The national director of a Jewish charity says he was told by the Canada Revenue Agency that it was audited due to being “pressured” by “outside sources.” This week, Herut Canada became the third Jewish charity to have its status revoked since last year.

“This will never stop me from protecting the Jewish community ever,” said Aaron Hadida. “I don’t want them to think they got a win, because they didn’t. It’s laughable.”

Herut Canada

describes itself as “unapologetically Zionist.” The charity, which was registered in 2021, is dedicated to a variety of Jewish causes, including providing security and teaching self-defence to the community.

The CRA said in the

Nov. 15 edition of the Canada Gazette

that it was revoking Herut Canada’s charitable status due to “failure to meet the parts of the Income Tax Act.”

In March, the CRA audited the charity, Hadida said. During his interview, he asked why it was being audited, as it was “a very small charity.” In 2024, its total revenue was $56,111, while its expenses were $42,565,

according to the CRA

.

“They said, ‘We’ve had complaints.’ I said, ‘So, outside sources basically pressured you to audit me, is what you’re telling me,’ and they basically admitted it,” said Hadida, adding that other charities with ties to terrorist entities were given time to “clean up” instead of being shut down.

“They’re going after Jewish charities, one after the other — just because,” he said.

The CRA acknowledged National Post’s request for details about the revocation but did not respond in time for publication.

An anti-Israel group, Just Peace Advocates, said it welcomed the news that Herut’s charitable status had been revoked. In a joint

post on social media

with other anti-Israel groups, it said it made “two submissions to the CRA requesting an audit” and community members sent 19,282 letters.

“The CRA must end the Canada to Israel charity pipeline,” the post said.

In August 2024, the CRA announced that the charitable statuses for the

Jewish National Fund and the Ne’eman Foundation of Canada

were revoked.

MP Melissa Lantsman called out the agency in a post on X on Monday.

“CRA going after a third Jewish charity,” she wrote.

She also mentioned Service Canada “scrubbing Israel off passports” (in reference to a Jewish woman from Montreal being told

she couldn’t put Israel as her birthplace

) and “Global Affairs listing the

embassy address in ‘Palestine.’

” Canada’s embassy in Tel Aviv was listed as being in Palestine, rather than Israel, after Canada recognized Palestinian statehood, the

Toronto Sun reported

in September.

CRA going after a third Jewish charity. Service Canada scrubbing Israel off passports. Global Affairs listing the embassy address in “Palestine.”

But don’t worry, I’m sure all of this is just one big, totally innocent coincidence. https://t.co/r7cf1omgv6

— Melissa Lantsman (@MelissaLantsman) November 17, 2025

“But don’t worry,” wrote Lantsman. “I’m sure this is just one big, totally innocent coincidence.”

Jewish advocacy group Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) said it was “pressing the federal government for clarity and will continue advocating for full transparency and fair, consistent processes,” in

a post on X

.

“At a time when extremists have a coordinated campaign to delegitimize our community and our organizations, this development understandably raises serious concerns,” CIJA said.

Although the future of Herut Canada is up in the air, Hadida said he knows he has the support of the Jewish community. He said he will continue to work with them to keep them safe.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists committed the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, murdering 1,200 people in Israel. As well as sparking a war in the Middle East, it

emboldened protesters to intimidate and target the Jewish community

in Canada and beyond, taking over

university campuses

and

parading through Jewish neighbourhoods

.

There was

an increase in antisemitic hate crimes across Canada

in 2023, compared to the previous year. The majority of hate crimes targeting a religion reported by police in 2023 (70 per cent) were directed at the Jewish community, according to Statistics Canada.

B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish advocacy group, said 2024 was a record-breaking year,

reporting

the most antisemitic incidents — 6,219 — since it started keeping track in 1982.

Most of Hadida’s work involves organizing patrols in Jewish areas at night, during high holidays, at events, on campuses and at synagogues.

Hadida, who also runs a security company, said he must remain “steadfast” in his work, especially “until we can get a proper government in place that actually does something about it and directs the police to be able to do their job.”

“Money, no money, pennies, millions. It makes no difference to me, truly,” said Hadida. “I’m really not sure what’s going to happen (with the charity), but I can tell you for sure, the work will always continue.”

• ‘Completely normalized’: MP condemns latest anti-Israel protest in Toronto’s Jewish neighbourhood
• ‘We tried to fight back,’ says Jewish group that wanted to stop Palestinian flag-raising at Toronto City Hall

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A flight from Dallas to Chicago was forced to make an emergency landing in St. Louis on Sunday morning due to an alleged bomb threat, according to reports and authorities.

United Airlines Flight 380 was making its regular daily trip between Texas and Illinois when the pilot diverted to the Missouri airport about two-thirds of the way to the final destination “to address a potential security concern,” the airline told National Post in a statement.

Meanwhile, a source told the

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

that one of the passengers claimed that his wife’s luggage contained a bomb. The outlet reported that an unidentified man was arrested, though it remains unclear whether he has been formally charged or if he remains in custody.

The remaining 118 passengers and five crew aboard the 737-700 were evacuated shortly after touching down in St. Louis around 8:40 a.m., airport director Rhonda Hamm Niebruegge told the Post-Dispatch.

The aircraft remained parked on the taxiway for roughly two hours while law enforcement evaluated the situation, as reported by

Aviation A2Z.

United Airlines said law enforcement searched the aircraft but found no sign of an explosive device, allowing the passengers to reboard the plane and continue to Chicago, where they eventually landed more than five hours after their scheduled arrival.

According to People, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said the FBI is handling the investigation. National Post has contacted both for more information.

The incident follows another bomb threat on a United flight earlier this month.

As reported by

The Washington Post,

someone called the air traffic control tower at Virginia’s Reagan Washington National on Nov. 4, claiming that an inbound flight from Houston would explode upon landing if they didn’t deliver US$500,000 in cryptocurrency. Flights were immediately halted or diverted, but resumed within 90 minutes after law enforcement found no danger.

• Canadian airports returning to normal operations after early morning bomb threats
• Edmonton-bound flight makes emergency landing after rabbit sucked into plane’s engine: ‘A giant fireball’

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An Indigenous offender who got a “huge break” when a judge gave him house arrest for sexually assaulting a woman who was celebrating her engagement to another man just got another one for violating the conditions of his sentence.

Nelson Lesage was sentenced to house arrest in July 2024 for sexually assaulting a woman while she was asleep with her fiancé at Lesage’s home in Fort Providence, N.W.T.

“He was aware, or should have been, that not being sentenced to actual incarceration was a huge break,” Northwest Territories Supreme Court Justice Louise Charbonneau wrote in a recent decision out of Yellowknife.

“Even taking into account his guilty plea, his tragic circumstances and applying the principles that govern the sentencing of Indigenous offenders, the sentence he received was outside the range of what is ordinarily imposed by this court for this type of crime.”

• Manitoba man gets lighter manslaughter sentence due to Indigenous status
• Calgary man who sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl gets reduced sentence because he’s Indigenous

Then on Oct. 12, 2025, Lesage was found “passed out” at another home in Fort Providence.

“None of the house arrest exceptions applied,” Charbonneau said. “Mr. Lesage was placed under arrest and taken into custody.”

The court heard it wasn’t the first time Lesage had broken the conditions of his sentence. He was spotted at a house party this past May where alcohol was being consumed.

The judge warned Lesage that breaking the conditions of his house arrest could land him behind bars.

“In the rare occasions where a conditional sentence is imposed in this court for a serious sexual assault such as the one committed by Mr. Lesage, offenders should expect that failure to comply with the conditions will generally result in actual incarceration for the balance of the sentence, or a significant portion of it,” Charbonneau said. “This is especially so where, as here, the person has already been given a chance and a warning following compliance issues.”

Despite this, the judge didn’t sentence Lesage to jail time.

“This is a highly exceptional outcome in a situation like this, which was driven by exceptional circumstances,” Charbonneau wrote in her memorandum of judgement, dated Nov. 4.

“As I told Mr. Lesage at the conclusion of the hearing, he must understand that any further issues with compliance with the conditions of the conditional sentence order are very likely to result in his incarceration.”

Lesage’s sexual assault trial heard people were drinking alcohol at his home before the newly engaged couple went to bed fully clothed.

“At some point during the night Mr. Lesage entered the bedroom and sexually assaulted (the woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban) while she was sleeping,” said Charbonneau’s recent decision.

“She woke up on the floor at the foot of the bed, with a blanket on top of her and her pants and underwear pulled down. She was shaken awake by Mr. Lesage. He accused another person of having raped her. He told her he had found this person in the residence.”

Her partner went looking for the alleged aggressor. Meanwhile, she realized there was semen on her pants.

“The matter was reported to the police and an investigation was undertaken,” Charbonneau said.

DNA testing “ultimately showed” Lesage was the culprit.

Both the Crown and Lesage’s defence lawyer recommended he get a two-year conditional sentence, with the first 16 months on house arrest, and two years of probation. Other conditions of the sentence include abstaining “from alcohol, drugs, and other intoxicating substances,” said the recent decision.

The sentencing judge “noted Mr. Lesage’s extensive criminal record which includes convictions for crimes of violence and, notably, a 1995 conviction for break and enter and commit sexual assault,” Charbonneau said.

“The sentencing judge underscored the need to denounce and deter sexual violence, given the prevalence of this type of crime in the Northwest Territories.”

Although the sentencing judge gave Lesage the penalty both the Crown and defence were recommending, “she did not agree with it,” Charbonneau said.

“I have reviewed the joint submission,” said the judge who sentenced Lesage for sexual assault. “It is not a sentence that I feel is an appropriate sentence for this type of offence. It is at the low end of the range of appropriate sentences for this type of offence.”

But it didn’t meet “the high standard which was set out by the Supreme Court of Canada … for rejecting joint submissions, and as such, I will impose the joint submission,” said the sentencing judge.

Lesage’s pre-sentence report revealed he “had a tragic and traumatic background. He was exposed to alcoholism, family violence, and abuse in his childhood,” it said. “The dysfunction in the home culminated in his father’s death at the hands of his mother during a party at their family home, an event that he witnessed.”

When Mounties arrested Lesage last month for breaking his sentence conditions, he “had learned that day that his mother-in-law was terminally ill and that there was no treatment that could assist her,” Charbonneau said. “My understanding is that she had been out of the jurisdiction and was being sent back to the community so she could spend her final days there. She passed away while Mr. Lesage was in custody following his arrest on the breach.”

Her funeral was to take place Oct. 25, the day after Lesage was in court for breaching the conditions of his house arrest.

“Mr. Lesage was very close to his mother-in-law. He was 19 when he began his relationship with her daughter. Her family took him in as a member of the family and his mother-in-law became like a mother to him. Given his tragic background, being integrated in his spouse’s family was very significant for him.”

Lesage told the court he broke the conditions of his house arrest after learning about his mother-in-law’s condition.

“My understanding is that he went there essentially to seek comfort and be with family members,” Charbonneau said.

“He acknowledges that he should have contacted his conditional sentence supervisor to get permission to leave his house. He also acknowledges that unfortunately, he succumbed to the temptation to turn to alcohol to cope with his emotions.”

Lesage had already been warned about breaching his sentence conditions in May, said the decision.

Both his lawyer and the Crown recommended “that there be no further consequences” for breaching the terms of his house arrest — a position Charbonneau called “extremely lenient.”

Meaningful consequences for breaking conditions of house arrest are “essential to ensure the effectiveness of this sentencing tool,” Charbonneau said. “To be effective in achieving the objectives of sentencing, these orders must have ‘teeth,’ must be closely supervised, and the offender must understand the consequences of not adhering strictly to what has been ordered. This is also essential to preserve the confidence of the public.”

Despite this, Charbonneau agreed with “counsel’s joint position that no further action should be taken in this case.”

Lesage already spent some time in jail because he broke the conditions of his house arrest, said the judge, who issued an oral order to release him on Oct. 24.

“I also took into account that Mr. Lesage’s unfortunate choice resulted in him not being able to be with his mother-in-law and family during her final days and in the days following her passing,” Charbonneau said. “This constitutes punishment in and of itself. Finally, I took into account that the funeral was to take place on October 25. Directing that Mr. Lesage be incarcerated for a portion of the remainder of his sentence, probably preventing him from attending his mother-in-law’s funeral, would, in my view, have been disproportionate and cruel.”

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Many social media users reported Tuesday morning that X was not working, which is likely due to an issue with Cloudflare, one of the largest networks on the Internet.

Thousands of X users were affected as the site, owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, would not load, Reuters reported. There were 12,075 reports of issues with X as of 8:37 a.m. ET, according to

outage tracker Downdetector

.

Other websites that may have also been affected by the outage include OpenAI, Spotify and dating app Grindr, as shown on Downdetector. Associated Press reported that there were also issues with Shopify, Dropbox, Coinbase, and online game League of Legends.

Cloudflare

posted online

 just before 7 a.m. ET, saying it was “experiencing an internal service degradation.”

“Some services may be intermittently impacted. We are focused on restoring service,” it said.

It also said that customers may continue to see “higher-than-normal error rates” as it continues its “remediation efforts.”

This issue was identified just after 8 a.m. ET and “a fix is being implemented.”

A Cloudflare spokesperson told

Business Insider

they noticed “unusual traffic” online for one of their services around 6:20 a.m. ET. “We are all hands on deck to make sure all traffic is served without errors. After that, we will turn our attention to investigating the cause of the unusual spike in traffic,” the spokesperson said.

Cloudflare is used by millions of websites around the world to “protect websites against hackers and fake traffic, and to make web pages faster,” per Business Insider.

• FIRST READING: Canadian bill would strip internet access from ‘specified persons’
• Ian Bremmer: The death of the internet as a democratizing force a harbinger of the death of democracy

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Warning: This story contains disturbing details

A pair of B.C. men in their 80s found guilty of sexual crimes involving children were sentenced to prison time recently — one a former elementary school teacher who assaulted multiple male students more than 40 years ago, the other a man caught with more than 60,000 images and videos of child pornography.

Last week, a provincial court judge in Vancouver handed down

an eight-year federal sentence

to 85-year-old Brian Melicke Moore for sexually interfering with 12 boys between 1976 and 1982, despite defence counsel making a plea for their client, “an old and frail man”, to receive a conditional sentence allowing him to serve his time under house arrest at a long-term care facility.

Meanwhile, in October, a Supreme Court judge in Victoria meted out

a custodial sentence of two years less a day

to William Lee Tate, 82, whom police found in possession of 60,491 unique images and 2,272 unique videos depicting the “violent sexual abuse of prepubescent girls, some of them infants.”

‘Insistence on nudity’

According to a decision published on Nov. 12, Moore was a popular Grade 6 teacher at an unnamed North Vancouver school in the 1970s, and often invited male students on activities outside of school, such as swimming and water and snow skiing.

“He even let the young boys steer his unique sports car in the SFU (Simon Fraser University) parking lot after swimming,” judge Robert Hamilton wrote.

“These were fun activities and the students enjoyed participating in these activities and the special attention from Mr. Moore.”

Some boys, with the blessing of their parents, even spent weekends away with Moore, where they learned of “his insistence on nudity,” requiring them to change in front of him and sleep naked.

“Invariably, Mr. Moore was also naked in the bed with the child he chose to sleep next,” the judge explained.

While in bed with the boys, he would touch their genitalia and force them to touch his.

Moore retired from teaching in 1982 after three of the victims came forward and he was confronted about the allegations. Police became involved in 1988, but it was decided at the time there wasn’t enough evidence for the Crown to move forward with charges.

Two more victims came forward 34 years later in June 2022, prompting police to launch an investigation that ultimately led to charges of indecent assault against the former students and one charge of touching for a sexual purpose involving the eight-year-old son of close friends, a boy who regarded Moore as a grandfather figure.

Following a 31-day trial that concluded in April, Moore was convicted on eight charges of sexual interference against eight victims and touching.

In determining a fit sentence for his crimes, in addition to mitigating and aggravating factors, Hamilton also had to consider Moore’s deteriorating health and his “rapidly increasing need for assistance in meeting his activities of daily living and his ongoing medical needs.”

A medical assessment supplied as evidence shows he has heart disease, late-stage kidney failure, along with a host of other conditions, and has had cancer three times (bladder, nasal and lymphoma).

Given all that, his lawyers argued that his “exceptional” circumstances warranted a conditional sentence followed by three years of probation.

Hamilton, however, said such a sentence “would fall woefully short of meeting the fundamental purposes and principles of sentencing an offender who repeatedly took advantage of his position as the teacher of his victims or the friend of the family of his last victim.”

Saying he was confident Moore’s medical needs could be met while incarcerated, the judge sided with the Crown, which had asked for 16 years reduced by half when factoring in Moore’s health.

Because he selected and “groomed” his victims, Hamilton said Moore’s blameworthiness was “extremely high” and his sentence had to reflect a strong “denunciation” of the crimes.

“Other like-minded adults who sexually offend against a child must know that they will receive a significant jail sentence if they are caught,” he write.

“The point here is that knowing of the serious consequence they face if they commit that offence will deter that person from committing the crime.”

The decision also noted that Moore is facing three civil lawsuits stemming from his offences — one from the victims, a complainant not involved in his case and the North Vancouver School District.

‘Human nature at its cruellest and most malevolent’

The investigation into Tate began in October 2019 when the U.S.-based Child Protection Service alerted Victoria police that an IP address linked to him was sharing a “large volume of child sexual abuse material” through a peer-to-peer network.

“That IP address was in the top 10 uploaders and sharers of child pornography in the Greater Victoria area,” Justice Gareth Morley wrote in his Oct. 24 sentencing decision.

When police searched his home in February 2022, they uncovered the images and the videos — which had a total run time of 5,742 hours and 54 minutes — on electronic storage devices.

“The images and videos show human nature at its cruellest and most malevolent directed against the most vulnerable,” the judge noted.

“In the inadequate language we must use in the sentencing of child pornography offences, this collection is at the high end of the spectrum both in quantity and in terms of the extreme violence and immorality of what is depicted.

Tate, who admitted to possessing the content, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography and one count of transmitting child pornography earlier this year in court.

His lawyer was seeking a conditional sentence to be served under house arrest in the community, whereas the Crown asked the judge to apply a custodial sentence.

Morley, said that while Tate’s age and guilty plea are mitigating factors, the size and nature of his collection are “overwhelming aggravating factors.”

The judge also noted that Tate minimized his conduct, denied sexual interest in children and offered implausible explanations like not being aware that possessing child pornography was illegal and that he collected it “as part of a research project.”

“He is either lying to himself or to the court,” Morley wrote.”Either way, I do not see any serious expression of remorse.”

Like Hamilton in Moore’s case, Morley said a conditional sentence wouldn’t meet the need to denunciate such crimes.

Tate got 18 months behind bars for the possession charge and two years less a day for the transmission, which the judge allowed to be served concurrently, thereby avoiding federal prison time.

• Steven Penney: This simple fix will keep child porn minimum sentences without Sec. 33
• Liberals rule out using notwithstanding clause to restore mandatory child porn sentences

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OTTAWA — The Liberals managed to secure one more vote to prevent a snap election.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May announced on Monday that she will be voting for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s budget after hearing a clear commitment from him that his government will respect Canada’s international commitments to reduce emissions.

In a rare move, May directly challenged Carney in the House of Commons on Monday on the lack of mention of those targets and Carney responded.

“I can confirm to this House that we will respect our Paris commitments for climate change, and we’re determined to achieve them,” said Carney.

May had

previously said he would be voting against the budget

as it was written, but that she was open to negotiating with the Liberal government to find a path forward. She said that an oral commitment to respect and achieve those targets was enough to vote “yes.”

“Without what I heard from the Prime Minister today, I would have voted ‘no,’” she said.

May said she also came to this decision after hearing overwhelmingly from her constituents that they do not want an election to happen by “accident.”

“Maybe I’m a fool. I’ll leave that for history to decide. But I did what I thought was right,” she said.

All eyes will be on the House of Commons around 6:45 p.m. for the third and final confidence vote on the main motion of the budget. If it passes, MPs will carry on their business undisturbed. If it is defeated, Canadians are headed to a Christmas election.

The minority Liberals have 170 seats, but they can only count on 169, as Liberal MP and House Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia will only be called to vote if there is a tie. The party’s whip, Mark Gerretsen, told CBC that all Liberals will be in the House in-person for the vote.

With May’s vote, that number will go back to 170.

The rest of the opposition MPs, on the other hand, have a total of 172 votes. The opposition parties could easily defeat the government’s budget and force Canadians into a second election this year if they vote against but not all MPs on the opposition benches are on the same page.

The Bloc Québécois has already said that their 22 MPs would be all voting against.

The NDP had still not come to a decision as of Monday morning. Their seven MPs held a caucus meeting in the morning to discuss their decision. There is a chance that some of them vote either in favour or against the budget, while others abstain from the vote.

NDP leadership candidate Heather McPherson would not say how she will be voting.

“You’ll see soon,” she simply said earlier in the day.

Interim NDP Leader Don Davies is expected to speak to the media only after the vote.

The Conservatives have also said they would be voting against, but it is unclear if all of their 143 MPs will be casting a vote. On Monday, Conservative MPs who stopped to speak with reporters would not say if all their colleagues would be voting or if a few would abstain.

“I don’t know. I know I’m voting against it,” said Saskatchewan MP Kevin Waugh.

“I only worry about Kevin,” he added.

National Post

calevesque@postmedia.com

• Here are three scenarios — including a Christmas election — that could happen with Monday’s budget vote
• Liberals live to see another day after second confidence vote on budget

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