken place regularly since the day following the October7, 2023 slaughter of Israelis by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the PLO's Fatah contingents, led by the master-class terrorist group Hamas, whose charter is dedicated to the destruction of Israel.  

"Our community has consistently refused to accept the normalization of intimidation on residential streets in the heart of a heavily Jewish neighbourhood."

"Around Bathurst and Sheppard, residents, families, seniors, students and community institutions have been forced to contend with repeated demonstrations in spaces where people should be able to live, walk, pray, and gather in peace."

B'nai Brith Canada 

Another Jewish group that had called upon the city and police for attention to the plight of the Toronto Jewish community, stated that the announcement by the Toronto Police Service represented "a meaningful step -- but it must be matched with consistent enforcement and protection for our community." 

"At protests at Bathurst & Sheppard, extremists openly made threats of violence, glorified terrorism, and depicted Jews as sub-human — yet no arrests have been announced. After multiple attacks on our community, many are asking why the law is not being enforced."

"We’re calling on TPS to investigate and lay charges, declare assemblies unlawful when there are activities that promote and incite hate, and make the necessary and critical changes to protect our city."

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs  

Images of antisemitic signage shared by X user Leviathan (@l3v1at4an) during an anti-Israel protest Bathurst St. and Sheppard Ave. West in Toronto on Sunday, March 15. (Credit: @l3v1at4an/X)

 

There is much to be concerned about.  Days following the U.S.-Israel launch of the joint aerial bombardment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to destroy its nuclear ambitions by targeting its powerful missile caches, its launch sites, nuclear enrichment sites, leading government authorities and chiefs of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in an effort to hasten  regime change and rescue the Iranian people from their persecutors while neutralizing Iran's capacity to train, arm and fund its proxy terrorist groups in the Middle East, synagogues were again hit by gunfire in Toronto.

 

Jewish-owned businesses and the U.S. consulate in Toronto were also shot at in demonstrations of Islamist targeting of associates and allies of the State of Israel. In addressing these and allied issues, the Toronto Police spokesperson stated that police officers would provide "clear direction". That anyone who fails to comply with them would face possible arrest for obstructing police.  

"The Toronto Police Service facilitates lawful demonstrations while balancing the rights of participants with the safety of the broader public."

Stephanie Sayer  

Toronto police stand watch near the Al-Quds day protest in Toronto, Ontario, on March 14, 2026.

(photo credit: Geoff Robins / AFP via Getty Images)

 

"[The Jazz Aviation flight operating with Air Canada] came down really hard [and] stopped really quickly."

"We just had an absolute, like, slam."

"Everybody was flying everywhere. The plane was sort of veering off left and right."

"It was chaos. It didn't feel like there was anybody in control."

Air Canada Express Flight passenger Jack Cabot  

 

"It was human error, in my opinion. That was probably the root cause of this incident."

"We're looking at situations where guys have been working doubles -- starting at eight o'clock in the morning and working until midnight."

"It's not something that  you want to have too often. People lose their spatial awareness and their decision-making capabilities because of inattention or lack of  sleep."

"This is a very, very rare occurrence. I'd rather fly in the morning or midday or mid-afternoon. Then I know the controllers are hopefully more refreshed." 

John Gradek, aviation management, McGill University 

 

"We were honestly sleeping and then landing and then all of a sudden, boom."

"We woke up in shock. We just didn't know what to do. We were a couple of rows behind first class and everything at the front of the plane was pretty messed up."

Unidentified flight passengers

Investigators walk the site, Monday, March 23, 2026, where an Air Canada jet came to rest after colliding with a Port Authority fire truck at LaGuardia Airport, after landing Sunday night in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

 

The accident-waiting-to-happen at New York City's La Guardia Airport Sunday night left both pilots of the Air Canada Express flight dead at the scene when their plane crashed into a fire truck on the tarmac. Dozens of passengers among the 72 people aboard the plane were injured, several taken to hospital in serious condition. One of the air traffic controllers on duty took responsibility; a momentary lapse is all it takes. He had been guiding a fire truck to another plane on another runway that had reported a problem.

 

The air traffic controller, like all air traffic controllers in the United States, was overworked and undoubtedly lacking sufficient sleep to be able to perform his professional duties to the full height of their critical responsibilities. There simply are not enough flight attendants to perform this job properly. Each of these professionals undergo rigorous training, and of those who are accepted for training as suitable for the job out of many applicants who apply, many fail to graduate as full-fledged air traffic controllers.

 

 

 

An audio recording from the flight tower was of someone demanding that the fire truck stop. "Stop, stop, stop, stop. Truck One, stop!", the control tower official ordered. There was no way the pilot could have avoided the crash on Runway 4 at the last second, according to a Canadian airline pilot who remained unidentified. 

"Not in that phase of flight. They had just landed. They were decelerating. They were at about a hundred miles an hour."

"No, they didn't have enough speed to go around. They were in the ground phase. They didn't have enough time, nor did they have enough runway." 

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators on Tuesday inspect the wreckage of an Air Canada Express jet that collided with a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport. (National Transportation Safety Board)

 

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is in the primary stages of crash investigation. And while it is leading the investigation, the Canadian Transportation Safety Board will have a team in place to support the investigation. Investigators are expected to question the air traffic controller who was involved in the tragic outcome of an ordinary flight, to enquire when he had last had a good night sleep to be able to function up to grade. 

 

They will determine how long the controller in the tower had been working prior to the crash; "Where this guy was in terms of his circadian rhythms, and whether he was  fully aware or whether he was distracted", suggested teacher of aviation management, John Gradek, who emphasized that the U.S. has a critical shortage of both ground controllers and air traffic controllers. 

 

Kevin Durkin, a lawyer who heads aviation law practice at a law firm in Chicago, offered his opinion that the problem is related to the chronic shortage of air traffic controllers, having seen evidence first-hand as a passenger on three flights forced to abort landings because of equipment on runways. 

"Number 1, air travel has become increasingly popular in the United States."

"You have increasing flights, you have airports that are congested. You have flights coming in every so-many minutes, so-many seconds ... You put it all together and you have a recipe [for disaster]."

"[Hoping investigation of the Air Canada crash at LaGuardia leads to safety advances in] graveyard engineering." 

Site of crash at LaGuardia airport.

"For decades, the Iranian regime has worked closely with far-left, far-right and Islamist groups across Europe and North America."

"Following the October 7th attacks, Tehran has poured money ad logistical support into anti-Israel and pro-terror rallies, encampments and civil disorder."

"We've uncovered evidence ... where the Iranian regime appears to operate mosques, activist and student groups that are deeply involved in pro-terror demonstrations, alongside Hamas-aligned groups."

Middle East Forum

 

"Radical co-operation [between Iran, Libya and Syria, countries] hostile to Israel's existence [work] to encourage the emergence of revolutionary, anti-Western [groups around the world]." 

"Iran is the most implacable foe and will remain the most effective and dangerous state sponsor of terrorism over the next few years [in activities from small-scale to global-scale operations]." 

CIA analysis, 2018

 

"As the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, 2023, Iran immediately surged support to Hamas with its now well-honed technique of combining targeted hacks with influence operations amplified on social media, what we refer to as cyber-enabled  influence operations."

"Iran's operations were initially reactionary and opportunistic. By late October, nearly all of Iran's influence and major cyber actors focused on Israel in an increasingly targeted, co-ordinated and destructive manner, making for a seemingly boundless 'all-hands-on-deck' campaign against Israel."

"Influence operations grew increasingly sophisticated and inauthentic, deploying networks of social media 'sock puppets' as the war progressed. Throughout the war these influence operations have sought to intimidate Israelis while criticizing the Israeli government's handing of hostages and military operations to polarize and ultimately destabilize Israel."

Microsoft Threat Analysis team

The Iranian regime and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants channelled funding into student protests in Canada, the U.S. and Europe after the October 7 attacks on Israel, Warren Kinsella writes in his new book The Hidden Hand. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images/File

 

Western politics have been targeted for decades by Iran seeking influence or destabilization of governments in the West. The depths of Tehran's success in its anti-Western campaign still remains unrecognized by the very targets it preys upon.  Isabel Vincent in 2024 wrote in the New York Post: "The Iranian regime is funnelling money and its influence into anti-Israel college campus protests across the US., often through buzzily named organizations -- and many who join the protests don't realize who is really behind them". 

 

What has also been behind them is the influence of the Tehran-friendly, Muslim Brotherhood-supporting, Hamas and Hezbollah welcome-honoured-guests-oil-rich Qatar. Through its influential media arm, Al Jazeera publishing in Western media airspace, and the ostentatiously-generous Qatari funding of American colleges and universities, Qatar and its pro-Iran, Muslim Brotherhood messaging has the eyes and ears of U.S. government and academia, a 'friendly' Gulf nation backing the Iranian regime.

 

While the Islamic Republic of Iran is notorious for supporting and generously funding terrorist groups, it is in Qatar where those terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah chief executives make their palatial, state-supported and -protected homes, where they make the decisions and their subordinate officials in Gaza and Lebanon relay the orders from above, authorizing action on the part of their terrorist operatives.

 

A new report from Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub suggests Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is waging an online campaign.  Carson Elm-Picard / MS NOW; Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto via Getty Image; Photos courtesy of X

 

The axis of Shia domination includes the Houthis in Yemen and the Shia militias in Iraq devoted to the Islamic Republic, venerating the Ayatollahs and swift to respond to the orders of the al Quds division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. All now being decimated, leaders picked off, missile-launching sites bombed, nuclear installations flattened and the entire apparatus of the foremost sponsor of Middle East terrorism under constant bombardment by U.S. and Israeli fighter planes.

 

An infamous Iranian Revolutionary Guard cyberwarfare group named Cotton Sandstorm uses fake online accounts  with names like 'Jewish Peace Advocate', for the purpose of spreading anti-West, anti-Israel propaganda, according to Microsoft's Threat Intelligence team whose investigation revealed the fake accounts' existence in 2024. 

 

A protester holds a placard with an image of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei (centre R) and Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtada Khamenei (centre L) during an annual protest, this year a static protest, held by pro-Palestinian group Al-Quds in central London on March 15, 2026.

(photo credit: JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP via Getty Images)

 

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, shut down a sophisticated Iranian influence operation run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Iran, alongside Hezbollah, was running fake accounts across TikTok, X and Meta's platforms, according to Meta's Threat Disruption Center. Israeli cyber intelligence flagged an IRGC-controlled front company as the source of threats through emails and texts against Israeli athletes at the Paris Olympics. 

 

Following the April protests in Iran, Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, openly incited global anti-Israel protests. Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, now departed and deeply mourned by his Shia-terror devotees, posted alongside videos of Western student protesters on X: "See what is happening in the world. In Western countries, in England and France, and in states across the United States itself, people are coming out in huge numbers to chant slogans against Israel and America."

"U.S. and Israel's reputation has been ruined. They truly have no solution."

 

He was destined to become part of the solution when he was assassinated on the first day of the February 28 start of the U.S.-Israel aerial bombardment of Tehran, along with many of the country's top leadership. Israel's Air Force, with prior intelligence guiding them, dispatched them all in an airstrike of a  fortified compound where the Iranian leadership was meeting to confer over their next moves in the shadow of a potential invasion, which still took them by surprise, never thinking it was so imminent.  

 

Probal Rashid / LightRocket / Getty

"I believe we should rely on the ability of Arabs and Muslims to invest in the changes we are witnessing, specifically the Western students in the demonstrations in the West."

"There are Arab students who are demonstrating in the West, and this is something we can understand. But the Western students who are demonstrating in support of Palestine -- we rely on our ability to invest in this positive activity into the future e... We should invest in the students."

"We need to enter the heart of Western societies."

Hezbollah legislator Mohammad Raad on Russia Today **

 **The Hidden Hand: The Information War and the Rise of Antisemitic Propaganda: Warren Kinsella

"Canada's system of temporary migration has always relied pretty heavily on the honour system. Every international student, every long-term visitor, every temporary foreign worker; they all sign a contract agreeing to exit Canada when their visa expires, and Canadian border security is mostly built around the premise they will."

"In 2025, a particularly busy year for the Canada Border Services Agency, officers carried out 22,576 'enforced removals', of which 10,795 were deportations."

"This might be sufficient when Canada's population of non-permanent residents stood at 700,000, as it did in 2015 [under the Conservative-led government of PM Stephen Harper]. But Canada's population of non-permanent residents now stands at 2.6 million [Thanks to the Liberal-led government of Justin Trudeau]."

"This year alone, 1.4 million permit-holders are set to see their Canadian visas expire. And of the majority who likely won't be able to obtain a renewal or secure alternative immigration status, the Government of Canada expects them to leave. But if less than two percent of those decide not to, they've already overwhelmed the ability of the CBSA [Canadian Border Security Agency] to find and deport them."

Tristin Hopper, journalist, National Post [parenthesis inserts mine]

Broadbent Institute

 

From 2022 forward, Canada admitted over three million people in the space of three years, representing an immigration rate far higher than any other country anywhere at the time. Now, the entrance of 2,800 daily has been stopped in tardy recognition by government that the influx of so many people strained Canada's social services and its housing and rental markets beyond toleration. The very prospect of achieving a home of their own for younger Canadians was out of reach of most people with good, stable employment as a result of sky-high home costs and rentals. Hospitals were stretched beyond the capacity to serve the needs of a fast-growing population, with emergency rooms being closed down and those that remained open posting wait times up to 12 hours.

 

In the last year of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, 2014 saw permanent residents numbering 260,400 admitted to Canada, the highest in 100 years, according to 
Statistics Canada. In 2026, even accounting for the diminished rate of admissions under that category, acceptance stands at 50 percent higher than in 2014.

 

Currently, non-permanent residents number double the number of five years ago, with one in every 15 people in the country representing a temporary migrant. The federal government plans by 2027 to see that five percent of the population, representing one in 20, will be a temporary migrant. The number of non-permanent residents identified by the last census in 2021 was 2.5 percent, at a time when the total population numbered 37 million, quite a bit lower than the 41 million of the present.

 

Broadbent Institute

 

Entry to Canada is readily accommodated under the country's current system of welcome to all...where a foreigner who crosses into Canada illegally can approach a police officer to declare "I am seeking asylum". The result of which will be immediate status as an 'asylum claimant', allowing them to obtain a work permit, free shelter and access to the Interim Federal Health Program, a package greatly more beneficial than what is available to Canadian citizens themselves.  Under the IFHP there are provisions for free dental care, free counselling and subsidized pharmacare. Benefits good for two years at minimum, representing the current backlog for an application of asylum to be reviewed.  

 

At the present time, 300,000 claims for asylum are being handled in Canada, a record high, realizing a cost of $1 billion yearly in providing benefits for those awaiting results of their applications, where the approval rate is currently 79.8 percent. This, against a backdrop in 2024 of 20,000 foreign students studying in Canada claiming asylum as their student vivas were expiring. Immigration and Refugees and Citizenship Canada revealed that 47,175 foreigners on student visas had failed to register at a school, last year, their whereabouts unknown to authorities.

 

Council on Foreign Relations

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in 2022 processed no fewer than745,279 applications for student visas; over double the 2020 number of 316,400. Hard pressed to deal with that number, the IRCC dropped application review standards for the efficiency of automation, where mandatory in-person citizenship ceremonies were cancelled and recipients swear an Oath of Allegiance 'virtually' through a computer and the citizenship test normally held in person now is a self-administered 20-question quiz.

 

Foreigners are now able to claim asylum in Canada with the use of an app -- "To speed things up, because we are short-staffed, we are allowing people into the country without first doing ... security screening" stated Mark Weber, head of Canada's border guard union. in parliamentary testimony.  

"The Government of Canada today released a summary of its recent border-strengthening and modernization efforts, marking a year of unprecedented action and results as it continues to protect communities, strengthen trade, and uphold the integrity of the immigration system."

"Through a coordinated whole-of-government approach, Canada successfully implemented key technological and operational measures that underscore the government's resolve in securing our shared border with the United States, while also tackling transnational organized crime that knows no borders."

"Key milestones were achieved across all priority areas, from immigration and trade to combating auto theft and the flow of illegal drugs, including fentanyl and its precursors, into Canada. These achievements were made possible through close collaboration between the key federal departments and agencies, demonstrating that when it comes to the safety and prosperity of Canadians, the federal government is united and effective."

News Release, December 31, 2025  Public Safety Canada