Sean Ward, the gunman who died in a shootout during “a targeted attack against the Jewish community” at an Ontario synagogue, was one of dozens of Canadian soldiers and former soldiers suing the government over directives requiring COVID-19 vaccines.

Ward was involuntarily discharged from the Canadian Armed Forces when he was deemed “unsuitable for further service” after defying the military’s vaccine mandate during the pandemic, according to court documents. He was seeking $1,500,000 in general damages and additional compensation for a financial loss of $140,000.

The lawsuit claims Ward, 29, refused to be vaccinated “on religious grounds” but his claim for an exemption was refused by military officials.

“He has served honourably for almost 5 years. He was told no exemption to receiving the injections would be made. Mr. Ward did not accept the injections,” the lawsuit’s statement of claim says.

The lawsuit describes Sean Douglas Reginald Ward as holding the rank of Corporal in the infantry with the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, based at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton.

Ward’s military training as an infantry soldier becomes particularly important as police continue to probe Sunday’s shooting at the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ont., as about 25 people gathered for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

On Thursday, Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd said Ward came well-armed with a shotgun, other undisclosed weapons, a significant amount of ammunition, containers of gasoline and additional resources.

A Belleville police officer posted outside the synagogue, Const. Jeff Smith, was shot several times by Ward and remains in serious condition. Ward was killed in a subsequent firefight with Smith and a second officer, Const. Mike McCurdy, police said.

Rodd said a video of the attack, shown by police, reveals Ward calling out, presumably to Smith or McCurdy, saying: “You are going to die for the Jews.”

Rodd declared it a hate-motivated attack.

“This was a targeted attack against the Jewish community. The suspect had the means, the motive and the mechanisms to cause a mass casualty and the destruction of the Jewish synagogue,” Rodd said.

The original statement of claim in the vaccine lawsuit involving Ward was filed Sept. 27, 2023, with the Federal Court in Edmonton. It was sealed by the court and an amended claim was filed Feb. 25, 2026.

Originally named as defendants were several high-ranking military brass, other military officials and government ministers past and present.

The amended claim pared the defendants down to Wayne Eyre, the now-retired Chief of Defence Staff, the Minister of National Defence and the Attorney General of Canada.

In a statement of defence filed by Department of Justice lawyers, the government and military “deny each and every allegation” in the lawsuit.

The government defended the vaccine mandates as having a primary objective “to protect the readiness, health, and safety of the Force, the entire Defence Team, as well as members of the public they may be called upon to serve.” It says “a member’s failure to comply with the Directives demonstrates an unwillingness to obey and support lawful authority.”

Ward was plaintiff number 110 in a list of 128 members and former members of the Forces claiming they were adversely hit by the military’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

“This mandate, implemented through a series of Directives, coerced vaccination under threat of career-ending sanctions, bypassing statutory processes and infringing fundamental rights,” the lawsuit claims.

The plaintiffs seek damages of $1 million each for negligence, Charter breaches and misuse of authority, and another $500,000 each for bad faith conduct. They also seek individualized damages for future income loss, pension loss, medical expenses and other expenses.

Apart from money, they also seek declarations from the court that the Canadian military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; and that Eyre issued an unlawful order; among others.

“The Directives prioritized demonstrating leadership to encourage public vaccination uptake, a role not legislated for the CAF and secondary to operational imperatives, constituting a misuse of military authority for non-military purposes,” the lawsuit claims.

The plaintiffs complained that the military granted exemptions for medical reasons but not for ethical or philosophical reasons.

“It was grossly disproportionate, with severe sanctions like career loss and stigma outweighing benefits, rendering the ‘choice’ illusory and shocking the conscience,” the suit complains.

The lawsuit also claims the military’s grievance system was rigged against those objecting to the mandate.

The lawyer representing the plaintiffs was not available to comment on the lawsuit or on the impact Ward’s attack might have on it.

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The suspect in the synagogue attack in Belleville, Ont., shouted “You are going to die for the Jews” before an exchange of gunfire with police, according to a video played at a police press conference Thursday.

Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd said it was a hate-motivated crime and that 29-year-old Sean Ward had the “means, the motive and the mechanisms” to launch a larger attack.

“The loss of life and the irreversible damage that could have been rippled through our community for generations cannot be overstated,” he said.

This is the Disturbing antisemitic terror attack and hate crime outside the Sons of Jacob in Belleville on Yom Kippur. pic.twitter.com/Mr8MA2finK

— Joe Warmington (@joe_warmington) September 24, 2026

Although he said he could not go into more detail, the evidence collected shows Ward’s intent was to specifically target the Jewish community.

The attack was an “exclusive threat to our Jewish community,” said Rodd.

He shared the seconds-long video in which a man can be heard yelling, followed by the sound of two loud shots outside of the Sons of Jacob Synagogue just after 7 p.m. on Sunday. Inside the synagogue about 25 people were gathered for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. None were injured.

Rodd said Ward used a shotgun and had other resources available, including gasoline, and a “significant amount” of ammunition on him. Earlier that day, Ward was doing reconnaissance near the synagogue, according to the chief. Const. Jeff Smith, who was stationed there for the evening service, saw the suspect but did not see him do anything suspicious.

“He was then ambushed on a second pass. That’s when the shooting started,” Rodd said.

He said Ward was only stopped by Smith and a second officer, identified as Const. Mike McCurdy, who arrived at the scene a little more than two minutes after the gunman opened fire.

Smith was shot in his vehicle but managed to get out and pursue the gunman.

Ward was shot and fatally injured. He died in hospital on Monday.

Smith was taken to hospital in critical condition. He sustained “multiple gunshot wounds to his head and his body, and continues to receive treatment for significant injuries,” said Rodd.

“He is expected to undergo multiple surgeries related to serious head trauma. While his recovery will be lengthy and challenging, he is making progress every day.”

McCurdy was not injured.

The police chief called both officers heroes.

Insp. Christine Belair of the RCMP’s Integrated National Enforcement Team could not confirm if Ward had been radicalized while serving in the military. The Department of National Defence told National Post that a man with the same name as Ward served in the Canadian Armed Forces for five years, starting in 2017.

There have also been reports that Ward was released from service due to his refusal to get a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Global News and The Globe and Mail. Belair could not confirm.

Ward was from Quinte West, a small city 18 kilometres west of Belleville.

Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, who was also at Thursday’s press conference, said as a proud Jewish person he takes the events of the last few days to heart.

“It’s one thing to say hate has no place here in our province and in our country, but we already know that. We have to go further and faster,” he said.

“We have to have a clarion call that there must be consequences for people that behave in this manner, that do not subscribe to the values of who we are.”

According to the Belleville police chief, the force has a lengthy relationship with the local Jewish community and has provided security “whenever they considered it necessary.”

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As the thunder of gunfire erupted outside the Sons of Jacob synagogue on Sunday evening, Sharlene Weitzman, one of roughly two dozen congregants inside, thought first of protecting her son, Finn Luke Weitzman, who had accompanied her to mark the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest day for the Jewish community.

“I wasn’t going to let my child be killed at 19 years of age for being a Jew,” she told National Post in an exclusive interview three days after the shocking shooting near the modest shul in a quiet Belleville, Ont., neighbourhood.

“You can kill me, I’m 59, but you’re not killing him.”

Weitzman pushed her son down against concrete and used her body to shield him, with her arms wrapped around him. So determined was she to safeguard his life, she said if a shooter had come through the close-by doors of the synagogue at that moment, she was “ready to pounce.”

Thankfully, neither Weitzman, her partner Jennifer Aronson, nor any of the others sheltering from bullets hitting the stained glass of their synagogue that evening were forced to act.

Const. Jeff Smith of the Belleville Police Service was already on the scene and returned fire when suspected shooter Sean Ward of nearby Quinte West arrived and opened fire with a shotgun, according to the Ontario Special Investigations Unit (SIU). The 13-year veteran officer was struck during the shootout, but was joined by Const. Mike McCurdy, and both were able to stop the shooter.

Smith remains in Kingston General Hospital in critical but stable condition while Ward, a 29-year-old former member of the Canadian Armed Forces, died there on Monday. Ward had been released from the CAF in 2022, with a source telling Global News it was over his refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, adding that Ward also “spouted” antisemitic conspiracy theories, including one that blamed the Jewish community for the pandemic.

Weitzman said another jarring thought came to her mind amid the chaos, one that she’s not been able to shake: a vision of what it would look like if it turned out like the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel.

“That ‘what if’ is the real killer, and that to me is what I need to fight against because there’s a literal war of hatred and I believe that the people, the institutions, the systems running that war want Jews to live fearfully and I refuse to,” she said.

Weitzman said it had been about 10 years since the family had attended a service at the Sons of Jacob and returned now because it seemed as if new life had been breathed into the assembly and they wanted to show their support.

But not without hesitation.

“I sensed it before we went. I asked my partner if we should go,” she said, highlighting an ever-present and yet intangible sense of danger they were inherently aware of as Jews.

“Every Jew who went to shul on Yom Kippur around the world, I tell you, was worried that it would be their shul that was shot at.”

Determined not to lose their faith and give in to fear, especially on Yom Kippur, they ventured out. At the synagogue, they were among the first arrivals and acted as unofficial greeters, re-introducing themselves as other congregants arrived.

As people began to make their way inside the sanctuary for Rabbi Oded Peles’s service, a few minutes later than anticipated, Weitzman said they heard “three enormous banging noises” that at first sounded like someone using a battering ram to gain access, but what she now believes was the first of the shotgun blasts.

Weitzman shielded her son, Aronson went to assist an elderly woman and everyone else lay down on the floor or found shelter somewhere else as a gunfight ensued for the next few minutes.

Someone inside called 911 and stayed on with dispatchers throughout the ordeal, but it did little to quell immediate fears inside the temple.

“I think what was most terrifying for everyone, beyond the fact that the gunfire was hitting the window, was that there was a shootout and we didn’t know if there was a shootout towards us and it was two or three shooters shooting at us and they were going to come in or if it was the police defending us,” she said. “We just didn’t know.”

Weitzman believes at least one bullet came through into the sanctuary because one of the candles on the Yahrzeit wall, a memorial installation honouring deceased congregants, was extinguished.

Photos from the scene shared by congregants Eva and Doug Lobel show well over a dozen bullet holes in the windows along one side of the sanctuary wall. Peles later told The Canadian Jewish News that 50-year-old stained glass behind the pulpit where he would have been leading prayer was hit with 23 bullets.

“Thank God we were a few minutes late and we took extra time lighting the Yontif candles,” he told the outlet. “We got extra candles and maybe by lighting the candles, extra four candles, saved our lives.”

Peles, the CJN reported, is from Israel and was visiting the synagogue for the second straight year. Asked if the incident would deter him from returning, Peles said it wouldn’t.

“It’s like almost asking, ‘Are you not going to come to the Holy Land because we have rockets?’”

After the cacophony of gunfire ended, synagogue president Norm Weddum bravely ventured to a window and saw a significant police presence, Weitzman said. It was another 25 minutes before they had contact with police, who kept them in the security of the sanctuary while sweeping the building and neighbourhood, during which time “they gathered around the table and held hands and prayed.”

They were soon bused to the local police station for interviews before being sent home.

Weitzman and Aronson are both experienced social workers who sometimes “do trauma work with veterans and active soldiers” at nearby Canadian Forces Base Trenton.

“So unfortunately, we now have that connection, particularly since” Ward was a former military member, she said.

Days later, with the adrenaline well out of her system, Weitzman said she believes that Ward came there to “massacre all of us” and they would not have survived but for the “grace of God and the police.”

The investigation is being led, at this stage, by the SIU, which is mandated to look into the circumstances of a police shooting. Spokesperson Kristy Denette wouldn’t speculate on whether it was a targeted attack against Jewish people during a Monday press conference, but said “common sense would say that probably was the case.”

“Let me be very clear, hate and violence have no place in our community. Every person deserves to feel safe when attending a place of worship, gathering with loved ones, or participating in community life,” added Belleville police deputy chief Sheri Meeks.

For Weitzman, however, there’s no doubt in her mind that “this was a premeditated, full-on terrorist attack.”

“Stop telling us Jews that we’re overreacting. Stop telling us it’s not antisemitism, ‘It’s not all about you. Oh, where there’s smoke, there must be fire. If people hate you, there’s a reason,’” she said.

“But I’m not Benjamin Netanyahu. I’m not the leader of the government. I’m not Mark Carney. I’m just a Jewish mom trying to raise my family in the community that we’ve been in for 25, 30 years.”

This wasn’t Aronson, Weitzman and her son’s first scary incident related to their Jewish roots. While in Jerusalem for an educational event with Israeli scholars last year, the couple were forced to briefly take cover in a bomb shelter as Houthi missiles were defeated by Israel’s Iron Dome. Her son had to do the same last year while visiting Eilat during his Reverse Shinshinim, a gap-year service that gives non-Israeli-born high school graduates a chance to immerse themselves in Israeli life.

“I don’t think he has any false beliefs about his safety anymore,” Weitzman said.

She commended police for their heroics Sunday, especially Smith, whose injuries she said “brought a great deal of attention” to the seriousness of the situation.

“I am hopeful that people, especially those who can protect us, as we just evidenced, do now understand the gravitas that this is a real threat and it’s everywhere.”

Weitzman said they plan to return to the synagogue in the future.

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Jewish university students in Canada have spoken about experiencing antisemitic graffiti, “Heil Hitler” salutes, and dismissals of their concerns about safety on campus at a news conference at Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, on Thursday.

Kate Blumberg, an undergraduate at McMaster University, said she found herself as a representative of the Student Representative Assembly (SRA) “consistently fielding concerns” from her fellow Jewish students about “being singled out in their tutorials, about being excluded from groups, and about not knowing where to turn when campus spaces no longer felt welcoming.”

Livia Mamane, a student at Université du Québec à Montréal, said she has seen stall doors in washrooms with “Death to Zionists” and “Israel should burn” graffitied on them. “How would you feel if you had to submissively sit in classes while being surrounded by students who wanted to burn your own homeland?” she asked.

The students were joined by Jay Solomon, CEO at Jewish student organization Hillel Ontario, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, Conservative MP Adam Chambers and Noah Shack, CEO at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), at the conference, where they shared their firsthand experiences of antisemitism on campus and called for action to ensure the safety of Jewish students at Canadian universities.

Blumberg also described how she and a fellow Jewish student wrote a motion addressing the antisemitism students had been experiencing on campus. “When brought to the (SRA) agenda, there were more votes of abstention and decline than of willingness for the motion to be discussed,” she said. “While the eventual passing of the motion was a monumental step for the Jewish community on campus, the sheer pushback and minimization of experience in chambers was baffling.”

She added: “When our highest student governing body treats the safety and inclusion of Jewish students as an open political question rather than an enforceable right, it signals to the entire university that our safety and inclusion are negotiable.”

Last month, the Campus Antisemitism and Student Experiences (CASE) report found that more than nine in 10 Jewish students have experienced or seen antisemitism on campus over the past year.

Elsewhere, the report found that 71 per cent of Jewish students had seen antisemitic graffiti on campus, more than one in five had witnessed physical violence targeting Jews, and students also reported targeted incidents like mezuzahs being torn from the doors of Jewish dorm rooms in residence halls.

Another of the report’s key insights was that Jewish students also face antisemitism from professors and other university employees, with faculty cited in 18 per cent of antisemitic incidents reported in the survey. A further 14 per cent of incidents involved either teaching assistants or non-teaching staff.

This finding was echoed in Mamane’s testimony. “I have walked through the cafeteria and seen professors I truly respected associate themselves with causes that made me question whether I was welcome in class, or even whether my grades could be jeopardized,” she said.

She also shared an incident experienced by a friend at McGill University, who was walking across campus wearing their Star of David when a person approached them and performed a “Heil Hitler” salute.

“We are very sensitive to the remarks made by Ms. Mamane, who is beginning her first semester at our university. What she describes having experienced on the campuses she attended during her academic journey is unacceptable,” said a spokesperson for Université du Québec à Montréal.

“Hate speech, discriminatory acts and racism, in any form whatsoever, have no place in an educational institution. UQAM relies on education and prevention to ensure that the exchange of ideas takes place with respect for individuals and the law.”

She added that the university’s rector is ready to “meet and discuss” with Mamane at her request.

The CASE report found that more than three in 10 said they’d considered dropping a course or leaving their program because of antisemitism from professors or other students.

Blumberg said she had heard from other students who felt that they didn’t belong in a classroom because of political discussions, despite the subject of study being unrelated.

“Students are avoiding certain professors, avoiding certain classrooms where they know there’s going to be an intense debate that they will feel alone in,” she said.

A spokesperson for McGill University said the “Heil Hitler” salute “is shocking and unacceptable. If the University received such a report, it would be immediately investigated and addressed with all resources at McGill’s disposal.”

“For years, McGill has taken numerous concrete steps to help ensure that antisemitism is well-understood, effectively prevented and appropriately addressed across our campuses. This work will be enhanced through the efforts of McGill’s Working Group on Antisemitism, struck last academic year, which will complete its final report shortly,” the spokesperson said.

“Such behaviour undermines our academic mission and compromises the security essential to campus life. The University has taken concrete steps to support the safety and well-being of students, faculty, and visitors.”

The news conference comes in the wake of a shooting outside a synagogue in Belleville , Ont., on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, which left one policeman injured.

The officer, Const. Jeff Smith , is in stable condition but “continues to face a significant road to recovery,” according to Belleville police’s Deputy Chief Sheri Meeks. GoFundMe pages have been set up both for Smith and to raise money for repairs and security at the synagogue .

The suspect in the Sept. 20 shooting, identified as 29-year-old Sean Ward from Quinte West, died in hospital on Monday and is reported to have “spouted” antisemitic conspiracy theories , including one that blamed the Jewish community for COVID.

Speaking at Parliament Hill on Thursday, Noah Shack said the Jewish community is “profoundly grateful” to Smith, adding that the “extreme violence” in Belleville should be a wake-up call.

“ This could have happened anywhere. We’ve seen hate targeting schools, seniors’ homes, workplaces, and universities across this country…universities are supposed to be institutions that advance higher learning and cutting-edge research. But on too many campuses, these extremists have been permitted to undermine this fundamental function in a free and democratic society.”

"We are incredibly grateful for the heroic acts of Belleville police and our prayers are with Constable Jeff Smith.” Take a moment to thank him for his bravery and sacrifice, and support the fund for his recovery.

💙 Send a thank you: https://t.co/WlwgAzksQP
💙 Donate:… pic.twitter.com/Z7lzdxNDDV

— CIJA (@CIJAinfo) September 23, 2026

Shack added that CIJA is meeting with cabinet members this week to urge concrete action on providing safety and security for Canadians, and to hold universities accountable for keeping students safe.

The shooting comes two months after Statistics Canada data showed that Jews were targeted in 71 per cent of religious hate crimes in Canada last year . While this represented a 16 per cent decline from the previous year, it remained 50 per cent higher than in 2022.

Meanwhile, advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada said in a statement that advance data for the group’s Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents indicates violent antisemitic incidents have already more than tripled during 2026 when compared to the total recorded during 2025.

“A mass-casualty event during this past weekend seems to have been avoided only because of the actions of trained and armed law enforcement,” the statement continued. “This reinforces the need for Canadian leaders to ensure members of law enforcement are present at every Jewish institution moving forward.”

Simon Wolle, CEO at B’nai Brith Canada, added: “In the wake of these harrowing events, Canada’s Jewish community cannot wait any longer for the Government to act. B’nai Brith has warned about the dangers of inaction for too long. The only acceptable response to this violent attack is for all levels of Government to take the decisive, urgent action needed to safeguard Jewish life in Canada.”

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OTTAWA — A new report by Ottawa’s fiscal watchdog raises questions about when the government will eliminate its operating deficit, despite Prime Minister Mark Carney saying last week that the government now expects to balance its operating budget a year earlier than the original goal.

Based on the information that the government released in its 2025 budget and this spring’s economic update, the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) projects that Ottawa will miss its target of balancing the operating budget by 2028-29 by a year.

The PBO says Ottawa spent about $546.6-billion on operating expenses in 2025-26 and $34.5-billion on capital costs.

The report also says the Carney government’s treatment of some of its budget items is contradictory, raising further questions about the government’s decision last year to split its spending into two distinct ledgers.

The PBO said Thursday the federal government needs to do more to sort out its definitions for capital versus operating items, wiggle room that many economists say will tempt governments to lump as much spending as possible into the rosier-sounding capital side.

That temptation will be particularly alluring for the Carney government because it’s facing massive deficits for the foreseeable future and established a key fiscal target last year of eliminating the operating deficit by 2028-29.

In a document called The Government’s Operating Budget Fiscal Anchor, the PBO says it seems contradictory to classify the government’s Agricultural Clean Technology program as a capital cost, for example, while its Agricultural Climate Solutions program is on the operating side. Both programs, the PBO says, are designed to trigger farm investments.

“This makes it difficult to anticipate how future spending will be sorted,” the PBO report says.

The PBO points out that Canada is not the first country to split its operating and capital budgets. The United Kingdom, Norway and Singapore do similar things, but the PBO points out that the U.K. also paired the move with a rule that borrowing is only allowed to pay for capital costs. The UK also used a definition of capital spending that is internationally accepted.

Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said the PBO report is further evidence that Ottawa has been expanding the definition of capital spending in a way that wouldn’t be allowed in the UK.

But the real problem, Terrazzano said, isn’t the government’s accounting methods but that Carney’s “credit card government” spends and borrows way too much.

The federal government is borrowing about $65-billlion a year, Terrazzano said, more than Ottawa sends to the provinces and territories for health transfers or collects from the GST.

“We’re paying way too much paying interest on the debt.”

John Fragos, spokesman for Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, said the government has already identified $60-billion in savings over the next five years, allowing Ottawa to eliminate the operating deficit a year ahead of schedule. Those savings, Fragos said, will allow the federal government to spend more on capital costs that will support economic growth.

The Carney government’s first budget last fall marked the first time that Ottawa had separated capital and operational or day-to-day spending. The key distinction, according to the government, is between regular, day-to-day expenses such as wages for federal public servants and social service payments, and those capital costs on such things as ports, military equipment and other infrastructure that should provide long-term benefit.

In its spring economic update, the government said it expected to post a deficit of $66.9 billion for the past year, slightly less than expected, due to improved fiscal outcomes. But Ottawa’s broader fiscal outlook remains dire. The federal government has now accumulated $1.27-trillion in total debt, almost half of which has been added over the last five years.

National Post

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Prime Minister Mark Carney touched on a wide range of topics during an hour-long interview with the New York Times yesterday — F-35 jets, Starlink satellites, trade in potash and automobiles and more — but the biggest takeaway was that he had prepared over the past year for the “extreme tail risk” that U.S. President Donald Trump might order military action against Canada.

“I think you have a responsibility in these roles to look at extreme tail risk,” said Carney, using a term from the financial world that was his metier as a former central banker for Britain and Canada. “That’s just risk management … it would be irresponsible not to.”

The expression refers to a scenario that is considered unlikely but not impossible — the “tail” of a probability curve where the centre represents the most likely outcomes.

Carney told the Times that, based on Trump’s threats to make Canada a 51st state, he had carefully examined the possibility of U.S.-led military action, but declined to discuss in detail what that involved.

Timothy Sayle, a professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, said Carney’s comments indicate a valid concern.

“It makes sense to me that it’s at the real extreme end of possibilities, but I don’t think it’s a zero per cent chance,” he told National Post.

The U.S. incursion into Venezuela this year and its threats against Greenland made its allies, including Canada and Europe, take notice, Sayle said.

“It can seem outlandish, but … the United States has made these decisions to enter Venezuela and then to attack Iran that were pretty low-probability events, and yet they did happen. So that’s why I can understand the prime minister’s point that it’s maybe very very very low risk but, as he said, can’t be totally ignored.”

As to what form a potential invasion might take, Sayle said the “wild unpredictability of the current American administration” made it difficult to predict, but he imagined several small-scale scenarios. They included “some sort of hot pursuit of a suspected criminal, or somebody that ICE was seeking, across the Canadian border.”

He added: “You could imagine an increase of U.S. forces, like the strengthening of U.S. forces in Canada in some way.” (According to the U.S. Department of Defense , as of March there were 159 active duty military personnel serving in Canada, plus 33 civilian DoD staff.)

Sayle also suggested “the presence of naval ships, the presence of or overflights by aircraft and … what could be described as something in the shared interest, but in which Canada was not consulted in the usual means. Americans could either publicly or invisibly flex their might and indicate that Canada’s sovereignty wasn’t quite as secure as we’d like to think.”

The notion has been ridiculed at high levels. This month, when a Canadian reporter asked Admiral Samuel J. Paparo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, about the possibility of military action against Canada, he was met with incredulity. Paparo called it “preposterous” and added: “Would you ask me please, also, what my attack plans are for the Martians?”

Sayle said that could change. “Canada and the United States militaries obviously have worked so closely together for so long,” he said. “I’m sure there’s a lot of goodwill and close relationships in the senior ranks, but we are, of course, seeing changes to how general officers are selected in the United States, and who keeps their jobs.”

Paparo concluded his remarks by saying he will ultimately follow the orders of the commander-in-chief. “And so we have, I think, lots of protections against this; relationships, friendships, common sense,” said Sayle. “But these things don’t always govern in a crisis.”

Carney is hardly the first to speculate on the possibility of war between Canada and the U.S. Back in 1921, Lieut.-Col. James “Buster” Sutherland Brown drafted Defence Scheme No. 1, a plan for a Canadian pre-emptive attack against the United States in the event of a conflict between them and the British Empire.

A Washington Post article from 2005 said the plan called for Canadian soldiers to make for Albany, Minneapolis, Seattle and Great Falls, Mont., at the first signs of a possible U.S. invasion. The article quotes Floyd Rudmin, Canadian author of the 1993 book “Bordering on Aggression: Evidence of U.S. Military Preparations Against Canada,” as saying Brown even entered the country in civilian clothing to do reconnaissance.

“He had a total annual budget of $1,200,” said Rudmin, “so he himself would drive to the areas where they were going to invade and take pictures and pick up free maps at gas stations.” The plan was terminated in 1928, and many of the documents relating to it were destroyed.

Vincent Rigby, Canada’s former national security and intelligence adviser, told National Post this year that a U.S. invasion “falls into the category of very low probability, but very high impact, to put it mildly.”

Rigby, who spent 14 years with the Department of National Defence, said the Canadian military is supposed to plan for all scenarios. “They’re very good at it and, given the current situation in the world, given the current state of Canada-U.S. relations, given the current state of U.S. foreign policy, I’m not completely surprised that they’re looking at possible scenarios.”

Carney’s comments to the New York Times also included talk of the trade war, a fact Sayle calls salient.

“It’s a signal to the whole world,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a significant signal to the American government, but maybe a signal more broadly to American politicians and industry leaders as to how seriously Canada is taking this current difficult period with the United States, and I think in some ways it might strengthen the Canadian negotiating hand when it comes to trade issues, because the prime minister is signalling that this was a sort of existential moment for Canada.”

He added: “Even though it’s an American news outlet, this is a major headline in an international paper that Canadians will see too. So … there may be these instrumental reasons for doing it, like the trade negotiations, and signalling to Canadians just how serious he’s taking this moment. But it’s obviously a pretty important signal of the state of the relationship with the United States, and how different that is than anything in our living memory.”

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One April morning in 2019, paramedics called to a Granby, Que., house found a malnourished seven-year-old girl without vital signs wrapped in layers of adhesive tape, including over her head, obstructing her airways. Her father had helped restrain her before leaving her with her stepmother, who bound her with packing tape, a Quebec corner would later conclude in the case that became known as the “Granby Girl.”

Ten months later, in February 2020, four-year-old Keira Kagan’s body was discovered, alongside that of her 35-year-old father’s, at the base of a 30-metre cliff in a conservation park outside Toronto. It had been the father’s scheduled weekend visit. The child and father were found after he failed to respond to his ex-wife’s calls and text messages.

The horrific and heartbreaking deaths, as well as those of six other victims of “fillicide,” the deliberate killing of a child by a parent, are reconstructed in a new paper linking a “pro-contact culture” and accusations of “parental alienation” to the murders of the eight children in five families in Ontario and Quebec.

The authors say their findings back a controversial private member’s bill now before Parliament.

Introduced by Liberal MP Lisa Hepfner, the bill proposes to amend the Divorce Act to prohibit courts from considering evidence that one parent in a high-conflict custody case is actively trying to “alienate” the other parent and manipulating and coaching the child to resist contact.

It would also prevent judges from restricting a child’s time with one parent “to whom the child has a close connection” to improve the relationship with the other parent, and it would prevent courts from forcing children to attend so-called “reunification therapy.”

The proposed legislation has passed second reading, and is now before the justice and human rights committee.

Proponents say that in cases involving allegations of domestic violence, alienation claims are being weaponized and used as a legal tactic by parents — mostly fathers accused of abuse — to discredit the other parent.

If a parent — most often mothers — insist a child is in danger, “they run the risk of being perceived as an uncooperative, alienating parent,” the authors said.

The court’s attention shifts away from potential violence “towards preserving the parental bond.”<

Alienation claims “are systematically used as a litigation strategy to deflect attention from abuse, undermine the child’s disclosure of fear and portray a protective mother as hostile, irrational or manipulative,” Suzanne Zaccour, director of legal affairs at the National Association of Women and the Law, or NAWL, and a co-author of the research paper, said at a press conference on Parliament Hill Thursday.

“Rather than asking why a child is frightened or resistant to contact, the system can wrongly assume the child has been influenced or brainwashed.”

Even when there is documented family violence or other concerns, in a pro-contact culture “a father-child relationship can be treated as the overriding goal,” Zaccour said.

The proposed bill — Keeping Children Safe — says that a court “shall not take into consideration” any allegation that one parent has deliberately encouraged a child to become estranged from the other. Judges would not be permitted to order “reunification therapy” or, in extreme cases, reverse custody.

Opponents say ignoring all claims of alienation will harm children. “The legislation reflects a profound distrust of the Canadian family justice system,” said Queen’s University law professor Nicholas Bala, an internationally recognized expert on family and children’s law.

“As tragic and concerning as child homicides are, and they have to be dealt with more effectively, the legislation does not address that issue in a meaningful way” and risks exploiting child murders that aren’t related to alienation, Bala said.

While fathers kill disproportionately more children than mothers, most child homicides involve cases where child protection services failed children, he said, “which is tragic.”

And the bill, Bala said, “doesn’t deal with the child protection system at all.”

In Canada, parents have a presumptive right to have a relationship with their children. “There are cases where children are being abused or treated poorly by parents on their visits, and there are good reasons for the child not to see the other parent,” he said.

He supports amendments that would require lawyers to screen for the risk of family violence, and allow courts to interview children . But the bill would also prevent lawyers from presenting evidence that one, or both parents, are acting to undermine the child’s relationship with the other, which Bala said is occurring in an increasing number of cases.

His research shows that judges reject more than half of alienation claims. In more than one-third of cases where the court finds alienation, it’s the mother who has been alienated from her children by an abusive husband.

“It’s very unfair, and very contra in the interests of the children, to decide cases on an absolute rule that says, ‘We can never hear this evidence,'” Bala said. Each case should be decided based on the best interests of the particular child, he said.

“There are some people, a very small number who, in the midst of a custody battle, are so unbalanced they decide to kill their children. That’s a terrible tragedy,” Bala said.

“The issue of parents killing their children is a huge concern” but the proposed bill is not the appropriate response, he said.<

NAWL, which pushed for the proposed legislation, teamed up with professors from University of Sherbrooke’s faculty of law as part of a broader project supported by the federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

In all five cases, the deaths were foreshadowed by warnings that were downplayed or dismissed by family courts or child protection services, according to the authors.

“Their fathers were known to systems in charge of protecting children” and women (in one case, a paternal grandmother) who raised concerns were disbelieved “and even framed as the problem, in part through institutions adopting the controversial framework of ‘parental alienation.'”

The paper isn’t a random sample of child homicides. Rather, the cases were selected based on three criteria: the murders occurred during custody disputes, institutions such as police, child protection services and family courts had intervened before the child’s death and enough public information (coroner’s reports, published court decisions, media sources) was available to reconstruct what happened.

It’s not an attempt to be representative, but the findings are consistent with child murders in other countries, the authors said. The details were edited to be less graphic. “But the level of violence and betrayal on the children” is evident, Zaccour said.

Several cases are anonymized to protect the identity of the children. In three of five cases, children were killed within days of a scheduled court hearing, according to the report — in one case, two days after a mother asked her lawyer about seeking sole custody, fearing for the safety of her two boys, aged two and five. Their father killed them both.

“We can’t speculate, but perhaps the father knew he might lose custody,” said Zaccour, co-author of the report.

“If you think, nothing can be done and there are these crazy individuals who will just lash out and kill their children, what can we do? There were years of documentation of the risk in some cases before death.”

While the five deaths date back to 2011, new cases occurred as they were finalizing their report: In Calgary, a 38-year-old father is facing two charges of first-degree murder for the deaths of his three-year-old daughter and five-year-old son in April this year. The man and his estranged wife shared custody. Police were called to the family home four times during the couple’s six-year common-law relationship. No charges were laid, CBC reported.

In June, a double murder-suicide in Ottawa left two boys, ages seven and 12, and their father dead. Police said 40-year-old Mohammed Al-Lami killed his sons after picking them up for a scheduled parenting time. It’s believed the boys were killed inside Al-Lami’s house before he set fire to his dental practice, about an hour’s drive from Ottawa, and then killed himself inside his vehicle.

A police investigation revealed a history of intimate partner violence. Al-Lami was on probation at the time of the deaths after being charged with threatening his wife and her new partner, CBC reported.

The new report, “Institutional Failures and Child Murder in Canada,” describes the case of the “Granby Girl,” who had been under the supervision of child protection services since she was a newborn and taken from her mother due to parental instability and physical neglect.

The girl was placed with her paternal grandparents, who raised her for the first three years of her life.

“By 2014, the father’s circumstances were considered more stable, in part because of his new partner, and youth protection services began considering placing the child back in his care,” according to the report.

The grandmother raised concerns over unsanitary living conditions and the father’s immaturity. She warned of a risk of sexual abuse, “which youth protections services deemed unfounded.” A case worker concluded the grandmother was no longer able to “control her emotions” and that she was undermining the father-child relationship, according to the report.

Custody was awarded to the father.

According to a coroner’s report released in September 2025, the seven-year-old had the stature of a four-year-old when her bruised body was found unconscious on her bedroom floor. Furniture had been pushed up against the window and the closet doors tied shut with rope. The child, who had behavioural problems, had been bound in seven layers of tape for hours by her stepmother to allegedly “restrain and calm her,” according to a coroner’s report.

Her father pleaded guilty to forcible confinement and was sentenced to three years and six months In January 2022. The girl’s stepmother was convicted of second-degree murder and forcible confinement and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for 13 years.

Police had been called to the house two dozen times before the girl’s death in a case that shocked Quebec. Youth protection services had conducted follow-up calls for months, but never a surprise home visit, “making it impossible to detect physical signs of abuse,” according to Institutional Failures. The paternal grandmother lost custody “after being perceived as hostile for reporting the dangers the girl was exposed to while in her son’s care.”

In July 2012, in Warwick, Que., Jocelyn Marcoux killed son Lindsey, 13, and daughter Karen, 11. Their bodies, along with their father’s, were found in a burning garage at his home.

Marcoux and his ex-partner, Nadine Brilliant, separated in 2002 and had been engaged in custody disputes for years.

“Nadine Brillant shared that her life with Marcoux was heavily marked by domestic violence,” including a guilty plea to charges of intimidation and uttering threats against Brillant in 2006.

At the time of the children’s deaths, Marcoux had sole custody. Brillant was seeking a court order to modify the arrangement after the children expressed a wish to return to live with their mother.

“As part of these proceedings, the children were expected to appear before the Court to express their wish to return to live with their mother,” according to the report.

“The father killed them on the very day the hearing was scheduled to take place.”

Keira Kagan’s parents, Robin Brown and Jennifer Kagan, separated when she was still an infant. Ontario’s Domestic Violence Death Review Committee concluded that the circumstances of Keira’s death were “highly consistent” with previous cases of murder-suicide involving a father and a child.

Her parents had been embroiled in lengthy legal disputes spanning four years and involving 10 judges and 53 court orders. Brown had subjected Jennifer Kagan to years of domestic violence, including physical and sexual assault. On Jan. 28, 2020, she filed an urgent motion seeking to suspend or restrict his visitations to supervised visits “due to his increasingly erratic behavior,” according to the child murders report.

“The judge ruled the matter non-urgent and scheduled a hearing for two weeks later.” Twelve days later, Keira was found dead at the bottom of a cliff in the Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area in Milton, Ont., a 45-minute drive from Brown’s home.

“Every time (Jennifer Kagan) tried to raise the issue of abuse, there was a counter claim of alienation,” Zaccour said.

“There were 53 court decisions in this case, and many of those court decisions raised serious red flags, but no judge took the added step of restricting his parenting rights,” said Keira’s stepfather, Philip Viater, who has been practising family law for 17 years.

At Thursday’s press conference, Viater said the “mere suggestion” of alienation shifts the focus from allegations of safety concerns “to whether the protective parent is actually doing enough to preserve the relationship.”

Two days before the murder, a child protection agency called to say Brown was displaying behaviour consistent with fathers who harm or kill their children, Viater said. “Yet they did not act. We were forced and directed to permit Keira to be in her biological father’s care unsupervised.”

“At a minimum, this bill will provide a safeguard that children will not be ripped away in favour of ‘reunification therapy’ or other ideological purposes consistent with parental alienation,” Viater added in an interview.

The report includes two other cases in Quebec: The killing of two-year-old Alex, and five-year-old Olivier by their father, Michael Chicoine, in a home in Wendake, a Huron-Wendat First Nations territory near Quebec City, in 2020; in 2011, the deaths of two-year-old Florence and her eight-year-old brother, Zackary, in a fire their father, Martin Houle, set in his pickup truck.

Chicoine turned himself in to police and is currently serving a life sentence for the double murder. At his sentencing hearing, a Quebec Superior Court judge suggested Chicoine killed his boys “to quench your thirst for revenge” against his ex-wife, who reported her fear to youth protection services that Chicoine might harm their children.

Houle’s body was found by hikers in a wooded area near Drummondville, Que., the day after his children died by asphyxiation.

A third child, a six-year-old, escaped the truck fire. The parents had been separated for more than a year and were engaged in a custody dispute.

Custody was granted to Houle after he alleged his former wife, who publicly reported experiencing intimate partner violence, was suicidal and a threat to their children.

One month later, Florence and Zackary were dead.

In 2023, federal legislation known as “Keira’s Law” requiring judges to be educated in domestic violence and coercive control passed the Senate.

The same year, Ontario’s chief coroner announced an inquest would be held in Keira’s death.

A date has not yet been set.

In 2025, 12 children under 17 in Canada were killed by a biological, adopted, step or foster parent — seven by a father, five by a mother — down from 27 the previous year, according to Statistics Canada.

National Post

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Jewish leaders across Canada remain committed to safety after a shooting outside a synagogue in Belleville, Ont. left a police officer injured.

The suspect of the Sept. 20 shooting — which occurred on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism — died Tuesday after succumbing to his injuries. He was identified as 29-year-old Sean Ward from Quinte West. The officer, Const. Jeff Smith, is in stable condition but “continues to face a significant road to recovery,” according to Belleville police’s Deputy Chief Sheri Meeks. A GoFundMe set up for Smith by Toronto’s Jewish community has reached more than $360,000.

None of the roughly 25 congregants inside the synagogue were injured.

Belleville police were only assigned to the synagogue because congregants had reported a suspicious vehicle parked outside a week earlier, according to Global News.

In an update from the Belleville synagogue, Sons of Jacob, shared with National Post on Wednesday, it referred to the shooting as a “targeted attack against Jews gathering together to pray and be in community.”

“Yom Kippur asks us to confront what is broken and consider how we can repair it,” the update said. “This week, our community is living that teaching in a very real way.”

A GoFundMe has been set up to raise money for repairs and security at the synagogue.

Rabbi Carnie Rose from the Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Winnipeg said what occurred in Belleville was a “very unfortunate situation” and he has been in talks with police.

Shaarey Zedek was the target of antisemitic graffiti in 2025 and in early 2026.

“The police have been outstanding, wonderful,” he said, as have local politicians. Many safety measures are being taken, he said, although he did not want to cite specific details out of caution.

He said it was sad that the community’s money had to be spent on security rather than education or charitable work, but it is a necessity at this time.

“The Islamic community has … reached out to tell us that we’re in this together,” he said, adding that other faith communities have also been supportive. “So, if there is a silver lining, it is a possibility of … coming together of people who have otherwise had some edges with one another, and maybe this will be the catalyst for a better day for us all.”

Rose said that past events have not dissuaded his congregation from attending synagogue.

“People are proud, and people are strong, and people are not going to be pushed around, not in a country that that is supposed to be about liberty and equality and democracy, and a cultural mosaic,” he said.

Winnipeg Police Service will be boosting patrols at gathering spaces and places of worship as a precaution, it said in a post on X .

In a separate incident, Durham Regional Police arrested a 19-year-old Whitby man for allegedly making threats online about shooting up a synagogue one day before the Belleville shooting.

Koren Kassirer is the vice president of a small congregation in Oshawa called Beth Zion Congregation, located in the Durham Region. She told National Post that the recent events have been “very concerning.”

“Living outside the GTA, we felt that the likelihood of these incidents was far lower,” she said. However, she said she did notice antisemitic incidents in Bowmanville, where she lives, including swastikas being graffitied outside over the summer and antisemitic flyers on the shelves of a local store earlier in the year.

Kassirer said the synagogue is in talks with local police and two congregants are taking a course to learn how to better secure the facility.

Durham Regional Police will continue with enhanced patrols, Const. Nicholas Gluckstein told National Post in a written statement. He said this was a “proactive” measure that reflects the police service’s “ongoing commitment to community safety, crime prevention, and support for faith-based communities across Durham Region.”

“We recognize the significance of all religious observances and want members of the Jewish community to know that their safety remains a priority,” said Gluckstein.

In Toronto, which is home to Canada’s largest Jewish population, Toronto Police Services said in a post on X it would increase visibility and patrols at synagogues and other places of worship although there was no known threat or connection to the city at this time.

In March alone, there were three overnight shootings at Toronto-area synagogues. No one was injured.

Phil David, the executive director of Toronto synagogue Beth Tzedec, told National Post that the Belleville shooting “reinforces what Jewish institutions across Canada already know: security can no longer be treated as an occasional concern.”

David said the synagogue is in regular contact with Toronto police and the Jewish Security Network (JSN), dedicated to the security needs of our Greater Toronto Jewish community. “Security is an ongoing responsibility for us, not a response to any single incident,” said David.

A new security fence is being installed around parts of the property, he said.

The JSN continues to “monitor developments through its 24/7 Integrated Security Operations Centre and share information directly with community institutions,” said Yonatan Belete from the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, a charitable organization dedicated to helping the Jewish community. The UJA launched the JSN in 2024.

The JSN has been working closely with police before and after the Belleville shooting.

“Synagogue is where our community gathers to pray, support one another and practise our faith,” said Belete.

“We want people to continue doing that with confidence, knowing that substantial work is being done to help keep them safe. Each person who stays aware, reports a concern or gets involved strengthens that effort.”

The Barrie Police Service told National Post in a statement that there was no “specific or immediate threat to Barrie,” but there would be an increase in patrols “around places of worship within the city out of an abundance of caution.”

A spokesperson for the Montreal police, the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal, told National Post in a statement that there would be additional resources and enhanced visibility around synagogues and “locations attended by members of the Jewish community” as a precaution.

“At this time, there is no indication of any specific or heightened threat to synagogues in Montreal,” it said.

In June, a man was arrested after allegedly attempting to set a fire at a synagogue in the city’s Westmount neighbourhood.

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Canada has just marked its lowest year-over year population growth since the Second World War, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.

The population reached an estimated 41,798,407 people on July 1, 2026, an increase of 189,425 people from July 1, 2025, however this is the lowest annual growth since 1944/1945, says StatCan, when it grew by 126,000.

“The rapid changes in the population growth rate since 2020 are almost entirely attributable to changes in international migration,” states StatCan.

Immigration targets under the Trudeau government were increased in 2016 from an annual average of 617,800 between 2000 to 2015 to approximately 1.4 million for 2016 to 2024. However, public concern about the impact on the affordability of housing resulted in substantial reductions, noted a Fraser Institute report. In the 2025 federal budget, the Carney government unveiled a new plan for 2026-28 immigration levels, outlining a more moderate approach, while focusing on steady economic immigration growth.

“In 2018, 3.3 per cent of Canada’s population were temporary residents. By 2024, that number had more than doubled to 7.5 per cent, an unprecedented rate of growth that put pressure on housing supply, the healthcare system, and schools,” according to the 2025 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration, which states that “ Canada’s new government recognizes that this system is no longer sustainable, and we are determined to make it so, for everyone who lives in and comes to this country.”

The number of new immigrants to Canada fell for the fourth consecutive year, down to 368,224 in 2025/2026, says this week’s StatCan report. That is “consistent” with lower targets set by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, notes StatCan. It’s the first time since 2021/2022 that the annual number of immigrants has fallen below 400,000.

Permanent immigration dropped in all provinces and Yukon, though it increased in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Consistent with that drop, the number of non-permanent residents in Canada fell by 154,614 people on a July 2025 to July 2026 basis, settling at 2,779,774 as of July 1, 2026, or 6.7 per cent of the total population. StatCan says that is down from a high of 2,984,285 non-permanent residents on October 1, 2024, or 7.2 per cent of the total population. This year’s drop was the largest decrease in non-permanent residents since comparable records began in 1971/1972.

The largest decreases in 2025/2026 were among study permit holders, down 140,827 and work and study permit holders, down 81,163. (Statistics Canada says it applied adjustments to the estimates of non-permanent residents for this report. In an explanatory note, the agency said the increase in the number of permit extensions and the time required to process them has made it increasingly important to better account for individuals who remain in Canada while their extension application is being processed.)

This year’s growth was lower than the growth during the first year of the pandemic, when it grew by 211,226, despite border restrictions put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19. In 2021-2022 says StatCan it grew by 1.8 per cent, then 2.7 per cent in 2022/2023, reaching a high of 2.8 per cent growth in 2023/2024. However, the July-to-July population growth rate has since slowed. It fell to a 0.5 per cent increase in 2025/2026.

Despite these nationwide declines, Alberta continues to have the fastest growing population of all the provinces. From July 1, 2025 to July 1, 2026, Alberta’s population jumped by 1.5 per cent, says StatCan.

Growth was slower in all provinces over the same period, with the three largest provinces in Canada growing more slowly than the country overall: Ontario (+0.3 per cent), Quebec (+0.2 per cent) and British Columbia (+0.1 per cent). Those provinces tended, says StatCan, “to welcome the largest share of international migrants and are thus more affected by changes in international migration levels.”

High numbers of international migration from 2021/2022 to 2024/2025 resulted in decreases or stabilization of the average age. But now Canada’s population is aging again, with the average age on July 1, 2026 at 42.1 years.

The two five-year age groups with the largest decreases in 2025/2026 were 20 to 24 years (down 63,838 or 2.4 per cent) and 25 to 29 years (down 91,135 or 3.1 per cent). In total, says StatCan, there was a drop of 154,973 people in their 20s, which “is (again) consistent with the fall in the number of study permit holders in the country, since international students tend to be young adults.”

Meanwhile, the number of people in the 60-to-64 age group (2,658,594) has fallen for the past two years. Before 2024/2025, says StatCan, this age group had not decreased since 1996/1997. However, the smaller Generation X is entering this age group and the larger baby boomer generation is coming to the end of their lives.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed for the U.N. General Assembly in New York early on Thursday morning.

He is scheduled to land at a military airport in New Jersey, about a two-hour drive from U.N. headquarters. His speech is set to begin at 2 p.m. local time (9 p.m. in Israel).

The prime minister also plans to meet during the New York visit with the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Panama and Ethiopia; Colombian Vice President José Manuel Restrepo; and the prime ministers of Greece, Slovenia and Papua New Guinea, according to Netanyahu’s office.

The office said other leaders had requested meetings, but Netanyahu’s schedule and the need to return to Israel before the start of Sukkot limited the number he could accept.

Netanyahu released a video statement on Wednesday before departing to address the 81st session of the UNGA.

“I am leaving tonight for New York in order to defend, from the U.N. podium, Israel and IDF soldiers,” Netanyahu said. “You hear the terrible lies that are being spread there and across other places in the world. I will fight against the lies, and I will fight for the truth—for our soldiers and for our country.”

The prime minister added: “There will also be surprises.”

Before leaving, Netanyahu visited the family of Neria Leiter at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Leiter, the son of Israel’s ambassador to the United States, was very seriously injured in a terrorist attack earlier on Wednesday.

Netanyahu asked the public to pray for the recovery of “Neria Dov ben [son of] Chana.”

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