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Source: National Post (Politics)

In this composite image, actors Dean Cain, left, and Kevin Sorbo, right, are shown. They have criticized advice given to residents by York Regional Police about what to do in a home invasion.

Although the York Regional Police chief walked back his advice to “just comply” during a home invasion, the initial message was criticized by many, including by actors south of the border.

One of the American actors who commented was Kevin Sorbo, known for his role as Greek demi-God Hercules on the eponymous television show from 1995 to 1999. In a post on X on Sept. 4, he called out Chief Jim MacSween by name.

MacSween “told his citizens that ‘your best defence is to just comply,’” wrote Sorbo.

The post has been viewed nearly 7 million times and has been reposted 20,000 times as of Tuesday morning.

Dean Cain, another U.S. actor known for his role in a 1990s television show, also took to social media to highlight the differences between the advice from American and Canadian authorities. Cain played Clark Kent and Superman in the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman from 1993 to 1997. The actor has become a vocal supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump and recently decided to join the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as an agent.

On Sept. 4,

he reposted a video

from a meme account on X that showed a video of a York police news conference next to a conference being held by Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd from Florida. The caption of the post reads: “Difference between being a victim (and) saving your life evidenced in this clip.”

“In the unlikely event that you find yourself the victim of a home invasion, we are urging citizens not to take matters into their own hands. While we don’t want homeowners to feel powerless, we urge you to call 911 and do everything you can to keep yourself and love ones…,” MacSween said in the first clip before it is cut off.

“Criminals are going to take their criminal conduct into the neighbourhoods,” said Judd in the next clip. “I would tell them if you value your life you probably shouldn’t do that in Polk County, because the people of Polk County like guns. They have guns. I encourage them to own guns. And they’re going to be in their homes tonight with their guns loaded and if you try to break into their homes to steal, to set fires, I’m highly recommending they blow you back out of the house with their guns.”

The repost by Cain was viewed more than 1 million times by Tuesday morning and nearly 2,000 comments had left a comment.

The actors’ posts on social media were made in reference to a news conference held on Sept. 3, when MacSween said that complying was the “best defense.” The conference was held after

a fatal home invasion

resulting in the shooting death of Vaughan resident Abdul Aleem Farooqi. Three suspects broke into Farooqi’s home on Aug. 31. According to police, the 46-year-old father “confronted” them while defending his family.

Also in late August,

police in the Niagara region said

a child under the age of five was sexually assaulted after a suspect broke into a home in Welland, in Southern Ontario.

MacSween issued a statement two days after the conference, saying he understands the reaction his advice received.

“I understand the feelings of pain and anger boiling to the surface in our community,” he said on X. “And I understand why people feel the need to fight back and dissatisfied with any direction to do otherwise.”

He said his advice had “nothing to do with politics, or with concern over force used against the perpetrators of home invasions.” Walking back his previous advice, he said that citizens should ultimately do what they deem “necessary to preserve their own safety, and the safety of their loved ones.”

Americans aren’t the only ones who have criticized the message from Canadian authorities.

“The law needs to be clear. If someone invades your home, you have the right to defend your home and your family,”

said

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre in a post on X. He’s

pushing to change Canadian law

to allow the use of deadly force against home intruders.

Canadians do have the right to “safeguard themselves, others and their property as long as their defensive actions are reasonable and proportional to the circumstances,” according to Calgary-based criminal law firm Dunn and Associates.

“However, since both of those terms are subjective,” the firm explains in

a post online

, “it is often unclear what is reasonable and proportional when it comes to self-defence.”

There has been pushback to Poilievre’s message from Liberal justice minister Sean Fraser.

“This isn’t the Wild West. It’s Canada. Canadians deserve real solutions that make us safer, not slogans that inspire fear and chaos for Pierre’s political survival,”

he wrote on X

.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks to the media following talks at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, on August 26, 2025.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Canadian and American leaders have long touted the idea of North American energy dominance, building one of the world’s most deeply integrated energy markets, complete with cross-border pipelines and power grids.

In recent years, however, left-leaning politicians on both sides have worked to reduce fossil fuel dependence and accelerate the transition to clean energy.

The political winds changed with the return of Donald Trump, who views attempts to shift to renewables as premature and bad policy. Instead, he is renewing U.S. investment in oil and gas.

Meanwhile, Canada’s energy program has entered a new phase. Prime Minister Mark Carney has broken from Justin Trudeau’s cautious stance on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to embrace a more diversified approach that includes critical minerals, clean energy, nuclear, hydro resources, and LNG export ambitions on both the East and West Coasts.

“Our government is in the process of releasing half a trillion dollars of investment in energy infrastructure, port infrastructure,” Carney said in Europe recently. “Some of the examples … will include reinforcing and building on the Port of Montreal, Contrecoeur; a new port, effectively, in Churchill, Manitoba, which would open up enormous LNG plus other opportunities.”

These East Coast plans complement projects already underway on the West Coast, reflecting what Carney told Trump at the G7 in June: He aims to make Canada “an energy superpower.”

Canada’s new East Coast LNG ambitions are ramping up just as Europe looks to diversify its energy supply and find alternatives to Russian imports. The big question is whether Canada can establish this export capability in time to capitalize on the wave of European demand, and if so, whether it could challenge Trump’s plans for U.S. energy dominance.

Energy flows

The U.S. already has eight LNG terminals — mostly on the Gulf Coast — exporting to Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Trump has aspirations for several more, including one for Alaska. This last one remains in the planning and development phase, but if successful, it would be the first major LNG export hub on the U.S. West Coast.

Canada currently has just one operational large-scale LNG terminal, in Kitimat, B.C., which came online earlier this year. A couple more West Coast terminals are under construction, and there’s a proposal to build a floating liquefaction and export facility. Targeting Asian markets, West Coast Canadian LNG exports could rival U.S. Gulf Coast exports — which traverse the Panama Canal — with shorter, more direct routes.

Since much of Canada’s natural gas supply is concentrated in B.C. and Alberta, and because pipelines are not in place coast to coast, eastern projects have been slower to develop. But now, planning is underway for a $15 billion facility off Newfoundland’s coast by Fermeuse Energy, including a nearly 400-kilometre pipeline. The New Brunswick government and energy partners, meanwhile, are discussing a possible LNG export terminal at Saint John, which might include a pipeline to Quebec. Finally, Carney has suggested that the Port of Churchill, the country’s sole Arctic deepwater port connected by rail, could be upgraded for LNG.

European leaders are thrilled by the prospect of Canadian LNG exports. Faced with an aggressive Russia, they are phasing out Russian oil, gas, and nuclear energy imports by the end of 2027. Export competition from the East Coast could mean better global competition and lower prices.

“Europe would like some redundancy,” says Heather Exner-Pirot, a senior fellow and director of Energy, Natural Resources and Environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

“Right now, they have to depend on the United States. If you’re a European country, you would like to have diversity of supply.”

Courting Europeans

For Europe, getting LNG from Canada, rather than the U.S. Gulf Coast, would mean getting shipments faster and, potentially, with a lower emissions profile.

Dulles Wang, director for Wood Mackenzie’s Americas gas and LNG research team, points to the shorter sailing distances and notes that Canada’s “upstream regulation is more stringent around flaring.” This could make Canadian LNG exports more politically palatable than those from the U.S.

Still, Canadian LNG faces plenty of challenges. While LNG shipping from places like the Arctic is “politically popular” at the moment, said Exner-Pirot, it doesn’t necessarily make sense. As it is a seasonal port, not year-round, lucrative LNG shipping would require too many ice-breaking capabilities to make the effort worthwhile, she explained. Getting a gas supply there would also require building a new pipeline or using trains, both of which are extremely expensive.

“Politicians and the public sector are pushing this port. It’s not the private sector lining up for this,” she said. “No one’s going to pay the price that it takes to develop our minerals and our energy in the Arctic.”

Other potential eastern projects also face obstacles, from gas supply and local or environmental opposition to permitting hurdles and prohibitively expensive builds.

The LNG tanker GasLog Glasgow arrives at LNG Canada’s shipping terminal in Kitimat, B.C., to begin loading the first every export cargo of super-cooled liquefied natural gas for delivery to Asia, June 28, 2025.

Sourcing gas has long been the central problem for Canada’s eastern energy projects. Experts note that while earlier proposals included piping natural gas all the way from the West, which was prohibitively costly and faced political and environmental resistance in Quebec, newer ideas for offshore reserves require expensive pipelines buried under the sea.

“To bring a pipeline from those offshore fields to onshore through Iceberg Alley is still something I haven’t seen that’s fully been de-risked,” said Mark Oberstoetter, Wood Mackenzie’s head of Americas upstream research.

Ports like Saint John, meanwhile, could handle LNG exports but don’t have a reliable supply, and while shale gas resources exist in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, they are blocked by provincial fracking bans.

Also, while LNG projects have First Nations’ support in Manitoba, they’re met with more opposition from Indigenous groups in other parts of eastern Canada.

And even if all the political, permitting, and funding hurdles were overcome, Mother Nature would still get a say with her long winters. The colder months place estimated build times for LNG projects at between seven and 10 years – more than twice as long as projects in the U.S. South.

That lag time could hurt Canada’s ability to woo Europe, where policymakers still cling to the ambition of a quick clean-energy transition – while some still hope for cheaper Russian supply returning someday with a normalization of relations.

These concerns mean Europe has refused to sign long-term LNG contracts with North American LNG suppliers.

“If you ask Europeans, they’re firmly convinced that they will complete their transition to low-carbon fuel sources,” said Brigham A. McCown, a senior fellow and director of the Initiative on American Energy Security at Hudson Institute.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” McCown added. “I think it’s naive at best to assume that’s going to occur, simply because it’s too expensive.”

But there is also a question of supply and demand. While Wood Mackenzie expects the world’s demand for natural gas to grow by up to 80 per cent by 2050 — other groups pin it closer to 20 to 35 per cent — the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis has warned that increasing LNG export capacity could lead to a supply glut before 2030.

This means long-term investment in LNG exportation could be risky.

Making waves in Washington?

Trump is unlikely to care much about Carney’s attempts to export LNG from the Arctic, says Exner-Pirot, because “it’s not a threat.”

“The amount you’d be able to move out of there would be so minimal.”

But wooing investment to other LNG projects on the East Coast is another story. “We’re competing with the United States for investment,” she explained, “so it absolutely does not help the United States or Trump for LNG investment to find its way to Canada.”

There is already concern over LNG Canada beginning to directly compete with established exporters like the U.S. Gulf Coast and Russian projects for Asian LNG sales, so U.S. companies eyeing European LNG market dominance are likely to be wary of any potential Canadian competition on the East Coast.

It’s not hard to imagine Trump targeting Canadian LNG ambitions in the ongoing trade negotiations between Washington and Ottawa.

“Trump is very transactional and zero-sum,” Exner-Pirot noted. “So any gain for Canada is a loss for the United States.”

Still, she and the other analysts doubt Trump will really feel threatened by Carney’s LNG moves — some even said he should welcome Canada’s new energy approach, noting that expanded Canadian LNG export capability could be good news for global security and the North American energy market.

“If you were in charge of NATO and the Western Alliance … it’s very good that North America is supplying energy security, both for our allies in Europe and for our allies in Asia,” said Exner-Pirot.

Some fear that the exportation of LNG in large volumes could shrink domestic supply and raise prices. But this tension could be good for the industry, McCown explained.

“Weirdly, you will end up with a more stable industry if prices aren’t rock bottom, because you have less consolidation in the industry and you have more people who want to produce natural gas.”

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In one instance, Lozano allegedly transported three migrants from Guatemala and El Salvador, including a 5-year-old girl.

A Michigan woman has been indicted by a federal grand jury for her alleged role in an international smuggling conspiracy that brought migrants, including children, from Central America across the northern border into the United States.

Norma Linda Lozano, also known as Norma Linda Quintanilla Lozano, 53, of Ypsilanti, Mich., was charged with one count of conspiracy to smuggle aliens and six counts of bringing aliens to the United States for profit. According to the indictment, from February through November 2024, Lozano participated in an alien smuggling organization that transported people from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and El Salvador into the United States from Canada.

“This DOJ is investigating and prosecuting human smuggling more aggressively than ever before, and Joint Task Force Alpha is the tip of the spear,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “We will not rest until those who profit from the suffering of vulnerable people — including many unaccompanied children — face severe, comprehensive justice.”

According to the indictment, the smuggling organization instructed migrants to cross the border on foot, gave them GPS coordinates and a description of Lozano’s vehicle, and coordinated their pick-up inside the United States. Lozano allegedly drove from Michigan to Vermont to meet the migrants at prearranged locations near the border and then transported them further into the country, dropping them at residences, businesses, or airports. The indictment alleges that the migrants or their families paid Lozano for these services.

In one instance, Lozano allegedly transported three migrants from Guatemala and El Salvador, including a 5-year-old girl. The child was seated in the front passenger seat, and Lozano falsely told authorities she was her granddaughter. In another incident, Lozano allegedly transported six adults along with an eight-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy. The indictment states the girl was placed in the hatchback’s cargo area on top of luggage.

A photo shared by prosecutors shows a “young female” in a winter coast lying across luggage and other items in the back of the vehicle, along with at least two other people, whose faces are all censored.

“Those who promote and profit from smuggling migrants into the country take advantage of vulnerable individuals without regard for the safety of others,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Michael P. Drescher for the District of Vermont.

“The prosecution of Ms. Lozano should send a message that those who commit these offences will be investigated and held responsible, not only for their own criminal acts but also for facilitating illegal border crossings by others. Thank you to our law enforcement partners at the U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for their collaborative investigative work to keep our communities and country safe.”

Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Krol, of HSI New England, said, “Human smuggling is a ruthless criminal enterprise that exploits vulnerable individuals for profit without regard for their life and safety.”

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York Regional Police say three suspects, one armed, attempted to break into a home in Vaughan Ont. on Aug. 31, 2025.

Investigators with the York Regional Police hold-up unit are appealing for witnesses to help identify suspects involved in a failed home invasion in Vaughan, Ont.

On Aug. 31, at approximately 2:20 a.m., officers were called to the area of Major Mackenzie Drive and Highway 27 for the report of a home invasion in progress.

Police learned three male suspects, wearing dark clothing and face coverings, attempted to force their way into the home by smashing the glass of the front door.

At least one suspect was armed with a handgun. There were two adults and two children in the home at the time.

The suspects fled the area in a dark-coloured sport utility vehicle after the security alarm was triggered. Nothing was taken and no one was injured.

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Julie Dabrusin, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, provides an update on the forecast for the 2025 wildfires season at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on Thursday, June 12, 2025.

OTTAWA — Canadians can expect an update on the future of Trudeau-era greenhouse gas

emissions targets for 2030 and 2035

that will reflect the changing economic situation, according to the office of federal Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin.

“Taking into account the evolving global and economic context, the federal government will provide an update on its emissions reductions plan as we strive towards our 2030 and 2035 targets,” wrote Keean Nembhard, a spokesperson for Dabrusin, in an email to National Post on Monday.

Nembhard didn’t say exactly when this update will come.

The statement comes after Industry Minister Melanie Joly dodged repeated

questions about the targets

in a televised interview over the weekend, saying this was an issue for Dabrusin to address.

Joly

deferred to Dabrusin again

on Monday when asked about the targets in Montreal.

Prime Minister Mark Carney also deflected when asked at a tariff relief announcement in Newfoundland if he was planning to change the 2030 and 2035 targets.

“Our focus in this very rapidly changing global economy is on what we call climate competitiveness,” said Carney.

Carney added that he would be giving more details on his climate strategy “in the coming weeks.”

Then prime minister Justin Trudeau

announced in April 2021

that Canada would increase its emissions reduction target under the Paris Agreement to 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels, by 2030.

A second target of 45 to 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2035

was announced in December 2024

and

formally submitted to the UN

in February.

Under the Paris Agreement, Canada’s goals reflect its highest possible ambition, given its current national circumstances. Countries that fall short of pre-announced targets are subject to

naming and shaming mechanisms

built into the agreement.

The emissions targets are also enshrined in federal law under the

Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act

.

An

early 2025 government forecast pegged

2030 emissions at

22 per cent below 2005 levels

, just over halfway to the target. The cancellation of

the consumer carbon tax

in March has likely pushed Canada even further off the pace.

Carney announced on Friday

that he’d waive the federal electric vehicle mandate for the 2026 model year, launch a 60-day review of the policy and amend clean fuel regulations, in a further blow to the Liberal climate agenda.

Dabrusin’s office said Canada remains committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. A spokesperson at the prime minister’s office said they had nothing to add to the statement from Dabrusin’s team.

Carney said during the recent campaign that he wanted Canada to be a clean and conventional energy superpower,

a message he repeated

to U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders at June’s G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alta.

He sent another positive signal to Canada’s fossil fuels sector in late August when he announced that his major projects office would

be based in Calgary

and led by veteran oil and gas executive Dawn Farrell.

Climate policy is expected to be a

major topic of discussion

when the Liberal caucus meets in Edmonton this week, with some Liberal MPs quietly grumbling that Carney has caved too much on green initiatives since becoming prime minister in March.

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Indiana attorney Mark S. Zuckerberg is suing Meta, claiming the company suspended his account for impersonating the billionaire founder and CEO of the same name pictured here.

U.S. bankruptcy attorney Mark Zuckerberg is suing Meta because the US$1.9-trillion social media tech giant keeps suspending his professional Facebook accounts.

In a statement of claim filed in Indiana last week, attorneys for 54-year-old Mark Steven Zuckerberg of Indianapolis — not to be confused with the 41-year-old billionaire founder Mark Elliot Zuckerberg originally from Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. — say their client’s

professional page

has been shut down at least five times in the last eight years on allegations he is “impersonating a celebrity” and not using “an authentic name.”

The most recent, a four-month suspension that began May 3, came after the attorney invested $11,000 in advertising through Facebook and is what prompted the legal filings.

Correspondence between both parties included in the filing shows a similar incident in May 2020 and another in 2017, both of which were acknowledged by the company’s tech support team.

In the past, Zuckerberg says he had practiced patience with the semi-annual headache of getting his accounts reactivated, dutifully following the steps set out by the company. But that forbearance has expired now that he’s losing money to the company.

“My patience went away the last time they did this to me,” Zuckerberg told the

Indianapolis Star

last week.

“This is supposed to be one of the leading, most cutting-edge companies in the world. Surely they should be able to put some safeguards in place to ensure they quit shutting me down.”

Most Reasons For Filing a Chapter 7

Posted by Bankruptcy Law Office of Mark S. Zuckerberg on Saturday, March 2, 2024

Zuckerberg told

ABC News

he is “sick of it” and noted the previous suspension lasted six months after he went through the exhaustive steps of filing an appeal. It was only resolved when he managed to speak with a “living breathing person at Meta.”

“Despite these efforts, Meta fails to reinstate Plaintiff’s commercial Facebook page in a timely manner — often taking months for reactivation to occur — while still retaining the benefit of any payment received for Plaintiff’s advertising spend,” the statement of claim reads.

The lawsuit seeks reimbursement of the advertising money, legal fees and an injunction to prevent further deactivations or suspensions.

Zuckerberg also wouldn’t mind an apology from the other Zuckerberg.

“If he wants to fly here personally to say sorry or maybe let me spend a week on his boat to say I’m sorry, I’d probably take him up on that,” he told

WTHT-TV.

Two days after the suit was filed, Meta reinstated the page for Bankruptcy Law Office of Mark S. Zuckerberg, acknowledging “it had been disabled in error.”

“We appreciate Mr. Zuckerberg’s continued patience on this issue and are working to try and prevent this from happening in the future,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement to the Star and ABC News.

National Post has reached out to Zuckerberg and Meta Platforms Ltd. for additional comment.

The lawsuit also alleges his

personal account

has been deactivated or suspended “on a repeated basis for the last 14 years.”

When he first signed up for an account in 2009, Facebook required him to submit copies of his identification and his bar association license to prove he was legit, according to

Wired

.

He later told

Forbes

that he would field up to 500 friend requests daily from people mistaking him for the other Mark Zuckerberg, a trend that increased dramatically in the fall of 2010 when David Fincher’s The Social Network was released.

The account was quickly reinstated when the story drew local, national and international media attention.

Around the same time, the Indianapolis Zuckerberg launched

IamMarkZuckerberg.com

, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek website that differentiates between the two men.

“He has been immersed in technology almost since birth. I’m happy to be able to accomplish my electronic tasks without screaming,” Zuckerberg wrote.

“One thing we do share is a laser sharp focus on what we do. Facebook’s success owes to the determination and intensity of young Mr. Zuckerberg. My Indiana bankruptcy law practice gets the same laser focus from me and my competent staff.”

And in honour of their “eponymy”, the attorney promises to “gladly handle” any bankruptcy proceedings the tech billionaire might experience in the state of Indiana.

While sharing the name scored him

a reservation at a Las Vegas restaurant on one occasion

and he was once the subject of a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire question, it’s been more nuisance than boon. He told Wired that he no longer uses his last name when making reservations or travelling.

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Members of Israel's ZAKA search and rescue emergency services collect samples at the scene of a shooting at the Ramot road junction in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on September 8, 2025.

Six people have been killed and more than a dozen injured in a fatal terror attack in Jerusalem.

The attack occurred while people were waiting at a bus stop in the Ramot area Monday morning,

according to Israeli police

, when two terrorists opened fire. A soldier and several civilians who were there shot back at the terrorists.

Police confirmed the terrorists were shot dead at the scene. At least 21 others were injured, the

Jerusalem Post reported

. One of the people injured included a pregnant woman,

per the Israeli Foreign Ministry

.

The six victims have since been identified. Here’s what to know about the five men and one woman murdered.

Yaakov Pinto, 25

Pinto had recently immigrated to Israel from Spain. The 25-year-old got married three months ago,

Yeshiva News World reported

. Community members from Ramot said Pinto’s “future was cruelly cut short. Our hearts are with his young wife, his family and his community in these difficult moments,” according to

YNet News

.

Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s minister of foreign affairs, posted on X about Pinto.

He called out Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez for standing with Hamas and against Israel. While Sanchez was “attacking” Israel (verbally), “Palestinian terrorists attacked and murdered six Israelis, among them Yaakov Pinto, a new immigrant from Spain.”

Rabbi Yisrael Metzner, 28

Metzner was a resident of Ramot Bet in Jerusalem,

per Israel Hayom

.

Rabbi Yosef David, 43

David was a Jerusalem resident. According to Israel Hayom, he was holding religious books at the bus stop before he was killed. He was en route to his Torah studies.

Sarah Mendelson, 60

Mendelsohn was a 60-year-old mother of four, and grandmother, who lived in the Ramat Shlomo neighbourhood,

YNet News reported

. Her nickname was “Sarita.”

She “was very active in the Bnei Akiva movement,” according to former Knesset member Dov Lipman, who

posted about the victims of the attack on X.

  Bnei Akiva is described as “a Jewish religious Zionist youth movement,” on its website.

Mendelsohn was a director of municipal relations in the movement’s finance department, per YNet. She was on her way to work when she was murdered, YNet and

The Jerusalem Post reported

.

“Sarita was like the mother of Bnei Akiva. She sat in the director-general’s office, always welcoming everyone with a smile. Over the years, dozens of employees came through, and she always helped and supported them, even in stressful times,” deputy secretary-general of Bnei Akiva Netanel Elk said, YNet reported.

“She always thought about how the money could go to programs for children and those in need.”

Rabbi Mordechai Steintzag, 79

Steintzag was a resident of Ramot Bet, per Israel Hayom.

He was known as “Dr. Mark” and started an eponymous bakery in Beit Shemesh, according to a post on X by Lipman.

Steintzag, who was a certified cardiologist, immigrated to Israel from New York “several decades ago,”

Israel National News reported

. He started his bakery, which later became a chain, to provide healthier options to residents. He was described as “charitable” and “kind.” He donated a Torah scroll to the local synagogue and was actively involved in the community.

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Pash

Pash, who was a maintenance worker at the Kol Torah yeshiva, was described as a “devoted employee” and a “man of great kindness,” according to a notice posted by the yeshiva, Israel Hayom reported.

He gave his own money “generously,” the notice said, and was a “constant Torah scholar.”

On Monday evening Israeli time, early afternoon EST, his funeral was underway.

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Ronald Lord has been jailed in Britain for cocaine smuggling. His mobility scooter is seen at Gatwick Airport in London, England.

A 71-year-old Canadian from a Montreal suburb who was caught with eight kilos of cocaine hidden in his mobility scooter at an airport in Britain has been sent to prison for six years.

Ronald Lord arrived at Gatwick Airport in London, England, on Feb. 7, telling British border agents he had been on a seven-day holiday in Barbados and was now looking forward to sightseeing in London.

U.K. Border Force agents x-rayed his mobility scooter and found anomalies in the seat. After disassembling the seat’s back panel they found eight cocaine bricks, tightly wrapped in black tape.

He pretended to be shocked at the discovery, according to the National Crime Agency, and told NCA agents who arrived to investigate that he had no idea how the bricks got there. He denied any knowledge of the drugs he was sitting on in his electrified wheelchair.

U.K. Border agents found eight bricks of cocaine hidden in Ronald Lord’s mobility scooter at a London airport after he arrived on a flight from Barbados.

But he was not a careful cocaine courier. When the agents searched Lord, they found a screw from the seat panel in his pocket. And when agents checked his backstory, they found he had lied. Information from the airlines showed he had spent only three days in Barbados before flying to England, according to the NCA.

NCA agents found messages on his phone that suggested he was being paid to work as a drug mule,

as is common in cocaine courier cases.

“There was clearly someone higher up the chain than him and he was carrying the drugs for someone else,” an NCA spokesman told National Post.

The cocaine was given an estimated street value in Britain by authorities equivalent to slightly less than $1,200,000.

When he appeared in court in August, Lord — who lives in Chateauguay, an off-island suburb of Montreal — admitted his guilt. He pleaded guilty to smuggling Class A drugs into the United Kingdom and on Friday, the judge sentenced him to six years in prison.

“Organized crime groups need smugglers like Lord to bring Class A drugs into the U.K., where they are sold for huge profit by gangs who deal in violence and exploitation,” NCA Senior Investigating Officer Richard Wickham said in a release.

“He obviously thought that because he was a pensioner he would be less of a target for law enforcement. He was wrong, and I hope this case sends out a message to anyone who would consider doing the same.”

Cocaine is typically cheaper in Canada than in Britain, reflecting, in part, their relative distance from the source of cocaine in South America.

Class A drugs in Britain are considered the top-tier illicit drugs, including cocaine, heroin, LSD, ecstasy, methamphetamine, and magic mushrooms. Possessing, selling or smuggling these drugs typically comes with harsher penalties if caught.

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Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, left, meets with Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister Kody Blois to discuss Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola exports, in Saskatoon on August 21, 2025.

It’s been six years since a Canadian premier led a trade mission to China. Much like Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s forays into Washington, D.C., to shore up oil exports there, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is heading to China this weekend. It’s expected he’ll wave the province’s flag in support of improved market access for Saskatchewan’s bumper crop of canola.

It’s a tricky situation for the premier to navigate. Trade friction with and between its largest markets — China and the U.S. — has put Canadian canola in the crosshairs.

To be clear, Moe isn’t trying to supplant Ottawa’s role in defusing trade tensions with China; for any deal with China to get done, he acknowledges it will ultimately have to involve the prime minister. To that end, Moe had invited Prime Minister Mark Carney to join him. On Thursday, Carney announced instead that parliamentary secretary Kody Blois would join the Saskatchewan-led delegation to China.

As they head to China, Moe’s team would be well-advised to read Between the Eagle and the Dragon: Managing Canada-China Relations in a Shifting Geopolitical Reality, a report released a few weeks ago by a cross-Canada team of foreign policy wonks.

Politicians are prone to look askance at aspirational policy papers; viewing the lofty rhetoric impractical in the real world of cut-and-thrust politics. Yet, after sitting down to talk through this report with the expert group’s co-chair, Perrin Beatty — a former politician himself, including a short stint as a Progressive Conservative foreign minister — I’m all-the-more convinced this report could be useful to Moe’s delegation.

First off, the report’s authors don’t sugarcoat the retaliatory nature of the tariffs: “The intensification of the U.S.-China rivalry and President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade agenda have irreversibly altered the conditions in which Canada must operate. Canada responded to U.S. pressure and Chinese practices by imposing 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and 25 per cent tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum. China retaliated with sweeping tariffs on Canadian canola, pork and seafood exports.”

To make matters worse, in August, nearing the end of a year-long, anti-dumping investigation, Beijing imposed a hefty 75.8 per cent duty on Canadian canola seed — in addition to existing tariffs on canola oil and meal.

Second: Perrin understands Moe’s dilemma. While this is technically federal jurisdiction, Moe has a constituency to represent; Saskatchewan is one of the largest producers of canola in the world. “Even if you look back into the 1960s,” Perrin shares, “at a time when the rest of the world was avoiding them,” we were selling China wheat. Today, he argues, China needs Canadian commodities: our potash, canola and energy.

Third point: what Perrin and his peers are recommending isn’t fuzzy, subtle or wishy-washy. It’s a dramatic change in approach. “We see ourselves as a moral superpower, whose job it is to tell the rest of the world what they’re doing is wrong,” he asserts. To make his point, he shares the head-scratching story of Justin Trudeau’s flubbed negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

To please Canada, Trudeau convinced all of the other partners to change the name of the free trade deal to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, “then refused to sign it because it wasn’t sufficiently progressive for him,” Perrin sighs. “Then, in a matter of weeks, he filled planes with cabinet ministers and news media to fly to China, ostensibly to sign a trade agreement with China, which he evidently believed would cause the liberalization of China.”  It didn’t.

Another deep sigh from Perrin. “We need to be a bit more worldly in how we manage our international relations,” he grimaces.

“We’re not the Vatican,” I quip. “We’re not,” he agrees with a smile. “We have both interests and principles and we need to advance both of those,” he acknowledges. “But we need to understand the difference between the world as it is and the world we would like to live in,” he suggests. “We have to today deal with the one that we’re living in, whether it’s in dealing with Washington or in dealing with Beijing.”

“There was naiveté,” he continues, “that most of us and certainly every Western nation fell prey to at the time of China’s accession to the WTO (World Trade Organization). It was the belief that if we trade together, if we bring China into global institutions, that they will change their behaviour and conform with international norms.

“That didn’t happen,” he says sombrely. “They’ve moved in the other direction. They are less free, more assertive in terms of military and diplomacy than they were before.” The time for naiveté is over.

“We better disabuse ourselves of the false notions about our ability to change the fundamental elements of China as a political entity or a society,” says Perrin Beatty, a former federal PC cabinet minister.

As recently as October, Donald Trump talked about putting a wedge between China and Russia in much the same way Richard Nixon was able to do many years ago. But watching what unfolded this past week, with Vladimir Putin in Beijing for a massive Chinese military parade, it’s obvious Trump is driving them closer. Countries historically at each other’s throats are coming into Beijing’s orbit — because they agree on only one thing: that they feel threatened by the approach the Americans are taking.

“We better disabuse ourselves of the false notions about our ability to change the fundamental elements of China as a political entity or a society,” Perrin concludes, “and focus instead on areas in which we have shared interests, in which it would be in China’s interest to have a good relationship with Canada and Canada’s interest to deal with China.”

The poignancy of what Perrin is saying causes me pause; I’ve been waiting my entire career to hear this call for realism, maturity and unapologetic focus on Canada’s national interest from someone steeped not just in the world of politics, but business. Until his tenure ended last August, Perrin was the longstanding CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Redirecting our conversation back to Premier Moe’s trade mission to China, I ask if Perrin would recommend dialling back the 100 per cent tariffs imposed on Chinese EVs by Canada. Moe has not been shy about pointing out the scope and size of the $43-billion canola industry versus the size of the nascent EV industry in Canada.

Perrin pauses to think that over. “Not at this point,” he says. “You know, we are up to our ears right now with the attempt to destroy the auto sector. I think one of the things we need to do is to be more aggressive and be more active in the United States in making a case, from a perspective of American self-interest, that if Trump is successful in destroying the automotive sector in Canada, and with Canada being the single largest export market for American vehicles, it is in America’s self interest to ensure that the integrated automotive sector we have today can continue.”

“What we do have to dial back on,” he adds with a grin, “is the preachiness.”

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Thousands of Jewish community members and allies from across the country rally on Parliament Hill on Dec. 4, 2023.

All 144 Conservative MPs have signed an open letter condemning antisemitism in Canada, an apparent response to a similar letter signed by less than a fifth of the Liberal caucus.

The letter came late this week after a targeted attack at a kosher grocery store in Ottawa on Aug. 27, when

an elderly woman was stabbed

in what police have called a “hate-motivated crime.” A 71-year-old man was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and possessing a dangerous weapon.

Days later, on Aug. 31, Liberal Quebec MP

Anthony Housefather said in a post on X

that he signed an open letter along with 31 other Liberal MPs, issuing a call to action. However, there was a lack of signatures from the other 137 Liberals who make up Prime Minister Mark Carney’s caucus. (There are a total of

169 Liberal MPs

listed by the House of Commons).

On Thursday, Conservative Ontario MP Melissa Lantsman said on social media that her Conservative colleagues would “stand up and protect the Jewish community in Canada, even when the government won’t.”

She shared an open letter signed by every Conservative MP, including leader Pierre Poilievre.

“Conservatives are outraged by yet another vile antisemitic attack, this time at a grocery store in Ottawa. Since Hamas’ brutal attack on October 7, 2023, anti-Jewish hatred has skyrocketed on our streets and in our neighbourhoods. For too long, the government has been silent and absent,” the letter says.

Data from Statistics Canada revealed an uptick in police-reported

hate crimes against the Jewish community in Canada

in 2023. The majority — 70 per cent — of such crimes were directed at Jews that year, according to the StatCan data. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 people and sparked an ongoing war with Israel.

Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada released a

report on antisemitism

in April. There were a total of 6,219 incidents targeting Jews in the country in 2024, it said — the highest number documented by the group since its first report in 1982.

B’nai Brith Canada applauded the efforts made by the Conservative caucus and its “moral clarity.”

“A unanimous response to hate should not be controversial. The devolving crisis of antisemitism requires every MP to act now,” the group said in a post on X on Thursday. “As parliament resumes, it is imperative that tangible actions be implemented to address this crisis. How our government tackles antisemitism will demonstrate its commitment to human rights and Canadian values.”

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, another Jewish advocacy group in Canada, urged elected officials to take concrete action against the “rise of antisemitism.”

In a post on X on Thursday, it said that antisemites should be held accountable with “real criminal consequences,” parties should “boost funding and partnership with community security” and work to “close loopholes in Canada’s anti-terror laws.”

It also said that safe access zone legislation should be implemented urgently. A safe access zone is an area protected so that people can get to it freely and safely. It can include institutions like schools, clinics or places of worship.

The

Canadian Jewish News reported

that in Toronto, a bylaw came into effect on July 2 permitting more than 18 Toronto Jewish institutions and one mosque to be listed as “safe access” zones. Protests are not allowed within 50 metres of the buildings’ entrances.

CIJA also asked politicians to “protect Jewish participation in civic life.”

Carney

condemned the Ottawa attack

, calling it “senseless” and “disturbing.” He told Canada’s Jewish community that they were “not alone” in a post on X on Aug. 29.

“We stand with you against hate and threats to your safety, and we will act to confront antisemitism wherever it appears,” he said.

His signature did not appear on the open letter shared by Housefather.

Conservative Ontario MP Don Stewart commented on Housefather’s post, saying a total of 32 signatures from the Liberals was “not very many.”

“There is only one party in Parliament whose entire caucus supports the safety of Jewish Canadians,” wrote Stewart, referring to the Conservative Party of Canada.

When a business account on X asked Housefather if the other 137 Liberals did not want to sign the open letter, the MP

responded

, “Of course not.”

“The letter was drafted and signatures gathered over 24 hours on a holiday weekend. Originally it was going to be from Jewish caucus and then we asked some others,” he said, adding that “virtually everyone who was asked signed on” and others did when they saw the open letter when it was released.

Housefather’s office did not immediately respond to a request from National Post asking if other Liberal MPs have since signed the letter.

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