"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 

 

 

 

"You've got one end of the spectrum that's at zero and you've got that other group that's disproportionately probably more and more susceptible to following direction from influencers on selected social media, which is probably what this is attributable to."

"Medium to long term, there may be some unlearning that needs to be done amongst persons that are adopting such positions that clearly are not well informed if they think the majority of Iranians are  supporting the Iranian regime. That's incorrect." 

Jack Jedwab, President and CEO, Association for Canadian Studies

 

"[Scores of fake online accounts that were] coming from Iranians inside Iran linked to the regime and fuelling the campus protests at McGill [University, Montreal]."

"A massive, funded, co-ordinated and organized [effort by Iran designed to influence public opinion and government policy]."

Canadian investigative journalist Nagar Mojahedi

 

"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."

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

Microsoft Threat Analysis team

While most prefer neutrality in the Iran war, many in the Gen Z cohort think Canada should support the Iranian regime, according a new poll. Photo by Peter J Thompson/National Post

 

A  new Leger poll highlights that a significant portion of Canada's youngest adults subscribe to the belief that Canada should be supporting the Iranian regime in defence against the U.S. and Israel's aerial onslaught against the Islamic Republic. One-fifth (20 percent) of respondents between the ages of 18 to 24 felt that Ottawa should 'politically support' the Iranian regime's leadership. Among that age cohort only eight percent think the United States, Israel and other allied nations in the three-week-old war should receive Canada's backing. 

 

In contrast, results for older Canadians are the reverse to the youth contingent. Among Canadians aged 45 to 54, three percent support the Iranian regime; among the age group 55 to 64, one percent, and zero percent among Canadians aged 65 and older. A quarter of these older Canadian groups feel that Canada should be in support of its historic allies; at the rate of 23, 25 and 26 percent respectively.

 

The Islamic Republic of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps has been listed on the Canadian government terrorist list for the past two years. Jack Jedwab, whose group commissioned the poll, felt that the response by young Canadians reflected the fact of misinformation that has been disseminated by malign foreign interests among the gen Z cohort -- among whom 32 percent believe that Iranian-Canadians do not support the U.S.-Israel military actions against Islamic Republic of Iran. 

 

Despite the demonstrations by Iranian-Canadians celebrating in support of the U.S.-Israeli actions in Iran on the streets of Canada in jubilation that this may see the end of that violently repressive regime, over half of all respondents said they don't know.

 

Across all age groups, half of the poll's respondents felt that Canada should remain neutral in the escalating conflict, while one-fifth said they don't know are aren't certain. "It's a combination also of our own sort of self-evaluation or assessment of ourselves as the nation that is seeking or desires peaceful solutions and outcomes", was Mr. Jedwab's interpretation of the poll results, highlighting a November 2024 ASC poll finding that Canadians are 92 percent for peace with all nations, yet still felt that war could not be avoided even if one side stood down.

 

"Things are going to be more complex than that. I think some of that thinking underlies part of the neutrality view." In his view, Mr. Jedwab stated it appears that the Liberal government is attempting to balance neutrality with some Canadians' expectation that Canada should aid its allies. "That's a challenging position to take and we'll see what types of pressure are exerted in the coming days and weeks on the part of the U.S. and its allies for middle powers like Canada to become engaged, and assist those who prefer greater disengagement to better understand what the stakes are." 

 

The youth cohort, Mr. Jedwab observed, is especially drawn by anti-Trump sentiment, despite the fact that the IRGC is a terrorist entity, and the Islamic Republic itself is universally acknowledged to be a regime that encourages and supports and funds terrorist groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and the Yemeni Houthis, as well as Iraqi Shiite terror groups. 

 

"That is not something that can be taken lightly at all in trying to see one's way clearer in this war."

"It's something one needs to consider carefully in terms of drawing conclusions about where Canada should stand on this." 

 

Al-Quds Day protesters, right, were met with a sizeable counter protest near the U.S. Consulate in Toronto, Ontario, on March 14, 2026. Photo by GEOFF ROBINS /AFP via Getty Images

 

"In late 2024, Meta -- the company that owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp -- shut down a sophisticated Iranian influence operation run by the dictatorship's Islamic Revolutionary Guard."

"Meta's Threat Disruption Center revealed that Iran, aided and abetted by Hezbollah, was running multiple fake accounts across Meta's platforms as well as on TikTok, X, and others."

"Iran-supported Hezbollah created fake sites and purchased thousands of dollars of advertising on Facebook and Instagram."

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

 

"I feel like we're losing that connection of community and kids in the day of the internet, where sometimes the internet is the parent. And so, if there's anything that comes out of this and the incidents of 2026, I hope it is a willingness to have a very serious conversation about that."

"Before Tumbler Ridge, we may [have said], 'Were they actually going to do it?'  And now, we don't have the luxury of that thought process any more. To me, that is a heart-breaking state that our country is in, that has to be our state of mind now."

"In the past, we've been a little naive as a society and thought, 'Oh, you know, kids'. Or maybe just dismissed things when we should have taken them a little bit more seriously. And I think those days are gone now."

"Only the two students know if they were actually going to follow through, and I think that's what we really need to know. That's what our community wants to know and I'm sure in Manitoba they're thinking the same thing. They want to know: 'Were you going to really do this and why?'"

Mayor David Mitchell, Bridgewater, Nova Scotia

 

"[Rivers residents are] still processing [and dealing with the shock]."

"[It's] the world that we live in. It's very different now. There's a lot of hate and emotions that people don't know how to deal with."

"I've always kind of thought the internet somehow makes it worse. But then now the internet was a blessing to us that they could solve a problem before it really happened."

Mayor Heather Lamb, Riverdale Municipality, Rivers, Manitoba

 

"[The Rivers teen] was actively discussing and planning to harm other students at the Rivers Collegiate."

"Police located detailed handwritten plans, imitation weapons, roughly made imitation pipe bomb and assault rifle, electronic devices including cellphone and laptop and clothing with hate symbols and concerning comments."

Cpl. Melanie Roussel, Manitoba RCMP 

Bridgewater police arrested the 15-year-old on Tuesday. (Gareth Hampshire/CBC

In Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia a scant few months ago, an 18-year-old transgender youth went on a gun rampage through a school he had once attended. For the previous several years, the youth identified as female. When he entered the Tumbler Ridge school he was dressed as a woman, and was referred to after arrest for murder as 'she'. Before entering the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, the killer had turned his attention to his mother and a younger half-brother. After shooting them to death, he went on to the school to kill another six people, five students and a teacher, before he was finally stopped.

 

Now, two teens, one in Nova Scotia, the second in Manitoba, have been revealed to have discussed between them over the internet a similar plot to kill. They never advanced to the final stages of their scheme, however. They were arrested in mid-March. It seems that a 15-year-old girl who attended Parkview Education Centre in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, in online contact with a 14-year-old boy at Rivers Collegiate in Rivers, Manitoba had plotted to attack their schools with a view to killing other students.

 

Park View Education Centre is located in Bridgewater, N.S. It is a public senior high school that has about 900 students. (Cris Monetta/CBC)

 

Bridgewater Mayor David Mitchell spoke of children with mental health problems, compounded by malign influences they find on the internet, and that in his opinion there is an imperative at the national level for a conversation about these issues afflicting youth in Canadian communities, while emphasizing the importance at the present time of allowing the justice system to make its determination with respect to the two teens. 

 

The 15-year-old girl from Bridgewater, Nova Scotia was charged with conspiracy to murder and uttering death threats. Police noted that "hate crime and other possible offences are currently under investigation". As for the 14-year-old boy in Manitoba, he has been charged with uttering threats. The RCMP in Manitoba stated that additional charges may be forthcoming at the conclusion of their investigation. 

 

A 15-year-old from Nova Scotia and a 14-year-old from Manitoba are facing charges after police allege they planned simultaneous attacks at their schools in Bridgewater, N.S., and Rivers, Man. Police say they were alerted by the FBI and Interpol about online conversations between two teens.   CBC

 

It was revealed back in February that tech giant OpenAI had disclosed to police that the ChatGPT account of the mass shooter with eight deaths on his head, had been disabled in June. "Violent activity" on his account alerted the tech company's program investigators to the content of the account which they transmitted to the company's legal department for the potential of violent criminal intent. The legal department in turn had advised their head office administration to contact police, but those making the final decisions decided not to.  

"You put little hints out and hope that people are going to pick  up those hints. Sometimes the seeding is so that it does get thwarted and you do get attention and intervention. So, it's like a cry for  help."

"A lot of times people have nobody in their life. They don't belong to a group and the need to belong is such a fundamental human motivator that they find people who have similar ideology, or maybe sometimes they come into these groups without holding that ideology but wanting to belong to a group. We always do that-- we adapt to the group's norms. And the group norms here are nefarious and problematic. So, it doesn't surprise me that we see this from Nova Scotia to Manitoba."

"It was missed with Tumbler Ridge -- a huge miss. Tumbler Ridge was a large mistake."

"In about a third of the cases, there is a bully. There's a real interest in guns, violence and prior school shootings. So, they become a little bit obsessed and become experts in this type of violence."

"It's almost like a bravado; it's almost like a need to belong. You sh-t talk, then you're part of this disenfranchised group. But at least, you're part of the group, and that happens a lot."

Criminologist Tracy Vaillancourt, Canada Research Chair in Youth Mental Health and Violence Prevention, University of Ottawa 

 

"The Jewish community is increasingly asking a fundamental question: if imagery portraying Jews as vermin and celebrating the elimination of the Jewish state does not meet the threshold for hate propaganda laws, what does."

"As synagogues are shattered by gunfire and extremists march through largely Jewish neighbourhoods, it's clear that the status quo is not only unacceptable -- it's a growing threat to innocent life in our city." 

Joint letter: Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, B'nai Brith Canada, United Jewish Appeal

 

"At protests at Bathurst & Sheppard, extremists openly made threats of violence, glorified terrorism, and depicted Jews as subhuman -- 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 the Toronto Police Service 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."

Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs 

Toronto Al-Quds Day demonstration   World Socialist Web Site

 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford last week made an attempt to stop an Al-Quds Day rally, originally a creation by the Islamic Republic of Iran, to claim the ancient Judean city of Jerusalem an Arab Palestinian city and the Temple Mount, the retaining walls of the biblical Temple of Solomon dating back to the 10thC BCE, the Islamic Noble Sanctuary where the Prophet Mohammed was said to have flown up to heaven mounted on a horse. 'Quds', the Arabic word for Jerusalem.

 

The ceremonial day is meant to convey Islamic ownership of Jerusalem, as much to deny Israel its rightful place on its own ancestral heritage territory. A blatant global religious intifada, in very fact. Characterizing the rally for Al Quds Day as an event that 'glorifies violence' and 'celebrates terrorism', the Premier's effort was for naught when a court rejected his request for an injunction, permitting the event to proceed, one its organizers described as a 'pro-Palestinian' rally.  

"These kinds of things make our community fearful, so we would love to see restrictions on things like promoting designated terrorist organizations and terrorism inside of Canada."

"I think there is a recognition of the challenges that we face at this particular moment in time that are increasing in terms of threats from terrorism."

"[The Jewish community remains] in the midst of an unprecedented tidal wave of antisemitism." 

Dylan Hanley, vice-president public affairs, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

 

"We'd like to see the criminalization of the glorification of terror."

"We'd like to see additional Criminal Code offences that make it more difficult for terrorist organizations to operate in Canada after they are listed as terrorist entities."

Rich Robertson, research manager, B'nai Brith Canada  

Anti-Israel demonstrators hosting Nazi-era signage savaging Jewish personas featuring a caricature of an emaciated Orthodox Jew exiting a cave asking if "Iran has stopped" yet, a drawing of a caricatured Jewish man crying "Help us, Daddy!" into a walkie-talkie faced with an American flag as missiles rain down -- another of rats creeping in and out of a hole in the shape of the Star of David were flaunted in Toronto last week, in a disgusting display of racist denigration of the Jewish community. Joseph Goebbels would be proud of his propagandist inheritors.

 

Protesters display antisemitic posters demonizing Jews during protest at Bathurst St./Sheppard Ave. West in North York on March 15. (Images courtesy of @l3v1at4an on X)

 

Jews in Canada are asking the federal government to consider enacting criminal laws that specifically target terror glorification and acts that promote or encourage terrorism. A dramatic -- and to Jews in Canada -- horrifyingly familiar scenario of an ongoing rancid rise in antisemitic incidents that call out for government attention and  appropriate remedial action. Shootings of synagogues, anti-Israel protests that applaud the Hamas October 7, 2023 barbaric atrocities in southern Israel, calling for Israel's destruction, a 'final solution', to 'globalize the intifada'. 

 

Organized marches led by Palestinian student groups in Canadian universities that march through Jewish neighbourhoods, jeering, intimidating, threatening residents. These are groups that not only focus on preying on the Jewish community, but that also go out of their way to become public nuisances, blocking highways, mounting protests in front of hospitals and diplomatic missions. And blocking access to public traffic by kneeling en masse in public street prayers as a sign of  Islamic conquest.

 

Palestine Youth Movement held a downtown rally from Yonge and Dundas Sts. to the Israeli Consulate on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, before shutting down the intersection to traffic. Photo by Caryma Sa'd /Special to the Toronto Sun

"Week after week, for far too long, hateful protesters have been allowed to publicly spew antisemitic vitriol on this street corner [Bathurst and Sheppard]."

"The line has been crossed repeatedly. Toronto police must lay charges, the Crown must prosecute, and the courts must make clear that promoting antisemitism on our streets carries serious consequences."

Michael Levitt, CEO, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center  

According to Toronto police, an online statement assured it was "aware of antisemitic signs displayed at a demonstration this weekend at Bathurst and Sheppard" (the heart of the Jewish community in Toronto). "Hate Crime Unit investigators are consulting with the Ministry of the Attorney General regarding promotion of hatred offences under the Criminal Code." Yet, despite considerable police resources tasked to security of the Jewish community, the threats and the violence continue, as evidenced by recent synagogue shootings and another at the U.S. Consulate.

 

Toronto Police

 

Police Chief Warren Driechel Greg Southam/Postmedia

"[I see my recent trip to Israel] as valuable, among multiple learning experiences I will have in this role." 

"I remain focused on my longstanding and ongoing commitment to dialogue, learning and connection across communities and across boundaries."

"In mid-February, I joined police Chiefs from Canada and the United States, on a visit to Israel where we met police and community leaders in several cities. I spent time with police officers from Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Druze faiths representing a wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. I also met with Muslim community leaders who shared openly about their concerns and their reasons for working with police."

"These officers and community leaders operate in an environment that demands extraordinary vigilance - managing crime, counter terrorism, supporting community and crisis response all amid extreme complexity. Police to police we were able to talk about the toll this work takes on the people who do it. We talked about building trust in communities where there is little trust. We were able to get a glimpse of the undertaking required to police in complex environments. "

"I am grateful for what I was able to learn and share with those we visited and among my North American peers. These missions offer a great deal of insight and valuable perspective. I am grateful for the continued leadership and support of the Edmonton Police Commission who have supported me in this."

Edmonton Police Service Chief Warren Driechel 

Sharif Hasan Abdulahi is accused of hitting Const. Mike Chernyk with a car and stabbing him multiple times before driving a U-Haul truck through downtown Edmonton and striking and injuring four people on Sept. 30, 2017. CTV News 

 

This professional development trip for the purpose of coming to grips with and intimately coming to an understanding of how the most terrorist-attack-prone nation in the world handles this reality of its existence is one that is conducted on an annual basis, when Chiefs of Police from around the world gather for an unusual type of conference, but one increasingly of concern globally as terror attacks have not abated but gathered steam. The professional organization for North American big-city police chiefs on this year's delegation paid for Chief Dreichel's seat on the tour, and it was approved by the Edmonton Police civilian oversight board. 

 

However, when news of the trip and Chief Dreichel's public comments on the value he took from his participation went public, Edmonton's Muslim community expressed its disapproval of this educational opportunity. No fewer than 26 Edmonton mosques and Muslim groups notified the police commission through a jointly-signed letter that they felt "profound disappointment and hurt".  Chief Dreichel's trip, they emphasized, was the cause of 'deep pain' for Edmonton's Muslim community, affected by the conflict in the Middle East.   

"My big takeaway was that what they're learning and what they're working on. How do they build that connection to all of their community, including the Muslim people that live within Israel."

"[Understanding the] historical, geopolitical context, and how that maybe shapes things that go on in our own community [was helpful]."

Chief Dreichel

 

"At a time when countless families in Edmonton are grieving the devastating violence unfolding in Gaza and the region more broadly, the decision by the chief of police to travel to Israel to meet with policing institutions demonstrates a serious failure of judgment toward the communities he is sworn to serve and protect."

"For many members of Edmonton's Muslim community, particularly those with family directly impacted by the ongoing genocide, this decision has caused great pain."

Edmonton Muslim community joint letter

 

"At a time of rising Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, antisemitism, and hate towards marginalized communities, the choice to make this trip is harmful and further alienates members of our community."

Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack  

Chief Dreichel made it clear that the delegation met no one from the Israeli government, its military or intelligence networks. This was purely and simply a police gathering to discuss how societies that face the spectre of terrorism can best use tried-and-true methods of intelligence, communication, cooperation and methods of collaboration with specific smaller communities within the larger one, to find common ground in the interests of security for all concerned.

 

In Canada, as in Israel itself, it is the Jewish community that has been under siege for the years following the Hamas-led terrorist attack that took place in southern Israel, on the border with Gaza, on October 7, 2023. It is also a known fact that Muslim youth groups in Canada on the very day of the atrocities and the day following and other days ad infinitum organized public rallies, marches and protests in support of Hamas, characterizing the mass brutality of murder, rape, torture and abduction of Israeli civilians as an understandable reaction to 'occupation'.

 

An 'occupation' that would never be necessary had Palestinian leaders over the years not incited their populations to hate, resent and resist the very presence of the State of Israel, claiming the very ancestral territory Israel sits on as the property of Arab Palestinians for their state. A state that could have been theirs in 1948, and every year after, had they recognized the legitimacy of Israel's existence, had they not aspired to destroy the Jewish State to claim the geography it sits upon for a Palestinian state, 'from the river to the sea'.

 

Islamophobia is a symbol of the victimhood that Palestinians clasp close to their bosoms, as a grievance against those who believe that Jews, like the Arabs that surround them, are entitled to their sliver of land; a tiny proportion of land apportioned by the United Nations, representing a minuscule part of Judean indigenous heritage, as opposed to the huge areas 'occupied' by the Arab nations that repeatedly went to war with the nascent Israel and failed with each endeavour to dislodge it. Muslims in Canada replay that 80-year-old scenario.

 

Edmonton itself has had experiences with Islamist terrorist attacks. And during the Islamic State reign of terror in Syria and Iraq, Islamist stalwarts from Edmonton went off to join them in their atrocity-laden Caliphate drive. 

 

Israel's response to the mass murder that took place on October 7, 2023, was to do what any other country in the world would do, in total accordance with international norms; enter the geography that had enacted the mass atrocity to hunt down and dispose of the terrorists, which in this case was the governing body of Gaza. It is a conflict of mass proportions, one that Hamas is comfortable with sacrificing its own population to achieve its purpose; destroying Israel. 

 

The charges of 'apartheid' and 'genocide', while playing well to the Muslim ummah abroad, are both hyperbolic terms of propaganda, since Israel's population is itself 20% Muslim, along with a wide array of other groups, from Christians, B'hai, Druze, Kurds and Circassians holding citizenship. As for 'genocide', under the 'occupation', the Palestinian population in both territories grew exponentially in size. It has been Hamas that has fuelled a war that has claimed victims among the population it hides behind. 

 

Yellow police tape outside Edmonton's city hall after the building was evacuated on Jan. 23. Bezhani Sarvar, 28, was arrested and is facing a number of terrorism-related charges. (Emily Fitzpatrick/CBC)

 

"It was brutal, and a real shock to see firsthand, these glass doors and windows shattered, and glass laying all over the place."

"The most heartbreaking part of all? Most of the response was, not feeling surprised. They told me: 'We believed we were respected and admired, and we believed people wanted us here, and this is what it's come to."

"I believe that any one of our citizens, any one of our residents who is under pressure and beleaguered and targeted consistently deserves to have support and protection."

"I want to remind everyone that they're not alone. These are words I've said so many times now since October 7, 2023."

"I think the first and most important thing is that I've tried, and my colleagues have tried to be there, to show up, to show solidarity and to deliver a consistent message from October 7, all the way through."

"We are only one part of the solution, and we do need the other levels of government to step up and respond in a similar fashion. And they haven't always done it. They certainly haven't done it consistently."

Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca

Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca in Vaughan, Ontario.  Photo by Ernest Doroszuk,Toronto Sun 

 

The mayor of Vaughan, a suburb of the City of Toronto, spoke before a congregation of hundreds of Jewish residents in the wake of a targeted gunfire attack at the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto synagogue. At the sanctuary podium the mayor explained what had happened to Jewish worshippers who had arrived that morning, not knowing that their synagogue had been sprayed by bullets in the earlier morning hours. 

 

This, at a time when another synagogue in Toronto, Shaarei Shomayim, was also that very same evening hit by bullets, following an earlier March 2nd attack on Toronto's Temple Emanu El synagogue. In the city of Vaughn with its 350,000 population, 15,000 identify as people of the Jewish faith. The city of Vaughn, in complete contrast to Toronto, had held a city hall vigil for the two Bibas family infants murdered in Hamas custody along with their mother. 

 

The Canadian flag flew at half-mast following the October 7 massacre in Israel. Mayor Del Duca's municipality was the first in the country to introduce a "Bubble Zone" bylaw that prohibits demonstrations from taking place within 100 metres of a place of worship, hospitals and daycare facilities. A result of two back-to-back "large scale" synagogue protests that took place in 2024, described by the mayor as "really ugly". 

 

People carry a Palestinian flag during a rally in front of City Hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 9, 2023.   (photo credit: REUTERS/Kyaw Soe Oo)

 

Mayor Del Duca sent a message to the federal government where he called for "more action coming from the federal government", giving special mention to former and present prime ministers of  Canada, Justin Trudeau and his successor Mark Carney, neither of whom have exerted themselves to use existing laws under the Criminal Code to take steps to ensure the safety and security of Canadian Jews against a flood of 'pro-Palestinian', 'pro-Hamas' organized hate fests threatening the existence of the state of Israel and by extension Jews everywhere as they called to 'globalize the Intifada' and for that infamous 'Final Solution'. 

 

The Canada of their birth, the Canada of not so long ago is no longer the Canada that people of Jewish origin who are Canadian citizens recognize and love. This very Liberal party that has governed the country for over a decade is responsible for an influx of immigrants, refugees and migrants from the Middle East and North Africa bringing with them their customs and values, their history and religious devotion, their customs and laws utterly at variance with those of Canada itself. And among those customs is a rabid form of Jew-hate that festers and boils over into the wider Canadian society.

 

The Canadian government that engineered this wholesale change in the meaning of Canadian identity and values under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has chosen to abrogate its primary duties of equality and justice in the greater interests of garnering votes among a now-large demographic against a far more modest-in-number group that has been left to its own devices to shelter itself from raging discrimination, racism, threats and violence. The Canada so beloved of its Jewish population has vanished.

 

As anti-Israel protesters resort to antisemitic taunts and display blatantly antisemitic signs in a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood, police say they will “consult” the attorney general about potential “promotion of hatred” offences. Juno News

 

"I want to make it clear: this can't be the occasional social media post: but through your language through your internal meetings with law enforcement, with intelligence officials. You make it abundantly clear that this can't happen, and it's got to stop."

"And you give directions to your ministers, whether it's your minister of public safety or your minister of justice and the attorney general of Canada, whoever it happens to be."

"You have these discussions at cabinet and in caucus, and you make it crystal clear, including to your caucus members. And you tell us all the measures you're taking."

"I have yet to see that kind of forceful language or behaviour or policies being adopted. What I've heard, both informally and on the public record, is a lot of process talk."

"[Some Liberal Members of Parliament have] said absolutely outrageous things, and they are not in the least interested in protecting the Jewish community. A lot of officials on all levels [won't call out Jew-hatred in the] hope it all goes away [or that they are] too busy counting votes, rather than standing up for Canadian values."

"They seem to have lost the ability to make moral or ethical judgments."

"[It must be stated publicly that it's wrong to protest] fully masked, aggressive, and clearly trying to intimidate people, in an area that you happen to know is a largely Jewish neighbourhood. [A generation ago] this would not have been even questioned."

Vaughn Mayor Steven Del Duca