Ricochet denied press access to CANSEC

 

Defence trade show bars outlets it suspects may produce critical coverage

“With the government of Canada’s renewed focus on defence, […] CADSI is receiving a significant uptick in requests for service, advice, and assistance. Rest assured that your message has been received, and a member of our team will reply as soon as possible.” — Excerpt from CADSI’s general email autoresponse

CANSEC is a global defence and security trade show, and Canada’s largest defence convention. The event, held annually in Ottawa, brings together representatives of private defence companies and dozens of delegations from foreign governments to showcase “leading-edge technology, products and services for land-based, naval, aerospace and joint forces military units.” 

On the CANSEC homepage, the convention reports that attendees will also include 45 MPs, senators and cabinet ministers.The convention was founded in 1998, and is hosted by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI). 

This week, Ricochet Media’s request for a press pass to cover the event was declined on the basis that our organization “does not meet the CADSI Eligibility Requirements.”

CANSEC’s media accreditation page states: “New media applicants are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and the accreditation decisions are final. CANSEC is a private event and organizers reserve the right to deny accreditation.”

Just hours after the portal for media accreditation opened, this reporter applied for status on assignment for Ricochet Media. After following up, we received the following response by email. 

“Thank you for registering for CANSEC 2026. We have reviewed your application and have declined it for the following reasons:

Your media organization does not meet the CADSI Eligibility Requirements.”

CADSI’s only eligibility criteria regarding media organizations is that applicants must be “a member of an established local, national or international media organization with relevant identification.”  (more...)

Ricochet denied press access to CANSEC

Former foreign minister heckled over Israel support

Chrystia Freeland was recently challenged for supporting genocide at an event hosted by a Jewish supremacist group held in a Zionist community centre.

After our Capitalism Can’t be Fixed conference concluded Sunday, a few participants interrupted Freeland’s speech. In Toronto from BC, one protestor labelled the former foreign affairs minister and deputy prime minister a “Zionist Nazi dog.” The disruption has gone viral on multiple social media platforms. Al Jazeera and other international media have reported on it.

Freeland is deeply anti-Palestinian. In the first year of slaughter in Gaza she attended multiple genocide rallies. As Israeli officials ramped up their genocidal rhetoric, Freeland declared that “Canada stands with Israel”. After the International Criminal Court announced it would seek arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and defence minister as well as Hamas leaders in late 2024, Freeland said it was “entirely inappropriate to equate the terrorist leaders of a terrorist organization [Hamas] with the democratically elected leaders of a democracy [Israel].” When I asked Freeland a year into the slaughter if she condemned Israel’s killing of 14,000 Palestinian children she declined to respond.

During her three years as foreign affairs minister Freeland promoted the genocidal, apartheid state. Canada’s voting record at the United Nations during that time was deeply anti-Palestinian. In December 2017, for instance, Canada sided with the US, Israel and some tiny Pacific island states in opposing a UN resolution supporting Palestinian statehood that was backed by 176 nations.  (more...)

Former foreign minister heckled over Israel support

CANSEC Arms Fair Bars Multiple Independent Journalists From Attending

 

“Your media organization does not meet the CADSI Eligibility Requirements.”

Canada’s largest arms fair has refused media accreditation for multiple independent journalists and media outlets, including The Maple.

The CANSEC trade show, hosted by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) at Ottawa’s Cohere Centre this Wednesday and Thursday, is an annual event that attracts hundreds of arms companies and dozens of Canadian politicians as attendees.

Keynote speakers at this year’s event include Defence Minister David McGuinty and Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, as well as former United States president Joe Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan.

The organizers state that they work with the Canadian government “to engage a diverse global community” and list the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces as their “strategic partners.”

The Maple applied for media accreditation for this year’s CANSEC, but received an email from CADSI’s press team explaining that: “We have reviewed your application and have declined it for the following reasons [...] Your media organization does not meet the CADSI Eligibility Requirements.”

CADSI did not respond to questions from The Maple asking for details about its eligibility requirements and why it believes The Maple did not meet them. The Maple requested the decision to be reviewed, but heard nothing further from CADSI.  (more...)

CANSEC Arms Fair Bars Multiple Independent Journalists From Attending

Demand That UofT Revoke Its Sponsorship of the Weapons Conference CANSEC

 

🚨URGENT ACTION 🚨 

Go to the link in @torontostudentsforpalestine bio to send an email TODAY to U of T to demand that they revoke their sponsorship of the weapons conference CANSEC. 

CANSEC is a weapons trade show that hosts numerous weapons manufacturers and governments accused of war crimes and human rights abuses. A few of the weapons manufactures exhibiting at CANSEC that are complicit in war crimes and/or human rights violations include Elbit Systems, Roshel and Lockheed Martin.

This year U of T became the first university to ever sponsor CANSEC.

On May 12th U of T students, workers and faculty published an open letter demanding that the University of Toronto revoke its sponsorship of CANSEC. This letter was signed by 20 U of T student, worker and faculty groups and unions, but has so far been ignored by U of T administration. Additionally, on May 13th the U of T denied a student the opportunity to express concerns about the sponsorship of CANSEC at the University of Toronto Governing Council meeting despite the student following all proper procedures to speak.

These actions are in direct violation of U of T’s mission statement that commits to the “vigilant protection for individual human rights, and a resolute commitment to the principles of equal opportunity, equity and justice”.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by UofT Occupy for Palestine (@occupyuoft)

Say it now: No war bank in our city, no city for war bank

 

Most Canadian politicians, even self-described left-wing ones, seem to want a war bank in their city. Apparently, they don’t care about starving social programs, linking finance to arms production or the violence it will spur.

On Thursday leftist Quebec Solidaire (QS) defended Montreal’s bid to host the new NATO war bank Canada was recently selected to house. In response to a La Presse report that those heading Toronto’s bid for the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB) have raised the unreliability of Montréal’s candidacy due to the possibility of another referendum on Quebec independence, QS’ Sol Zanetti criticized the “campaign of fear” targeting the city’s bid. Choosing militarist nationalism over the party’s purported pacifist anti-NATO position, the co-leader of QS said, “Montreal has everything to host any organization and it has nothing to envy Toronto for.”

In Toronto mayor Olivia Chow, a former NDP MP, is promoting that city’s bid for an institution set to further marry investment agencies and major banks with arms producers. In BC the NDP premier has promoted Vancouver as a site for a bank that will offer low-cost loans to countries boosting military spending.

The federal NDP appears to have stayed mum on Canada hosting a multilateral financial institution, like the World Bank, to facilitate ‘allied’ military buildup. New NDP leader Avi Lewis has stayed silent on the DSRB despite it generally being easier to derail a project before it has begun.  (more...)

Say it now: No war bank in our city, no city for war bank

THE TORONTO TRINITY: Obama, Carney & Alex Soros Just SEALED THE DEAL For The NEW WORLD ORDER!!

 

Barack Obama, Prime Minister Mark Carney, and Alex Soros just held a closed-door summit at the Royal York Hotel while the mainstream media stayed silent.

The New World Order isn’t coming, it’s being activated right now on Canadian soil.

In this video Dan Dicks of Press For Truth connects the dots on the secret Toronto meeting that just changed everything.

Toronto Hosts Illegal Israeli Settlement Sales, Again

 

Toronto played host again to the sale of stolen Palestinian lands. I reached out to the Canadian government for comment because they are condemning the expansion of settlements but they continue to allow the sale of those lands in their own backyard. We look at that and so much more.

National Coalition Promises To Fight Canada’s War Bank

 

“Security comes from funding homes, food and education. Security does not come from an economy built on war.”

It was January 2026 when Canada’s anti-war organizers realized what they were dealing with. Activists from groups like World Beyond War and Davenport For Palestine jumped on a Zoom call to discuss Toronto’s bid to host a new global bank that will fund the arms industry. 

The organizers, who mostly knew each other from Palestine solidarity protests and Signal chats, created a document and got together online to look for information about the bank.

“Could it really be that this was a financial institution whose sole purpose was to channel money into arms manufacturing?,” Rachel Small, an organizer for World Beyond War Canada, said they wanted to figure out. “Yes, that is indeed what it is.”

“That was definitely when we coined it a ‘war bank.’”

Since then, Small and her fellow activists held dozens of one-on-one conversations with organizers from the student movement, labour unions, and civil society groups to build what they hope will be a national movement to stop the bank from coming to fruition in Canada. 

On Friday, at a press conference in the heart of Toronto’s financial district, they launched their campaign with the slogan: “Stop the DSRB: No war bank in our city.”

The “Defense, Security and Resilience Bank,” or DSRB, was originally an idea proposed by NATO. Last week, Canada was officially selected as the host country, and some of its major cities — Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal — are vying for the chance to host the bank’s headquarters. 

“The last thing Canada needs is a new military financial arms race,” said Sharmeen Khan, a member of World Beyond War Toronto, at the press conference. “Security comes from funding homes, food and education. Security does not come from an economy built on war.”  (more...)

National Coalition Promises To Fight Canada’s War Bank

NEW: Legacy media largely framed Canada's new War Bank as a win for Mark Carney.

But as @emmapaling reports, a national coalition is mobilizing to oppose it. https://t.co/lVtlbGJZho

— Alex Cosh (@AlexCosh_) May 5, 2026

Ben Shapiro is coming to Canada to oppose antizionism. Here's why this is beyond disgusting

 

In less than two weeks, Ben Shapiro is coming to Canada as part of a conference “against antizionism.”

I have to say, the depth of human cruelty required to put on this kind of conference is pretty incredible.

See, on Friday, I was in Ottawa to host a conversation with Yasuko Thanh, in which we discussed Hassan Kanafani’s book: Pizza Before We Die.

ORDER HERE: https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/P/Pizza-Before-We-Die

The book is a collection of eyewitness accounts written by a man living in Gaza during Israel’s genocide. It documents the very human, day-to-day reality of living through some of the worst horrors of our lifetime.

It breaks through all the noise and reminds you of a simple fact: what Israel is doing in Gaza is indefensible on every level.

In today’s video, I plan to read you an excerpt from this book. 

Then, we’re going to contrast the words you hear against this effort — soon to arrive in Toronto-area conference room — that seeks to demonize people who oppose those horrors.

Suturing Solidarity

 

Sutures hold together open wounds that would otherwise come apart, while leaving visible the fractures that made their application necessary. This metaphor departs from more conservative formulations of solidarity that privilege cohesion over contestation.

The 2024 People’s Circle for Palestine protest encampment at the University of Toronto is best understood in terms of “contradiction” as the tensions and struggles which make political life. Over its two-month duration, it was neither a unified expression of solidarity nor reducible to a narrative of institutional repression, but a shifting field of forces in which insurgent organizing and institutional authority converged. What emerged from the People’s Circle was a political formation shaped by the interaction of these opposing forces, each delimiting what could be sustained.

The primary contradiction structuring the protest was the relationship between the university and the institution’s investments in imperial violence. The People’s Circle demanded that the University of Toronto disclose its investments linked to the ongoing genocide, commit to divesting from them, and cut ties with Israeli academic institutions while the genocide and occupation continue to destroy Palestinian universities, murder academics, and prevent Palestinian students from studying in Canada. The People’s Circle also contested the contradiction of the university’s management of dissent, including its uneven invocation of ‘safety’ and its escalating reliance on legal instruments such as the issuance of trespass notices and the pursuit of a legal injunction against the protest encampment. Contradiction was evident in the university’s policies, leading to such strong political tensions.

To identify the University of Toronto’s contradictions is not to claim unanimity among the People’s Circle participants, nor to suggest that all actions cohered to a single line. Rather, this identification names the structuring antagonisms that oriented the encampment’s goals. Without orientation, as a horizontally organized protest, collective action would risk dispersal and ineffectiveness. With the identified contradictions lending to orientation, differences can be negotiated among the People’s Circle without dissolving the political project itself.

Yet, the encampment could be equally identified by secondary contradictions. These included disagreements over strategy and uneven relationships to risk shaped by identity, citizenship status, and institutional affiliation, among others. At its peak, the encampment brought together nearly 200 in solidarity with Palestine, many of whom were strangers prior to arrival. While this density enabled a powerful form of collective presence, the urgency of the protest limited the time and capacity for sustained relationship building, which produced friction. Such secondary contradictions operated within the primary antagonism with the institution and often intensified under conditions of external pressure.

An understanding of the tensions and struggles which make political life, however, provided a useful framework for analysis that aided People’s Circle organizing. Secondary contradictions cannot be ignored in the name of unity, nor can they be allowed to displace the primary struggle. The work of organizing was less about resolving disagreement, and more about managing its effects; developing practices that allowed for continued collective action without requiring premature consensus.  (more...)

Suturing Solidarity

Desmond Inq. Update, Majcher Trial, Guest Calvin Lawrence on Idsinga Book

 

This week we welcome back former Halifax Police and RCMP officer, Calvin Lawrence, author of 'Black Cop', to discuss the new book by retired Toronto Police homicide detective Hank Idsinga. Idsinga has made allegations of anti-sematic racism at the highest levels of the Toronto Police service in national interviews this week. 

Also, the NS government had committee hearings this week to discuss progress in the 25 recommendations for the Desmond Inquiry. Adam was counsel to the Desmond family during this Inquiry, and explains how the government and opposition parties are all missing the central issues of the Inquiry, relating to military medical records and PTSD in our soldiers. 

Also discussed this week, we read two letters that we received after last week's NS Mass Shooting 6th anniversary show, one critical and one complimentary. 

Finally, we give an assessment of the trial of William Majcher, the former RCMP officer charged under the Security of Information Act with attempting to assist the Chinese government in their efforts to bring a suspected fraudster back to China to face charges. A three week jury trial was reduced to a judge alone trial that lasted only a few days.

Cops keep showing up to arts events about Palestine. What can organizers do?

 

Toronto police showed up at a comedy fundraiser and at a film screening on the same night in April. Organizers describe how this fits into a broader pattern and what can be done to protect community members

It was just after 10 p.m. on Saturday, April 4 when two Toronto cops walked into the lobby of Comedy Bar on Bloor Street, moments before the Stand-up For Gaza comedy show was set to begin. The monthly event raises funds for the Gaza Soup Kitchen.

Witnesses say the officers asked questions about the “gathering,” apparently under the impression that the comedy show was an organized “march.”

Comedian and host of the event, Isabel Zaw-Tun, spoke to the officers, insisting that there were no plans to march through the rain late at night. Eventually, the cops left.

“This sort of thing has never happened in my experience,” Zaw-Tun tells The Grind, describing the officers’ actions as “intimidating” and “infringing on my personal space.” 

“After they left, I splashed some water on my face in the bathroom. Another comedian in the show gave me a hug and a glass of water, and I went onstage to open the show,” she recalls. “I mentioned that the police had been called on the show and the crowd loudly booed.”

It’s unclear why the officers showed up, and Toronto police did not respond to The Grind’s requests for comment for this article. Some organizers believe that a passerby might have called the police after seeing the name of the show on the venue’s marquee.  (more...)

Cops keep showing up to arts events about Palestine. What can organizers do?

Zionist ex Toronto cop calls for even more repression

 

A retired cop who could fairly be described as a genocidal Jewish supremacist is claiming “antisemitism” in the Toronto police department has led the force to coddle opponents of genocide. The CBC disseminated his claims without question, boosting a fanatic pro-Israel community’s bid to further trample on civil liberties.

Prominent retired cop Hank Idsinga recently told CBC The National host Adrienne Arsenault that he experienced overt anti-Jewishness during his 34 years in the Toronto Police Service (TPS), which concluded three years ago. Idsinga then said the anti-Jewishness he witnessed explains why the police haven’t heeded genocide advocates’ calls to repress social justice protesters. The ‘kill more Palestinians/Lebanese/Iranians’ media network has jumped all over Idsinga’s claims. Canadaland’s Jesse Brown posted, “Former head of homicide for Toronto police says Jew-hating senior officers are in charge of decisions about how to police antizionist protesters.”

But Idsinga’s media presence strongly suggest he is a genocidal Jewish supremacist. In February he spoke with genocide advocates at a Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) event on criminal law and in 20024 was hired as a commentator by anti-Palestinian Global News, doing interviews with Ben ‘genocide’ Mulroney and other anti-Palestinians. More significantly, Idsinga has shown his Zionist hand repeatedly on X. He’s retweeted Tafsik, CIJA, Jerusalem Post, Warren Kinsellla, Chris Alexandre, Vivian Bercovici, Mike Fegelman and other arch Jewish supremacist sources. Claiming that protesting genocide is anti-Jewish, Idsinga pushed to ban Al Quds Day and other anti-genocide protests. He’s also disparaged David Mivisair as an “Anti-Jewish rabbi”. One of his recent retweets noted:

“Canada’s elite virtue-signal about ‘tolerance’ while Al-Quds Day, straight out of Iran’s hate playbook, openly peddles antisemitism, glorifies terrorism, and calls for Israel’s destruction on our streets. Yet judges block injunctions, police stand by, and politicians wring their hands. Result? Synagogues shot up, Jews terrorized, and ‘hate speech’ laws that somehow only catch the wrong people. Tolerating intolerance isn’t progressive, it’s suicidal. Once you let the mob chant for genocide with impunity, don’t act shocked when the mob decides who’s next.”  (more...)

Zionist ex Toronto cop calls for even more repression

Not in Our Name: Divesting Pensions and Rejecting Carney's War Bank

 

How is Carney's War Bank and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (OTPP) connected? Through investments in weapons and genocide, as well as the activists and organizations fighting for a Free Palestine.

Teacher and organizer with OTPP Divest (https://otppdivest.ca/) , James Campbell gives an overview of the movement to get the OTPP to divest from weapons manufacturers.

With a collection of success stories, it is clear the campaign resonates with teachers in the Province - with two of the largest unions overwhelmingly voting YES to divestment when given the chance.

So where does the resistance come from? Where it usually does - Capital. But also from the CEO of the $300 billion OTPP, Joe Taylor, who has refused calls from the ranks to stop using their name to line the pockets of war profiteers.

As it turns out, OTTP CEO Taylor is also a big supporter of the Defence, Security and Resilience Initiative (DSRB), or as second guest Tyler and his fellow activists with Stop the DSRB (https://actionnetwork.org/letters/stopwarbank)  call it - the War Bank.

What is it? Its a project of Carney's to get the G7 nations to sign on to this slush fund for the weapons industry. Its clearly stated purpose is to bypass popular (democratic) demands for social service spending and basic rights, in order to secure an endless supply of 'defence' funding. Its all being sold alongside Carney's Canadian militarism narratives, which has made it easier for him to line up supportive politicians from across the spectrum.

This makes the job of activists harder, but not impossible. James and Tyler talk about the tactics they've deployed, and the alliances they are building along the way. There are accessible pressure points to be pushed, tarnishing the reputation of unethical investments being one of them. Another is opposing the pitch for Toronto to serve as the headquarters for the DSRB.

Be sure to stay until the end to hear what else these activists have up their sleeve and learn more about the impacts divestment campaigns are having on the economic and political landscapes.

U of T must cut ties with Israeli universities

 

U of T must learn from history and cut ties with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

At this point, it’s an open secret that U of T has financial and institutional ties to Israel.  

Israel is a settler-state that has been committing genocide in Gaza for over two years, while continuing to enforce its illegal occupation and apartheid oppression of Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank. To resist this oppression, Palestinians have called on the world to support the movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) on Israel. 

U of T does not have a policy that prohibits its endowment from being invested in weapons companies, whose products have been used in Gaza to bomb universities and murder thousands of students. Additionally, U of T continues to partner with Israeli universities and institutions deeply complicit in colonial violence and human rights violations. 

Beyond investments, U of T has extensive ties and partnerships to Israeli institutions and universities, including Tel Aviv University, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and, worst of all, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, otherwise known as HUJI. 

I believe that cutting U of T’s institutional ties to Israeli universities is key to pressuring Israel to comply with international law. Israeli security leaders are on record stating that an academic boycott of Israeli universities is a threat of the highest order. So much so that universities like HUJI outline specific propaganda strategies against academic boycotts.  (more...)

U of T must cut ties with Israeli universities

Who could deny Israel’s influence in Canada? Fools

 

Israeli power in Canada is stunning. Toronto cancelling its flag raising is the latest example.

On Thursday Toronto city council voted to scrap a decades old tradition of flying foreign flags at government buildings. With half the city born outside of Canada, the practice was supposed to celebrate Toronto’s global heritage. But raising the Palestine flag was a step too far for the city’s power structure. When Canada formally recognized Palestine in the fall the city was compelled to heed community pressure and raise the long-occupied nation’s flag. In response genocidal Jewish supremacists went berserk, turning to the courts to stymie it. That failed but they kept at it as Tafsik posted in response to Thursday’s flag cancelation vote. The fanatic Jewish supremacist group noted:

“Tafsik stood at the front lines, filing a bold injunction to halt the raising of the Palestinian flag at City Hall.

“While that initial skirmish did not go our way, it was merely the opening move in a much larger campaign.

“Today, we stand triumphant. We have won the long game.

“Through unwavering persistence, we have ensured that the Palestinian flag will never again fly over Toronto City Hall. There is no place in our halls of government for a symbol birthed by the terrorist legacy of Yasser Arafat.”

As one extremist group trampled on a city tradition, another hardline genocidal Jewish supremacist organization defied university norms to host genocidaires soldiers. On Thursday Students Supporting Israel at Toronto Metropolitan University hosted soldiers of a military under investigation by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. As per the publicity for the event, the IOF soldiers were to share “first-hand experience” of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Reportedly, this is the fourth time Toronto Metropolitan University has allowed the group to host IOF soldiers despite policy restricting student groups’ activities (a student group wouldn’t be allowed to bring Russian soldiers to speak about fighting in Ukraine or a Palestinian resistance fighter).  (more...)

Who could deny Israel’s influence in Canada? Fools

As pro-Israel repression grows, some ‘leftists’ cheer

 

Those promoting violence across western Asia are hammering at our civil liberties. Authoritarian Zionism has made significant gains in recent days.

Monday the Toronto police announced they would ban protests in a neighbourhood because three in ten people living there are Jewish. They conceded to the months-long push by genocidal Jewish supremacists to suppress a weekly rally at Bathurst and Sheppard. Police announced that protesters won’t be permitted to march on side streets and might be barred from the intersection they’ve been rallying at for over a year (initially launched in response to a “Rally for Israel” taking place there).

Concurrently, Toronto police chief Myron Demkiw announced the creation of a Counter-Terrorism Security Unit. According to Demkiw, the new unit will “substantially increase the resources dedicated to countering terrorism and violent extremism, supported by robust analytical capacity and dedicated leadership.” Demkiw said, “Torontonians can expect to see Toronto Police officers deployed with tactical capabilities, including patrol rifles.” Framed as a response to shots fired at empty synagogues and the US consulate earlier in the month, police patrolling with semi-automatic machine guns is designed to intimidate opponents of Jewish supremacist colonialism. Already, the Toronto police operate the anti-Palestinian Project Resolute.

Ten days ago, Ontario premier Doug Ford sought to ban a major pro-Palestinian demonstration in the city. After a decade-long Zionist push to bar Al-Quds Day, the premier instigated a last-minute injunction to ban the protest. Fortunately, a judge dismissed the bid.

Ford pursued the repressive action a day after meeting with Israel’s ambassador. Iddo Moed explicitly demanded the suppression of Canadian civil liberties to protect his lawless rampaging state from criticism. According to a Canadian Press report, “Moed suggested Canada has to constrain certain freedoms in order to stop the influence of nefarious actors.” Moed told a B’nai Brith forum, “We have a very clear objective this year, and that is to create a significant change in the way antisemitism is being dealt with here in Canada. It is hard for a liberal person to think that we have to limit other people’s freedoms, so that our freedom will be protected. But that’s where we are right now.”

As per the Canadian Press, the ambassador’s meeting with Canadian Jewish organizations was part of a broader push by the Israeli government to suppress Canadian civil liberties.  (more...)

As pro-Israel repression grows, some ‘leftists’ cheer

Israel Lobby Suffers Crushing Defeat in Canadian Court

 

On March 14, hours before pro-Palestinian activists were scheduled to march in Toronto to commemorate Quds Day (Jerusalem Day), a Canadian court dismissed an application by Ontario's Attorney General for an injunction to prohibit the rally.

In dismissing this extraordinarily undemocratic application, the Court issued a stinging rebuke of the Attorney General.

Dimitri Lascaris examines the Court's decision and explains why Canadian courts have been a reasonably fair venue for the adjudication of the rights of Palestinians and their supporters.

Dimitri also discusses recent revelations regarding Israeli interference in Canadian politics.

Related:

‘Covert influence’: Israel hired Toronto firm to fight Canada’s labelling of settlement wines

Tumbler Ridge, Fed Gov't Picks RCMP, Magic or Sex, Guest Melissa Ellsworth

 

This week, we bring a special guest, who's name most will not recognize. Melissa Ellsworth was a forensics nurse and correctional guard who suffered a head injury trying to save an elderly woman from a dangerous patient. She has been battling Workers Compensation ever since, and has now been approved for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). She tells her story.

Before hearing from Melissa, Paul and Adam discuss the school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, BC, including what we might be able to conclude from what we know about the shooter, their family, and their background. 

Seemingly connected to this tragedy was the announcement late this week from the Minister of Public Safety that the federal government will be sticking with the RCMP in more or less its current form. 

While we were waiting for Melissa Ellsworth to get connected, Adam told Paul about a Nova Scotia case that went to the Supreme Court of Canada, which turned on the question of whether pretending to do a magic act where women were sawed in half was an act which was sexual in nature.

Strategic Incapacitation: Toronto Police and Protests

 

Two Toronto based Legal Observers from the Orange Hats (https://orangehats.noblogs.org/main-pages/meet-the-orange-hats/)  return to give us details on the tactics Toronto Police are using to try to bring down the Palestinian Solidarity Movement.

Tasked with keeping an eye on cops during protests and other actions, Gisela and Leon have lots of stories to tell. Together the group recently issued a 2025 Year-In-Review (https://orangehats.noblogs.org/general/orange-hats-2025-report-on-toronto-police-service-conduct-at-protests/)  on Toronto Police Services conduct at protests. The report includes statistics on injuries and arrests; it warns of trends in policing; and it points to a clear strategy to suppress the activities of activists - and legal observers. 

Its not all bad news. Thanks to their experience, the Orange Hats are a great source of advice for organizers and activists - or anyone coming into contact with Police.