Juno News - The right to self defence

00:00:00.000 Welcome to the Crime Report with Ron Chinzer. I'm Ron Chinzer and Canada is definitely changing

00:00:09.120 and not in a way that leaves people feeling safer in their homes, their neighborhoods,

00:00:13.120 or on their streets. Families across the country are asking the same haunting questions. Why are

00:00:19.440 violent repeat offenders allowed to walk free again and again? Why do victims seem to be treated

00:00:23.960 as an afterthought in our courts? And why does it feel like every week Canadians wake up to yet

00:00:28.920 another preventable tragedy, one that never should have happened if the system had done its job?

00:00:34.260 Police officers use a blunt phrase to describe this cycle. They call it catch and release. Ottawa,

00:00:39.600 of course, uses softer language, calling it bail reform, most notably under Liberal Bill C-75.

00:00:45.360 But Canadians see through the spin. They know it for what it really is, a revolving door of leniency,

00:00:51.100 one that gives endless chances to people who have already proven time and time again

00:00:55.240 that they cannot be trusted. And the cost of this failure isn't abstract. It isn't a number in a

00:01:01.100 government report or a line item on a spreadsheet. It is a measured in the lives cut short, in family

00:01:06.720 shattered, in neighborhoods living on the edge, and in growing sense that ordinary people have been

00:01:11.160 abandoned by the very institutions that were supposed to protect them. Today, I'll share with

00:01:16.160 you 10 real stories. They're not statistics. They're not talking points. They are the lived reality that

00:01:22.600 Canadians are seeing firsthand and what happens as public safety collapses. Now, the system favors offenders

00:01:30.400 over victims. And when communities are left to carry the burden of failure, you can bet that Canadians are 1.00

00:01:35.480 upset. And if you believe Canadians deserve to hear these truths, you can support this work by subscribing at

00:01:41.100 JunoNews.com forward slash Ron and saving 20% off of your subscription. Let's begin not with a tragedy that has

00:01:47.800 already unfolded, but with a new proposal aimed at preventing the next one. Today, on August 29th, 2025,

00:01:55.320 Conservative leader Pierre Polyev stood in Brampton, Ontario, and announced what he's calling the stand

00:02:00.840 on guard principle. It's proposed amendment to the Canadian criminal code that he says would finally

00:02:07.400 protect Canadians who defend their homes, their families and themselves. The change would apply to

00:02:13.000 section 34 sub two of the criminal code. And it would mean this if somebody unlawfully enters your

00:02:18.600 house and threatens anyone inside, the law would automatically presume that the use of force

00:02:23.560 potentially even lethal force is reasonable. Polyev summed it up in three words, your home, your family,

00:02:30.360 your life. He said Canadians shouldn't live in fear of being punished for doing what they must to protect

00:02:35.560 their loved ones. Your home is your castle and you have the right to defend your family in your home.

00:02:43.000 And they worry when they think about what they might do to protect their family if an intruder ever entered.

00:02:50.120 What do you do if you've got a small child down the hallway and you hear that ominous sound of a home

00:02:57.160 invasion? The answer for any parent is we would do anything necessary to protect our children.

00:03:04.200 Right now, the law is vague and subjective. Canadians technically have the right to use force and

00:03:09.960 self-defense, but too often they face years of expensive trials while violent offenders walk free under

00:03:15.160 liberal laws like Bill C-5 and Bill C-75 that made release the default. Polyev pointed to a real case

00:03:21.800 from 2019 in Collingwood, Ontario. Three masked intruders, one carrying a sawed-off shotgun, broke into the

00:03:28.680 home of Cameron Gardner while his girlfriend was there with him sleeping. The couple were zip-tied

00:03:34.920 as the burglars tore through the house. Gardner eventually broke free, fought for control of the

00:03:39.560 weapon, and in the struggle, two intruders were shot. But when police arrived, it wasn't the gunmen who were

00:03:45.880 hauled away. It was Gardner. He spent six months in jail before charges were finally dropped. That,

00:03:51.960 Polyev said, is the Liberals' two-tier justice system, one where violent criminals get sympathy

00:03:57.880 and endless chances while ordinary Canadians defending their families are treated like criminals.

00:04:03.560 The stand-on-guard principle would end that. Polyev says it would protect the innocent,

00:04:08.600 presume reasonableness whenever force is used against a home invader, and end the legal limbo that

00:04:14.360 leaves victims stuck in court while the criminals walk free. Conservatives are standing here today

00:04:20.600 based on the principle that your home is your castle. We're calling on the government to introduce and

00:04:26.920 immediately pass the stand-on-guard law. Our amendment instead will change section 34.2 of the criminal code

00:04:37.800 to say that the use of force, including lethal force, is presumed reasonable against an individual who

00:04:47.240 unlawfully enters a house and poses a threat to the safety of anyone inside. The proposed amendment

00:04:55.320 is reasonable and prudent. It applies only to the unlawful entry of a home and preserves proportionality.

00:05:02.920 Simply put, it means you have the right to use force to defend your home and your family against

00:05:10.280 someone who threatens you and who has entered illegally.

00:05:12.120 And while Ottawa debates principles and amendments, Canadians are left to face the brutal reality of

00:05:18.280 what happens when dangerous offenders walk free. That reality came crashing through a window one night

00:05:23.640 in Lindsay, Ontario. It was four in the morning in Lindsay, Ontario. The neighborhood was quiet,

00:05:29.400 most families still asleep, windows cracked for the summer air, a fan humming softly in the background.

00:05:35.960 And then, without warning, the silence shattered. 41-year-old Michael Breen forced his way through

00:05:41.320 a window armed with a crossbow. Inside was 44-year-old Jeremy McDonald. Imagine waking

00:05:47.000 up to find a man in your home pointing a lethal weapon at you. In that moment, McDonald had no time

00:05:51.640 to think about the technicalities. He had to choose between fighting or dying. A violent struggle erupted.

00:05:58.040 By the end, Breen was so badly injured that he had to be airlifted to a trauma hospital in Toronto.

00:06:03.160 But here's the part that's enraged Canadians. It wasn't Breen, the armed home invader, who had seven

00:06:09.240 criminal cases already pending and was already out on probation, who paid the highest price. It was

00:06:14.840 McDonald, the homeowner who ended up charged with aggravated assault. Lawyers argued endlessly about

00:06:21.080 reasonable force. Was a knife against a crossbow proportionate? But Canadians asked the obvious

00:06:27.080 question. How was Breen free at all? How does a man with seven pending cases get the freedom to

00:06:32.680 terrorize another family? This is Bill C-75 in practice. Liberal bail reform makes release the

00:06:38.600 default. Offenders pile up breaches and laugh at court orders because they know nothing will happen.

00:06:44.040 Even leaders spoke out. Pierre Polyev said Canadians must have the right to defend their homes.

00:06:49.320 Doug Ford said if someone broke into his house with a weapon, you're going to fight for your life.

00:06:54.920 And yet the justice system turned the man defending his family into the criminal.

00:06:59.640 That was Lindsay. A crossbow through a window, a father forced into combat in his own home,

00:07:05.240 and a justice system that betrayed him. And as shocking as it was, in Calling Lake, Alberta,

00:07:11.160 another home invasion didn't end in debate. It ended in a murder. On the night of August 17th,

00:07:16.680 in the quiet hamlet of Calling Lake, Alberta, armed intruders stormed into a home. Inside was 40-year-old

00:07:22.520 Edward Young. Within minutes, he was shot dead. The RCMP responded quickly, issuing a shelter-in-place

00:07:28.920 order. Families locked their doors, turned off their lights, held their children close, and whispered

00:07:34.280 for them to stay silent as neighbors peered through curtains wondering if their home would be next.

00:07:39.720 Days later, police arrested 35-year-old Terrace Cardinal. He tried to run, but he was caught after a

00:07:46.200 standoff. And here's the part that Canadians can't accept. Cardinal was already wanted on a Canada-wide

00:07:52.120 warrant. He should have been in custody long before Edward Young was murdered. This wasn't just a

00:07:57.640 violent home invasion. It was a deadly result of a system that fails to enforce its own orders.

00:08:03.640 A man flagged as dangerous, wanted across the country, roaming free until someone ended up dead.

00:08:10.040 For Young's family, the grief is permanent. For Calling Lake, the sense of safety is gone. And

00:08:15.320 for Canadians watching, it's proof that the cracks in our system are wide enough for entire lives to

00:08:20.840 fall through. And while families in Alberta mourned, families in Ontario faced another kind of grief,

00:08:27.880 the fentanyl crisis that continues to kill Canadians every single day. On a crisp fall morning in Vaughan

00:08:34.280 last year, emergency responders rushed to Bathurst Street and Nur Israel Drive. A man lay unresponsive

00:08:41.320 and despite their efforts, he was pronounced dead. The coroner confirmed what has become one of the

00:08:46.680 most familiar tragedies in Canada, fentanyl overdose. In the last decade, more than 50,000 Canadians have

00:08:53.480 died this way. That's an entire city gone. Parents burying their children, children going up with their

00:08:58.600 parents and families that are broken. And we often call these deaths accidental, as though no one is

00:09:05.160 responsible. But when someone knowingly sells fentanyl, is it really an accident? York Regional

00:09:10.440 Police launched a long investigation and led them to a home in Georgina where they seized drugs, cash and

00:09:15.960 evidence linking 28-year-old Farzan Jafari Rutsari to the fentanyl that killed that man. And here's the

00:09:22.200 detail that makes Canadians lose faith. Rutsari wasn't a first-time offender. He was already out on

00:09:27.720 bail, already serving probation. The courts knew he was dangerous but gave him another chance.

00:09:33.240 And with that chance, he sold poison that killed. Now, he faces manslaughter. The law says selling

00:09:39.880 fentanyl that kills someone can be treated like pulling a trigger. But Canadians have seen this

00:09:44.280 before. In 2017, another dealer pleaded guilty to manslaughter after selling heroin laced with fentanyl.

00:09:49.960 His punishment? Time served. He walked free. So when people hear Rutsari faces manslaughter,

00:09:56.360 they don't feel reassured. They brace for disappointment. Police too are frustrated.

00:10:01.240 They risk their safety to take these dealers off of the street only to see them cycle through the

00:10:05.880 system again. And the cruel truth is fentanyl doesn't discriminate. It can take anyone anywhere

00:10:11.320 regardless of age, background or wealth. And yet the courts continue to give the benefit of the doubt

00:10:16.360 to the people spreading this poison. And while fentanyl destroys lives, other crimes,

00:10:21.320 so just how brazen and random violence has become. In Mississauga, two young women found that out the

00:10:27.400 hard way. On the night of June 24th in Mississauga, just after 10 o'clock, two young women were walking

00:10:34.200 near Britannia Road West and Queen Street South. They were enjoying an ordinary summer evening,

00:10:39.560 doing what thousands of Canadians do every day. But in an instant, everything changed. Three masked men

00:10:46.040 appeared. One hinted at a gun. Another flashed what looked like a knife. The women were pursued, 0.57

00:10:51.800 cornered, and dragged toward a waiting Audi SUV. Now they escaped only because a passerby intervened,

00:10:58.760 disrupting the abduction and forcing the attackers to flee. Weeks later, Peel police arrested 26-year-old

00:11:04.920 Walid Khan of Etobicoke. In his home, they found an automatic-style rifle, a pistol with a high-capacity

00:11:10.760 magazine, and more than 110 rounds of ammunition. And here's the part that left Canadians outraged

00:11:16.840 again. Khan was already on probation for violent offenses. He was already banned from owning weapons.

00:11:22.680 The courts had already said that he was too dangerous to be trusted with a firearm. And yet,

00:11:27.240 he stockpiled an arsenal and allegedly tried to abduct women off the street. Police risked their lives to

00:11:33.720 arrest him. The courts released him with an ankle monitor, as if a piece of plastic and a GPS could

00:11:39.240 restrain someone who ignored every order they were already on. Now for those two women, the trauma

00:11:44.520 will never fade. They know the man accused of trying to kidnap them, who had guns, is still out

00:11:50.040 there. And for Canadians, the lesson is terrifying. This wasn't a gang warfare or organized crime. This

00:11:55.880 was random. Two young women, who could have been anyone's sisters, daughters, or friends, nearly

00:12:01.240 disappeared into the night. And if probation orders and ankle monitors can't stop someone like Khan, 0.79

00:12:06.520 what can. Even when offenders are sent to prison, some find ways to keep hurting their victims.

00:12:12.360 The police in Durham region were already familiar with 35-year-old Kimoy Chisholm. He was a convicted

00:12:18.840 human trafficking and sentenced to five and a half years in prison. For the women he exploited,

00:12:24.520 that sentence was supposed to be the end, the moment they were finally free of him. But even behind

00:12:29.720 bars, Chisholm allegedly kept his grip on the victims. Investigators say he used Instagram accounts,

00:12:36.520 and phone calls to reach out, trying to lure the women back into the cycle of exploitation. 1.00

00:12:41.800 In some cases, victims said their phones were mirrored to his device, allowing him to monitor

00:12:47.080 their messages and calls in real time. A terrifying reminder that even in prison,

00:12:51.960 he could watch them. Now it didn't stop there. When COVID hit, one victim said she was forced to hand

00:12:57.960 over her federal relief payments directly to Chisholm. The abuse was financial, emotional, and

00:13:03.960 absolutely unrelenting. Police have since laid 12 new charges against him, including trafficking

00:13:09.480 offenses and breaching conditions. But the very fact that a trafficker would run his operation from

00:13:14.440 inside a federal penitentiary raises chilling questions about our corrections system. Prison is

00:13:20.200 supposed to mean the end of the line. Yet in this case, it was just a new backdrop for the same

00:13:26.120 exploitation. Victims thought they were free only to discover that the man who hurt them still had reach.

00:13:32.520 For Canadians, this is proof that even a prison sentence doesn't always protect society the way

00:13:37.480 it should. And while some crimes are hidden in the shadows, others happen brazenly in the middle of

00:13:42.920 the day while cameras are rolling. It was a Saturday afternoon in Kitchener, Ontario. At an LCBO near

00:13:48.440 Pioneer Drive, families were out shopping. People were picking up a bottle of wine for dinner, and then

00:13:53.240 all of a sudden, six men walked in, and within minutes, the store was stripped. They stuffed bags and

00:13:58.360 backpacks with more than $8,000 worth of top-shelf scotch. CCTV camera footage captured everything

00:14:04.760 as they sprinted out the door and into a dark SUV. Police called it brazen, coordinated, and organized.

00:14:10.680 Premier Doug Ford called them a brazen bunch of crooks. Now, this wasn't a case of kids stealing a

00:14:16.280 bottle. It was organized retail crime, and it's happening across the province. Peel Police recently

00:14:21.080 charged men in a ring worth nearly $300,000 in stolen liquor spanning from Brampton, Toronto,

00:14:27.320 and York Region. Across Canada, organized thefts cost billions of dollars a year, fueling black 0.94

00:14:33.240 market sales and criminal networks that profit alongside drugs and guns. And the worst part, store

00:14:39.160 staff are told not to intervene. Security guards are ordered to stay hands-off for fear of liability.

00:14:44.760 Thieves know it, and they exploit it. For ordinary Canadians, it's a chilling message. If criminals

00:14:50.280 can raid a government-owned store in broad daylight without fear, what's next? And while liquor

00:14:56.920 thefts might seem less dangerous than a kidnapping or home invasion, the same lessons still apply to

00:15:03.240 this. The system projects weakness, and organized crime steps in to fill in the void. Sometimes the

00:15:09.160 threat isn't about profit at all. Sometimes it's about ideology. And in Surrey, British Columbia,

00:15:14.200 commuters learned how sudden terrorism can strike. On April 1st, 2023, in Surrey, British Columbia,

00:15:21.560 an ordinary morning turned into a reminder that terrorism isn't always about bombs or battlefields.

00:15:27.400 Sometimes it's one man with a knife. Abdul Aziz Kawam first approached someone at a bus stop asking if

00:15:33.880 he was Muslim. When the man said no, Kawam prayed briefly, then slashed at his throat with a knife,

00:15:39.800 missing by millimeters. Fifteen minutes later, he boarded a bus and slashed another passenger in the

00:15:45.320 neck three times. Miraculously, the victim survived, though the wounds grazed his vocal cords and came

00:15:51.640 within centimeters of an artery. Then, Kawam called 911 himself. He pledged allegiance to ISIS, declared his

00:15:58.680 attack was on behalf of the Islamic State, and demanded people convert or pay tribute. Investigators later

00:16:05.480 found propaganda on his phone, including a video pledging loyalty to ISIS's leader. Experts testified

00:16:12.120 it was a textbook case of a lone actor radicalization. In June of 2025, Cohen was convicted of attempted

00:16:19.480 murder and assault with a weapon. With that court ruling, the crimes were carried out for the benefit

00:16:24.520 of a terrorist group. For Canadians, this shock should be profound. This wasn't a far-off conflict. It

00:16:30.840 was on a city bus, the same kind that carries students to classes and workers to their jobs

00:16:36.360 every day. It reminded us that ideology can turn an ordinary space into targets without warning.

00:16:42.520 And while terrorism rattles trust in public safety, other crimes strike at the promise of Canada itself.

00:16:48.840 Trust in fairness, justice, and opportunity. In Milton, Ontario, at least 15 new immigrants

00:16:55.080 learned that even Canada's courts sometimes put offenders' interests above victims, even though

00:16:59.720 sometimes feels like all the time. 53-year-old Raphael Layton posed as a car dealer, scamming families

00:17:06.040 out of thousands. Many of the victims had just arrived to Canada and needed cars to work, take their

00:17:12.360 kids to school, and build their lives. Instead, their savings vanished. Victim impact statements spoke of

00:17:18.920 devastation. One said, the dishonesty of one man has shattered my trust in people. I came here believing

00:17:25.080 Canada was different, and instead I was taken advantage of when I was most vulnerable. Layton had

00:17:31.240 a criminal record dating back to 2009. Judges called him habitual in his dishonesty. This was not a man who

00:17:37.800 had made a single mistake. Prosecutors sought 10 months in custody. But when it came time for sentencing,

00:17:44.440 Justice Clayton Conlon gave him only six months, reduced specifically because Layton is not a Canadian

00:17:51.560 citizen and could face deportation. Think about that. Victims lost everything. But the man responsible,

00:17:58.200 who the courts had called habitual, got leniency because deportation might be too harsh. For those

00:18:04.200 families, it was a betrayal layered on betrayal. They had trusted Canada to be fair. Instead, they saw a

00:18:10.040 system where immigration status mattered more than their pain. And this wasn't an isolated case. Similar

00:18:17.000 decisions in BC have been overturned on appeal. But for these victims, the damage is done.

00:18:24.120 Earlier this year, the federal government announced with great fanfare that it was finally going to get

00:18:29.320 serious about fentanyl. They unveiled a fentanyl czar, Kevin Brassell, a former RCMP deputy commissioner,

00:18:36.040 who would supposedly lead a national strategy. Alongside him, Trudeau announced $1.3 billion for border

00:18:42.920 security and even floated the idea of listing cartels as terrorist groups. It sounded strong,

00:18:48.280 but when Brasseau met U.S. officials, he admitted the truth. I don't tell the RCMP what to do and I have

00:18:54.680 no authority. For American officials, the frustration was immediate. They had been promised a Canadian

00:19:00.520 counterpart who could deliver. Instead, they subbed bureaucracy. One U.S. source said it bluntly.

00:19:05.960 Nothing has come out of that office since it was established. Meanwhile, Canadians kept dying.

00:19:11.480 More than 50,000 overdose deaths in the last decade. Communities destroyed, families bearing loved ones,

00:19:17.000 while Ottawa holds press conferences. And that's the reality. We don't have a fentanyl czar. We have a

00:19:22.920 title with no power, announcements with no action, and a government more interested in a headline than in

00:19:29.240 saving lives. Line these stories up and the truth is absolutely undeniable. A justice system that puts repeat

00:19:37.960 offenders first. A bail system that releases violent criminals again and again. Courts that bend over

00:19:44.040 backwards to protect offenders while victims are left to fend for themselves. And a federal government

00:19:49.160 that invests more energy in photo ops than in protecting Canadians. This is why Canadians are angry.

00:19:55.080 They want to put victims first. They want violent offenders kept behind bars. They want the right to

00:20:00.280 protect their home and their families without fear of being punished for it. Because right now,

00:20:04.920 the message from Ottawa is clear. If you're a repeat violent offender, Canada is your playground. But if

00:20:10.600 you're a victim, you're absolutely on your own and Canadians know it. That has to end. If you want to

00:20:16.760 support this work and make sure that these stories continue to be told, you can subscribe at judonews.com

00:20:22.120 forward slash Ron and save 20% off of your subscription. I'm Ron Chinzer and this has been the Crime Report.

Juno News - August 29, 2025

The right to self defence

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