"We have identified at least 17 overnight summer camps throughout Canada that support the State of Israel in some way."

"These camps are not problematic because they encourage connection to Jewish identity."

"Rather, they pose a problem because they encourage support for a genocidal, settler-colonial state."

"[Protesters should demand that the OCA board, the Quebec and Nova Scotia camp associations revoke accreditation of] camps that hire, host, or support [current or former] Israeli military personnel". 

Palestinian Anti-Israel Coalition  

 

"In recent days, the Ontario Camps Association (OCA) Board of Directors became aware of correspondence circulating online related to the current conflict in the Middle East." 

"That correspondence contains statements and expressions that the Board finds deeply concerning, and in certain characterizations and claims, we believe reflect rhetoric that is discriminatory and antisemitic in nature. The accusations, aimed at our Executive Director, members of the OCA team, and several member camps, draw directly on stereotyped libels and tropes related to Israel, Zionism, and Jewish people—including “genocide” and “colonizers,” symbolic categories that are so often spread with specifically malicious intent." 

"We welcome respectful dialogue, discussion, and even disagreement but will not tolerate harassment, intimidation, antisemitism, or discrimination."

Ontario Camps Association 

Campers gather at a Jewish overnight summer camp in Canada. Jewish community leaders and provincial camp associations have warned that coordinated anti-Israel campaigns targeting camp accreditation and visibility risk impacting youth institutions central to Jewish identity and communal life. (Image: TheJ.Ca.)

 

The Ontario Camps Association board of directors, in response to a campaign targeting over a dozen Jewish camps throughout Canada that support Israel, issued a statement that it will not tolerate "harassment, intimidation, antisemitism or discrimination".  Accusations levied against its executive director Joy Levy, staff and a number of member camps in the province are clearly offensively despicable, and do not align with the Association's values.

 

In its support of the Jewish camps among its extended camp memberships, the board of the OCA clarified their position that campaigns such as this are recognized for their role within a broader, co-ordinated effort to harm Jewish communities and their children; to weaken the credibility of Jewish camp leaders and "Canadian Jewish life in general", as well as imposing a discriminatory test of which Jews are considered to be "acceptable". 

 

Its role, pointed out the Ontario Camps Association, is not to "evaluate member camps based on their religious or cultural identity. Camps must be places where children, staff, volunteers, and families feel safe, respected, and protected. That includes our Jewish community, without exception." Concluding their statement with an expression of complete faith in their executive director and staff which had come under fire by the campaign to discredit them.

 

Titled "When children's camps support a  genocidal state, it's time for a gigantic change", the slanderous campaign is led by the groups Just Peace Advocates, the Palestinian Canadian Congress, the Canadian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Coalition, Ontario Palestinian Rights Association, and Palestinian and Jewish Unity. The coalition of anti-Zionists compiled a list of 17 other Jewish-Canadian camps in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia that they charge "support the State of Israel in some way".

 

That 'some way' identified more precisely as promoting a love and appreciation of Israel, supporting the Israeli military or giving employment to former IDF members. "This is not an abstract possibility. Multiple camps proudly and publicly share their staff connections to the Israeli military", they wrote, naming a few individuals with ties to Israel working at various camps. All citizens of Israel serve a mandatory conscription term in the military. The anti-Israel ensemble urged the OCA to hold its executive director, Joy Levy, accountable for 'racism' and support of 'a genocidal military'.

 

It also condemned B'nai Brith, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center "all of which espouse pro-Israel, Zionist perspectives". Posting a collection of Instagram screenshots from Levy's account of her attendance at pro-Israel protests occasionally holding an Israeli flag in a display of loyalty to the Jewish state.  

"We support our community's efforts at Jewish continuity, and Zionist expression, an integral part of Jewish identity, through a strong network of summer camp experiences for children and youth."

"We won't let the bigots and haters win. Ever!"

"[We stand with the OCA in its] tough, immediate and courageous response." 

Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation 

This coalition of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish conspirators of antisemitic tropes are of course, responsible for years of ongoing protests, encampments, threats against the Canadian Jewish community, harassment, calling for a 'Final Solution', to 'Globalize the Intifada', chorusing 'From the river to the sea Palestine will be free', as code for the elimination of Israel. They have poisoned the atmosphere for Jewish life in Canada. Their numbers and reach into Canadian politics have gained them tolerance from authorities for their constant outbursts of antisemitic vitriol.  

 

Their own children's camps are known as hotbeds of hateful propaganda. Palestinian school curricula infamously teach their children to hate and to view Jews as their enemy, and to aspire toward martyrdom in the killing of Jews. The little dramas encouraged by Palestinian leaders and teachers where children act out their roles in confronting and attacking Jews imbue the children with a sense of nobility and heroism. In summer camps Palestinian children are taught warfare and to aspire to a time when they join the terror groups outlawed in Canada. 

 

Camp Massad on the shores of Lake Winnipeg     Ethan Cairns/Free Press

Canadian Human Rights in Shreds

"Across the past two years, multiple independent analyses and advocacy groups have documented patterns in CBC's reporting that exhibit a concerted pattern of bias against Israel -- not just occasional missteps. One detailed report released just last month by HR Canada Charitable Organization analyzed 2,789 CBC news articles published between October 7, 2023 and June 7, 2025, using large-scale textual analysis."

"It concluded that CBC's online coverage displayed consistent narrative imbalance, routinely minimizing Israeli and Jewish experiences while privileging Palestinian perspectives and framing them with more sympathetic language."

"The analysis identified what it referred to as a 'consistent pattern' in CBC's coverage that 'dehumanizes Israelis while humanizing Palestinians', raising questions about whether the [public] broadcaster met its own journalistic standards for impartiality."

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

Canada does not recognize itself other than as a stalwart defender of human rights. Its history leaves that belief open to question on a number of fronts. In the late 1930s when German Jews fled Germany to seek haven from Nazi persecution, they discovered themselves being viewed in Canada as in the United Kingdom, as 'enemy aliens'. And, as enemy aliens, people who were in fact destined to be slaughtered during the Second World War as fascist Germany under Nazi rule determined to eradicate all Jewish life from Europe, they were a people in dire need of rescue from an existential fate of annihilation.  Yet close to 2,400 Jewish refugees were interned in Canada behind barbed wire. Ironically, Jews were forced to live in alien-prison camps alongside actual imprisoned German Nazis. 

Dr. Friz Bender (on the left sawing wood) was a Phase I internee who developed the technology to waterproof plywood.

"During the first phase, 711 German and Austrian Jews were interned here. Many were refugees of Nazi Germany oppression who had fled to England. British government not knowing where the loyalty of these Jewish people lay, asked Canada and Australia to house these refugees. After a year, the government of Great Britain realized that many people among the refugees could contribute to the war effort. The internees were given the choice to return to England and join their military, or obtain a sponsor to remain in Canada or the United States. Many contributed to the fields of medicine, the arts and business, some leading to international recognition."

New Brunswick Internment Camp Museum 

During the war when Jews were desperate to escape Germany for haven in any country that would offer them refuge, Canada refused to give that refuge to German Jews aboard the S.S. St. Louis out of Germany packed with Jews pleading for rescue. No country responded to their pleas for haven, including Canada. The ship was forced to return to Germany with all the Jews hoping against hope that humanitarian impulses of Western nations would come to their aid, discovering that for Jewish lives there were no humanitarian impulses.

The St. Louis, carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees, waits in the port of Hamburg.

 

It was not only Jews that were given the treatment of suspicion and alienation from the greater society. Over 22,000 Japanese-Canadians, citizens of Canada or the United Kingdom, were dispossessed of their citizenship, their properties confiscated, interned as enemy aliens, despite no evidence of having ever engaged in espionage or attempts at sabotage against the West on behalf of Japan. It was not until 1988 that Canada made a formal apology to its Japanese citizens and offered material reparation. 

 

Canada admitted fewer than 5,000 Jewish refugees before and during the war while the knowledge of Nazi atrocities were widely known. That number of Jews that Canada permitted to enter the country represented the least of any allied country of Western democracies. Prime Minister Mackenzie King's infamous statement of 'None is too many" summed up the political, governmental and population disinterest in rescuing a people that a profound sense of antagonism was aimed toward. 

 

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

 

Since then, as a minority population of loyal Canadians, all Canadian governments have ensured that civil liberties embraced all its ethnic and religious groups with equal security and protection under the law. Canada's Criminal Code addresses provisions against trespass, hate propaganda intimidation and obstruction, assault and mischief. And that section of the Criminal Code is more needed to be enforced today than ever before in recent history. 

 

In the last several years, Canadian Jews have been subject to all of those attacks that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms prohibits in its guarantee of equal treatment under the law and security of the person. Despite which, law enforcement in Canada fails Canadian Jews against an unprecedented level of attacks on individuals and community institutions following the atrocities in southern Israel launched by thousands of Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas against Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023. 

 

The immediate response to that horrendous onslaught of organized mass murder and hostage-taking has been an eruption on the streets of Canada of Palestinian celebration and support, degrading Israel's sovereign and human rights of existence, and embracing a generalized hostility against Canada's Jewish community. The two Liberal governments, one led by Justin Trudeau the second by Mark Carney have taken no notice of the persecution and attacks against Jews in Canada.

 

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

 

Their inaction has led other levels of government, from provincial to municipal, to remain deliberately oblivious to the dangerous situation that unfolded and continues to this day to destroy Jewish security  in the place of their birth as Jewish Canadians. Police forces have followed suit. Illegal mass marches and street prayers that serve no purpose other than intimidation, and threats of accelerating the venomous hatred along with violently potentially lethal fire-bombing of Jewish community centres, schools and synagogues have failed to move authorities to react and uphold the law.

 

Hateful incidents directed against Jews in Canada amounting to 6,200 police reports in 2024 alone, far outstripping such acts against any other group in number, yet go unaddressed. Canada's inaction over the ongoing provocations, threats and violence make Canada the leader of such events over the U.S., France, the U.K. and Australia all of which have also been overwhelmed by Muslim-led pro-Hamas protests in the streets calling for a 'Final Solution' and to 'Globalize the Intifada'. 

 

Canada has, in essence, submitted itself voluntarily to accepting as normal ongoing attacks that seriously abrade its reputation as a country devoted to human rights. 

Adil Charkaoui's speech has drawn broad condemnation from politicians like Premier François Legault and groups like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. (Adil Charkaoui/X)

 

"The rising volume of asylum claims, along with the longer duration of eligibility [under the Interim Federal Health Program] caused by extended determination times, has been an important growth driver in recent years [of steeply rising health costs in Canada]."

"[Resettled Gazans received $41 million in various benefits; the Interim Housing Assistance Program was given $400 million and $66.4 million was described as funding "temporary accommodations to asylum seekers." 

Parliamentary Budget Office report

 

"Rejected asylum claimants are now receiving better health care than many Canadians who have paid into a system their entire life."

"At a time when six million Canadians cannot find a family doctor and are waiting for care, it's unacceptable that bogus asylum seekers are receiving better health benefits than Canadians." 

MPs Dan Mazier/Michelle Rempel Garner, shadow ministers Health and Immigration 

A new report shows Ontario hospitals spent $9.2 billion on private, for-profit nursing and staffing agencies over the past decade, a figure that doubled between 2013 and 2023. Critics of private agencies urge Ontario to phase them out, calling them a ‘band-aid on a gaping wound.’ CBC

 

A new analysis by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer reports that it will cost Canadians a record $1-billion this year to pay for health-care premiums of refugee claimants, some of whom continue receiving free health care even while their claims have been rejected. Costs are ballooning as a result of an unprecedented number of foreign nations in Canada, representing a five-fold increase from  six years earlier when the cost totalled $211 million annually.

 

 

Looking ahead to the future, the cost projection reaching into 2030 sees $6.2 billion being laid out for refugee claimants' health care. Even asylum claimants whose refugee applications have been rejected can access the benefits of the Federal Health Program. The level of care being offered to refugee claimants surpasses that given to the average Canadian citizen where, in addition to hospital and surgical care, the IFHP covers dental care, vision care, pharmacare and other services not covered by general public health plans. 

 

This, at a time when hospitals are overwhelmed by a surge in demand on their services, when wait times for surgery lead to early deaths, amidst a shortage of doctors and nurses and hospital beds. A time when six million Canadians cannot access the services of a family practitioner.

 

The surge in both immigration/refugee/migrant levels into the country amounting to about an increase of a  third of the population falls between the period of 2015 to the present, a decade altogether where two Liberal-led governments in Canada have fuelled both a stupendous increase in the population and a concomitant increase in the cost of  welfare and all manner of social services, extending even to a higher cost of living for all Canadians where housing prices have soared.

 

Figures released by the Immigration and Refugee Board indicate 299,614 foreign nationals in Canada await their refugee claim results, representing over a 1,800 percent increase from the number -- 16,048 --  in Canada when the Trudeau Liberals took office in 2015. Tens of thousands of illegal border crossers entered the U.S. on tourist visas planning to enter Canada illegally, where they then made refugee claims. Similarly foreign nationals who entered Canada on  student visas, claimed refugee status once their visas expired and they were expected to return to their home countries.

 

A refugee claimant arrives at the Roxham Road border crossing at the US-Canada border in Champlain, New York. Photo by Lars Hagberg/AFP Getty Images

 

Claimants for asylum may be given immediate access to government benefits, leading to uncontrolled surges in federal spending, and an unsustainable burden to Canadian communities trying to cope with such sudden influxes of foreigners taking advantage of Canada's reputation as an easy country to access entry to, with copious social benefits to be had. The Interim Housing Assistance Program picks up shelter costs and food for asylum claimants. It was revealed that some asylum claimants receive room and board benefits of over $200 daily.

 

Those asylum claimants who are accepted receive food and shelter to the equivalent of $84 daily for meals and $140 a day for hotel rooms. Gazans entering Canada were given exceptional additional federal payouts of some $3,000 each on entering Canada. Some 130,000 people accessed some form of benefit from the Interim Federal Health Program in 2016, a situation that has more than quadrupled to 611,000 according to the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

 

Even an ineligible asylum claimant can reach for at least two years of Canadian health benefits prior to rejection of their claim, given the current 24-month backlog at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Benefits can still be accessed until the claimant, if rejected, manages to exhaust all avenues of appeal, which can take years.  

 

An RCMP officer looks on as asylum seekers cross the Canada-U.S. border at Roxham Road . (Charles Contant/CBC)

 

"The Gordie Howe Bridge has been a bipartisan priority because it supports jobs, makes transport easier, and will lower costs."

"At the last minute, the President wants to derail this hugely important project because a billionaire campaign donor told him to."

"This kind of blatant corruption hurts working families, and needs to end. For the sake of Michigan's economy, let's pass this bill."

Kristen McDonald Rivet, Democratic U.S. Representative 

 

"Twenty-five years in the making. Seven years of construction, and, at its peak, 2,500 workers on-site. Costing $6.4 billion and stretching 2.5 kilometres—the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America, rising 46 metres above the Detroit River—the Gordie Howe International Bridge is much more than these impressive numbers."

"“The Gordie Howe International Bridge is a symbol of the friendship between Michigan and Canada and a testament to what’s possible when we work together,” said Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer when the bridge deck was completed last July."

"Construction started on October 18, 2018, and after more than 19 million work hours, the structure is complete. What remains before the first vehicle crosses the bridge is testing, re-testing and training."

David McPherson, ReNew Canada

Could Trump block bridge opening? Workers are shown at the Gordie Howe International Bridge in Detroit on Tuesday, February 10, 2026. Photo by Dan Janisse /The Windsor Star

 

After having praised the building of the Gordie Howe International Bridge linking Windsor, Ontario to Detroit Michigan, as a second bridge crossing, after the century-old Ambassador Bridge, in 2017, President Trump suddenly diverted from pushing for the "expeditious completion" of the bridge, to posting outraged messages on his social media site. His apoplectic charges have no base in reality, however.  

Canada, he states, has treated the U.S. "very unfairly for decades", including the charge that the bridge was built "with virtually no U.S. content". "With all that we have given them, we should own, perhaps, at least one half of this asset", he grumped. Well, in fact, Detroit does 'own one-half' of the bridge, a gift from Canada. Canada, as it happens, footed the entire $6.4 billion cost of the bridge, but has granted joint ownership between Canada and the state of Michigan. Once the cost of the bridge has been paid through collected tolls, toll receipts are to be divided evenly between Canada and Michigan.

This is called mutual partnership generosity. In the building of the bridge, American workers were employed alongside their Canadian counterparts. The bridge was built with the use of American steel included in the process. "I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them", thundered the American president in righteous fury on a Truth Social post. 

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to the Detroit Economic Club on Jan. 13. (Ryan Sun/The Associated Press)

"I know the importance of Michigan manufacturing and that's why I'm demanding Trump drop this reckless threat, let the bridge open, and stop playing games with our jobs and our economy." 

"[By threatening to block the opening of the bridge, Trump is] unsurprisingly [placing jobs and] billions of dollars in economic growth at risk."

U.S. Representative Haley Stevens 

It has been reported by the New York Times that the president's post was prefaced by a meeting mere hours before, when U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik and Matthew Moroun, the billionaire private Lebanese-American owner of the Ambassador Bridge, took place. This is a bridge that rivals the new Gordie Howe Bridge which has enjoyed its monopolistic trade conduit between Windsor and Detroit since 1929. The company representing the owners has parted with millions of dollars over the past decade in an attempt to thwart government plans for a competing, publicly-owned bridge.

 

Trucks line up to clear customs and cross the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest commercial vehicle crossing between Canada and the U.S. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)

 

Major Republican donors, the Moroun family expended some $30 million on a failed Michigan ballot proposal in 2012 to block construction of the Gordie Howe Bridge. Dozens of lawsuits toward the same end have also been launched. In the background is the fact that Michigan entered a bilateral agreement in 2012 to advance construction of the bridge, with no direct cost to the taxpayers of Michigan. The project was known for "demonstrating the project's nonpartisan importance to American workers, manufacturers, and national competitiveness". 

 

The Gordie Howe Bridge between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit, seen here on May 10, 2024, is expected to open sometime in 2026 after almost a decade of construction. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)

 

"You [Elon Musk] are a true champion of freedom and a true friend of the Ukrainian people."

"Thank you for standing with us."

Ukraine Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov 

 

"Looks like the steps we took o stop the  unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia have worked."

"Let us know if more needs to be done."

Space X, Elon Musk 

 

"What everyone feared for a long time has happened." 

"Elon Musk flipped the switch … our communications are in chaos."

Yuriy Podolyaka, Crimea-based video blogger, Telegram 

 

"It is important to understand that relying on anything western in the current situation is dangerously overconfident."

"Even taking into account the active negotiations we are currently holding with the United States, that does not stop them from being our adversary."

Aleksey Zhuravlyov, State Duma lawmaker

A Ukrainian soldier using a Starlink terminal. Photograph: Reuters

 

"Its use made information exchange easier for the Russians, as it is quite difficult to jam. As a result, their airstrikes became more precise and coordination of unit movements improved." 

"Since the Ukrainians are successfully jamming everything else, the use of Starlink was vital for the Russians. It was briefly shut down at the start of February to identify terminals that the Russians were using after smuggling them in illegally. Communications have now been restored and the Russians have been cut off from it. But this is only one aspect; there are certainly many other factors at play, including the weather: The cold, snow and the difficult terrain." 

"In war, any tool that solves a problem is suitable. If the frequency bands used by the enemy get detected, they are immediately jammed and efforts are made to shut them down. But if you have any kind of internet connection that allows you to access and exchange information, that helps you out of trouble." 

Maj. Gen. (retired) Neeme Väli  

60 Starlink satellites being delivered from Cape Canaveral (photo taken 2019). Source: U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Zoe Thacker /

 

In the latest twist in a four-year-old war where a race for technological supremacy is being fought as much as the confrontations on the battlefield, Russian troops in Ukraine suddenly find themselves without their (illegal) Starlink satellite internet. Pro-war Russian military bloggers have been reporting that Space X's Elon Musk reacted to a Ukrainian request that he curtail access to his network.

 

While it is not yet completely known through speculation how serious a setback this will prove to be to the Russian forces, those same Russian military bloggers report frustration linked to communication problems on the front, with soldiers now deprived of the indispensable communications tool they had used for years through smuggled Starlink equipment linking them to the internet. 

 

Writing under the name Military Informant through the Telegram messaging app, a Russian blogger stated the change could conceivably put the Russian force back "a couple of years", forced to make use of outdated technologies such as wired internet, Wi-Fi and radio communications. "The Starlink saga has created a serious breach in communications, which the enemy may attempt to exploit", blustered Colonelcassad, a channel operated by Boris Rozhin, another Russian pro-war blogger. 

Ukrainian boxing brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko with Starlink terminals shipped to Kyiv early on in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Vitali is Mayor of Kyiv. Source: Kyivcity.gov.ua /

 

Ukraine had recently taken note of Russia's use of the satellite internet network that had gone beyond simple communications connectivity, when Russia began equipping drones with Starlink, improving their targeting and making them more resistant to jamming. The quest for superior drones and greater impenetrable communications links controlling them speaks to the technological competitiveness of this war.  

 

Mykhailo Fedorov, newly appointed as Ukraine's defense minister had contacted SpaceX lat month. The result was  the  U.S. firm blocking access to Starlink in Ukraine other than for terminals registered and verified by the government. Starlink's compliance representing an early victory for the 35-year-old former tech entrepreneur who took the defense ministry last month.

 

Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, plans to launch its own satellite internet operation in low-earth orbit with production to begin this year with a launch planned next year. First deputy chairman of the defense committee in Russia's lower  house of Parliament, Aleksei A. Zhuraviev stated that Russia must seek alternatives: "It's important to understand that relying on anything Western in the current situation is overly presumptuous". 

 

SpaceX board member and Estonian-American Steve Jurvetson holding a holding a Starlink user terminal. Source: Steve Jurvetson from Los Altos, USA - Starlink Armada

 

"In January, the Russian side used around 6,000 different drones against Ukraine, in addition to roughly 150 missiles and about 5,000 glide bombs. That is a very large number of targets launched toward Ukraine on a daily basis."

"All of this must be responded to using various means that must be coordinated with each other. Ukraine has a very strong multi-layered air defense, but unfortunately the volume is so great, and of course air defense systems are also worn down in combat."

"There are simply too many Russian targets to respond to everything with one hundred percent effectiveness."

Maj. Gen. (retired) Neeme Väli   

"Russia saw [Russian opposition leader Alexei] Navalny as a threat."

"By using this form of poison the Russian state demonstrated the despicable tools it has at its disposal and the overwhelming fear it has of political opposition."

"[The attack] must have been authorized at the highest level, by President Putin."

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper

 

[I was] certain from the first day [that Alexei was poisoned], but now there is proof."

"Putin killed Alexei with chemical weapons."

"[Putin is] a murderer [who must be held accountable]."

Yulia Navalnaya, Alexei Navalny's wife 

 

"No one but Putin's henchmen will be able to say in detail what happened on February 16, 2024, in the Russian penal colony."

"But it is clear that Russian authorities had the possibility, the motive and the means to administer the poison to Navalny."

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul

The longtime Kremlin critic died in prison following charges he decried as politically motivated  Image: GINTS IVUSKANS/AFP/Getty Images

 

Alexander Litvinenko in ICU, Getty Images

In 2006, former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko died an excruciating death in a London hospital. He had become a stern critic of the Kremlin. The radioactive isotope polonium-210 had been slipped into tea he was served, and it went right to work painfully degrading his bodily functions. It took an agonizing 21 days of unremitting pain for the man to die, while doctors working to help save his life tried to diagnose what was killing him; radioactive poisoning.

 

In Salisbury England in 2018 the Kremlin launched an attack targeting former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, with the nerve agent Novichok that made Skripal and his daughter seriously ill, but they survived. When a British woman came across a discarded bottle holding traces of the nerve agent, she died of its effects. Subsequently British intelligence found traces of the biological weapon in various places, posing a deadly threat to the public. 

 

In 2020, Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent that he identified as an attack by the Kremlin. This was not the first time attempts to poison him and cause his death occurred and he recognized the method and the medium as he became deathly ill. He was flown to Germany for medical attention, where he was treated and recovered from the attack. Rather than remain in safety out of the reach of the Kremlin he decided to return to Russia, where he was immediately imprisoned, with trumped-up charges.

 

Given one sentence after another on the basis of charges that could never stand up to scrutiny, he was imprisoned for years, and finally sent to the 'Polar Wolf' penal colony for an additional 19-year sentence. He was weak and ill and to no one's surprise several years later, he  died in that prison in the Russian Arctic. Cause of death, according to Russian authorities; high blood pressure caused by cardiac arrythmia. 

 

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2015 Photograph: Sefa Karacan/Andalou/Getty Images

 

Now, the foreign ministries of the U.K. France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands have announced findings from analyses in European laboratories of Navalny body samples that "conclusively confirmed the presence of epiatidine", a neurotoxin secreted by South American dart frogs. A toxin not found anywhere in Russia; but one that could be imported or chemically produced in a lab. "Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison", a joint statement read.

 

Leading to the five countries reporting Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Crusading against official corruption, Navalny staged massive anti-Kremlin protests. Navalny's poisoning demonstrates "that Vladimir Putin is prepared to use biological weapons against his own people in order to remain in power", stated French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

 

Last year, said Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya, two independent labs found her husband was poisoned shortly before his death. While according to Russian authorities, the imprisoned politician fell ill following a walk, dying from natural causes. Epibatidine acts on the body similarly to nerve agents, causing shortness of breath, convulsions, seizures, slowed heart rate, and ultimately death.

 

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny appears on a screen via video link from the IK-6 penal colony in the Vladimir region, during a court hearing to consider an appeal against his sentence in the criminal case on numerous charges, including the creation of an extremist organization, in Moscow, Russia September 26, 2023   Reuters

 

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz

"We Germans know that a world in which only power is taken into account is a dark place. Our country took this path in the twentieth century all the way to its bitter and evil end."

"We Germans are adhering to our legal obligations. We consider this strictly within the context of our nuclear sharing in NATO -- and we will not allow zones of differing security to emerge in Europe." 

"These talks are in their very early stages. We know that we have to make some strategic and military-political decisions here, but again, the time is not yet ripe for that."

"We are holding strategic talks on this issue with the countries involved." 

"In the era of great power rivalry, even the United States will not be powerful enough to go it alone. Dear friends, being a part of NATO is not only Europe’s competitive advantage. It is also the United States’ competitive advantage."

"So let’s repair and revive transatlantic trust together."

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz

 

"This is the right time for audacity. This is the right time for a strong Europe."

"Europe has to learn to become a geopolitical power. It was not part of our DNA."

"We have to reshuffle and reorganize our architecture of security in Europe. Because the past architecture of security was totally designed and framed during Cold War times. So it’s no longer adapted."

French President Emmanuel Macron 

 

"I think it’s at a defining moment … the world is changing very fast right in front of us."

"[The U.S. is] deeply tied to Europe, and our futures have always been linked and will continue to be." "So we’ve just got to talk about what that future looks like."

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio 

 

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaks with President of the European Council Antonio Costa at a meeting during the Munich Security Council. The U.K. and France are NATO's European nuclear-armed states. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool/Reuters)

 

"Nobody [was considering fully replacing the American nuclear umbrella, which has shielded Europe's NATO countries for decades]." 

"I think every discussion in Europe making sure that collectively the nuclear deterrence is even stronger, is fine."

"But nobody is arguing in Europe to do this as a sort of replacement of the nuclear umbrella of the United States."

"Everybody realizes that is the ultimate guarantor -- and all these other discussions are in addition."

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte  

Making a call to reorder the transatlantic relationship in light of the turmoil that has resulted from U.S. President Trump's declarations about NATO, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has been in serious discussions with France relating to potential European nuclear defence, warning at the Munich Security Conference against a new era of great power politics. Germany and Europe, he stressed, are required to increase their security and independence in tandem with one another while seeking out partners in other regions. The ultimate message: the world has changed.

 

"This order, as incomplete as it's been even at the est of times, no longer exists as it did", an audience of leaders and security experts were informed in the Bavarian capital on Friday. And although he reiterated his 'confidential talks' with French President Emmanuel Macron are ongoing on nuclear deterrence, he also warned his audience not to "reflexively write off" the United States. There remains great potential that can be realized still by engaging with Washington, he cautioned.

 

A year ago U.S. Vice-President JD Vance delivered a shocking message to Europe on the Munich stage over migration and freedom of speech and ever since European leaders have been on a search for directions that might help in restoring the post-Second World War alliance. Alternatively, there is the recognition of reality, that Europe may require their own path to proceed with security in an increasingly dangerous world.

 

In citing Europe's "enormous" military economic and technological potential, Chancellor Merz stated that his country had no choice but to move forward by building alliances and in so doing, foregoing the restrictions and protectionism bullying deployed by the Trump administration. While in the process of discussing nuclear deterrence in a reality where Germany itself has no nuclear weapons and following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Germany phased out atomic power, but recognizes the region's vulnerability.

 

European leaders, including Chancellor Merz, French President Macron, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were present at the conference, along with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Over 50 members of US. Congress were delegated to be present at Munich. The conference report explored transatlantic ties at their bleakest time in eight decades, making reference to the "wrecking ball politics" stirring the globe with President Trump appearing determined to dismantle pillars of a post-war system the U.S. itself led. 

 

European policymakers are engaging in growing discussions about nuclear deterrence, concerned over Russia's aggression amidst uncertainty about America's ongoing security pledges.  Getty Images  

"[There was] no low-cost or risk-free way out of Europe's nuclear predicament [bearing in mind Russia's territorial threats in Europe]."

"The era in which Europe could afford strategic complacency has ended."

"[European policymakers must work together] to confront the role of nuclear weapons in the defence of the continent directly and without delay -- and to invest the resources needed to do so competently."

Munich Security Conference report