One advocacy group says that a recently published database of Canadian Jewish institutions associated with Israel and its military could become “a catalogue for hostile actors who are looking for targets.” The list features schools, summer camps and synagogues in Toronto.

“Jewish institutions and communities in Canada have been shot at, fire-bombed, their windows smashed, marked with Nazi imagery, and subjected to sustained vandalism and intimidation,” said Austin Parcels in a statement to National Post. Parcels is the manager of research and advocacy for B’nai Brith Canada.

Publishing a database of such places “framed as if their ties to Israel are incriminating is inciting and dangerous,” said Parcels.

The database, called GTA to IDF, features seven Jewish institutions, a description of each one and how they have engaged with Israel Defense Forces soldiers, from hosting soldiers to speak to students to supporting soldiers through charity. It was published by reader-funded outlet The Maple last week.

“These are Jewish organizations. Treating that basic fact as if it reveals something hidden or corrupt is an attempt to manufacture suspicion around Jewish identity itself,” said Parcels.

“When you turn the most elementary fact of Jewish identity into suspicion, you are not revealing anything. You are giving people who want to harm Jewish institutions the ammunition they are looking for.”

The information is not being “collected and republished here to encourage any harassment of the institutions named,” it says online, in an article by The Maple about the database on Dec. 3. “We’re also not accusing these institutions of having recruited or facilitated the recruitment of Canadians into the Israeli military.”

The Maple did not respond to National Post’s request for comment.

When the article’s author and database creator Davide Mastracci posted about it on X, many users commented, asking why it was created and criticized it for including places mostly geared toward children.

University of Toronto economics professor Joseph Steinberg was one of the people who commented on X. He told National Post that while the intention behind the database may not be to target Jewish institutions, that could be the impact — especially amid rising antisemitism in Toronto.

Recent incidents include mezuzahs (or Jewish prayer scrolls)

being stolen from the doorways

of Jewish seniors living in a community housing building over the weekend,

two people being arrested

at an anti-Israel protest outside a debate about a “two-state solution” at Meridian Hall last week, and

five people arrested

after Toronto Metropolitan University students tried to host an off-campus event where IDF soldiers were scheduled to speak in November.

Steinberg, who is not Jewish, said that he lives in a neighbourhood with a number of synagogues.

“Every time there is a holiday, anniversary of October 7… They all have to have security guards to prevent vandalism, to prevent violence. This is the context in which this kind of thing is being done,” he said.

He called the database “shameful.”

The list could have “dangerous implications for Canadians,” said Richard Marceau in a statement to National Post. He is the senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Jewish advocacy group, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).

“These are community institutions where children learn, families gather, and people pray,” he said.

“Following violent and even deadly incidents like the ones we’ve seen in Manchester, Melbourne and Boulder, this kind of targeting emboldens extremists and increases the threats to our people.”

Marceau said the database is “a tactic that recalls some of the darkest chapters of our people’s history.”

Becky Friedman is the director of communications and governance at Associated Hebrew Schools, which is included in the database. She said she doesn’t believe it endangers students or the community.

However, she did say she found it “blatantly antisemitic.”

She added: “We’re quite proud to be known as a community that is very supportive of Israel.”

In February, The Maple published a database of

85 Canadians who served in the Israeli military

, called Find IDF Soldiers. Since then, it has grown to include a total of 206 Canadians.

Each of the institutions that were featured in the new database published last week were “associated” with at least four soldiers from the Find IDF Soldiers database. “This project defines ‘associated’ as an individual having attended, spoken or worked at an institution,” according to The Maple, although it “doesn’t mean the soldier represents the institution in any capacity or that the institution necessarily endorses any of the soldiers’ actions or statements.”

Rabbi N. Daniel Korobkin of the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation, included in the database, told National Post that its creator “may feel that they are intimidating or embarrassing these individuals and the Jewish institutions and communities of which they have been a part.”

“But we could not be prouder of our children and students,” he said. “Anyone who has witnessed the IDF in action, has spoken to the soldiers, or has visited their bases, knows that Israel hates war and loves peace.”

He continued: “IDF soldiers have made mistakes on the battlefield, to be sure, and innocents on both sides have paid the price for the ravages of war. But we continue to hold our heads high with pride over the heroism, bravery, and humanity of the soldiers of the IDF, especially those who have chosen to serve from our own community.

“These young men and women are our heroes. We love them, are proud of them, and we wish them only the best.”

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A 10-year-old New Brunswick girl suffered an apparent seizure after buying, and quickly gulping back, two large energy drinks, terrifying her family and spurring calls for a federal ban on the sale of the caffeinated beverages to minors.

When Kayla Duguay’s phone rang at 7:30 p.m. last Friday, the Miramichi mother assumed it was her daughter, Brooklyn, asking to be picked up early from a supervised “teen night” at a local recreation complex.

Instead, it was centre staff. “They told me they’d already called an ambulance. Brooklyn was having a seizure on the floor.”

When Duguay rushed to the centre, her daughter was still on the floor, surrounded by paramedics, police and lifeguards. “She was crying. She couldn’t move,” Duguay said.

“She was no longer in a seizure when I got there but her muscles had seized up so much that she couldn’t move. Her hands were stiff to her body.

“She was in pain from head to toe. She had a headache. She had a hard time getting on the stretcher; they had to lift her up.”

At the hospital, Brooklyn was triaged as Level 2 — “emergent,” meaning potential threat to life. She was suffering from “extremity weakness,” according to hospital records. In the recovery stage of a seizure, sore muscles and weakness in parts of the body are common. The diagnosis was caffeine ingestion. “They said the caffeine and sugar intake caused her to have a seizure from an elevated heart rate,” Duguay said.

The young mother is angry her daughter and three Grade 5 friends were able to purchase multiple cans of Monster energy drinks at a convenience store across from the recreation complex. The 10-year-old drank two full, 473 ml cans, plus some of a friend’s. The kids were thirsty from running around a nearby playground before going into the centre, Duguay said.

“Seeing my daughter on the floor not being able to move or speak properly was the scariest thing I’ve been through,” Duguay wrote in a social media post that has garnered more than 100 comments. She said she shared her story “just to let other parents know.

“I’ve never condoned buying energy drinks for her, ever,” Duguay told National Post. “We’ve told her plenty of times that they can be dangerous. It wasn’t just that she was able to buy them. It was the amount — it was how she was able to purchase such an excessive amount.”‘

Public health concerns are escalating over the risks caffeinated energy drinks can pose to children. Energy drinks containing more than 150 mg of caffeine per litre, which many popular brands exceed, are poised to be banned in England for under-16s. Last week, a special committee of the European Parliament studying a possible EU-wide ban on the sale of energy drinks to minors (10 member states already have age limits) heard medical researchers describe how “high acute consumers” — young people that drink at least one litre in one sitting — consume the equivalent of five espressos and 160 grams (about one cup) of sugar.

Pediatricians are seeing more children with complaints of heart palpitations and chest pains, the parliamentarians were told. Teachers are reporting an increase in restless, irritable or zoned-out kids from lack of sleep. Potential “undesirable cardiac consequences” are emerging, including arterial stiffness, stiffening of the heart’s blood vessels, in young people and children, reported Munich clinician scientist and pediatric resident Dr. Felix Oberhoffer.

Energy drinks can lead to extra heartbeats, he reported, and while that’s not necessarily a major “pathology,” a major health risk, “it does show that even small doses affect the heart rate and rhythm of young people and children.” In one small study involved 27 healthy children and teens aged 10 to 18, Oberhoffer and colleagues found that one energy drink in the morning was associated with a higher blood pressure throughout the day and into the night.

“Why do these drinks have these effects? Probably because of the enormous amounts of caffeine they contain,” Oberhoffer said. And while caffeine is the major component, energy drinks — unlike sports drinks that replace fluids and electrolytes lost in sweat — also contain other stimulants such as taurine and guarana seed extract, a plant-based stimulant. Because of their lower body weight, children and teens are more sensitive to stimulants and, therefore, more vulnerable to the effects of excess consumption.

The drinks appeal to kids as a quick source of mental and physical stimulation, the European Parliament heard. They’re marketed as boosting “focus and power.”

In Canada, energy drinks are classified as supplemented foods by Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. They must contain no more than 180 mg per serving and carry a “cautionary statement” on their labels stating that, in addition to pregnant or breastfeeding women and  people sensitive to caffeine, the products are not recommended for children under 14.

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Under new regulations, the drinks also must feature a special “Supplemented Food Facts” table meant to alert consumers to products that have added supplemental ingredients such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids or other ingredients like, for example, caffeine.

“Non-compliant products that are not appropriately labelled or that fail to meet other regulatory requirements cannot be sold in Canada,” Health Canada said in a statement to National Post.

Companies are prohibited from advertising energy drinks to children under 12; however, all have their own social media channels and aggressive marketing, through music, sports, influencers and celebrities, is “the heart of the problem,” said EU MP and Croatian physician Biljana Bozan. One

University of Ottawa-led study

found that a significant number of posts feature “teen themes” like extreme sports; nearly 10 per cent of X posts contained “child-appealing” themes. Overall, between Jan. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2020, there were 222,119 user-generated or company-generated mentions of energy drink products that reached an estimated total of 351,707,901 users across platforms, the research team reported.

Health Canada makes recommendations about

maximum daily caffeine intake

, which includes 2.5 mg per kilogram of body weight for children and adolescents up to 18. Ideally, kids should have no caffeine at all, says the

Canadian Paediatric Society,

however it is present in chocolate and chocolate milk. But one member of the European Parliament asked, how is it possible to enforce a maximum daily threshold if a single can has up to 160mg of caffeine?

Duguay’s daughter weighs about 45 kilograms. Combined, she consumed about three times the recommended daily limit.

She told her mother that, after playing a few video games, she and her friends headed for the gymnasium, “but Brooklyn couldn’t make it up the stairs,” Duguay said. “She felt her heart racing, so they turned around and went back to the room where they played video games. She sat on the floor — she didn’t even make it to the couch. Friends saw her fall back and start seizing about an hour/hour-and-a-half, tops, after she had the energy drinks.”

When paramedics arrived, “all of the kids immediately admitted they’d drunk a bunch of energy drinks,” Duguay said.

“At the hospital, we got her blood tested, urine tested — everything possible to make sure that’s why she had the seizure,” she added.

“Eventually she got her mobility back. Within about an hour. But she was moving around like a sloth because her muscles were so seized up. They double-checked her kidneys, to make sure there was no kidney failure. They did an ECG (echocardiogram, a test of the heart’s activity) when she was on the ground, in the ambulance and at the hospital.”

“It was very, very scary. She’s never had any medical problems. None. It definitely made my heart race. This could have been a lot worse. She could have had a heart attack.”

“All the kids are drinking energy drinks. They all want to be like their older siblings. They all want to be like everybody they see on TikTok.”

In 2011, an expert panel convened by Health Canada recommended energy drinks be sold under the direct supervision of a pharmacist, limited to people aged 18 and older and labelled “stimulant drug containing” beverages.

The recommendations were largely ignored. Instead, a Health Canada risk assessment two years later concluded that, for adolescents 12 to 18, the caffeine content of a typical energy drink would be unlikely to pose a health hazard if taken in the recommended maximum daily levels. In other words, “at moderate levels there are minimal risks,” said David Hammond, a professor and university research chair in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo.

“But there are lots of people, including kids, who don’t consume at moderate levels,” said Hammond.

The risks are greater when used in conjunction with sports or alcohol, “which, again, are some of the most common patterns of use,” he said.

“I’m not a medical doctor, but they’re stimulants. They increase blood pressure and heart rate. When you’re doing sports or vigorous activities, you’re already stressing your cardiovascular system. Your heart rate and blood pressure is already up and you’re adding additional stress on top of that.”

In 2008, James Shepherd’s 15-year-old-son, Brian, died from an unexplained arrhythmia several hours after drinking an energy drink handed out by company representatives at a day-long paintball tournament. “In one 12-hour period from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on January 6, 2008, I lost a vibrant, healthy and much-loved 15-year-old son,” Shepherd, who suspected that the drink was at least a contributing factor to his son’s death, testified before a parliamentary health committee.

In one study, Hammond and colleagues

surveyed, 2,055 teens and young adults ages 12 to 24.

Most had reported consuming an energy drink. Of those who did, just over half said they experienced at least one adverse event such as a fast heartbeat, a “jolt and crash” (increased alertness and energy, followed by a sudden plummet in both), headache, jittery/shaking or chest pain. Many (22.5 per cent) had also consumed alcohol, or were participating in physical activity (18.5 per cent), nearly half reported none of these activities, and most had consumed less than the recommended maximum of one or two drinks.

The authors of a recent

major review of 57 studies involving more than 1.2 million children

across nearly two dozen countries said that while it’s difficult to prove a cause-and-effect link, policy makers should adopt the “precautionary principle” to reduce harm to kids.

Poland banned the sale of energy drinks to under 18s in 2024. So far, it has had limited impact: “Among those attempting direct purchases in shops, only 19.3 per cent were consistently asked to provide proof of age,”

researchers recently reported

.

Still, the U.K seems bent on a ban to minors amid a burgeoning global energy drink market, which was estimated at

US$83.5 billion in 2025

and is forecasted to reach US$116 billion by 2030.

Cautionary statements like Health Canada’s aren’t a magic bullet, Hammond said. “We have warnings on cigarette products, and we still have four million people who smoke.” The “supplemented” labels are also rather vague, he added. “When we use the word ‘supplement,’ most often people think, ‘Oh, that’s a nutritional supplement. That’s good for me. That’s what we do for old folks and little kids, and infants. What it’s meant to do is flag things that are in such high concentrations they could be harmful, but most folks aren’t picking up on that.”

If both the industry and Health Canada say kids shouldn’t be drinking energy drinks, Hammond said it would seem to logically follow that both industry and government would agree to a minimum legal age of sale.

“It’s really up to governments and manufacturers to figure out what the proportional response is,” Hammond said. Jurisdictions like the U.K. have said cautionary labels aren’t enough.

“One way that you actually clearly signal that these are not for young kids to drink is to say they shouldn’t be sold to them,” Hammond said.

In a statement to National Post, the Canadian Beverage Association (CBA) called a sales restriction on energy drinks “arbitrary, discriminatory, ineffective and not justified.”

Caffeinated energy drinks have been sold and safely consumed in Canada for more than two decades and are available in more than 170 countries, CBA President Krista Scaldwell said. Member companies adhere to several voluntary marketing commitments, she added, including a commitment “to not engage in any direct commercial activity” in relation to energy drinks in K-12 schools and not to advertise energy drinks “in programming/advertising whose primary target audience is children.”

“The CBA supports Health Canada’s strict science-based approach and remains committed to public education and working with regulators to ensure Canadians can make informed choices,” Scaldwell said.

After a few hours in emergency, Brooklyn was sent home with instructions to stay hydrated.

Duguay said she was aware her daughter was going to the store with friends for snacks before heading back to the centre, which is walking distance. “I GPS her every move.” Kids can’t leave the Friday night social without being signed out by a parent. Duguay was waiting to collect Brooklyn when her phone rang.

Duguay was a bartender in her early 20s. “We would be charged or fined or in trouble if we over-served alcohol. We had to parent the adults. We had to say, ‘No, we have to cut you off. You can’t have any more for your own safety.’

“But there’s nothing to keep people from selling energy drinks to 10-year-olds.”

Monster Energy did not respond to requests for comment before deadline.

National Post 

 

 

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A Chinese-born Canadian citizen who lives in Mississauga, Ont., was arrested in Virginia by the FBI and charged with trying to smuggle restricted high-tech Nvidia computer chips used in AI processing to China

U.S. authorities seized export-controlled technology worth about $30 million that was addressed to an air freight facility in Mississauga, close to Toronto Pearson International Airport, according to allegations filed in court.

Nvidia labels on the components had been removed and replaced with labels for a fake company, authorities said.

The arrest of Benlin Yuan, of Mississauga, immediately west of Toronto, and the large shipment destined for Toronto are part of Operation Gatekeeper, described by U.S. authorities as targeting “a sophisticated illicit procurement conspiracy and smuggling network that orchestrates buying and exporting controlled high-tech computer chips to China.”

Yuan is described in U.S. prosecution documents as president of an information technology company based in Virginia that provides data centre services and IT support and consulting in Canada and the United States. The documents say it is a subsidiary of a Chinese company based in Beijing.

He was arrested in Sterling, Virginia, on Nov. 28 and charged with conspiring to violate export control acts.

The network is accused of purchasing at least US$50 million worth of GPUs from a large U.S. technology company.

The computer products Yuan is alleged to be involved in exporting are Nvidia A100, H100, and H200 Tensor Core graphic processing units, known as GPUs, and HGX baseboards. The equipment is used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications and in high-performance computing. The chips can handle huge amounts of data that is needed in AI applications, an exploding field that is revolutionizing technology.

The GPUs can perform calculations at higher speeds than most previous computers.

Since about November 2023, a Chinese company has worked to import these chips from the United States, prosecutors allege. The entire plot is alleged to have involved US$160 million in tech goods.

Yuan is accused of joining the conspiracy this spring.

In a criminal complaint sworn by a special agent in the U.S. Department of Commerce, Yuan helped buy the technology using straw purchasers and intermediaries, meaning in the name of a person or company that is not the real end buyer.

The buyers allegedly declared the goods were for use by customers within the United States or in countries that do not require an export licence, including Taiwan and Thailand.

At various U.S. warehouses, Nvidia labels were allegedly removed from the computer circuits and relabeled with a fake manufacturing brand of SANDKYAN, according to the criminal complaint against Yuan.

When preparing the items for export, the shipping paperwork misclassified the products as harmless and unrestricted pieces of tech: “adapters,” “adapter modules,” and “computer controllers,” authorities claim.

They were then shipped, directly or indirectly, to China.

Investigators received a tip about pallets of suspicious GPUs at a New Jersey warehouse that were addressed to companies in China.

An undercover agent was sent inside, where he spent an hour.

The agent allegedly saw two engineers who appeared to be of Chinese origin unboxing Nvidia components. One of the engineers spoke to the undercover agent in Mandarin, documents say. The engineers said they had to cover up all of the Nvidia branding on the equipment for “export purposes,” court filings allege.

The agent watched Nvidia labels being pulled off and new ones for the fake firm put in their place. The next day the agent returned and found the boxes had been resealed. The products were now labeled as having been “Made in Taiwan.”

Not only were those packages addressed for shipping to Toronto, but warehouse employees told agents they recently had several similar tech exports to Canada.

The packages were removed and secured in a government warehouse. That sparked a flow of complaint calls and demand letters about the missing GPUs. The people expecting the goods believed the undercover officer had stolen the products and started negotiating to have them returned, authorities allege.

They offered $1 million to get their packages back, but insisted the equipment be inspected before payment was made.

Yuan is accused of organizing the “inspection.”

He is accused of recruiting and arranging the group of inspectors and of being one of the six who arrived to examine the packages, about two weeks after the seizure, court filings allege.

The inspection arrangements were allegedly planned in a group chat using an encrypted communication app and confirmed later over a video conferencing app.

Yuan was told by a high-level representative of the buyer in China to make sure no one said the items were destined for China, according to the criminal complaint. He is accused of helping them develop an elaborate “compliance backstory” to justify the products based on false information.

They also allegedly discussed how to make the million-dollar payment and Yuan was told to send copies of the driver’s licences of everyone on the inspection team. Three trucks were arranged for the pick up.

He is also accused of handling the storage of a different shipment of Nvidia products destined for China. A cooperating witness for U.S. prosecutors alleged that Yuan told him not to put fake labels on this one as he thought they looked suspicious; he would rather the Nvidia labels just be removed.

Alexander Blanchard, a Virginia-based lawyer for Yuan, declined to comment about Yuan or the case when asked by National Post.

“Operation Gatekeeper has exposed a sophisticated smuggling network that threatens our nation’s security by funneling cutting-edge AI technology to those who would use it against American interests,” said Nicholas Ganjei, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas.

“These chips are the building blocks of AI superiority and are integral to modern military applications. The country that controls these chips will control AI technology; the country that controls AI technology will control the future.”

U.S. regulation restricts the export of items that could make a significant contribution to the military potential of other nations or could be detrimental to the foreign policy or national security of the United States.

Advanced computing integrated circuits, including certain Nvidia-manufactured GPUs were added to the export restriction list in 2022. Some of the latest Nvidia chips have been classed by the U.S. as “critical technologies” that China could use to “modernize its military capabilities in ways that threaten the national security interests of the United States and its allies,” according to export regulations.

The chips require a special licence to export to China.

On Monday, the same day Operation Gatekeeper was announced, U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States will allow Nvidia’s H200 processors to be exported to China with a 25 per cent fee.

Alan Hao Hsu, also known as Haochun Hsu, 43, of Missouri City, Texas, and his company both pleaded guilty to smuggling and unlawful export activities in October as part of Operation Gatekeeper.

Newly unsealed court documents say Hsu received more than US$50 million in wire transfers from China to help fund the scheme. He is scheduled for sentencing in February.

Fanyue Gong, also known as Tom Gong, 43, a citizen of China who lives in Brooklyn, New York, was also charged in the probe. He is described as the owner of a New York technology company. He was arrested in New York on Dec. 3, and charged with conspiring to smuggle goods out of the United States.

Five unnamed co-conspirators are linked to IT companies based in Hong Kong or Shenzhen, a city on the Pearl River that acts as a bridge between Hong Kong and mainland China.

• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | X: AD_Humphreys

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The latest annual report from real estate company Royal LePage is forecasting a modest hike in home prices of one per cent by the fourth quarter of 2026. But that overall figure is hiding a significant drop in two of Canada’s most expensive cities, Toronto and Vancouver.

Calling 2026 “a crucial reset year for Canada’s housing market,” the Royal LePage

Market Survey Forecast

predicts that the average price of a home in Canada is expected to rise to $823,016 in the fourth quarter of 2026. That figure includes single-family detached properties, which are expected to rise two per cent to $876,934, and condominiums, which are anticipated to decrease 2.5 per cent to $563,918.

Also hiding in the overall average are gains and losses in individual markets. For instance, the average home price in the greater Toronto area is expected to fall 4.5 per cent next year, while greater Vancouver is expected to see a drop of 3.5 per cent.

Montreal, on the other hand, is forecast to rise five per cent. And Quebec City is forecast to see the highest gains among all major regions in 2026, with the average home price expected to rise 12 per cent.

“Solid market fundamentals — including lower interest rates, increased supply, and reduced competition — have created a more favourable environment for consumers,” said Phil Soper, president and CEO of Royal LePage, in announcing the figures.

“First-time buyers and those searching in the country’s most expensive regions have a rare window to act on their home ownership plans at reduced prices.”

This year saw a lowering of interest rates, as the Bank of Canada reduced its target for the overnight lending rate four times.

The prime rate

that banks use to set mortgage rates is now at 4.45 per cent.

The Royal LePage report notes that, after an 18-month rate-cutting cycle following two-decade-high interest rates, “the Bank has now shifted its focus to supporting a cooling economy while keeping inflation on a sustainable path.” It adds that economists widely expect the Bank of Canada will only make further cuts if the economy shows major signs of weakness as Canada continues to navigate trade tensions with the United States.

“Mortgage rates are no longer the villain in this story,” said Soper. “Borrowing costs have stabilized at a level that supports healthy market activity. Buyers can move forward without worrying they are missing out on cheaper money tomorrow. That clarity alone will unlock demand.”

In a survey

conducted this summer

, Royal LePage found that, of renters who were holding off on buying a property, 40 per cent said they were waiting for housing prices to fall, while 29 per cent said they were delaying until interest rates declined.

Outside of Toronto and Vancouver,

every major market

is expected to see an increase in home prices, although in each case it will be driven more by single-family detached dwellings, where the price hike will outstrip that for condos.

In Quebec City, for instance, the overall expected rise of 12 per cent was driven by a five per cent increase in condo prices but a 14 per cent rise in detached homes. In Montreal, the overall rise of five per cent included a six per cent jump in detached homes and a more modest 2.5 per cent climb in condo prices. And in Halifax, an overall increase of two per cent comprised a four per cent rise in detached homes but a two per cent drop in condominium prices.

In other markets, Calgary and Winnipeg are forecast to see the smallest jump in prices, at 1.5 per cent, followed by Edmonton and Ottawa (two per cent) and Regina at four per cent.

Soper applauded the government’s commitment to housing and infrastructure projects in the latest federal budget, but said it remained to be seen how those decisions would play out.

“If Ottawa follows through, 2026 could be the year we start to see long-promised initiatives turn into real progress for the Canadian real estate industry.” he said.

He added: “2026 will be a transition year for Canada’s housing market, as improved affordability and less competitive conditions continue to favour buyers. We expect activity to build slowly over the next several months, and if the spring market coincides with steadier economic and trade conditions, buyer confidence could strengthen in tandem.”

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OTTAWA — After a week of delays and uncertainty, the Liberals say a deal is back on the rails with the Bloc Québécois to remove religious exemptions from Canada’s hate-speech laws in exchange for support to help pass the government’s bill targeting hate and terror symbols.

A senior government source confirmed to National Post that the Liberals on the House of Commons justice committee, which is currently doing a clause-by-clause study of Bill C-9, are expected to support a Bloc amendment to the legislation that will remove the controversial exemption during a Tuesday afternoon meeting.

“Anything can happen at committee, but… we’ll be voting for it,” said the source about the Bloc amendment. They were granted anonymity to discuss inter-party negotiations freely.

Last week, National Post reported that the Bloc and Liberals had struck a deal that would see the government approve an amendment to Bill C-9 that removes the religious exemption for willful promotion of hate from the Criminal Code. In exchange, the Bloc committed to supporting the bill through the House of Commons.

A deal with the Bloc is likely the only way the Liberals can get the bill through committee, as the Conservatives have vowed to oppose it.

But after the report, the deal appeared suddenly to be on shaky ground as both meetings of the Justice committee last week where the amendment was expected to be debated were either cancelled or suspended by the Liberals.

Liberal committee chair

James Maloney said at the time

he cancelled the meeting to allow MPs to “regroup and find a path forward” as “emotions were running high.” At the same time, the government faced a groundswell of opposition to the amendment by various Muslim, Christian and civil rights groups.

After the second planned committee meeting last week was cancelled at the last minute, the Bloc Québécois accused the Liberals of reneging on a deal they said originally came from Justice Minister Sean Fraser himself.

More to come…

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

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OTTAWA

— Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser tabled a new crime bill on Tuesday, seeking to stiffen punishments for offences committed against children and women, while also proposing to restore mandatory minimum sentences for a slew of offences. 

The 167-page bill includes proposals to criminalize a pattern of behaviour seen in abusive relationships known as “coercive control,” and also declare that when a woman is murdered in the context of a controlling intimate partner relationship, which could include sexual violence and hate, that homicide be regarded as first-degree murder.

The change also includes referring to these murders as “femicide,” which was a promise that Prime Minister Mark Carney made during the spring election campaign.

The bill also fulfills his campaign commitment to include as part of the offence against the non-consensual distribution of intimate images, those which are “a visual representation” of someone that could be mistaken as real, which refers to the practice of using generative AI to make what are commonly known as sexualized “deepfakes.”

The legislation also seeks to respond to a recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down the one-year mandatory minimum sentences for the access and possession of child-sex abuse images, known as child pornography.

The Opposition Conservatives and other critics decried the top court’s decision at the time, calling on Fraser to use the notwithstanding clause in the Charter to allow the Liberal government to uphold the minimum sentencing requirement.

Tuesday’s bill responds by trying to safeguard remaining mandatory minimum sentences and include a change that states courts may allow an offender to serve less time, “but only if the mandatory minimum term of imprisonment would amount to cruel and unusual punishment,” for that specific offence.

The legislation also proposes to try addressing the issue of court cases being tossed due to an accused’s right to a trial not being met within a reasonable timeframe by directing that courts consider other options rather than granting a stay of proceedings.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association released a statement on Tuesday, saying the bill attempts to overturn “

nearly 40 years of Supreme Court precedent” and removes the “strongest constraint requiring the justice system to run on time.”

“The federal government’s proposal to gut the (Charter right)
to be tried in a reasonable time is unconstitutional and punts the hard work of resolving delay,” Shakir Rahim, who directs the association’s criminal justice program, said in a statement. 

National Post

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A Nunavut judge knocked nearly two years off the sentence for an Inuit man convicted of trying to choke a woman to death because she stood up for his abused sister-in-law, citing his Indigenous status, mental illness and the fact that a shorter sentence would not require him to leave Canada’s northernmost territory to serve the remainder of his time behind bars.

Laimiki Toonoo was sentenced in the Nunavut Court of Justice to eight years and two months in prison for the attempted murder of Ovilu Saila.

“Given that this case involved a conviction after trial, the Crown submission of 10-12 years was reasonable and appropriate. Indeed, I would have imposed a sentence of 10 years if it was not for the mitigating factors of Laimiki’s major mental illness, his significant Gladue factors, and the fact that a territorial term going forward was within the range of sentence given his lengthy pre-trial custody, and that that form of sentence made a lengthy probation order available,” Justice Christian Lyons wrote in a recent decision out of Iqaluit.

Gladue principles were set out in a Supreme Court of Canada decision over a quarter century back and indicate sentencing judges must consider the unique circumstances of Indigenous offenders, as well as systemic issues like the impact of residential schools, to address the over-representation of Indigenous people in Canada’s prisons.

“Laimiki’s assault on Ovilu was unprovoked, and senseless. In a cowardly display, Laimiki and his brother, Archie, two grown men under the influence of alcohol, attacked a sober Ovilu because she stood up for Archie’s spouse after Archie became abusive towards her,” Lyons said.

“The attack was lengthy and persistent and took place in the presence of Archie’s spouse and their four young children.”

The court heard that Laimiki “choked Ovilu for many minutes and managed to do so despite a spirited effort from Ovilu to defend herself,” said the decision, dated Dec. 3.

“Ovilu eventually became unconscious due to the choking and Laimiki continued choking her with the intent to kill her. While he did this, Archie told Laimiki to stop, but Laimiki said he would not, because Ovilu was not dead yet, and was still breathing.”

Laimiki then told his brother they “could hang Ovilu, and Archie again told him to stop. There was further discussion between Archie and Laimiki about hanging Ovilu, and Laimiki said they could hang Ovilu and pretend that she hung herself,” said the decision.

“Laimiki then tied a phone charger cord tightly around Ovilu’s neck and then tied a scarf to the cord. The purpose of this was to attach something long enough to her neck so she could be hung from a heavy bolt embedded in a wooden beam above her head. He then applied sufficient force to the cord to snap it. Whether or not she was actually hung is unknown.”

Ovilu “regained consciousness sometime after the cord snapped and Laimiki continued to attempt to assault her as Archie was on the phone with the police reporting that a woman was hanging,” said the decision.

“Laimiki then fled, and Ovilu was able to escape the home, and went immediately to the RCMP detachment with the cord still tied tightly to her neck.”

The 2021 attack in Kinngait, a Dorset Island hamlet, left Ovilu with “significant swelling and bruising to her face, a cord indentation around her neck, and redness and scratches to her neck area,” said the decision. “It also had a deep emotional impact on her.”

Laimiki Toonoo has a criminal record with 14 convictions spanning from 2017-2021, said the decision, which notes three are for violent offences.

“This is a significant criminal record for a man who was only 23 years old when he went into custody for the attack on Ovilu, and it spans his entire adult life up until that point,” Lyons said. “I further note that in 2023, a year and a half after being incarcerated, he was released on bail, only to be arrested 12 days later on new, unrelated charges, and remanded back into custody.”

Laimiki Toonoo “has experienced significant trauma and loss, and has had a difficult life,” said the judge.

“He has a long-standing diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, which is the result of what was described in the records, as a ‘chaotic childhood,’” said the judge.

“His father died when he was eight years old, and it is clear that this has had a significant impact on Laimiki.”

After his father died, Laimiki told the court he was on his own. He “called himself an ‘abandoned kid,’ staying variously with his mother and at friend’s homes,” said the decision.

One of his brothers died by suicide and another drowned, said the decision.

“Laimiki is an Indigenous man, and these life experiences are significant Gladue factors that are mitigating on sentence,” said the judge.

Laimiki Toonoo sometimes experiences “auditory hallucinations” that “urge him to harm others,” said the decision. “A month after his attempted murder of Ovilu, Laimiki broke his hand punching another inmate, and it was said that he did so in response to an auditory command hallucination.”

Since attacking another inmate in 2021, “Laimiki has been stabilized in custody, as he has been medicated and kept free from alcohol and illicit drug use,” said the decision.

Laimiki has been in custody since the attempted murder, “save for the 12 days he was released on bail in 2023, and therefore has credit for more than four years in jail,” Lyons said.

His defence lawyer asked for a six-year sentence, which would have worked out to time served when the enhanced credit for pre-sentence custody was taken into account.

The Crown argued that “given the aggravating factors, and Laimiki’s high risk of reoffending, that a penitentiary term going forward is necessary. They argue that such a sentence would more effectively protect the public from Laimiki as he would be separated from society for a longer period, and more likely to be rehabilitated.”

But the remainder of his sentence is two years less a day, which allows him to serve it in Nunavut.

“The imposition of a territorial sentence allows me to put Mr. Toonoo on a lengthy probation order following his release, that requires him to meet with mental health workers, and psychiatrists, and to not drink alcohol or consume illicit drugs,” Lyons said. “This would not be an available option to me if I were to impose a further federal sentence of two years or more.”

He’s getting “effective treatment for his mental illness and has a level of comfort there,” the judge said of the Iqaluit jail.

“He reported feeling more alive in custody, and that he has learned to respect others. He is surrounded by other Inuit, and is much closer to home, and has access to programs.”

Toonoo’s brother, Archie, was sentenced to two years of probation last month for his role in the attack.

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