North Star with Ellin Bessner

You may have heard recently about Samidoun, an extremist, anti-Israel, organization with a branch in Vancouver, ostensibly working to liberate Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism in Israel and elsewhere. This week, Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the federal Conservatives, demanded the government declare Samidoun a terrorist organization—as several other countries have already done. Doing so would block Samidoun’s ability to fundraise and would make it a crime for anyone to support it. Jewish leaders have long urged the same thing, citing evidence that Samidoun’s Canadian-based founders are members of a militant anarchist terrorist group known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP is outlawed in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Israel and many other countries for carrying out dozens of suicide bombings, assassinations and airplane hijackings. But Samidoun’s status in Canada fell under scrutiny this week, after the group organized protests to coincide with the anniversary of Oct. 7. Some supporters tried to set fire to a Canadian flag, calling, “Death to Canada, death to USA and death to Israel.” Meanwhile, authorities in British Columbia were forced to lift bail conditions that had prevented Samidoun’s Vancouver-based director, Charlotte Kates, from participating in any protests for a period of six months. Kates was arrested in April after giving an antisemitic speech that praised the Oct. 7 massacre. But charges had not yet been laid before the bail deadline expired on Oct. 8. Kates is married to Khaled Barakat, suspected of being a high-ranking member of the PFLP, who also was granted Canadian citizenship. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, we’re joined by Gerald Steinberg, who founded the pro-Israel research institute NGO Monitor, to explain more about Samidoun’s terrorist ties and outline its operations on Canadian campuses. What we talked about Read when Vancouver police arrested Charlotte Kates of Samidoun in May 1, 2024 after she praised the Oct. 7 massacre during a public rally in Vancouver, in The CJN. Read NGO Monitor’s fact sheet about Samidoun in Canada. Watch B’nai Brith’s video compilation of Samidoun director Charlotte Kates speeches in Toronto and elsewhere supporting convicted terrorists and suicide bombers, and sign a petition demanding Ottawa act. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

In Montreal, 8,000 people watched wreaths laid on the stage. In Toronto, 20,000 people recited the Kaddish prayer. An interfaith choir sung in Ottawa. All across Canada, tens of thousands of Canadians gathered to observe the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and remember the Jewish victims who had Canadian ties. The Oct. 7 anniversary also sparked political controversy in the House of Commons, when Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre condemned the Liberal government’s stance on Israel’s right to defend itself, and for not doing more to curb the explosion of antisemitism we’ve seen in Canada after Oct. 7. While the prime minister was absent from Question Period—he spoke to Ottawa’s Jewish community in person later that evening—all lawmakers in the House of Commons agreed to observe a moment of silence for the 1,200 Israeli victims of that dark day. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, you’ll hear the politicians trade accusations across the floor of Parliament, and also hear some of what Jewish Canada sounded like from coast to coast, as Jews and non-Jewish allies marked the solemn anniversary of Oct. 7. What we talked about: Read Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement on Oct. 7, 2024 and also watch his remarks and those of Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre speaking at the Jewish Federation of Ottawa’s evening vigil. Watch the Montreal Jewish community memorial rally here. Watch the Toronto Jewish community rally here. Watch the Vancouver rally here. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Kibbutz Be’eri survivor Thomas Hand spent nearly a month last year believing his youngest daughter Emily, then 8, had been killed by Hamas terrorists who stormed their Israeli farming community on Oct. 7 and slaughtered over 100 residents. Hand would later learn that Emily had actually been one of the 30 Kibbutz Be’eri residents kidnapped into Gaza that day. The girl was held for 50 days-not in a tunnel, as it turns out, but in private apartments together four other Kibbutz members and also with Noa Argamani, the Nova music festival hostage, until the cease-fire/ prisoner exchange in November 2023 saw Emily among those released. Hand, 64, and his daughter, now 9, are trying to rebuild their lives. They and others from Be’eri have moved into a new temporary home at Kibbutz Hazterim, near Beersheba, away from their own bullet-riddled house, while the kibbutz rebuilds. Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, Hand and his daughter flew to Canada, to Vancouver, to share their story, and also some memories of Canadian victim Vivian Silver, a neighbour on the kibbutz. On this episode of The CJN Daily, Thomas Hand joins host Ellin Bessner, with some tough words for the Canadian government, which he accused of “giving Hamas a reward for the violence caused to Israeli citizens.” What we talked about: Read more about the memorial projects being assembled for the victims of Oct. 7, including Vivian Silver, of Kibbutz Be’eri, in The CJN. Learn more about Kibbutz Be’eri’s fundraising campaign to return home in 2026. Here’s a list of memorial events being held for Oct. 7 across Canada, in The CJN. Example Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Just before Canadian Jews gather to observe the New Year on Wednesday, the federal government has announced some long-requested changes to a program that has helped nearly 500 synagogues, schools and community centres pay for panic buttons, security cameras, fencing and other vital safety equipment to date. Until now, Jewish leaders have long complained that Public Safety Canada’s Security Infrastructure Program (SIP) had too much red tape and hasn’t covered nearly enough of the financial burden for keeping Jews safe to worship, study and play–especially in the face of rising antisemitism. The new program–now called Canada Community Security Program–may also have more money to hand out, although how much is unclear. Ottawa said $65 million. and $16 million this year. Most importantly, Ottawa says it will now pay 70 percent of the costs to install security equipment, up from 50 per cent. And the same goes for hiring temporary security guards from Sept. 24, 2024, until after the High Holidays have ended. Daycare centres, cemeteries and Jewish offices are now also eligible to apply. Ottawa will also raise the cap to fund big reno projects from $100,000 to $1.5 million. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, we find out why some Jewish leaders are already calling the government announcement a “game-changer.” We speak with Jason Murray, head of the security advisory committee for Vancouver’s Jewish federation; Gary Gladstone, a consultant to many Jewish groups applying for these grants; and Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, Canada’s special advisor to the Prime Minister on antisemitism, who has been advocating for these changes. What we talked about When Montreal’s Jewish Community Council asked Ottawa to fix the SIP program after school shootings post-Oct. 7, in The CJN. Read the federal government’s announcement on Sept 24, 2024 outlining changes to the Security Infrastructure Program, now called the Canada Community Security Program. After Vancouver’s Schara Tzedeck synagogue was lit aflame, the congregation left the burned front doors unfixed for a long time. Here’s why on The CJN Daily. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Rabbi Shlomo Leib (Leon) Mund walked out of a Montreal courthouse a free man on Sept. 25, after a Court of Quebec judge acquitted the 82-year-old rabbi of two sex-crime charges dating back to when the high-profile religious leader taught at an Orthodox school and offered unlicensed marriage counselling in the 1980s and 1990s. The CJN can’t identify the complainant due to a court-ordered publication ban on their identity. But the case made headlines in Canada and Israel in the spring of 2022 after Mund was arrested at the Toronto airport. The widower has since been living under house arrest in Toronto for nearly two and a half years while his case wound through the Quebec legal system. The court heard the alleged victim testify how, when they were seven or eight years old, Mund allegedly sexually assaulted them in the back seat of his car near the rabbi’s former Montreal home in 1997. Mund always denied the accusations. In the 29-page ruling, the judge noted the complainant's “inconsistent statement to [their] husband” about what happened, which “undermines [their] credibility and the reliability of [their] testimony.” The court also heard suggestions the alleged victim hoped to get justice for other members of the family and for Jewish women in the city’s Orthodox community who say the rabbi had also sexually assaulted them. The CJN Daily‘s Ellin Bessner was at the courthouse for the verdict. On today’s episode, she speaks with lawyers for both sides, as well as officials with the ZA’AKAH organization, which supports child sexual abuse victims in the Orthodox community. You’ll also hear from Ruth Pinsky Krevsky, who approached Montreal police about her own allegations of inappropriated behaviour by Rabbi Mund years ago—but was never called to testify during this trial. What we talked about Read our original story on the arrest and charges laid against Rabbi Shlomo Leib (Leon) Mund in April 2022, in The CJN. Hear our interview with the complainant in May 2022 on why she came forward after 25 years, on The CJN Daily Read what the judge wrote in the R. vs. Mund verdict and hear from the new survivor who has come forward now, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has blasted the Toronto District School Board for allowing some teachers to “indoctrinate” students with anti-Israel chants during a recent field trip that was ostensibly a learning event about justice for Canada’s Indigenous people. :"It's disgusting," Ford told reporters on Monday. Meanwhile, Ford’s education minister, Jill Dunlop, also slammed what she called “activist” public school teachers, who she said compromised student safety and breached the trust of the parents who had signed permission forms. The event in question involved 15 public schools, which brought students to the annual Grassy Narrows River Run on Sept. 18. The rally and march spreads awareness about the First Nation community in remote Northwestern Ontario that has spent decades fighting for justice after a local factory poisoned their water system with mercury. But parents have reported that a few teachers with a pro-Palestine agenda used the event to spread their own message about a totally separate issue: the Middle East conflict. In videos posted online, they can be seen using a megaphone to lead their students in chanting anti-Israel slogans; some participants in the event are wearing keffiyehs, and carrying banners calling for "From Wabigoon (the lake near Grassy Narrows) to the Dead Sea, We will all be free." Shelley Laskin is a school board trustee who represents the heavily Jewish Ward 8 (Eglinton-Lawrence and Toronto-St. Paul’s). Laskin joins The CJN Daily to explain why she demanded a special public school board meeting be held this Wednesday, Sept. 25, to look into the incident that “erodes the public trust” in Canada’s largest school board. What we talked about Read about the TDSB's reaction to the incident in The CJN. Read how the TDSB adopted an anti racism policy that includes anti-Palestinian racism but, at first, didn’t include antisemitism, in The CJN. Watch the TDSB special meeting live on Wednesday Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

The fallout in the Middle East continues after last week’s “audacious” covert cyber attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, when thousands of suspected operatives linked to the Iran-backed terror militia saw their army-issued pagers suddenly explode. Israel hasn’t confirmed or denied it was behind the sabotage of the booby-trapped devices, nor was the spy service taking credit for the following day’s second act: when scores of Hezbollah walkie-talkies caught fire. The explosions killed at least 37 people in Lebanon and parts of Syria, including a few children and a woman, but military analysts say the events have left thousands of Hezbollah members severely maimed and unable to fight. Condemnation for the pager attacks has come from the United Nations, and also from Canada, and France, and even from a former Director of the CIA, who says it was terrorism. Hezbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah said the attacks crossed the red line and vowed to retaliate. But can he, really, with so many soldiers in hospital and his surviving generals scrambling to find a safer way to communicate without cell phones, pagers or walkie talkies? Why did Israel launch its sleeper operation now? Was it a prelude to an escalation? And what will Iran–who funds Hezbollah–do? To answer these and other questions, we’ve turned to Alex Wilner, a professor at Carleton University’s Norman Patterson School of International Affairs, one of Canada’s top experts in deterrence by denial, strategic studies, terrorism and counterterrorism. Wilner joins this episode of The CJN Daily to explain what message Israel was really sending and what to expect next. What we talked about Read more about why supporting the exploding pagers operation on his social media cost veteran Canadian diplomat his job at Ottawa U last week, in The CJN. Hear how a Toronto-raised IDF soldier, Ben Brown, was seriously wounded by an explosion from a Hezbollah rocket near his army base, on The CJN Daily. Why Hezbollah rockets have forced 60,000 Israelis to be displaced from northern Israel’ border with Lebanon since October. 7, on The CJN Daily. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Canadian documentary producer Igal Hecht says he hates his new Oct. 7 film, The Killing Roads. The documentary retraces the final moments of 250 Israelis who were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists along highways 232 and 34, near Gaza. Hecht also feels this is the best work he has ever done. The film releases to the public online, for free, on Oct. 1. An in-person preview screening is set for Toronto on Sept. 30. The Toronto-based filmmaker made the movie with his cameraman Lior Cohen because he felt not enough attention has been paid to these highway victims, who met their ends in their cars, on bicycles or on foot. The victims were weekend campers, athletes, and many music festival-goers fleeing for their lives along the 70-kilometre stretch of highway between Sderot and Israel’s southern border with Gaza. It’s also where Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, was wounded and then kidnapped into Gaza. The Killing Roads pieces together new interviews with survivors of Oct. 7, bereaved relatives and first responders, along with hours of video taken on that day—by both the terrorists themselves and their victims. It also includes graphic, never-before-seen video from Israeli ambulance dashcam recordings, although Hecht decided to blur the victim’s faces out of respect for those involved. Igal Hecht joins this episode of The CJN Daily to share why his film is different than the catalogue of Oct. 7 documentaries out so far, and what he hopes this Canadian-made movie will accomplish. What we talked about Learn more about new The Killing Roads movie and watch it for free online beginning October 1 at 8 p.m. EDT. Or attend the free preview in-person screening on Sept. 30 in Toronto. How Canadian photographer Skye Klein survived the Nova music festival and the killing road on Oct. 7, on The CJN Daily. Watch Igal Hecht’s coverage of the May 2021 conflict in Israel between Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the IDF, shot exclusively for The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Dr. Arnie Aberman received his honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Toronto in June 2015. He is one of more than 1,500 people who have received honorary degrees from UofT since the school began the tradition in 1850, but Aberman believes he is the first and only person to give it back—as his symbolic form of protest against rising antisemitism on campus and his anger at how his former employer is failing to keep students safe, be they Jews or non-Jews. Aberman actually has three other honorary PhDs from other universities, plus an Order of Canada for his contributions to the medical field. But UofT’s award was special, because it came after an illustrious career in which Aberman held just about every top post at the institution’s medical school over the past 30 years: chair of medicine, dean of medicine and chief of medicine at hospitals in Toronto, including Mount Sinai, Sunnybrook, Princess Margaret, Toronto General and Toronto Western. But the retired physician, 80, no longer wants anything to do with UofT's degree, after he watched the pro-Palestine encampment remain up for two months on campus—just steps away from the medical building. Aberman has now informed UofT’s president of his intention to return the honorary degree in the coming days. Aberman joins this episode of The CJN Daily to explain his decision and what he hopes will happen next. What we talked about Read more on U of T Jewish doctors boycotting their university in protest of the school’s handling of rising antisemitism and anti-Israel actions on campus, in The CJN. Learn why an Ontario court ordered the U of T encampment dismantled on July 2, 2024, in on July 2, 2024, in The CJN. Hear why UBC medical professor Dr. Ted Rosenberg quit after 30 years because of his university’s handling of antisemitism after Oct. 7, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

After the debacle in 2023, when Parliamentarians gave a standing ovation to an elderly Ukrainian Waffen SS veteran, pressure mounted on Ottawa to speed up publishing the names of long-classified files containing the identities of hundreds of suspected Nazi war criminals welcomed by Canada after the Second World War. The files were prepared in the 1980s for the so-called Deschenes Commission, which studied Canada’s postwar immigration screening problems, especially when it came to former soldiers from Nazi-occupied Europe. It was believed the government would publish them in May 2024, to help commemorate Jewish Heritage Month. But that didn’t happen. In June and July, researchers from Library and Archives Canada held consultations with a small list of stakeholders to discuss privacy issues with the files. A decision was expected this week. But that could be delayed further, after media reports surfaced slamming the bureaucrats for not consulting with a key group: Holocaust survivors and educators. They also missed academics, Polish Canadians and others who want the files released. The CJN has learned the consultations are being reopened as experts from the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Canada, including one of the group’s Holocaust survivors, are scheduled to have a hearing this Thursday. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, we’re joined by Sam Goldstein, former legal director for B’nai Brith Canada, the human rights organization that has been at the centre of the campaign to release these files. Goldstein explains why he thinks the government is stonewalling—and what should happen next. What we talked about Read more from February 2024 when Ottawa released more of the Deschenes Commission report’s first part, in The CJN. Why B’nai Brith Canada and others want the full records of suspected Nazi war criminals released, on The CJN Daily from Oct. 2023. Read B’nai Brith Canada’s statement to the House of Commons committee on Access to Information, Feb. 14, 2023. Why the Speaker of the House of Commons resigned after arranging a Parliamentary standing ovation for an elderly former Ukrainian Waffen SS soldier, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)