Yumna was fifteen years old.

At the school she went to in London, Ont., she painted a big floor-to-ceiling mural. On it, she’d put the Earth in space, alongside the words: “Learn. Lead. Inspire.” Beside it, she wrote: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” Purple was her favorite color.

She was a good kid. She was beautiful, with a big smile. All the kids liked her. She was going into grade ten, and she was looking forward to it. That’s what everyone remembers.

Her Dad, Salman, was 46 years old. He was a physiotherapist, and a good one. He held down two jobs – helping out seniors at the Ritz Lutheran Villa. He also worked with the elderly at the Mitchell Nursing Home. He’d worked with seniors for years, and had been a physiotherapist for a long time, too. His boss said: “He was just a beautiful person.”

Yumna’s Mom, and Salman’s wife, was Madiha, and she was 44. She was an engineer – she had her Master’s in environmental engineering, in fact. She’d won all kinds of scholarships during her time at Western University. She taught there, too. She was a great Mom.

Talat Afzaal was Salman’s Mom. She was 74 and from Pakistan, where her boy had been born. The family came to Canada years ago, in 2007, for a better life. During the pandemic, like lots of people, the family started taking nightly walks together, to get out of the house. The youngest, nine-year-old Fayez, came along too.

It was on one such walk, on a warm night in June, that black truck mounted the curb on Hyde Park Road, and killed all of them, except Fayez. The little boy somehow survived, but with serious injuries that will be with him for the rest of his life.

The rest of the family were all slaughtered, however: Yumna, Salman, Madiha and Talat. At the trial, the doctors said they all died because of “multiple trauma.” But that doesn’t quite cover it.

Talat was murdered right away. Her head, torso and extremities were crushed, mangled. She had internal bleeding. The bodies of her boy, Salman, and his wife, Madiha, were destroyed in similar ways. Yumnah was mainly killed because of what the killer did her torso with his truck.

The gas pedal on the truck was compressed “100 per cent” when it slammed into her and her parents and her grandmother and her brother. The driver had done a U-turn when he spotted the family waiting at the crosswalk, around 8:44 p.m.

He spotted them because they were all wearing traditional Pakistani clothing.

The driver was Nathaniel Veltman, age 22. He’s pale and unremarkable-looking, with a moonish face and a haircut that looks a bit military, but isn’t.

Veltman isn’t human, actually. Like the Hamas terrorists who killed 1,400 Israeli men, woman and children on October 7, Veltman killed the Afzaal family because he hated The Other. Not because he knew them, or had ever met them. Just because they had a different religion than him. Just because they somehow represented a threat to him.

Like the Hamas terrorists, Nathaniel Veltman forfeited his humanity on that day. He ceased to be a human, and became an actual monster. An un-human.

He was into Hitler, of course, like the Hamas guys are. He was into conspiracy theories and online evil, like them. He was proud of what he did – like Hamas, he insisted that the aftermath be filmed, so everyone could see it. Like them, he didn’t claim the murders were an accident. He said he “did it on purpose.”

This week, as members of the London Muslim community silently looked on, a jury found Nathaniel Veltman guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. He didn’t show any emotion, of course, because sociopathic monsters usually don’t. He’s going to be in prison for the rest of his useless, pointless, godless life.

But like his Satanic brethren in Hamas, who also killed families – grandparents, parents, children – this is what he deserves:

He deserves a noose. He deserves the needle. He deserves a firing squad. He deserves to be put down, like the rabid animal that he is.

Most of us would do it, too.

For free.

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Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Vladimir Putin’s regime immediately commenced brutally killing Ukrainian civilians on a massive scale.

Russia committed war crimes. It committed acts of rape and infanticide. It took hostage innocent Ukrainians. It tortured them.

Canada is home to the largest Ukrainian diaspora community in the world. Here are the things that did not – did not, we emphasize – happen in Canada after February 2022.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not piously instruct Ukraine to exercise “maximum restraint.” He did not give performative speeches, telling Ukraine how to defend itself.

His witless foreign affairs minister, Melanie Joly, did not demand a cease-fire, or attack Ukraine’s military for targeting Russian missile batteries.

No NDP member of a provincial legislature gave speeches to baselessly accuse Ukraine of genocide, or to deny Russia’s many war crimes.

Mid-war, while Russia was still waging war against Ukraine, a significant chunk of the Liberal Party caucus did not also demand a total cease fire and insist that Ukraine stop fighting back.

The Canadian media did not accept Putin’s propaganda, and call the invasion a mere “security exercise.” Our media did not treat representatives of Russia and Ukraine as having an equal moral standing or voice, and invite them to debate on-air for better ratings.

Canadian universities did not suddenly become safe havens for students to wear masks and physically assault Ukrainian students – or accuse them of genocide and apartheid. Canadian university and college professors did not go on social media to falsely accuse Ukraine of war crimes, and absolve Russia of every sin.

Pro-Russian thugs did not shoot up schools – once, twice, thrice – where Ukrainian-Canadian children were being taught the Ukrainian language and culture. They did not firebomb Ukrainian orthodox churches, or Ukrainian community centers.

No Russian religious figure appeared at rallies to call on God to “exterminate” Ukrainians everywhere.

No pro-Russian, pro-Putin mobs took to the streets every single weekend, demonizing Ukraine and its people, chanting about their desire to see Ukraine wiped off the map, “from Belarus to the Black Sea.”

No one organized boycotts of businesses owned by Ukrainian-Canadians, or businesses with an imagined connection to Ukraine. No one scrawled graffiti on thousands of walls and doors and windows – defaming Ukrainian religious symbols, or accusing Ukraine of the vilest crimes.

No one did or said any of those things, after Russia attacked Ukraine. No one did any of those things after Vladimir Putin commenced his slaughter of Ukrainian men, women and children.

But in Canada, all of those things have happened, and much more. Not to Ukrainians, however. Not them.

No, all of those things have happened in Canada to Israel and a certain religion.

Didn’t happen with Ukraine. Did with Israel.

What’s the difference, we wonder?

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If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, some people will eventually believe it.

The author of that one, of course, was Joseph Goebbels, and he would know. Goebbels was the chief propagandist for Germany’s Nazi Party. He helped to devise and then cover up the Shoah – the Holocaust.

Goebbels would likely approve what has happened in the days following the modern Shoah, October 7. Since October 7, words and meanings have been giddily twisted and manipulated like a rag doll in a madhouse.

Every weekend, everywhere, angry voices – pro-Palestinian, but also pro-Hamas – can be heard on city streets, screaming “from the river to the sea.” The people who use that slogan insist, over and over, that those words are benign, and express no ill-will towards Jews.

And, yes, “from the river to the sea” – from the Jordan River in the East to the Mediterranean Sea in the West – doesn’t explicitly say every inch of “Palestine is for Muslims only, Jews are warmongering Zionist Nazis, and every Muslim has an obligation to wage holy war against them until they are all gone.”

But the Hamas 1988 Charter certainly says that, and plenty more. When he was celebrating the anniversary of said Charter, Hamas’ billionaire leader Khaled Mashaal made clear what “from the river to the sea” means. Said Mashaal: “Palestine is ours, from the river to the sea, and from the South to the North. There will be no concession on any inch of the land.”

No concession. Sorry, citizens of the Jewish state: “from the river to the sea” literally means there is no room for you, and no more Israel. Everyone, from Hamas to the Palestine Liberation Organization – who used it as their official slogan, and who asserted that “armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine” – know precisely what “from the river to the sea” means. It means no Jews, no Israel. Period.

Because they are disciples of Goebbels, the pro-Hamas propagandists are also careful about their use of the word “Jew.” They prefer “Zionists.”

Zionism is a political movement that seeks a Jewish homeland, in the part of the world Jews occupied for centuries before the birth of Christ – and thousands of years before the word “Palestine” was ever uttered. Saying you oppose “Zionists” – and “the Zionist project,” which is what they call Israel – is a lot less controversial than saying you are against the Jews.

No less than Dr. Martin Luther King is the best source on the distinction. As recalled by author Seymour Lipset: “When approached by a student who attacked Zionism, Dr. King responded: ‘When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.’”

This week, this writer was on a Toronto radio panel with a man who proclaimed he was a “human rights lawyer,” but who revealed himself to perhaps regard some humans as having more rights than others.

The host, Greg Brady, did his best to challenge this man’s many whoppers, which included:

• Hamas hasn’t killed any Jews outside “occupied territories.”
• Firebombing a synagogue may not be anti-Semitic.
• A Montreal Imam who called for Jews to be exterminated, didn’t.

How can anyone, least of all a “human rights lawyer,” embrace such things, all of which are false? Who knows. The “human rights lawyer” wanted more “evidence” on the synagogue firebombing. He didn’t answer yes or no to Brady’s request that he agree that Hamas was a terrorist organization. He said the Imam called for “Zionists” to be exterminated, not “Jews” (see above).

And so on. That’s how it’s been pretty much everywhere, since October 7. The mobs – found in the streets, in faculty lounges, university classrooms and NDP caucus meetings – have manipulated and mauled language to justify, or minimize, Hamas’ mass-murder on October 7.

They have done that because they know, deep in their tiny black hearts, that they won’t win over public opinion by saying they favour eliminating every Jew in Israel. So they say they oppose the “Zionist entity” and want to merely liberate Palestine, “from the river to the sea.”

It’s all so dishonest and divisive and dangerous.

Goebbels would approve.

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What is hate, and what isn’t?

What words are against the law, and what words are allowed?

Actions are easier to judge. When a six-year-old boy is stabbed to death for being a Muslim, Chicago police determined that it was homicide and charged a man. When a 69-year-old Jewish man is pushed by an anti-Israel protestor in California, and he smashes his head and dies, that is classified as a homicide, too.

Words are more difficult to judge, however – and much more difficult to prosecute. And since October 7, a day that will live in infamy – the day when Hamas committed the greatest act of mass murder against Jews since the Holocaust – words have become very important.

Here is a summary of just the past week, in just one province, Quebec:

• Synagogue firebombed
• Jewish community centre firebombed
• Two Jewish schools hit with gunfire

And also:

• Imam says Jews should be exterminated
• Anti-Israel protestor screams “kike” at Jewish student
• Professor calls Jewish student “a whore,” says go back to Poland

The first three incidents are clearly crimes.  In those cases, thankfully, no one was hurt – the bullets and Molotov cocktails missed their intended Jewish targets.  But, for police and prosecutors, those crimes indisputably are acts of terror – that is, and as defined in Canada’s Criminal Code, a political or religious act whose intention is “intimidating the public, or a segment of the public, with regard to its security.” Namely, Jews.

There are lots of terrorism-related sections in the Criminal Code.  If prosecutors can’t convict the Hamas-lovers for simple intimidation, they certainly can do so because the firebombing and school shootings “intentionally endangers” lives and causes property damage.

Whoever is arrested, prosecuted and convicted for these obvious acts of terrorism can be imprisoned for life – and, in the case of non-citizens who commit serious crimes, they can be deported, too.  It’s the law in Canada, and has been for years.

But what about words? What about the Quebec Imam who stood before 20,000 “pro-Palestinian” protestors in Montreal and said this:

“God, take care of these [Jews]. God, take care of the enemies of the people of Gaza. God, identify them all, then exterminate them. And don’t spare any of them.” The Jew-haters in the crowd cheered.

Now, are those words a crime? It sure looks like it.  There are three sections in the Criminal Code that could apply: wilfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group (Jews), promoting genocide against an identifiable group (Jews), and willfully promoting anti-Semitism (which, of course, is always directed at Jews).

Every political leader ion Quebec has urged the police to go after the Imam who uttered those hateful words.  So far, that hasn’t happened.

What about the woman who screamed “kike” at a Jewish student at Concordia University?  Or the professor who called a Jewish student “a whore,” and told her to go back to Poland?

Those incidents are hateful and disgusting, but they may not reach the level of crime. As former Canadian Jewish Congress CEO Bernie Farber notes:

“Canada’s anti-hate laws are meant to balance our cherished rights of free speech with the dangers of hate speech. We have made the bar for hate speech high – as it should be. Nonetheless, we require trained police officers to enforce our hate laws. Without dedicated anti-hate units and the training that must accompany it, we will fight a losing battle.”

And, make no mistake: we are losing the battle. Since October 7, there has been an explosion in anti-Semitic hate incidents, everywhere. From open intimidation of Jewish businesses – to bullets being fired at Jewish schools – our social fabric is ripping apart.

And the haters – mostly on the anti-Israel side, to be frank – are doing most of the damage. Why can’t they bring themselves to hold the law assign – just one – condemning Hamas? Why can’t they hold an event – just once – demanding the release of the Israeli hostages?

They haven’t done those things, and it doesn’t look like they are going to do any of those things. They haven’t been deterred.

So, it is now time for the police, the prosecutors, and the courts to apply the principle of deterrence. It’s time to deter further acts of hate.

And, after being convicted,  if some of the haters go to jail or are deported?

So be it.

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Here he is, age 20, at officer cadet training in the Summer of 1952. Front row centre.

He went on to join the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps but the war ended before he could go over. He always regretted being unable to fight fascism and anti-Semitism in battle, but he taught us to always oppose all forms of hate.

We miss him every single day – and on this day, even more.

God bless him and everyone who serves.

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