Juno News - December 16, 2025
How Canada Became a Hotbed for Antisemitism
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Summary
16 people are dead after a horrific father-son terror attack on Hanukkah celebrations at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. The stories are harrowing, the pictures are heartbreaking. The Prime Minister has offered his remarks and support, saying, on an immensely painful day for Jewish people, "To the Jewish people across Canada and around the world gathering with your loved ones during this holiday, may you take comfort in your community and faith."
Transcript
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Hi, Juno News. Alexander Brown here back for another episode of Not Sorry. I'm the director
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of the National Citizens Coalition, writer, campaigner, communicator. Always thrilled
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to be here with you. While I am here, take advantage of our promo code, JunoNews.com
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slash Not Sorry for 20% off. 16 people are dead after a horrific father-son terror attack
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on Hanukkah celebrations at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. The stories are harrowing,
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the pictures are heartbreaking. The Prime Minister has offered his remarks and support, saying
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on an immensely painful day for Jewish people, the community came together here in Ottawa
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to mark the beginning of Hanukkah. To the Jewish people across Canada and around the world
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gathering with your loved ones during this holiday, may you take comfort in your community
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and faith. Even in times of darkness, light will prevail. That these remarks are even necessary
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betrays what's missing from his statement and the uncomfortable truth that many liberals
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refuse to face, be it on purpose or by accident. They've lost control of anti-Semitism in the
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West, in Canada. It's running rampant. There were horrible displays in our Canadian cities
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even after news of these attacks broke, as some from the radicalized Kaffeea crowd protested
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Hanukkah ceremonies, or in the case of Montreal, appeared to even celebrate these heinous killings.
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Canada has a cultural problem. Trudeau sought to create the world's post-national state
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with no core identity, and he's getting results. Just last week, Canadian mass immigration lobbyist
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and former BlackRock exec Mark Wiseman was appointed as our new U.S. ambassador. Minister of Canadian
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Identity and Culture, Mark Miller, he sent out his thoughts and prayers Sunday. But outside of Sean Frazier,
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no minister has done more damage to this country's cohesion or even infrastructure or security as
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Miller had in his time at immigration. Miller wrote, tonight, as families and friends gather after
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sunset for eight nights to light candles at the Hanukkah, our government reinforces its support to
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Australia and to Jewish communities around the world to help bring more brightness during this
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difficult time. What would bring even more brightness would be a crackdown on the weekly hate
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rallies? Would be actually enforcing the law? Would be a return to our immigration standard of
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yesterday, where the talent of the world joined us on points and shared values? It would be sending
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home those who expire on their visas, those bilking our asylum system, those who break our laws while
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visitors in our home. Cowardice is contagious. Disloyalty and decline are as well. We're seeing where
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that's led us, for our Jewish Canadians, for all Canadians. Let this serve as an opportunity,
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not just for reflection, but rededication to our communities, to their safety, to our very
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civilization, to reestablishing what Canada and the West once were and can be again. Let's talk to
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Jeff Russ. He's a terrific writer from the National Post and without diminishment. And first, a word from
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you get a $500 Juno News scholarship. You know, I went to the University of Alberta and studied
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Jeff Russ joins the show. Jeff is a terrific writer with the National Post,
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the publication by the name of Without Diminishment. Jeff, thanks for being here.
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Jeff, it's a kind of a doozy of a day. We're coming out of a weekend that was marred by a terrorist
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attack on Bondi Beach, radical Islamist father and son. There's no way around the fact that Canada
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has been flirting with these same problems. We've thwarted attacks in the past. I know the concern
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is that could happen here. Can you share your perspective on the Bondi Beach terror attacks
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that occurred during these Hanukkah celebrations in Australia and how they highlight a broader
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Absolutely. It's hard to not escape the conclusion that the horrible tragedy that happened on Bondi
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Beach was an inevitability rather than something that could have prevented. Maybe it could have
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been prevented if we, in the West, if you want to call us a collective group of countries, if we had
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taken sterner measures and had more of a culture of safety and caution with regards to what are
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foreign ideologies. I just don't believe that. A lot of former center-right governments and especially
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not progressive governments are willing to do that.
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Now, in what ways do you believe these attacks reflect sort of growing global concerns with radical
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Islam? Like we're particularly in a country like Australia or Canada.
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Yeah, it comes out from a number of specific countries. Pakistan is one of them. You look at
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Syria, Iraq, countries that have been ripped up by war. It's obviously not every Islamic country.
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You look at Iran. Their government meddles a lot, but the people come out of Iran tend to
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be very peaceful. But there are these hotspots from regions within Pakistan, and I don't think we've
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had enough vetting from them. I think there is a huge problem with a lack of vetting when it comes to
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conflict zone immigration. We have to understand that there is a lot of anger and rage in a lot
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of these people that we simply do not understand. But what we do understand are the consequences,
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and that is more than enough for governments in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Britain,
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the United States to put up some barriers and say, no, we cannot allow the status quo of unfettered
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immigration without any guardrails or cautionary measures to continue.
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Yeah. And even if it, I think from what I'm learning about this case pretty quickly, so it's
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father-son, but the son was known to police and intelligence sources. And the father may have been
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there for as long as 10 years. So it's, you know, there's a question of like, who the heck are we
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bringing in when we first bring over the dad from Pakistan? But there's evidently some gap between
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intelligence and immigration as well, where it's like, how do you not, you know, how is this kid
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not, you know, flagging on lists? How is he not kept, you know, for his last anti-Semitic remarks?
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How is, how did, you know, how is he not locked up or, or being closely monitored? It's just such a,
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it's such a failure on, on, across so many levels. So why then would Canada also be failing to crack down
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on, on, on anti-Semitism? Like what, what policy failures are we seeing that, that will have
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contributed to this issue? Because we all see the videos online. I thought it's like, just so I'm
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going to try to not to swear on my own show, but like, it was really disgraceful to see yesterday
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that even after this attack, you have Roman Baber at a Hanukkah celebration and like the protesters are
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still there. I saw a video this morning of, of some scumbag outside of a Jewish school, you know,
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being like, this is a great, you know, wow, yesterday ruled. It's like, what the hell are
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we doing? And so, so policy wise, if you can think of any, and, and the certainly immigration comes to
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mind or, or gee, law and order, imagine that like, how is Canada failing here? And like, what's the,
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what's the, what's the urgent fix? Because surely we're courting disaster here.
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Absolutely. We are courting disaster and short of disaster. We have had numerous incidents of
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targeted violence against Jewish Canadians. You look at the girls' school in Toronto,
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it shot up twice. You look at a whole synagogues in Australia have been burnt down. You have entire
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political campaigns in Britain, for example, by independent candidates, or even labor candidates
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fought over the issue of Gaza. And Gaza is not a peaceful protest movement. This is a violent,
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violent insurrection. People have their views on one side or the other, but regardless, we've focused
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on what the impact is here. And we have seen an escalation since October 7th. We have seen
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it go from marches to intimidation, shooting up schools, and now they're shooting up people.
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And we cannot continue to have what I would call a cultural permissiveness towards this. All of these
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escalating incidents have largely gone unpunished. Now, don't get me wrong, full credit to the RCMP and
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FBI for taking down that one man. He was another man from Pakistan caught in Quebec, planning to go
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to New York to commit a horrible mass shooting. I think this was last year. So the intelligence
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agencies are not entirely toothless, but we have not seen aggressive action to prevent it. Like this
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is going to calcify in our politics and our society and our culture, and it's not going to get any safer
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as a result. Yeah. And another shout out, I suppose, to the intelligence networks get a bad rap these
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days. But I believe it was an attack was just thwarted in LA, you were saying before we just
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got on this call, that there was another targeting that was about to happen. And so, Jeff, following
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these attacks, the Australian left is quickly advocating for stricter gun laws, gun control
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measures, despite Australia's already incredibly harsh gun laws. What do you see as the real
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shortcomings here, such as, you know, the lack of, you know, bear hugging this guy when he was known
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to to their agencies, the need for deportations or, or a more immediate and unflinching police response?
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Like, is gun control really going to be what fixes this?
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No, gun control would not be what fixes this. If you get rid of the guns, the terror will not abate,
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it was simply transferred to the use of bladed weapons, knives,
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UK style. Yeah, UK style and explosives. Look at France, they have for gun control in France,
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they use trucks. Yeah, they have had to cancel both the Christmas and New Year celebrations on the
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Champs-Élysées in Paris. Yeah. And I would say there is an atmosphere of people at the very least
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being guarded when they attend Christmas markets. I went to Christmas markets in 2019. In Europe,
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there were no bollards. This was in Germany. It was happy, the most relaxed atmosphere,
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you could possibly imagine. I don't know if it would be the same. It is in Eastern Europe,
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bear in mind, which are not hotspots for immigration. For there, you can still walk
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around with no issues in cities like Zagreb. Yeah. But we have to deal with the situation that
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has been cultivated by governments have been too lax on security. And again, you know, this is not
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an attack on Muslims, but there are these hotspots in the Islamic world where, let's face it,
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we have militants coming out of, you don't tend to see them coming out of places like Tunisia,
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but Syria, Iraq, and parts of Pakistan. These are places that really need scrutiny and screening.
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We need much more rigorous screening. These people came in peacefully, the ones who committed the
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attacks at Bondi Beach. I mean, this was not the case of Europe where they are often illegal migrants
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coming over land. This was a vetted, processed newcomer. And they still did this.
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Yeah. And this would be, I think of how Canada is pretty flat footed here right now. Cause like,
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this is a, this is a terrible time to have an asylum system that is out of control where there's now
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roughly 500,000 plus in this backlog where Michelle Rumpel Garner just spent an entire fall session,
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like deeply trying to fix this. And we have criminals in BC where you and I both are,
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where this extortion network in Surrey was, they're trying to break it up where these,
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these scumbags who came over here in the Fraser and Mark Miller wave, just like shoot up houses and
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ask for money. Like the actual game, it's like these, I don't know if they're Kalisani's or hairy
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envies, but there are two groups that shouldn't be here. And they like, you get a letter in the mail
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being like, star, please, you give me money. And then if you don't, they shoot up your house and
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we've tried to send them home and they immediately just claim asylum. And so that's now the thing that
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you do when you're, when you're in trouble here, whether you're a foreign student whose visa is
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running out or you're a transnational scumbag who never should have gotten here and the liberals
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waved in. And gee, if we were even to go to a Christmas market in Vancouver right now, there's
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probably those bollards up now too, where Canada is a, is a society with strong gun control. We have
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strong, reasonable gun advocacy from groups like the CCFR. And yet, you know, Vancouver is not immune
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to, to mass death at, at, at an event where some schizophrenic, uh, troubled young man, uh, drove into
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a Filipino street festival over the summer and he was known to police and should have been
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institutionalized long before. So we're seeing all these cascading failures and what a shame now that,
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you know, you go to, you go to these public events and I put in a tweet over the weekend where it's
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like, if you see those cement blocks or those pillars, it's like you're guaranteed to know that
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you are living under a government that tells you things like hatred has no home here or, or that is
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offering all these thoughts and prayers, but it's, it is in place of real action to actually keep people
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safe because in a, in a flourishing country, democracy, government, city, town, country, whatever,
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you shouldn't have to see those things. Jeff, I digress. What, what are the key risks associated
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with radical Islam in the context of mass immigration policies in countries like Canada?
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Like what, what, what might we be missing? What, what are they not checking for? Like where, where's
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your, where's your concern level there that we're not potentially attempting to integrate people
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or that we no longer have a kind of values test or, or point system?
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I think we know exactly what the problem is. I think they're clearly identifiable. I think the
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government is fully aware, but I think they are terrified of being perceived as being intolerant,
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especially with the current liberal government in Ottawa. They've made themselves the party of,
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let's face it, the party of mass immigration. Even when they pull back, there's always a reluctance.
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There's always plenty of corners to cut and workarounds. That is so fundamentally part of
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their ideology. Let's face it, their voter base. So when they start to put in checks to say,
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do you believe these things you cannot be admitted into the country? Well, that clashes directly with
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people who vote for them. And I would say the politicians themselves, they, they fundamentally
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believe that what they say, uh, go Trudeau 2015, a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. Even if that
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guy wants to murder millions of other Canadians based on, on the basis of their religion or
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ethnicity. Yeah. And it's not as difficult as people think to fix this. It's going to be a lot
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of people who have status need to be reviewed. This is going to take strong national security
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measures, the likes of which I don't think we've seen in Canada probably since the FLQ crisis of the
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1970s, but we can do it. It just takes the will. I don't know if this current government has it.
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Maybe provincial governments can, I cannot think of a single one that has demonstrated that so far.
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Uh, the only one where it might is Alberta, but they have not had the same pressures.
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Yeah, they haven't. And Jeff, you have drawing on that Trudeau Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.
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I remember him going to bat for, for Omar Kader, not the dead American soldier. You've written about
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the multiple times. It's been kind of part of your beat on the front page of the national post about
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what, what Trudeau is referred to as a post-national approach to what was that immigration now mass
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immigration about the cultural barbarization of Canada. Great piece. One of the reasons we're
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friends. I picked it up. I read it. You know, we said, we traded messages. Can you explain what
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concerns you most about this model and its impact? We've talked about the security aspect,
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but what about the impact on national identity? To be Canadian has to be more than a piece of
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paper. In 2012, for example, if you were a Jewish senior in Toronto at the apartment building on
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Bathurst, you didn't have to worry about some lunatic wandering through your hallways, not outside with
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a march, like through your hallways and ripping the mezuzahs off your door. It was unthinkable in 2012.
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It was utterly unthinkable in the climate of fear. Like I mentioned, again, like the shooting up of
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synagogues like me, I'm not Jewish. I have many Jewish friends. They used to tell me this used to
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be one of the safest, most secure countries where they felt safe in Jewish in the world. I remember
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even as recently as 2017, they were saying that when I was at university, that's not the case anymore.
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It really isn't. And it happened very fast. And it happened when we didn't, we did not enforce
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a punitive culture against extremist ideologies. I mean, sure, they'll do it against the very small
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far right threat in Canada, let's be real, that is so overblown by the current government, it is not
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anywhere close to approaching the anti-Semitic terror. But that becomes the focal point. And so
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the only measures you get when it comes to a measurement like this will be gun control, which
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like I said, will only transfer the terror to knives and explosives, because if these people want to cause
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mass death, they will find a way. And we need to go beyond simply preempting that we have to like
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when they say hatred has no home here. No, it does have a home. They gave it to them.
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We invited it in. Yeah, take your shoes off, put your feet up on the coffee table.
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Yes, and they have to be evicted. And that's going to take stern measures like which I don't think
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any government in Canada currently has the guts to do with that. Like I said, perhaps Alberta,
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maybe Saskatchewan, but like I said, they've not had to deal with the same pressures as Ontario or Quebec.
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Yeah, my worry is that this would be a great moment to be preemptive. I don't want like there
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might be some libertarians in the audience right now going like, whoa, be careful. Like, but it like
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we know that we're due for a doozy. And then you're dealing from a position of weakness and the tragedy
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has happened and you've lost lives unnecessarily. Like, I think we're all in some ways waiting for
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that day to come and and and how tragic that will be that like we are in a position right now where
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it's like you could actually start making examples of people. And it is good to make examples of
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scumbags. And it is good to make examples of non citizens. And it is good to make examples of
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of non civilization and disorder and threats and weekend protests and and people feeling unsafe in
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their homes. Like if you're not going to crack down on that, if you're not going to rattle the purple
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haired carny supporters a little bit when it comes to that stuff, it's like, when are you when are you
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going to step up that? Jeff, you you took an interesting angle here with a recent National Post
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article where you argue that Canada's national purpose must go deeper than just enjoying diverse
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takeout menus from from as a product of multiculturalism. I can you elaborate on that
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central thesis? I know what you're getting at here because because we hear it all the time when
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you know, someone's immediate response for some reason when you criticize mass immigration is like,
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I love my takeout. And it's like, what? Like, how is it? How's it not more than that? And so can
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you can you tell us a little bit about this piece?
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No, certainly it was prompted by two public figures when Australia, horrible coincidence,
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the premier of South Australia. He says that without multiculturalism, all the food would be
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the same. I can't imagine a worse fate. What about being dead? Yeah, what about that? It's like a much
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worse fate. Yeah. Or when you look at Piers Morgan saying I would trade, you know, there's many white
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English people I would trade for a good weekly tikka masala. What world do they live in? Like
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seriously, what world like, okay, yes, I like tikka masala. I love all these foods. Do is that your is
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that your only response when we say, hey, maybe we should vet people so that they don't want to kill
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minorities in the country? Yeah, it's just the first thing is, oh, yeah, yeah, it's like, oh, what about
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your fancy wraps? It's like, whatever, I think we should ban Uber Eats point blank, but that's a
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separate issue. I can get the recipes online. You cannot have culinary justifications for this.
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Like we're so past this. Like all of this, this is so outdated at this point, this whole live and
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let live, eat your food, everyone will get along, everyone will assimilate and integrate and be
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kumbaya in five years. No, sorry, we have second generation terrorism now. And yeah, well, I hope
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it's worth that nice spicy bowl you've ordered. Because it's not for everybody else. Yeah, no, you're
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great. As you point out, insufficient foundation for a nation's social contract. I'm going to
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share that piece in the show notes. It's really great. Jeff Ross, thanks for joining us today.
00:22:25.960
Alex, it's always a pleasure. Thanks for having me.