"I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold and pulled him out. I called the Israelis who were with us, jumped back in and pulled the controls."

"I started pulling them back."

"He [wounded captain] was very close to the door and that made it difficult for us to open it. My conclusion is that he managed to open it for us before he collapsed." 

"The plane began to level out, and then [one of the other pilots aboard the plane] told me he was taking control."

Yaniv Hayun, Passenger on FlyDubai Flight 1073 

 

"[It was like] we were having very big turbulence, but there was no turbulence."

"My wife was standing near the cockpit because my daughter was in the bathroom. Suddenly, she heard shouting coming from the cockpit."

"She shouted to a replacement pilot from Fiji who was sitting there: 'Get in quickly, see what's happening'."

"He called for help, and two others and I entered the cockpit and subdued the attacker."

"I'm covered in blood. It was insane."

Almog Italie, Passenger on FlyDubai Flight 1073 

 

"[The aircraft was] pretty much out of control. It was really on the way to crashing, and it was simply he resourcefulness of many people who took control of the co-pilot and neutralized him."

"There was also a doctor who gave first aid, and people who treated both of them. Other than the pilot, there were no injuries, but the bigger fear was really a crash, which is exactly what he [the attacker] was trying to do."

Miryam Shira Ohayon, Passenger on Fly Dubai Flight 1073

 

"Despite being stabbed and seriously injured [Machchhar] fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker -- preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster."

"...He is a true hero."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 

The United Arab Emirates prosecutor general has ordered an investigation into the ‌stabbing aboard FlyDubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, which was diverted and landed in Saudi Arabia after a struggle in the cockpit.  Still from video

 

According to Israeli dentist Musaev Shota, after hearing shouting he ran toward the cabin, helped to bind the attacker and then proceeded to treat the badly injured captain of the almost-doomed flight from the UAE to Israel. He and the others tied the hands and legs of the suspect as he continued to struggle against confinement, while insisting that they kill him, and thus give him the martyrdom he sought, despite the failure of his suicide mission. 

 

How could a man harbouring such a mission and carrying a fair-sized knife be aboard a plane with 174 passengers, plotting to bring it down and destroy all those lives, including his own? Israeli authorities immediately following the event, spoke of 'radicalization'. The attacker, a man with Omani citizenship, was known to Omani authorities, it is now revealed. His radicalization and toxic beliefs were known, and steps were taken to deny him the opportunity to fly Omani aircraft.

 

When he was hired by the United Arab Emirates' FlyDubai, Oman appears to have made no effort to warn of the man's untrustworthiness. And as he on that flight as the co-pilot, attacked the unsuspecting pilot, the plane dropped 17,000 feet in under two minutes. Some two hours and 20 minutes into its flight as it flew over the desert close to the Saudi-Jordanian order, the Omani co-pilot decided it was time to act on his plot to cause the untimely death of all those aboard Flight 1073. His plan was to kill the pilot and knock out the plane's controls.

 

The two onboard pilots who stepped in to take the controls managed to rescue the situation even as the aircraft "sent distress signals". They managed an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Videos of terrified passengers screaming and crying appeared on social media, with children calling for their mothers and weeping in fear at the panic of the adults aboard. A woman on the flight said she saw a man holding a knife had forced the pilot to the floor, with blood everywhere. Seventeen strikes with a knife, head wounds and an almost-severing of an arm would do that.

 

Flydubai pilot tells Indian prime minister Modi that he couldn’t ‘let anyone die’ – video

 

The pilot, Smit Machchhar, an experienced aviator from India, had heroically while close to expiring, thought of the lives in his care as the pilot of the plane, and willed himself to make the effort to alert those aboard, likely in the knowledge that other pilots were aboard, in the hope that among those in the aircraft some might be inspired through their own will to survive, to enter the cabin, disable his attacker and enable the plane's plummet to be controlled.

 

And fortune decreed on that day in the sky in that geographic area, disaster was averted. When the plane was safely landed, the Israeli passengers sang "The People of Israel Live", Am Yisrael Chai! 

 

A FlyDubai flight bound for Tel Aviv plummeted more than 17,000 feet through the air after the co-pilot allegedly stabbed the captain in the plane's cockpit. (Photo credits: The Canadian Press, Reuters, Adobe Stock and Getty Images)

 

"[Initial assessments] indicate a foiled error attack intended to crash the aircraft with all passengers on board."

"While a catastrophic tragedy was  averted, this severe incident must be understood and treated as if the attack succeeded."

"It serves as an urgent reminder of the ongoing threats faced by innocent civilians across the globe, who remain deliberate targets simply for being Israeli."

"This was not only an attempt on innocent lives, but a direct attempt by extremist forces to sabotage the vision of peace, stability, and regional normalization fostered by the historic Abraham Accords."

Israeli diplomatic Mission in Canada 

"[The rise in spending] comes as no surprise."

"It's not just about 'retaliatory strikes'. Simply put, more munitions are needed if the goals of the Special Military Operation are to be achieved."

Evgeny Suvorov, chief economist, CentroCredit Bank, Moscow

 

"[The ministry revealed last week that the budget plan would] ensure the provision of necessary weaponry and military hardware to the armed forces, the payment of allowances to military personnel and support for their families, and the modernization of defence industry enterprises."

Finance Ministry press service

A Russian MiG-31 fighter jet flies in the international airspace over the Gulf of Finland, September 24, 2026. Swedish Air Force/Finnish Air Force/Handout via REUTERS/

 

"Russia continues its reckless campaign of hostile actions against NATO allies. It is trying to weaken our resolve and stop our support for Ukraine."

"But Russia is failing. It is failing on the battlefield in Ukraine and it is failing to undermine our unity and support for Ukraine."

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte  

On the sidelines of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been teasing and testing NATO member countries, particularly its close East European neighbours in the Baltic region. Estonia has concluded an investigation into an arson attack on August 15 against Milrem Robotics, an Estonian defence manufacturer producing ground drones used by Ukraine. "We can conclude with certainty" stated Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, "that the arson attack ... was an act of sabotage ordered by the special services of the Russian Federation".

 

Milrem Robotics located in the Estonian capital Tallinn, had a fire break out in a building for which it has concluded Moscow's responsibility. "Baseless, absolutely no relation to reality. We cannot and will not take such statements seriously", responded Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in response. Russia has been repeatedly accused of hybrid provocations since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have increased their defence investment as a result. "Moscow is trying to scare Europe into winding down its support for Ukraine. This will not happen", stated Christian Wigand, European Commission spokesman. 

(DMITRY KOSTYUKOV/Getty Images)

 

War is a costly business on all sides. Vladimir Putin is so engrossed in saving Ukrainians from the grip of their 'neo-Nazi' government that despite Ukraine's courageous and effective counteroffensive to the conflict reaching into its fifth year -- discounting Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea and much of the Donbas, and the loss on both sides of tens of thousands of military personnel -- he grinds on with his goal. It is Ukraine's vast territory, its agricultural land and natural resources that Putin slavers over.

 

A scarcity of fighting manpower, the cost attendant on firing countless missiles and drones to defeat Ukraine's resolve to meet the challenge its neighbour poses and exit the war intact, has cost Russia dearly. Nothing deters Putin's territorial ambitions. He is prepared to continue pouring more resources -- both manpower and financial -- into the war he has inflicted on Ukraine. Plans are underway at the Kremlin to boost military spending by over 25 percent, even as Ukraine has succeeded in penetrating deeper into Russian territory.

 

Military spending reflecting Putin's new draft budget now stands at 17.1 trillion rubles (some $288 billion) for the coming year. War spending will sit at roughly 35 percent of the country's 48.8 trillion rubles in total expenditures. Moscow has been forced to spend greater sums just on protecting itself even as it relentlessly continues to attack Ukraine's cities, aiming for its electrical grids as winter approaches to once again demoralize Ukrainian citizens left without heat and cooking facilities during its long cold winter.

 

For its part, Kyiv continues its winning strategy of sending missiles and drones further within Russia, targeting oil refineries, logistics hubs and warehouses. Russia must respond to increase costly air defences, and stepped up its attacks on crucial Black Sea ports for Ukraine, and hitting urban centres which it claims are really military depots. Ukraine's targets of Russian oil facilities have caused pain in a gasoline shortage across the country.

 

Russia's air defences, the advanced systems protecting Moscow included, have been tested by large scale drone attacks, courtesy of Ukraine. The massive military casualties that Russia has suffered have failed to translate to progress on the battlefield. Russians now spend sleepless nights in worrying over a new mobilization, with the new parliament back in session, when an overwhelming 'democratic process' voted Vladimir Putin back in power. 

 

Russia plans to spend 17.1 trillion rubles ($202.58 billion) on defense in 2027, around 27% more than the 13.5 trillion rubles originally budgeted and the highest figure since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, government documents seen by Reuters showed on Monday.  Reuters

 

"Canada and UNRWA share concerns about the threat of terrorism, including within the context of the United Nations' firm commitment to counter terrorism."

"[UNRWA is] taking all possible measures [to ensure Canadian government charitable/humanitarian funding  would not be used to] provide assistance to or otherwise support, terrorists or terrorist organizations."

"Canada's humanitarian assistance funding is largely flexible and un-earmarked."

Global Affairs Canada

Of all the millions Ottawa has earmarked for Palestinians, it’s the outlays for UNRWA – the United Nations Relief and Works Agency – that have received the most scrutiny. Photo by Mohammad Nazal/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

 

When Stephen Harper was the Conservative Prime Minister of Canada, he was coherent and principled and well-informed. So much so that he quite reasonably understood where funding for the Palestinian 'cause' of aiding the 'victims' of Israel's statehood, that left Arab Palestinians' aspiration to have all land they claimed as their own -- Judean ancestral land -- that the United Nations in its wisdom in 1947 split between Jews and Arabs, to be gifted only to the Arab demographic that termed themselves 'Palestinian' despite that designation dating back to the Roman Empire which renamed Judea to spite unruly Jews.

 

The Conservative government took the step of cutting off all Canadian aid to UNRWA, knowing it for what it really is; a United Nations-mandated entity to support the world's only permanent 'refugee' population, one so fully in accord with Palestinian resentment of the presence of the Jewish state that it never stopped plotting to destroy it. UNRWA schools employed Palestinian terrorists to operate them, using the school textbooks characterizing Jews as deadly enemies.

 

The curricula taught Palestinian children to abhor Israel, encouraging children to dream of becoming honoured martyrs in the cause of 'opposing' the Israeli 'occupation', whose purpose it was to defend Jews against lethal violence children were taught to regard as their highest calling, for which they would ascend to Paradise. Palestinian children's school plays had them enacting fatal encounters with Jews. 'Summer camps' set up for Palestinian children taught them the vital elements of guerrilla warfare.

 

Summer Camps/Palestinian Youth AP

And the United Nations Relief and Works Agency worked right alongside Fatah and Hamas in patterning Palestinian children to desire death in the carrying out of the sacred task of murdering Jews for the crime of being Jews and inhabiting their heritage territory. The honoured calling of terrorism against one's mortal enemy who refused to surrender to Palestinian Arab demands of sole ownership of the territory. 

 

None of this is unknown, but it goes unrecognized as dreadfully inconvenient to acknowledge and act upon in the West, which has chosen the sanctimonious route of paying homage to terror by empathizing with the 'underdog' that engages in the kind of acceptable propaganda portraying themselves as the world's eternal victims, oppressed by the world's most persecuted minority which clings to its sliver of land as a political, moral, military bulwark against the ethnic/religious/cultural detestation of ancient derivation that will not die.

 

The Liberal government of Canada has no intention of opening the cover of a book whose frontal illustration is that of starving children in Gaza and the West Bank; governed by Palestinian leaders who have received billions of charitable funds from the United Nations, Europe, North America and elsewhere to relieve the conditions of enduring poverty, but which end up in private bank accounts, and in financial support for the 'martyrs' who engage in deadly attacks against Jews and Israel. The pages within document a history too complex to digest, and so why bother?

 

Horrifying images show victims of Hamas attack at rave, where Israeli cops acted as human shields and hostages had legs blown off, survivors say https://trib.al/ctXLbrp

 

When the October 7 Palestinian terrorists sprinted by their thousands from Gaza into southern Israel, the  government of Canada was sending  hundreds of millions of dollars in support of the poor, needy Palestinians, through UNRWA. That same UN agency from among whose staff Hamas operatives were raiding Israeli homes, raping girls and women, setting homes on fire with their residents within, slaughtering the inhabitants of farming communities and young Israelis enjoying social relaxation at  the Nova Music Festival nearby.

 

Eventually, when enough proof was provided of the participation in October 7 of an astonishing number of Hamas operatives who also were employed by UNRWA, the UN body fired many of them while claiming that "the dismissal of the staff is not part of a disciplinary process and does not constitute in any way a validation of the claims made against them".

 

And although Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claimed to have put a stop to the Palestinian Authority Martyrs Fund that guaranteed lavish financial support for anyone imprisoned or martyred while committing an act of 'resistance', the U.S.-based Modern War Institute analysis quoted the PA's "Amended Palestinian Prisoners Law No. 19" which identifies a pension account for any Palestinian deemed to have taken part "in the struggle against the occupation". And 'Pay for Slay' carries on.  

"We understand that a recent payment has been made to the families of prisoners, based on a previous scheme."

"We profoundly regret this decision, as this seems to go against prior announcements."

EU Commission November 2025 public statement  

In all a total of $600 million has been transferred by Canada to Gaza. The millions that Ottawa earmarked for Palestinians have seen UNRWA receiving scrutiny. Nonetheless despite clear evidence of complicity between the agency and Hamas as well as with other Palestinian terrorist groups, and UNRWA's responsibility in corrupting young Palestinian minds, Canada continues to fund them. The latest $100 million gesture of trust a mere several weeks past, $20 million of which was for "peace and stabilization initiatives" that includes training and equipping a Palestinian military component.

 

Canada's Prime Minister Carney is so  convinced of the worthiness of Palestinian claims to statehood despite its ongoing refusal to recognize Israeli right of existence and sovereignty, that on behalf of Canada, he 'recognized' Palestinian statehood with the proviso that greater evidence of dedication to democracy be attained and demonstrated. The upshot is that Canada, along with Spain, Ireland, the U.K. and France have 'recognized' Palestinian statehood. The qualifiers have not and will never become reality.

 

As for the 'two-state solution' they espouse as a 'solution' to the 'unrest', it has been rejected time and again by the Palestinians, who finally put it to rest on October 7. 

"Canada is deeply alarmed by the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the terrible situation for the civilian population, exacerbated by severely restricted access for humanitarian partners seeking to provide assistance. Canada continues to call for a UN-led humanitarian response with safe and unimpeded access into and within Gaza. The ceasefire is a welcome development and Canada urges the parties to fully adhere to it."

"The ongoing conflict has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths. Heightened tensions in the region could pose further security risks."

"The security and economic situation in the West Bank is also of concern. Frequent Israeli military operations throughout the West Bank, as well as rising extremist settler violence against Palestinians, have led to thousands of casualties and resulted in clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians."

"Canada’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is guided by its historic and unwavering commitment to a two-state solution, with Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side in peace and security. Prospects for a two-state solution have been steadily eroding, as a result of the pervasive threat of Hamas’ terrorism, continued Israeli settlement expansion and extremist settler violence in the West Bank, and the Israeli government’s ongoing military operation in Gaza, and failure to alleviate the resulting humanitarian crisis."

Government of Canada 

"[Paper straws are being] introduced [for] safer snorting, intended for inhaling substances in powdered form or inhaling vapour from heated substances."

"[Paper straws will] reduce harm [by decreasing risk of internal nose cuts that could happen with home-made or plastic straws, and reduce infections from diseases like hepatitis B and C, while] recognizing that overdose and toxicity risks remain." 

"[These items are being introduced] in response to increased inhalation, smoking and snorting substances among federal inmates."

"Harm reduction must adapt to reduce overdose risks, prevent the transmission of infectious diseases and align with current evidence-based practices." 

Correctional Service Canada memo to federal prisons

William Head Institution is shown through a security fence in Victoria, B.C. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Lam

 

Additionally, according to the memo, foil strips will also be distributed "for safer smoking". Drug-testing strips for fentanyl, benzodiazepine and xylazine will also be included. If found on their own, the new harm reduction items should not result in criminal charges. If they're "found alongside illicit substances or unauthorized paraphernalia, standard operational procedures ... must be followed". Confused yet?

 

The memorandum issued by Correctional Service Canada came to public notice when photos of the memo distributed to Corrections staff, were included in a social media post. The communication, according to CSC communications officer Laurence Cote, "was developed ... to provide information to all employees regarding the expansion of harm reduction products". CSC health services include "harm reduction measures" designed to prevent and minimize "harms related to substance use".

 

Since Correctional Service of Canada's National Drugs and Substances Strategy recognizes substance use as a health issue, approved harm reduction supplies are not considered to be contraband. On the other hand, these "safer snorting" items do not counteract the fact that the CSC "maintains robust measures" to address "introduction, trafficking, financing, and distribution of unauthorized substances ... within its institutions, and holds those involved accountable". There, does that make the issue more sensible and the CSC decision-making more sensibly responsible?

 

 

 In-prison training for Health Services staff who are responsible for distributing the supplies to inmates will begin in several days' time. Until then -- October 1 -- implementation will await its opportunity two weeks later -- October 13. At which time, according to CSC, the training sessions will have been completed, and staff and inmates jointly anticipate a relaxed and leisurely transition to snorting safely in the comfort of knowing that rescue is nearby and available at all hours should things go sideways.

 

After all, what possibly could go wrong? The government of Canada under the compassionate, progressive Liberal banner knows how to proceed with the ills suffocating society in the 21st century. Drug addiction is a bad, nasty word. Drug dependency is a medical term, that ushers the drug-addicted into a cocoon of government care, becoming a purely health issue. And for the good of their health, those who crave recreational drugs to make them insensible to reality, self-agency, responsibility, and life itself, can rely on this government to help them in their incoherent, chaotic mission to waste their lives.

 

Drug-addicted Canadians, felons, take heart -- the government of Canada and the Correctional Service of Canada -- at your service! Rehabilitation? Fogetaboutit!

 

Drug snorting. Corrections Canada has confirmed that paper straws will soon be distributed in federal prisons to facilitate safe snorting of drugs. (File photo) Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

 

"[Harm reduction interventions] are widely recognized as cost-effective because they help prevent the transmission of infectious diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C, reducing the need for significantly more expensive medical treatment and long-term health care costs associated with these conditions."

"Health Services staff will provide education and guidance to support informed and appropriate use of these supplies."

Correctional Service Canada memo 

 

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow

“I unequivocally condemn this disgusting antisemitic act and the repeated vandalism of Kehillat Shaarei Torah temple. The Toronto Police Service is investigating and the Hate Crime Unit has been on scene. I support the Toronto Police in quickly apprehending whoever is responsible and will provide whatever resources are necessary. My office is in contact with police throughout this investigation and I understand they will release more information as it becomes available.

The City has several initiatives to help keep Jewish communities safe. My budget provides tens of millions towards visible police presence and service in Jewish communities. We have created policies to protect safe access to religious and cultural institutions and invested in anti-hate public education campaigns. Jewish Torontonians deserve to live in peace and security, we will never tolerate vandalism, violence or the intimidation of our Jewish neighbours.”

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow Webpage 

"The city has a real problem with antisemitism and Jew hatred. It does...and that lands on Mayor Chow's desk."

"It's really regrettable that she's not able to attend a debate, have a conversation with a community in Toronto that is deeply hurting about a topic like antisemitism." 

Mayoral candidate Councillor Brad Bradford 

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow appeared at the National Council Canadian Muslims gala on Nov. 1, 2025 (Screenshot image via X.com)

 

"Here in Toronto, a global city, we feel the pain of what happens around the world."

"The genocide in Gaza impact[s] us all. A common bond of shared humanity is tested."

"I will speak out anywhere when children anywhere are feeling the pain and violence and hunger."

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, at the National Council of Canadian Muslims

"No international court or legal body has made a binding or final ruling that a genocide is taking place. Making such inaccurate and misleading statements, while representing all Torontonians, sends a harmful and divisive message."

"Toronto deserves leaders who treat every community with respect and act with impartiality. At a time when the mayor should be working to mend divisions and ease tensions, she has instead chosen to inflame them."

"The City’s own Code of Conduct makes it clear that elected officials must act with integrity and impartiality and that their actions must withstand the closest public scrutiny."

"When a Mayor presents a legally disputed claim as fact, it crosses the line from leadership to bias."

B'nai Brith Canada

Toronto is in the throes of a campaign for mayor of Canada's largest city. So far,the incumbent, Olivia Chow, as the current office holder, is in the lead and may yet be confirmed to continue to hold her office in a renewed mandate. Three frontrunners have been identified for the October 26 mayoral race in a massive ballot of 50 names in total. Aside from Mayor Chow, her top challengers are Brad Bradford and Chris Alexander. A recent debate focusing on antisemitism which has risen to alarming proportions particularly in Toronto, presented as a perfect opportunity for Mayor Chow to answer to and rebut accusations that she has fuelled a distinct aura of Jew-hate in the city.

 

While she has often issued declarations of condemnation when Toronto synagogues and Jewish schools have been shot at, defaced and congregants harassed as they entered their places of worship, her words are meaningless when she fails to react in any concrete manner to ensure that civic law is upheld and that the 
Toronto Police Service is called upon to ensure that Toronto's Jewish neighbourhoods not continue to see hordes of keffiyeh-clad, masked anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian groups mock and threaten Jewish residents.

 

Invited to a mayoral debate on antisemitism and the precarious security of Toronto's Jewish community, she refused attendance. When pressed, she said she does not take part in candidate events when her campaign had not yet been official launched. Which it was, the day after the debate took place. Irrespective of whether this debate was linked to the mayoral campaign, Mayor Chow should recognize the need to address an issue that has been ongoing for three years, of crowds of Jew-baiters setting up encampments at universities, of Muslims in large groups taking over streets for mass prayers.

 

The 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

 

The travesties of anti-Jewish groups standing before Jewish-owned restaurants and harassing those entering, of other crowds shouting anti-Jewish invective in front of Jewish old-age homes, in front of a Jewish hospital that treats all patients, being permitted these anti-social and threatening actions in the name of 'free speech' even when shouting "Go back to Poland", or infamously "Final Solution", and "From the River to the Sea", clearly enough hate propaganda inciting to violence and nothing is done to uphold the law, a reflection of the mayor's disinterest in her obligations to all her constituents.

 

By The Toronto Police Service's own numbers, Jews were targets of 82 percent of religious-motivated hate crimes in 2025, for an ethnic/religious minority representing a mere three percent of the population. Despite which, this mayor saw her way clear to inciting even greater verbal assaults against the Jewish community by her rhetoric demonizing the Jewish state, and in one fell swoop, calling down even greater threats against Canadian Jews in Toronto.

 

She is a disgrace to her office, for choosing the inflammatory language she uses toward satisfying a larger voting demographic that clearly identifies Jews in Toronto being the default for Israel. Canada deserves better, and so does Toronto. Above all, the Jewish community which has their roots in this country going back centuries and considers Canada their home, deserve better than to have Jewish-owned businesses vandalized. When municipal authorities see it in their political interest to identify a victim for the baying Jew-haters in society, that society identifies itself as a human-rights failure.

 

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow speaks to media on March 8, 2025. Prof. Yang Meng writes that a speech made by Chow in November, in which she drew parallels between the Japanese invasion of China during WWII and the situation in Gaza, was hurtful to both Jewish and Chinese people. Photo by Christopher Katsarov / The Canadian Press

 

"The Mayor of Canada’s largest city, stood with us and spoke the truth: that what is happening in Gaza is a genocide, [that] truth matters. Mayor’s Chow’s words tonight were not about politics — they were about acknowledging the genocide in Gaza, and the path forward."

"It is an acknowledgment that has important policy implications, as we all know, because as we also all know, there are far too many who have not made this acknowledgment."

"Speaking the truth is the only way to be decent right now."

"There is still much wrong here in Toronto. And we’ve seen terrible things happen to shut down peaceful protests to stand against the genocide in Toronto over the past few years."

National Council of Canadian Muslims

 

"Such language distorts fact and law, and it legitimizes the hostility and intimidation that Jewish Torontonians are already facing in record numbers."

"By echoing that narrative, Mayor Chow lends support to those spreading malicious libels and undermines public confidence in her commitment to the safety, dignity, and inclusion of all Torontonians."

"The Jewish community expects the mayor to make this right by addressing the harm caused and taking immediate action to restore trust and ensure our safety."

Noah Shack, CEO,  Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

"There has been some trauma from this [Yom Kippur eve attack on Sons of Jacob Synagogue, Belleville, Ontario]. But we're going to pick up the pieces and we're going to start over and we're going to carry on."

"We will not be stopped by this person, or anyone else."

"We always have police protection. Every synagogue in North America on the high holidays has police protection. We've been doing it for years."

"Whenever there's a large gathering of Jews in a synagogue, there's police protection. That's just a sign of the times."

"For Jews, it's kind of like, who's going in the bad book? Who will not live through this year?"

"I guess we were all in the good book [congregants present during the attack], because we survived." 

Norman Weddum, president, Sons of Jacob Synagogue 

 

"When you're Jewish, you look to the history of your people."

"The people who came here were Holocaust survivors. They escaped Czarist Russia."

"They came to make a better life in this country, just as every Jewish community across this country." 

Shima Viggoda, vice-president, Sons of Jacob Synagogue 

 

"We're resilient, that's why we keep going. We have to fight."

"There was a time when we couldn't have services and we didn't have the people."

"But again, we built ourselves up, and we are standing on our feet now."

Mary Cohen, Sons of Jacob Synagogue board member

Police stand in front of the Son of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario Ontario on Monday Sept. 21, 2026. Ian MacAlpine - The Canadian Press

 

The small congregation of the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario at sundown, Sunday had gathered for Yom Kippur services only to hear gunfire erupt outside. First thoughts were that the sounds were anything but shots; a vehicle backfiring, firecrackers, but no.  When it was fully understood that shots were being fired at the synagogue the doors were locked and everyone looked for shelter as bullets flew over the heads of those sheltering on the floor. 

 

The member of the Belleville Police Service, Corporal Jeffrey Smith, seated in an unmarked vehicle outside the synagogue heard someone shout at him "You're going to die for the Jews!" before he was shot twice, in the neck and back. He emerged though wounded, from the vehicle and engaged with the attacker, as shots rang back and forth until two minutes on another constable appeared and his subsequent shots fully disarmed the shooter, a discharged soldier from the Canadian Armed Forces who had armed himself with a shotgun fully intending to enter the synagogue and murder as many there as he could.

 

That shooter whose plan had gone awry, almost killed Constable Smith, now in recovery though remaining in critical condition, while none of the Jewish congregants were harmed physically. The terrorist attacker, taken to Kingston General Hospital as was Corporal Smith, died the following day. The carnage he  hoped to carry out in a bloody shoot-out at a place of worship during the most holy day in the Judaic religious calendar was not to be. And the heroic action of a severely wounded police officer saved many lives, while endangering his own.

 

In Canada from 2023 to 2026, dozens of reports of gunfire, arson, window breaking, threats and vandalism have taken place at synagogues, parochial schools, community centres, Jewish-owned businesses and Jewish neighbourhoods, with expressions of condolences from the federal, provincial and municipal governments, but little-to-no effort made to enact real solutions through laws already in existence against the promotion of hate in ethnic communities.

 

The Sons of Jacob Synagogue is shown in Belleville, Ontario on Monday Sept. 21, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sharif Hassan

 

"The rabbi had just started to call us into the sanctuary. We were stepping inside, and we heard this loud bang, and we all stopped. It sounded like someone was banging the window or the door."

"We knew this was going to happen. We’ve been saying as Jews that we’re very concerned with the rise of antisemitism. What did you think was going to happen? People weren’t taking it seriously."

"Some people suggested we should go to the basement, others said we should go out the back door. At the same time, you’re just frozen because you don’t know what’s going on or what to do. Eventually the shots stopped."

"This guy’s a hero. I can tell you the gunman was coming for us inside, and he was trying to take out our armed protection first. We’re praying for [Police Constable Jeffrey Smith’s] recovery."

Doug Warren, 56, Kol Nidre services, Sons of Jacob Synagogue 

 

The tiny Jewish community in Belleville has existed for a century and a half. Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe found their way to the town in the late 1800s, located halfway between the major cities of Toronto and Montreal. In 1905, religious ceremonies were held at a rooming house in service to Jewish workers; representing the earliest appearance of what would become in time the Sons of Jacob congregation. The synagogue was finally built and open for services in 1956, on a residential street astride the small Jewish community when sufficient funding had been raised for the project.

 

Some 55 families comprised the congregation which by then had opened its own Hebrew school, and services were planned by a rabbi; a shochet to ensure ritual kashrut was employed, and the synagogue became a hub for fundraising through organized bazaars dances, lectures  -- where it hosted area  marriages and Bar Mitzvah ceremonies. The congregation dwindled in time as the community's younger generation left to pursue their futures in larger cities. The synagogue no longer had its own rabbi, but yearly for that solemn occasion, raised the funds required to fly in an Israeli rabbi to officiate. 

 

The congregants throughout the years had their random experiences with local  antisemitism, with Jewish children attending public schools exposed to it from within the general population. In 1925, the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland who became a local prominent businessman, found a large cross on fire on his front lawn one morning. Now, recovering from the most recent traumatic event, synagogue leaders plan to reopen its doors shortly and carry on the traditions of their forefathers in this small Ontario town. 

 

Police Officers at the scene of a shooting where a police officer was shot outside a Yom Kippur gathering at Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, September 21, 2026.

(photo credit: REUTERS/PATRICK DOYLE)

 

"We’re still in a state of shock. How could this happen, especially in Belleville? It’s insulting on top of it all."

"It’s bad enough when you read it in the news, but when you hear about it from somebody directly affected that you know, it was very distracting. Yom Kippur is a day of atonement, so you think back on how you can make yourself better and how you’re going to improve and move on. It’s a very contemplative day."

"How sick is it that you need armed police to enter your place of worship? But it’s a fact of life."

Debbie Fitzerman, president, Kingston Jewish Council 

 

"This is what we’ve been experiencing for the last, at least three years, but definitely has been compounded since October seventh." 

"Most of the coverage about Israel is negative and spreading lies and libels about Israel and Jews, and people are getting radicalized because of it."

"I’d like to see Hamas people being called terrorists, not combatants or warriors. I’d like to see true accounts of the humanitarian efforts that are being waged and have been waged for the benefit of the Palestinian people by the Israeli army, and not only unfortunate statements that some very right-wing members of the Israeli government have uttered, which do not represent the philosophy or the policies of the Israeli government or the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]."

"The Jewish people have survived thousands of years with similar opposition and similar attacks and we’re still here. This is one of the miracles of the Jewish people is that we’re survivors. We’re not going to let anybody take our traditions away from us."

"What starts with the Jews doesn’t end with the Jews. We are the canary in the coal mine. We’re the first ones to be hated and vilified, but then it extends to others and the ball keeps rolling until everybody is finding a scapegoat that’s not them and pointing fingers at others. That’s how society in a democracy disappears and disintegrates."

Rabbi Erin Polansky, Beth Israel Congregation, Kingston

  

"[You need to] see through ... every university in the so-called Global North [as selling] the possibility of future comfort at the cost of participating in the genocidal and ecocidal death march of the status quo."

"[The university administrator delegitimizes action on campus] that even remotely threatens to disrupt campus life."

"Students become] cash cows [where the purpose of education is to drive the economy since the institution's] primary function [is] to serve the extracative settler colonial project of so-called Canada."

"[It is the students alone who are] the only legitimate political actor in these negotiations."

"[Canada's law and order must be objected to as the student body] refuses the insistence that safety and protection necessitate policing and criminalization."

Concordia University student handbook

 

 

This is a university, an institute of higher education whose focus is -- should be -- entirely in stimulating and guiding young minds to question and discuss, learn to interpret, nurture a desire to research and to gain reliable data by enquiring minds taught to discern truth and reality from false information, propaganda and conspiracy theories. That students are immersed in studies learning how introspection and judgement can carry them into fields of professional endeavour meant to enlighten and to mature questing minds is indisputable. What is under dispute is their enforced exposure to ideological values in direct conflict with those of the prevailing society, its laws, culture, social contract and politics.

 

The university can claim itself innocent of the factions within its hallowed halls of academia, of students, primarily a foreign infiltration that influences the minds of the vulnerable among the student body, that preach a mission distinct from and averse to that of the university's own, but it is a feeble attempt at disassociation. Hesitation to act, on the premise of respecting free speech, while tolerating a situation of obvious denial of the values of an academic institution and that of the wider society bespeaks a cowering cowardice in the administration of the university. 

 

The 2026/27 student union-produced handbook for students is clear in its goal; to transform student minds from their focus on gaining an education to focus instead on an entirely corrupted form of student activism whose function is to popularize propaganda obviously inimical to a graduating student steeped in counter-culture and foreign influences designed to recruit minds toward a view of human rights and history that is warped and entirely in contrast to that considered the norm in Western societies. Anarchy is an incomplete description of the process; it is wedded jointly to Islamist jihad and extreme Marxist theory.   

"The Quiet Revolution-era promise of a Quebeois welfare state and shared prosperity for all is now more or less a thing of the past, abandoned in favour of xenophobic rhetoric and the so-called 'defence of Quebecois and western culture and values'."

"Ni Canada, Ni Quebec." 

Concordia Student Handbook  

 

 

"The handbook is put out by the Concordia Student Union, not the university. The CSU is an independent, student-led organization. It is controlled by its membership — meaning undergraduate students at Concordia — and governed, like other student associations in Quebec, by the Act respecting the accreditation and financing of students’ associations (chapter A-3.01), which ensures that these associations are fully independent of university administrations."

"We have highlighted with the CSU the issues, including the lack of inclusivity, in their handbook. Calls to violate the Code are not acceptable. All violations of the Code are being dealt with under our policies."

"We believe that the CSU publication is very far from promoting the full participation of students in their activities, as one would expect from such a handbook. Concordia is welcoming to all students and this publication does not represent the university."

Vannina Maestracci, spokesperson, Concordia University  

Concordia's student handbook paid for by fees extracted willingly or not from all students, is in fact a manifesto disparaging the West and Canada in particular, while passionately advocating for Palestinian terrorism to be viewed as a noble reaction to a powerful military's 'occupation' of disputed land which has produced an ever-evolving and revolving multitude of violent terrorists dedicated to a democratic nation's destruction because it is a Jewish nation.

 

The handbook promotes direct action, disparages both police and the utility of elections in a democracy. Its purpose is to mobilize entrants to a new world order, one dedicated to the destruction of the prevailing world order.

 

"Made for students by students" the Student Handbook 2026-27 is a 'survival guide' for nihilistic action. Advising students that Canada's government is focused on minorities whom it unfairly torments with threats of disentitlement and expulsion. The plight of migrants reflects that "money rules the land, that you'll be blamed for the political and economic failures of the government, and that your immigration status can be revoked at any time, resulting in your deportation, especially if you protest in solidarity with Palestine."

 

Concordia students are directly recruited to mobilize on behalf of Palestinian prisoners to be released from Israeli prisons despite their terrorist status. In last year's handbook its calendar was devoid of any Canadian holidays, but Nakba Day -- May 15, 1948, when Israel vanquished the combined armies of Egypt Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, after Israel had declared its independence as a Jewish state reborn on its ancestral footprint -- was featured. 

 

"[The university should be governed] by and for the people."

"It's clear that a board [of governors] composed of the wealthy and powerful serves the interests of investors and not Concordia's workers or students." "[Mark Carney should be censored for evoking Canada's] glorified settler colonial past."

"[The Liberal government passed a] massive anti-immigration bill giving the state powers to abandon due legal process and to cancel immigration status for migrants at will."

Concordia Student Handbook

A large group of protesters at Concordia University, October 2025 (Aatefeh Padidar/CBC)