JERUSALEM — Iranian intelligence services are systematically outsourcing terrorist attacks to international criminal organizations, using drug cartels, biker gangs, and local criminals as proxies to target Jewish communities, Israeli interests, and Iranian dissidents worldwide, according to intelligence reports, government documents, and The Press Service of Israel’s interviews.

The strategy reflects a deliberate shift by Tehran to maintain plausible deniability while expanding its shadow war against Israel and Jewish communities. Recent arrests and foiled plots from North America to Germany to Australia reveal how the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence recruit criminals-for-hire to carry out surveillance, assassinations, and terror attacks.

Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador in August 2025 after confirming that the IRGC had ordered arson attacks on Jewish institutions in Sydney and Melbourne.

But Iran’s connection to other attacks abroad has drawn less attention. Analysts describe Tehran’s approach as “narco-terrorism” — leveraging drug cartels, smuggling rings, and transnational criminal networks to fund operations and strike adversaries while shielding the Iranian state.

“What is being revealed does not reflect the full scope of Iran’s activity,” counterterrorism expert Moran Alaluf told TPS-IL.

Alaluf is an Iran and Hezbollah researcher at the David Institute for Security Policy and a research fellow at the Institute for Israel-Africa Relations.

“Because of its sophistication, its ability to avoid fingerprints on the ground, and support from criminal organizations, local collaborators, and the extreme left, Iran is managing to remove its name from many actions,” she explained.

Dr. Omer Dostri, who studied IRGC criminal partnerships in 2022, documented how Iranian forces repeatedly relied on Turkish and Cypriot crime groups, Afghan heroin cartels, and Mexican gangs like Los Zetas to pursue strategic objectives.

“The use of organized crime provides Iran plausible deniability because these acts appear informal; there is no reason to respond or condemn them,” Dostri’s report said, published by the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.

Sweden

Iran’s criminal partnerships became evident in March 2025 when the U.S. Treasury sanctioned the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish-international crime organization involved in drug trafficking. U.S. Treasury officials said the network carried out attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets across Europe at Tehran’s instruction, including an assault on the Israeli embassy in Stockholm in January 2024.

Foxtrot’s leader, Rawa Majid, coordinated directly with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. The arrangement allowed Tehran to maintain “plausible deniability” while leveraging criminal expertise in weapons, logistics, and local networks.

Majid and Foxtrot were linked to attacks on Israeli embassies in Stockholm and Brussels, as well as the Elbit Systems offices in Gothenburg, recruiting teenagers to carry out the operations.

Majid remains at large, reportedly living in Iran under Tehran’s protection.

Germany

In Germany, federal prosecutors arrested a Danish citizen of Afghan origin in June 2025 on espionage charges. Ali S., according to German court records, conducted surveillance of Jewish institutions and individuals in Berlin for the IRGC’s Quds Force, which specializes in operations outside Iran.

“In early 2025, Ali S. received an order from an Iranian intelligence service to collect information on Jewish localities and specific Jewish individuals in Berlin. To this end, he surveilled three properties in June 2025, presumably in preparation for further intelligence activities in Germany, possibly including terrorist attacks on Jewish targets,” Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor General’s office said in January.

Sacha Stawski, president of the Frankfurt-based antisemitism watchdog Honestly Concerned, said intimidation has forced many Jews to “hide their symbols” or consider leaving Germany.

“The third option is to fight as long and as strongly as you can. We know these attacks will keep happening, and Iran is involved. Awareness is rising,” he told TPS-IL.

Greece

Greek authorities grew suspicious in 2024 when an Iranian man was arrested alongside an Afghan and a Greek attempting to set fire to an Athens synagogue.

A senior politician in Greece’s ruling New Democracy party, familiar with intelligence and security issues, told TPS-IL that Tehran has established contacts with far-left and anarchist groups, including Rouvikonas, a violent organization linked to the dismantled “17 November” terrorist group, which coordinates anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish actions.

“Iran now considers Greece hostile territory because of Israel,” the source said, adding that Tehran uses local figures to destabilize Greek-Israeli relations.

United Kingdom

Britain’s MI5 disclosed that it had disrupted at least 15 Iranian plots to kidnap or kill dissidents, journalists, and regime critics.

United States

As far back as 2011, an Iranian agent tried to recruit a Los Zetas cartel member to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Washington, as well as diplomatic targets in Argentina.

In 2022, four Iranian operatives were charged with attempting to abduct journalist Masih Alinejad, part of a larger campaign to target dissidents in Canada, Britain, and the UAE.

Naji Sharifi Zindashti, a drug lord under IRGC protection, was sanctioned by U.S. and U.K. authorities in 2023 for links to assassination plots, including attempts to hire a Hells Angels biker to kill an Iranian defector in Maryland.

In November 2024, a federal indictment in New York accused Farhad Shakeri, an IRGC asset in Tehran, of using a U.S. criminal network of former prison associates for contract killings.

Court documents showed Shakeri ordered surveillance and the murder of two Jewish American business owners who supported Israel, offering $500,000 per target, and planned a mass shooting of Israeli tourists at Sri Lanka’s Arugam Bay, supplying AK-47s to local operatives. Evidence included recorded conversations, messages, photos, and payments for reconnaissance and planning.

Canada

In 2024, Canadian authorities thwarted

an Iranian plot to assassinate

former Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, a long-time critic of Tehran.

Joe Adam George, a Canadian analyst specializing in Islamist threats, explained to TPS-IL that “local criminal gangs can be recruited to act on Iranian orders, creating challenges for law enforcement.” George also specializes in Islamist threats in Canada for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and the Middle East Forum.

“Iran and its proxies, such as Hezbollah, have a documented history of exploiting criminal networks in Canada and elsewhere to carry out terrorism, illicit financing, drug trafficking, intimidation, and violence—all while maintaining plausible deniability,” he said. “This creates significant political, operational, geographic, and legal hurdles for law enforcement, as the individuals directing these operations are often based abroad, particularly in Iran and other rogue states.”

George called for a “comprehensive, multi-faceted approach,” including sanctions, military deterrence, intelligence sharing, IRGC designation as a terrorist organization, and stronger law enforcement.

International Response

The U.S. Treasury noted that Iran “increasingly relies on organized criminal groups…to maintain plausible deniability,” complicating detection and attribution.

In July 2025, 14 Western nations, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, and 11 European allies, issued a joint statement condemning Iran for collaborating with international criminal organizations to target journalists, dissidents, Jewish citizens, and officials.

“We are united in our opposition to the attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty. These services are increasingly collaborating with international criminal organizations to target journalists, dissidents, Jewish citizens, and current and former officials in Europe and North America. This is unacceptable,” the statement said.

For Jewish communities, Iran’s strategy creates unprecedented vulnerability. Criminal networks operate differently from traditional terror cells, complicating conventional counterterrorism approaches.

Analysts cautioned that arrests, sanctions, and intelligence revelations likely reflect only a fraction of Tehran’s broader activity. Many plots remain undetected or unattributed, keeping Western security services one step behind.

“There are many dormant cells waiting for the green light,” Alaluf warned.

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In the third set at the recent U.S. Open, on her way to losing against the world number one, British tennis player Emma Raducanu finally said something.

“It’s been like ten minutes,” she complained to the umpire, gesturing to the crying baby in the crowd who was distracting her during her serve.

“It’s a child. Do you want me to send a child out of the stadium?” the umpire said. It was plainly a rhetorical question. But then spectators yelled out “Yes!” and Raducanu smiled and gestured as if to say, “Well, yeah.”

By taking this stand, Raducanu risked making herself into a viral villain, a young Karen in tennis shoes. But she was saved because so many people agreed with her.

The ump was right though. You can’t eject a baby. So the game went on, as did the crying. Raising the same issue in a talk show rant the other day, the English sports commentator Simon Jordan suggested parents who bring their babies to sporting events are

irresponsible “morons.”

He said this view does not make him a “horrid” Dickensian caricature who hates babies. “The fact of the matter is it’s not appropriate. It’s not mean spirited.”

There are diverse attitudes to babies in public spaces, and many efforts to formulate the rules for manners and etiquette without annoying anyone too much.

But exasperated intolerance is maybe the most common one, as is the suggestion of hard and fast rules against babies in public spaces not meant for them. No babies in restaurants. No babies in first class. Babies at the theatre, are you kidding?

It’s hardly a new notion. There is, for example, the prim Emily Post, whose great-granddaughter-in-law continues her tradition and wrote in an updated version of the original 1922 Emily Post’s Etiquette that children “can scarcely be too young to be taught the rudiments of good manners, nor can the teaching be too patiently or too conscientiously carried out…. All youngsters must be taught from their earliest years that there are certain rules that have to be obeyed and certain manners that always must be practiced.”

Likewise, the acerbic Miss Manners, in a 2020 volume of manners, noted “a certain lack of civility in the society.”

“This is not entirely new,” wrote Judith Martin under the pseudonym. “It is some decades since the enlightened child-rearing technique, or lack of one, has consisted of ‘Just be yourself, and don’t care what other people think.’ The intention may be to say, ‘Stand up for what you know is right, even in the face of disapproval.’ But it comes across as ‘Do what suits you and never mind how it affects anyone else.’”

It continues today, but in a new social media environment. Once, a manners scold would simply scold, maybe tut tut or mutter under their breath, and that would be that. Now, though, social conflicts have a tendency to go viral, and suddenly everyone has a chance to react. Suddenly it’s less about the specific annoyance and more about the general policy.

Two recent examples from the news illustrate the issue from opposite angles.

On the one hand, taking babies into grown up spaces can upset the baby, even plausibly harm it. That was what the Colombian rapper Maluma thought when he saw a baby at his concert in Mexico City. “I’d like to know what he’s doing here. Next time protect his ears or something.” He chided the mother for “swaying him as if he were a toy.” Never mind the viral exposure of a concert to an infant’s immune system, he was worried about the kid’s eardrums.

On the other hand, taking babies into grown up spaces can annoy and upset everyone else. That was what seemed to happen at the U.S. Open.

Rebecca Eckler thinks people are unfair to parents who take their babies out in public. She’s mindful of the etiquette, and once tipped 40 per cent when her baby cried at a restaurant. But she would “rather hear a baby scream than an adult telling me about another fad cleanse they are on.”

“People love to clutch their pearls like it’s the end of civilization when they hear or see babies and toddlers. I never judge,” said Eckler, a former star National Post columnist in its early days; author of books including Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother-to-Be (2004), Wiped! Life with a Pint-Sized Dictator, (2007), and The Mommy Mob: Inside the Outrageous World of Mommy Blogging (2014); and publisher of RE:BOOKS, a publishing house of books for and by women, and Rivkah Books, its Jewish imprint.

“Flying is already a misery, tiny seats, someone always reclining into your lap, someone snoring, someone who coughs. Maybe flying with a baby was literally unavoidable to a family. If you’re lucky enough to have a life where the worst thing that happens to you is that a baby cried while you’re sipping mediocre coffee on a plane? Well, congratulations! A crying baby at a concert? What about every adult recording the entire thing holding up their phones or worse, holding their iPads? Should we arrest them? Restaurants? Same thing. Maybe that couple hasn’t seen each other outside of sweatpants and Goldfish crackers in months,” Eckler said. “And honestly, the idea that a baby should never inconvenience adults is nothing short of laughable. Life is one big inconvenience.”

There was a time maybe a decade ago when there was a broad societal effort to make public spaces more welcoming to new parents. Public places installed nursing rooms and quiet areas, more washrooms got change tables, there were magazine thinkpieces on breastfeeding in public, emphasizing that women should be not just free and unbothered, but actively helped and encouraged to take the baby into public places.

That messaging continues, because companies seem pretty slow to pick up on it. Just this week, Virgin Australia apologized for asking a woman to stop pumping and to leave a lounge at Melbourne airport, leading an MP to scold the airline. In New Jersey, a department store apologized for not letting a woman breastfeed in a fitting room.

Elaine Swann is an etiquette expert in Los Angeles and author of a forthcoming manual on modern etiquette. Her view is that manners are, at root, about putting others at ease. It’s not so much about rules and policies. It’s being “mindful of the environment” and how they might be affecting it, she said in an interview.

Many of the troublesome examples arise from people who are annoyed by babies, but should really just mind their own business and deal with it. But other examples reveal a crude overconfidence in parents about the behaviour of their child, an inflated sense of how cute their baby seems to other adults.

At worst, this is an entitled sanctimony that verges on rude cluelessness. Swann, for example, worked for many years in airline cabin crews in first class, and recalls one parent seeming so besotted with their little child as it went up and down the aisles, visiting people who were paying handsomely for a luxury experience, and arguably spoiling it.

“It’s a blindness on the part of the parent,” she said. “Not everyone wants to be visited,” and it forces people to be gracious to this baby even though they may be unwilling.

So what that squinty-eyed view of babies in public boils down to is this. It’s not that you shouldn’t bring your baby to this public event because it’s wrong in principle to bring babies to public events.

It’s a more subtle point. You shouldn’t bring your baby to this public event because you are being annoying, right here and now, just you, specifically you. And let’s be clear. No one can blame the baby. The parent is the annoyance. This is not the time to share your views on child development theory, knowing that social media will back you up. These are beside the point. Junior’s being a pest, which at least for the time being means you’re being a pest.

Voicing this opinion, however, that babies do not belong in first class cabins or in nice grown up cocktail lounges and similar fancy places, tends to get Swann roasted on social media. It’s a common attitude, but one that people love denouncing.

“I said what I said. And I stand by that,” Swann said.

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Jewish advocacy groups say that

Canada recognizing a Palestinian state

would embolden terrorist group Hamas and pose a threat to Canadian values.

Prime Minister Mark Carney

said late in July

that he intended to recognize Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly in a speech on Sept. 27. An updated schedule this week shows that instead Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is scheduled to address the assembly on Sept. 29.

“We’ve seen, in the wake of the government’s announcement on this, an upsurge in activities targeting Jewish communities,” Noah Shack, the CEO of advocacy group Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), told National Post.

“Here in Canada, we’ve seen

synagogues vandalized from Victoria to Halifax

, Jewish Canadians assaulted in Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal and Saint John, and an overall escalation in the tensions that we’re facing here.”

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 Israelis and took 251 hostages in an attack that has sparked ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

According to Statistics Canada

, there was an increase in police-reported hate crimes in Canada in 2023, and 70 per cent of the ones that targeted a religion were directed at Jews. In 2024, Jewish advocacy group

B’nai Brith Canada recorded the highest number of antisemitic incidents

— 6,219 —

 

since it started documenting them in 1982.

Carney said his intention to recognize Palestinian statehood “was predicated on the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to much-needed reforms,” including a commitment by

Mahmoud Abbas,

president of the Palestinian Authority, to hold general elections in 2026, the release of the hostages, and Hamas stepping down. Abbas does not control Gaza, and has not held elections since 2006. On Friday, The Canadian Press reported that Anand said there would not be an

immediate normalization of diplomatic ties with the Palestinian Authority.

“Hamas has stated that this recognition is one of the

fruits of October 7

and have called for an escalation of resistance activities around the world, with Canadian organizations taking up that call,” Shack said.

Recognizing Palestinian statehood “does nothing to bring the hostages home or come to an ultimate resolution of this conflict,” he said, adding that it was a challenge to understand why Canada was making the decision right now, “given that we’re facing this significant crisis coming up on two years” of hostages remaining in captivity.

As of September, 48 hostages remain, according to the American Jewish Committee, and 20 are believed to be alive,

CNN reported

.

“That should be a primary objective of the Government of Canada, not a secondary one, right?” he said.

But the move doesn’t only affect the Jewish community, Michael Westcott told National Post. Westcott is the CEO of Allies for a Strong Canada, an organization dedicated to combatting antisemitism in the country.

“It sends a message both to Canada’s enemies abroad and to the people who are actively and vocally supporting groups like Hamas on the streets in Canada right now that what they are doing is working. And not only should they keep up their harassment of the Jewish community, but they should keep up their harassment of Canadians,” said Westcott.

He referenced the closure of the constituency office of Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand in Oakville, Ont. According to the office’s manager, Elizabeth Chalmers, it was closed in late July out of “concerns for security” of staff due to ongoing anti-Israel protests taking place outside, local media outlet

Oakville Beaver reported

.

“That’s what terrorism is. It is breaking the law and harassing people to affect policy changes, and that’s what they’re getting. So, you’re sending a message to the wrong people that their efforts are working,” Westcott said.

“It’s not in Canada’s international interests (to recognize Palestinian statehood), and it will help nobody. This won’t be good for the people of Gaza. There is no plan to remove Hamas. Hamas has said repeatedly that they will not disarm. They will not leave Gaza.”

The message that Carney is sending, “not only to Jewish Canadians, but to anyone who is concerned with upholding Canadian values like the rule of law,” is that certain groups can “break the law with impunity” and get rewarded.

“That tells me that Mark Carney doesn’t stand for Canadian values,” he said. “We all deserve to live in peace and safety.”

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If all goes well, Saturday morning will mark the launch of the first commercial rocket from Canadian soil. More specifically, it will leave the planet from the Atlantic Spaceport Complex, a newly built facility on the southern edge of Newfoundland, just outside the small town of St. Lawrence, about 350 kms southwest of St. John’s.

The Markham, Ont.-based company behind the mission is

Nordspace

, founded just three years ago by 33-year-old

Rahul Goel

, who is a currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Toronto, and also runs two companies, PheedLoop and Genepika. And the launch itself couldn’t be more Canadian. The sub-orbital rocket is called Taiga, named after a type of coniferous forest found at high northern latitudes, including the region of Newfoundland where the launch will take place.

The launch can be watched live here:

The Taiga is about five metres tall and about 30 centimetres in diameter, and is powered by the company’s 3D printed liquid rocket engine, named the Hadfield in honour of Canadian astronaut and former space station commander

Chris Hadfield

.

The inaugural launch has been dubbed “Getting Screeched In,” a reference to the tradition of making those “from away” into honorary Newfoundlanders by having them kiss a cod and take a shot of local rum, known as screech. Taiga’s rocket fuel, a mix of kerosene and liquid oxygen, will be somewhat stronger stuff.

“We believe that it is critical for a Canadian launch capability to be supported by Canadian designed and manufactured rockets, launching from Canadian soil, by a 100% Canadian owned company,” Nordspace said on its website in announcing the launch window. “We welcome you to join us as we open this new frontier for Canada.”

The launch window will open daily from 6:30 a.m. until noon and again from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. local time. (Newfoundland’s time zone is 90 minutes ahead of Toronto and Montreal.) If Saturday’s launch doesn’t happen, the team will have further windows daily until the following Saturday, Sept. 27.

This is not the first launch attempt by Nordspace. A previous try made at the end of August was delayed at first by the close passage of Hurricane Erin, and then by a misfire detection mechanism that triggered prematurely and put the rocket into a safe state just before it was to lift off. Nordspace then had to obtain a new launch licence from Transport Canada.

“We are pleased to have arrived at this absolute final point which is difficult to test precisely, even with static fires, until the rocket is actually flown,” the company said on its website, announcing the scrub of the last attempt. “We will be back very soon!”

Taiga is merely the first step in the company’s plans. If the sub-orbital flight — with a partially fuelled rocket, and a flight time of only about 60 seconds — goes well, the next step would be to fly the Tundra, named for the treeless region to the north of taiga areas in the Arctic.

The Tundra would be more than four times as tall as the Taiga, at about 22 metres, with two stages and multiple Hadfield engines. “Our goal is to fly Tundra for the first time as early as 2027,” the company said on its website.

“This historic launch from Canadian soil of our Taiga sub-orbital rocket, powered by our 3D printed Hadfield engines, will represent a massive leap forward for Canadian sovereignty, prosperity, and security and for assured access to space,” it added. “Our technologies and infrastructure are all being designed to scale to medium-lift, responsive, and reusable launch vehicles.”

National Post has reached out to Hadfield and Nordspace for further comments.

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OTTAWA — Foreign Minister Anita Anand says Canada’s imminent recognition of Palestinian statehood does not mean the government will immediately normalize diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority.

Speaking to reporters from Mexico on Friday, the minister argued that recognizing Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly next week — breaking with decades of Canadian foreign policy precedent — was no different than believing in a two-state solution between Palestine and Israel.

But the recognition does not mean Canada will normalize diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA), the governing body in the West Bank, she noted.

“Normalization is completely different from recognition,” she told reporters.

“The process of normalization involves increases in diplomatic relationships. It involves opening embassies. It involves opening consulates. It involves ensuring that there are processes for transfer of citizens between the two states at issue,” the minister said.

Canada currently only has a representative to the Palestinian Authority with an office in Ramallah, West Bank.

That step will only happen when the government sees the Palestinian Authority make good on

commitments to significant democratic reform

and hold a general election in 2026 (for the first time since 2006) that cannot involve terrorist group Hamas, Anand said.

Anand said she would speak to PA leader Mahmoud Abbas later in the day on Friday and would reiterate the need for Hamas to lay down its weapons and release remaining Israeli hostages.

“I will be stressing again, the importance of the promises laid out in the Abbas letter that we received in July.”

In the meantime, Anand said she was in “deep” conversation with the United Kingdom, France and Australia which are also slated to recognize Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly next week.

In July, Carney said the statehood recognition would go to the Palestinian Authority and that Hamas is not welcome “in any shape or form” in the process.

Considering that Abbas has not held a general election in the West Bank since 2006 and the extreme devastation in Gaza due to the ongoing war with Israel, most international observers consider it unlikely that the PA hold a general election in 2026.

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

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A woman travelling to Las Vegas on an American Airlines flight was restrained

with duct tape

after she allegedly assaulted a flight attendant.

Ketty J. Dilone was arrested Tuesday because of aggressive behaviour during an American Airlines flight from the Dominican Republic to Las Vegas, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nevada said in a

press release

about the incident.

She was “walking down the aisle and yelling,” the press release states.

Dilone

was “continually recording the entire aircraft.” When asked to stop filming, Dilone became enraged and “started to verbally threaten multiple flight attendants,” who notified the captain and co-pilot, the

the 
probable cause affidavit
 states.

She made several statements to the effect of, ‘I will kill you b***h!’” according to the affidavit. “Dilone also made aggressive postures towards the flight attendants when they attempted to calm her down.”

As Dilone continued her “disturbing and threatening” behaviour, the cabin crew “physically restrained (her) in her seat with flex cuffs around her wrists” the affidavit continues.

To prevent Dilone from sliding out of the seat or the flex cuffs, a flight attendant taped Dilone’s torso utilizing duct tape. But Dilone still managed to kick the attendant twice, striking the back of her legs, making her fall.

Flight attendants were then forced to rearrange passengers seated nearby, moving numerous travellers away from Dilone and placing volunteers next to her.

Law enforcement met the flight upon landing. Officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department took Dilone into custody. The FBI, which has jurisdiction over crimes committed aboard U.S. aircraft, booked her on federal charges of interference with a flight crew, and assault by striking, beating, or wounding.

Dilone is now facing charges that include one count of interference with flight crew and one count of assault by striking, beating, or wounding. A preliminary hearing is set to take place on Oct. 1. She could face

up to 20 years

in prison if she’s found guilty.

So far this year, the FAA has received

 
1,154 reports of unruly passengers

. In 2024, the agency fielded a total of 2,102 unruly passenger reports, a significant decline from a 2021 peak of 5,973.

It’s not the first time American Airlines has had to duct tape an unruly passenger.

In late 2024, a group of passengers sprung into action and

stopped a man who allegedly tried to open the cabin door

mid-flight during a trip to Dallas by restraining him with duct tape.

The incident took place on American Airlines flight 1915 from Milwaukee when the passenger allegedly approached a flight attendant and asked to open the cabin door while they were in flight and grew more agitated when he was denied.

The suspect tried to rush towards the door, striking the flight attendant who was blocking it.

Passengers rushed to assist the flight attendant and tried to subdue the unruly passenger. A flight attendant handed the passengers duct tape as they restrained him

Eventually, airport police and the FBI detained the man and took him off the flight for a medical evaluation.

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MPs returned to Ottawa this week for what’s expected to be a busy legislative session, as Mark Carney’s Liberals look to make headway on its lofty agenda.

But with big ideas can come issues around execution, politics, and how to pay for it all.

National Post politics writer Simon Tuck joins Dave Breakenridge to discuss Carney’s priorities for the fall, how the government hopes to implement some of its agenda, and whether there could be any surprises.

Background reading:

From a big deficit budget to cracks in the coalition: The next 100 days for Mark Carney

Subscribe to 10/3 on your favourite podcast app

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OTTAWA — Justice Minister Sean Fraser said Friday the government’s new bill targeting the use of hate and terror symbols is not a “blanket ban” on any particular imagery.

Rather, the minister says, laying a charge under the newly proposed offence would depend on a variety of factors to be evaluated by police and prosecutors — a prospect that quickly sparked concern and questions over its implementation.

The measure was contained in the first piece of legislation presented by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals since their return to Parliament this week, and is one of five changes his government seeks to make to the Criminal Code to address hate in Canada.

It comes after nearly two years of sustained protests against Israel’s war with Hamas, triggered by Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The conflict has led to a wave of concern over a rise in antisemitic incidents and violence against synagogues, as well as the targeting of Muslims and fears from anti-Israel protesters over the policing of free speech.

Tabled on Friday, the bill, known by its legislative title of C-9, fulfils two of the campaign commitments the Liberals made during the spring federal election: Creating a new offence for intimidating someone to the pointing of impeding their access to a place of worship, or other centres used by an identifiable group, such as a community centre or gay bar, as well as making it a crime to “intentionally” obstruct their access.

Anais Bussieres McNicoll, director of fundamental freedoms at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said police already have the necessary power to protect people and property and that the new bill “will

criminalize peaceful protesters.”

She says the new intimidation provision goes beyond existing criminal offences covering protests and would cover the conduct of protesters that may cause people fear, which she said is subjective and vague. The offence carries a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment.

“The provision could easily be read by the police as capturing protests that are peaceful yet seen by some as offensive or disruptive,”

Bussieres McNicoll said. 

The bill Fraser presented on Friday, however, went further than what the Liberals promised during the election, with the minister saying additional measures were needed to confront hate taking place beyond religious institutions.

“We see it in our streets. We see it in our parks. We see it in our grocery stores. Frankly, we see it almost everywhere,” Fraser said.

Most contentious of the new proposals is the government’s plan to criminalize “wilfully promoting hatred against any identifiable group by displaying certain symbols in a public place.”

Such a crime would carry a two-year penalty. The bill defines a hate symbol as a Nazi swastika or SS lightning bolts. It defines a terror symbol as belonging to a terrorist entity currently listed under Canada’s designated list, which includes groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Proud Boys.

The bill also covers anything that “nearly resembles” symbols from either of those categories. Fraser said that was included to include any deliberate alteration of symbols.

The minister declined to provide an example of when a charge could be laid, saying it would depend heavily on circumstances.

“Merely displaying this symbol, in and of itself, is not the sole harm we’re trying to target,” Fraser told reporters.

“It does have to be tied with the wilful promotion of hatred. This is difficult, because it could take a thousand different forms, and it’s going to be for police on the ground and Crown prosecutors to identify when that threshold has been crossed.”

Richard Moon, a professor at the University of Windsor who specializes in freedom of expression, says the proposed change raises the complicated question of assigning motivation to a person displaying such a symbol.

“It is still necessary to show that there is an intention … an intention to promote hatred by displaying these symbols.”

Jewish community groups and leaders have specifically called for action against the reported presence of flags tied to Hamas and Hezbollah, which have at times appeared at anti-Israel demonstrations and protests.

In those situations, Moon said a court would need to prove that a person waving such a flag sought to promote hate.

“I would imagine that people who display the flag, especially in the contemporary context, are doing so to express solidarity with Palestinians and opposition to Israel’s occupation of lands of the West Bank and Gaza,” he said.

“It’s not even clear to me that this law would do what they want it to do, given that you would have to prove, in a criminal context, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the person displaying the flag intended to promote hatred on racial or religious grounds, obviously, in particular, hatred towards Jews.”

Moon said it raises questions about whether the government’s proposal was mainly “performative,” given how many of the actions it seeks to address with its new bill are covered by existing criminal law.

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director of policy and advocacy at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, said in a statement on Friday that they welcome the Liberal bill, calling it “an important step toward making Canada’s Jewish communities safer.”

“For far too long, individuals who display hate symbols, glorify terrorism or obstruct Jews from peacefully gathering in what should be safe spaces have been given a free pass,” Kirzner-Roberts said.

Noah Shack, the CEO of Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, another prominent Jewish advocacy group, said it would be reviewing the legislation as it works its way through Parliament, but called it an “important signal” of the government’s intent to respond to threats being faced by the Jewish community.

A spokesman for the National Council of Canadian Muslims said more clarity was needed on the government’s plan to criminalize the display of terror symbols and that its approach lacks consistency, pointing to how white supremacist symbols like the Ku Klux Klan and the Confederate flag “remain untouched.”

“Symbols co-opted by some terrorist groups may also involve popular Arabic phrases, like the Islamic declaration of faith (the “shahadah”), that might become criminalized in the eyes of police officers if an officer believed it was being meant to support a listed terrorist entity,” Steven Zhou wrote in a statement.

“There needs to be more clarity and consistency when it comes to these questions of implementation.”

Zhou also raised concerns about the new limits he says the bill seeks to place on protests.

“Though we surely recognize the need for institutions like religious gathering places to remain unharassed, there also must be a balance that also protects the right to protest.”

Other measures in the bill include adding a definition of hate to the Criminal Code and creating a new stand-alone crime of hate, which Fraser said could be applied to existing criminal charges, where police and prosecutors believe hate played a motivating factor.

The Justice Department says doing so would increase the possible sentences for those who have been convicted.

The Liberals also seek to remove the requirement that laying a hate propaganda charge requires the consent of an Attorney General.

National Post

• Liberals to make it a crime to promote hate against identifiable group by using terror symbols
• Justice minister says he wants to see forthcoming hate crime bill passed quickly

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