How did someone like Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi breeze into the country apparently without scrutiny? How did he get citizenship?
The FBI alleged that Muhammad Shahzeb Khan was shooting for the stars by planning to unleash “the largest attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.” He is charged in Canada and the U.S. with participating in or supporting a terrorist group.
Our government seems oblivious. There is little urgency. Steady ahead. Skip the scrutiny because, well, that might offend various diaspora voting blocks.
We’ll just keep our fingers crossed.
In the dark days after 9/11, I attended more funerals in a couple of months than most people do in a lifetime.
Twenty-three years later, those days and mental images still linger.
The fear hasn’t gone away either. It’s only increased. No amount of finger-crossing and virtue signalling will change that.
First it was the Eldidis, father and son, with the former having passed a number of security screenings despite what the CBC delicately calls “a 2015 video allegedly showing him participating in a violent terrorist assault overseas” and his son sliding painlessly through one security-check-like object. And now it’s “Toronto man accused of plotting terror attack at Jewish centre in New York City.”
Or rather churning them in. These three are all imports. And while of course any open society will bring in some bad apples, and grow some domestically, what has consistently struck me about the Eldidi case is how the authorities insisted they’d done a splendid job and it’s unfair to ask them to stop such people from getting in and, in the case of Eldidi père, getting citizenship just because we pay them to. ...
Then there’s the more recent case in which, says CTV, “A Pakistani citizen has been arrested in Canada and charged with plotting a terrorist attack in New York City.” And to be fair, Canadian authorities did catch Muhammad Shahzeb Khan/Shazeb Jadoonhim… after the FBI said hey you Canadian authorities, this guy shared terrorist plans with American undercover agents.
In response to the arrest, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said predictably that “there is no place for such ideological and hate-motivated crime in Canada.” But clearly there is, and not just because of these two arrests. Because of open advocacy for Hamas in our cities before large, supportive crowds with apathetic or absent policing. Including, descendant of Holocaust survivors Dahlia Kurtz underlines on X, some character barely able to string together a sentence praising “Our spokesman” announcing the Hamas policy of shooting hostages who might be rescued. Not “their,” “our.” So it does have a place in Canada, and that place is broad daylight.
Indeed, on the Birju Dattani CHRC case, it’s noteworthy that neither the government nor the press, even in critical stories, explained that “Mujahid” means “holy warrior,” though good luck landing such a job after posting as “Crusader.” They really don’t think militant Islam is a problem, unlike Christianity.
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A Pakistani man arrested in Quebec as he was allegedly on his way to New York to conduct a mass shooting at a Jewish centre entered Canada last year on a student visa, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, charged last week in an ISIS terrorism plot, received a student visa in May 2023 and arrived at Toronto’s Pearson airport on June 24, 2023, the minister told reporters.
“This is all that I’ll be commenting on this individual,” Miller told reporters. “It’s very important that we don’t comment and actually it’s dangerous to comment any further.
“Any defence lawyer is looking at elected officials in their comments about this case, salivating at any comment that is made that could be seen as compromising the judicial process.”
He said it was “highly careless” of the Conservatives “to be firing their mouths off again” about Khan, and that Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre’s advisors “should be counselling him to shut his mouth.”
Yes, let's not talk about the potential terrorist attacks and body counts.
Marc Miller is useless and so in need of turfing.
The summer was supposed to provide a cooling-off period: a time when Liberals could get their heads and bodies out of Ottawa, when barbecues and campfires would mask the smell of looming political death. And it did – sort of. The momentum of the push for Mr. Trudeau’s resignation immediately following the St. Paul’s disaster appeared to slow down. But the Prime Minister’s personal unpopularity did not abate. He cancelled his scheduled appearance at the Calgary Stampede in July; a crowd in Vancouver booed when Mick Jagger mentioned Mr. Trudeau during a Rolling Stones concert; and calls in Canada’s opinion pages for the Liberal Leader to resign to give his party a fighting chance did not take the summer off.Things have only picked up since Labour Day. In a move that reportedly blindsided the government, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh abruptly announced last week that he was ending his party’s confidence-and-supply agreement with the Liberals. Mr. Singh may have noticed that the rotting stink from the Liberals’ political death was leaching onto his clothes, so he decided to part ways with them after two-and-a-half years, ostensibly before the smell became too ingrained to wash out.A day later, Jeremy Broadhurst, who was supposed to steer the Liberal campaign in the next election, confirmed that he was stepping down from his post as national campaign director. In a statement, Mr. Broadhurst said that the party deserves “someone who can bring more energy and devotion to the job than I can at this stage of my life.” According to the Toronto Star, however, Mr. Broadhurst had told Mr. Trudeau in August that he was resigning, and that it was because he didn’t believe the Prime Minister could win. The Star also reported that a third of the Liberal caucus was not expected to attend the party’s retreat this week in Nanaimo, B.C., which is not the type of attendance a party leader might expect if his followers are energized, committed and optimistic about the future.And The Globe and Mail reported this week that five of Mr. Trudeau’s 38 ministers will lose, or already have lost, their chiefs of staff, which represents a significant exodus of senior government staffers. That’s on top of the expected resignation of Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez, who is believed to be seeking the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party.Polling has demonstrated, particularly over the last year, that Canadians are abandoning Mr. Trudeau and his government. The events of the last few months, however, have signalled that even his acolytes have lost faith, too. If he can’t hold onto cabinet ministers, backbenchers, chiefs of staff or his campaign director – if he can’t even get a third of his caucus to come to Nanaimo for a couple of days – what is Mr. Trudeau actually leading?
New Democrats are gathering in Montreal for a strategy session before the return of Parliament next week and after distancing themselves from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose name one NDP MP described as “radioactive.”
Last week, the NDP scrapped their supply and confidence agreement propping up the Liberal minority government.
“In my neck of the woods, it’s fair to say my folks are pretty happy we put some distance between us and the Liberals. Justin Trudeau’s name is very radioactive in my parts of the country,” said NDP MP and caucus chair Alistair MacGregor, who represents the Vancouver Island riding of Cowichan—Malahat—Langford.
The Commons’ assistant deputy speaker yesterday became the first Liberal MP to publicly demand Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation. MP Alexandra Mendès (Brossard-St. Lambert, Que.) said Trudeau should not lead the Party into a fourth campaign: “He is no longer the right leader.”
Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney says he’ll be advising the Liberal party to flip some of the challenges posed by an increasingly divided and dangerous world into an economic opportunity for Canada.
What immediately raised eyebrows is the fact that Carney will be reporting to the party, instead of a government entity like the Prime Minister’s Office or the Privy Council Office.
In a letter to Trudeau sent on Tuesday, Barrett said he was “deeply concerned” that Carney, whom he describes as the country’s “new de facto Finance Minister,” will not have to face scrutiny over his many roles in the private sector as any other public servant would.
“It is clear that Mark Carney’s role is not limited to the Liberal Party, but instead dictating the economic policy direction of the current sitting government,” he wrote.
Blanchet demands an immediate shutdown of oil and gas, an end to any subsidies and deinvestment by Canadian banks. His party helped kill the Energy East pipeline and every other Western energy project that pops up.
There is not much “left of the leadership of Mr. Trudeau,” Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet yesterday told reporters. Blanchet said his caucus will press cabinet for passage of favoured bills but had no interest in keeping Liberals in office any longer than necessary: “Let there be no ambiguity here.”
Health Minister Mark Holland yesterday said the Senate must pass a pharmacare bill. Holland’s appeal followed mounting criticism of Bill C-64 An Act Respecting Pharmacare as vague and incomplete: “Pharmacare legislation needs to pass.”
Defence Minister Bill Blair’s department will not disclose figures to substantiate its claim Canada will meet NATO spending targets. The Department of National Defence invoked cabinet secrecy in refusing to divulge the information to the Budget Office: “This information remains under cabinet confidence and is expected to take some time to finalize.”
With an aging and depleted fleet, Canada’s navy is unlikely to strike much fear in the hearts of its adversaries these days.
But a new government plan to purchase 12 modern, non-nuclear submarines that could do service under the Arctic ice has suddenly made Russia sit up and take notice.
As Moscow increasingly probes into Arctic waters, the planned expansion of Canada’s underwater force poses a “radically” altered threat, says Russian defence journalist Alexander Timokhin in an intriguing new article.
Equipped with the West’s latest torpedo and sonar technology, the proposed new Canadian subs would be difficult for Russian vessels to counter, and could even lie silent on the sea floor near Russia’s naval bases, says Timokhin.
“Today, Canada has three submarines based in the Pacific Ocean, and another in the Atlantic. Due to their obsolescence and wear, the threat they pose to us is not so significant,” he wrote in Vzglyad, an online newspaper with reported ties to the Kremlin. “But new submarines can radically change everything – and not in our favor.”
Internal emails show Parks Canada executives feared “public and political perception” in managing fire hazards at Jasper, Alta. Access To Information records yesterday released by Conservative MP Dan Mazier (Dauphin-Swan River, Man.) are dated only months before wildfire destroyed a third of the town: “Very disturbing.”
Israel proposed giving Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar safe passage out of Gaza in exchange for the group freeing the hostages it holds and giving up control of the strip, a senior official said, even as doubts deepen about the two sides’ ability to reach any ceasefire accord.“I’m ready to provide safe passage to Sinwar, his family, whoever wants to join him,” Israel hostage envoy Gal Hirsch said in an interview Tuesday in the Bloomberg News Washington bureau. “We want the hostages back. We want demilitarization, de-radicalization of course — a new system that will manage Gaza.”
Are you mad?
Nuke the SOB.
The six included Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a native of Berkeley, California, whose parents led a high-profile global campaign seeking his release. Goldberg-Polin lost part of his left arm to a grenade in the October 7 attack that sparked the war in Gaza. In April, Hamas issued a video that showed him alive, sparking protests in Israel. The army identified the others as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; Alexander Lobanov, 33; and Carmel Gat, 40.
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Joly and Trudeau have already done their utmost to torch what’s left of Canada’s relationship with Israel, and they are putting relations with the U.S. at risk, in order to gain leverage, it would seem, in a byelection that will have no practical effect on how Parliament is run. What other reason could there be? It is certainly not because of any moral reasoning, given how reluctant the government has been to take a stand of any kind on the war.
The Liberals no longer have to worry about keeping the NDP onside, since leader Jagmeet Singh ended the confidence and supply agreement he had with Trudeau last week. The nominal reason for that was because the Liberals ordered an end to the CN/CPR railway work stoppage with binding arbitration, and not its approach to Gaza.
We do know Trudeau could face louder calls to step down if they lose the byelection, making the decision to block the export of arms entirely craven, gutless and opportunistic.
That's Justin for you.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Canada has suspended 30 permits for arms sales to Israel and is taking the rare step of blocking a contract with the U.S. government to send Quebec-made ammunition to Israeli Defence Forces.Canadian arms sales to, and in some cases, through the United States to third countries are not subject to Canada’s typical authorization procedure and weeks ago the U.S. announced plans to send Quebec-made ammunition to Israel.The Liberal government, in response to criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war on Hamas, in January stopped approving new permits for the export of military goods to Israel.Israel was attacked by Hamas militants from Gaza on Oct. 7 in an assault that left some 1,200 dead and about 250 taken hostage. It responded with a bombing campaign and siege in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to the Palestinian health authority.Ms. Joly, speaking to reporters at a Liberal caucus retreat in Nanaimo, announced the government this summer suspended about 30 existing permits that had been issued before January to ship military goods to Israel.And, she said, Canada will not allow the sale of ammunition through the United States to Israel. The ammunition was to have been produced by a Quebec division of U.S. defence contractor General Dynamics.“As for the question regarding General Dynamics, our policy is clear,” Ms. Joly said. " We will not have any form of arms, or parts of arms, be sent to Gaza. Period. How they’re being sent and where they’re being sent is irrelevant. And so therefore my position is clear, the position of the government is clear, and we’re in contact with General Dynamics.”
Cabinet is again assuring parliamentarians Canada has not exported arms to Israel. The latest statement, in a report to the Senate defence committee, follows repeated false allegations that Canadians are complicit in “genocide.”
Harris claimed “the Trump administration resulted in a trade deficit” that was “one of the highest we’ve ever seen in the history of America.” This is patently false.
The trade deficit climbed to around $653 billion in Trump’s final year as president, in part because of depressed global demand for U.S. goods and services and a U.S. economy that recovered sooner than most other developed economies.
But the trade deficit never rose to the levels seen under former President George W. Bush or the Biden-Harris administration.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo allegedly himself “edited” a state report that deflated New York’s COVID-19 death toll in nursing homes — which his top aides pressured health officials into releasing, despite knowing the issue would turn into a “great debacle,” according to the stunning results of an investigation by a US House committee.Cuomo’s office “absolutely” signed off on the disastrous directive early in the pandemic forcing coronavirus patients back into nursing homes — leading to as many as 9,000 excess COVID deaths — the final congressional report and witness testimonies exclusively obtained by The Post show.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic conducted the probe and majority staff released the findings ahead of a public hearing with the 66-year-old ex-governor on Tuesday.
The investigators accused Cuomo in a memo Monday of making “demonstrably false” statements as part of a “cover-up,” citing conflicting testimony from his top aides.
A woman who was raised by an aunt and uncle, apart from her younger sisters, has won a legal fight to change their father’s will after she was denied an equal share of his estate.
When Tat Kuan Cheong died three years ago, he left $17,500 to Celina Kan, his oldest biological daughter, whom he referred to in his will as his niece, the same amount he left to his half sister and less than the $20,000 he left to a goddaughter. The remaining $683,000 was divided equally between daughters Ina and Sophia Cheong, it said.
A court can vary a will if a will-maker doesn’t adequately provide for a spouse or children, according to B.C.’s Wills, Estates and Succession Act.
A judge has the discretion based on moral norms to ensure the deceased reasonably fulfilled obligations based on “contemporary community standards,” Justice Lisa Warren wrote in siding with Kan.
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