Police were attacked, cars burned, buildings smashed, fires lit, and calls for revolution and to globalise the intifada.

As you might expect, it was the usual suspects: Pro-Palestinian groups, supporters of terrorist organisations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, Marxist radicals, anti-capitalists, anti-NATO activists, and other revolutionaries and anarchists.

Perhaps because of who these protesters were, there was little to no coverage in mainstream media.

Whether such violence by these groups has become normalised so that politicians and media ignore them is hard to know.

What is obvious is a degree of complicity to not put the spotlight on these groups.

While a grab bag of dissidents, they all share a similar aim - the destruction of the West, it's Judeo-Christian values, and the rights and freedoms we have come to cherish.

Add to this a strong dose of antisemitism and you have quite the cocktail.

These are not simply my impressions - these are represented by the words of the protestors themselves, explicitly calling for the destruction of Canada, of the United States, and the Jews and Israel.

Now you would think it would be good for media to shed some light on these people - some who appear to have fled their home countries but thought, for good measure, to bring the violence with them.

But again, no.

There seems to be an increasing inability for politicians and media to focus on who these people are, the beliefs behind them, or what they aim to achieve.

Not only a Canadian problem

In New Zealand, we have the same groups here, and while we have not yet seen this level of violence, the same mindsets prevail.

It is also supported by woke commentators such as Max Harris who wrote recently in The Post of Hezbollah (an indisputable terrorist group) as a legitimate parliamentary party and social service provider in Lebanon.

This has come as quite a surprise to various Lebanese and Iranian friends of mine, as well as to anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of foreign affairs.

As these friends and others have pointed out, The Post has not accepted any rebuttal to such an egregious and biased opinion piece.

Not only do we have to contend with such unbalanced opinion pieces, but also to have events that do not support the narrative (such as violent riots in Montreal) being ignored.

More positively, the response from Canada's Conservative Party leader, Pierre Poilievre, has been 100% spot on.

He also rightly targets Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who, while Montreal burned, danced away at a Taylor Swift concert and again finds it near impossible to call out the ‘who' involved. Pierre writes:

You [Justin Trudeau] act surprised. We are reaping what you sowed.

This is what happens when a Prime Minister spends 9 years pushing toxic woke identity politics, dividing and subdividing people by race, gender, vaccine status, religion, region, age, wealth, etc.

On top of driving people apart, you systematically break what used to bring us together, saying Canada is a "post-national state" with "no core identity."

You erased our veterans and military, the Famous Five and even Terry Fox from our passport to replace them with meaningless squirrels, snowflakes and a drawing of yourself swimming as a boy.

You opened the borders to terrorists and lawbreakers and called anyone who questioned it racist.

You send out your MPs to say one thing in a mosque and the opposite in a synagogue, one thing in a mandir and the opposite in a gurdwara.

You have made Canada a playground for foreign interference. You allowed Iran's IRGC terrorists to legally operate here for four years after they murdered 55 of our citizens in a major unprovoked attack.

You passed laws that release rampant offenders from prison within hours of their 80th arrest. And what is the result? Assassinations on Canadian soil, firebombings of synagogues, extremist violence against mandirs and gurdwaras, over 100 churches burned or vandalized (with barely any condemnation from you), all for a total 251% more hate crime.

And, while you were dancing, Montreal was burning. We won't let you divide us anymore. Call an election now. We will fire you and reclaim our citizenship, our values, our lives, our freedom and, most of all, our country.

• Simon O'Connor works for Family First and writes a regular blog on Substack.
• Republished with permission.

The attack on Father Claude Grou at Saint Joseph's Oratory was captured on a livestream and television broadcast of the mass.

Footage shows a man in jeans, a parka and a white baseball cap run up the sanctuary steps towards the priest.

Grou attempted to run away as the attacker knocked over a candle, but was quickly caught, pushed to the ground and stabbed.

The assailant slashed Grou in his stomach. The knife broke during the attack.

The 26-year old suspect - since identified by Montreal police as Vlad Christian Eremia - then dropped the knife and stood as members of the congregation ran towards him.

Three men restrained Eremia while other people went to help Grou.

When police arrived, Eremia was being detained by church security.

Grou, who was slightly injured on his upper body, was taken to hospital and released later that same day.

He thanked everyone who expressed concern for his health and said he plans to return to work after a short rest.

"There are so many people who helped me to pass through this moment and now my health is fine," he said.

"My health is good and I'm recovering from my emotions."

A member of the congregation who saw the attack said when Eremia started walking towards the sanctuary she thought he was going to kneel to say a prayer in front of a statue of Saint Joseph.

When she saw him going up the sanctuary steps and remove a knife from his clothing, the woman said she realised what his intentions were and ran out of the church screaming to alert the security.

Another witness said he saw police arrive and take the man away in handcuffs.

"I find this incident very unfortunate, in a place so peaceful that attracts millions of visitors," he said.

"With what happened in Christchurch, it seems that all places of worship are being targeted," he added.

Montreal Police say the attack was an isolated incident.

Eremia appeared briefly via video conference at the Montreal courthouse on Saturday afternoon.

He was expected back in court yesterday following a psycho-social evaluation.

Source

• NBC News
• CTV News
• NDTV
• ABC
• Global News
• Image: ABC News
  

This is part of a pilot project, which aims to create a "safety net".

The policy will be introduced in a handful of churches in Montreal, starting in September.

An archdiocese spokesman said the policy doesn't only apply to priests.

It will apply to all employees of parishes and churches, volunteers and "anyone else in the orbit of the diocese".

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