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CTV News
17 hours ago
- Politics
- CTV News
New laws against blocking access to places of worship, schools coming, Fraser says
Pro-Palestine protesters and pro-Israel protesters face off at a demonstration at a synagogue in Thornhill, Ont., Thursday, March 7, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn OTTAWA — Justice Minister Sean Fraser says the Liberal government will press ahead with plans for new criminal provisions against blocking access to places or worship, schools and community centres. The measures, promised during the recent federal election campaign, would also create a criminal offence of wilfully intimidating or threatening people attending events at these venues. The minister's statement comes as civil libertarians point to existing provisions intended to curb such behaviour and push back against the idea of new measures that could infringe on freedom of expression and assembly. Tensions have risen in Canadian communities over public protests, many prompted by the ongoing hostilities in the Middle East. Several Canadian municipalities have taken steps recently to mandate 'bubble zones' that restrict protest activity near such places as religious institutions, schools and child care centres. 'It's not lost on me that there will be different levels of government that try to address this challenge in different ways,' Fraser said, adding that the federal government has an opportunity — where behaviour crosses a criminal threshold — to legislate in that space. 'We clearly have seen challenges when it comes to certain religious communities in Canada who are facing extraordinary discrimination — antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate,' Fraser said in a recent interview. 'People need to know that in Canada they are free to pray to the God of their choice and to, at the same time, freely express themselves, but not to the point where you threaten the protected Charter rights of a religious minority.' James Turk, director of the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University, said he questions the need for new provisions and suggests politicians are proposing penalties simply to appear to be doing something. He said existing laws against mischief, nuisance and interfering with religious celebrations can be used to deal with the kinds of behaviour the federal government wants to address. 'I haven't heard a single thing that isn't already illegal, so it's a waste of time. It adds confusion to the Criminal Code and it suggests that they're only engaged in performative activity,' Turk said. 'They want to be seen to be doing something about this pressure they're under.' Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, director of the fundamental freedoms program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, also said she wonders about the scope of the proposed new federal provisions 'and if they are necessary or simply duplicative of existing criminal offences.' Bussières McNicoll said it's important to remember that a protest might be disruptive but also protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms' guarantee of peaceful assembly. 'As a parent myself, I know that any protest can be sometimes scary for a child. We're talking about loud voices, huge crowds, emotions are running high,' she said. 'So I believe it's part of my role as a parent to teach my child about what living in a democracy means, why we need protests, why we need space in our society for strong language — including language that we disagree with — and to teach my child about what we can do if we personally disagree with speech that we hear.' Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy at B'nai Brith Canada, said that while the organization welcomes the planned new federal provisions, additional federal measures are needed. B'nai Brith wants national 'vulnerable infrastructure legislation' that would prohibit protests within a certain distance of a place of worship or school, or perhaps during specific time periods, if they interfere with someone's ability to attend the institutions, Robertson said. 'That would remove the need for municipalities and provinces to adopt legislation, and it would send a clear message that across Canada, individuals do not have the right to prevent others from accessing their houses of worship and their community centres and cultural institutions.' With files from Anja Karadeglia This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 28, 2025. Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press
Daily Mail
04-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Holocaust survivor who was burned in the Colorado terror attack breaks her silence
An 88-year-old Holocaust survivor who was burned in the shocking terror attack in Boulder, Colorado broke her silence with a message of unity. Barbara Steinmetz spoke out to condemn the attack on Sunday, where at least 12 people were injured when suspect Mohamed Soliman allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at a pro-Israel protest, but said the community would recover. 'We are better than this,' she told NBC News. The 88-year-old said she and other members of the Run for their Lives event were 'peacefully' demonstrating when the attack unfolded. 'It's about what the hell is going on in our country,' Steinmetz continued. 'What the hell is going on?' Steinmetz's family fled Italy and Hungary to escape the Nazis decades ago, but said the attack on Sunday had 'nothing to do with the Holocaust, it has to do with a human being that wants to burn other people.' The outlet said Steinmetz appeared to still be rattled by the shock attack, but said she just wanted 'people to be nice and decent to each other, kind, respectful, encompassing.' 'We're Americans,' she said. 'We are better than this. That's what I want them to know. That they be kind and decent human beings.' Police said Soliman screamed 'Free Palestine' as he threw the Molotov cocktails at the protestors, and he is now facing 16 counts of attempted murder as well as federal hate crime charges. Rabbi Marc Soloway, the leader of Congregation Bonai Shalom in Boulder, where Steinmetz is a member, said the elderly woman suffered minor burns but is 'going to be okay.' Soloway added that although Steinmetz will recover, he wondered how someone who survived the Holocaust would process the anti-Israel attack. 'Can you imagine the trauma that that reactivates?' the rabbi said. 'It's just horrendous.' Steinmetz, an active and visible member of Boulder's Jewish community since she and her late husband moved from Michigan 20 years ago, was born in 1936 in her parents' native Hungary. Shortly after her birth, they returned to Italy, where they'd run an island hotel since the 1920s – but as Steinmetz progressed through her toddler years, it was becoming more and more dangerous for Jews in Europe. Steinmetz fled with her parents and sister in 1940 to Hungary, but her father saw the dangers there, too, and quickly planned to get out of the country. 'My dad encouraged the rest of my family to leave,' Steinmetz told CU Boulder students at a 2019 talk. 'They were scared — they simply couldn't envision what was to come…or that their friends [and] customers would turn on them.' As their family and Jews suffered increasingly under Hitler's regime, her 'cousin stole a Nazi uniform and brought food into the ghetto and caused plenty of mischief to the Nazis,' Steinmetz wrote in 2014 in a Holocaust film review. Her father eventually fled with his wife and children to France, then Portugal, then the Dominican Republic, stopping at Ellis Island on the way just for processing. The island nation's dictator, Rafael Trujillo, had agreed to accept Jewish refugees, and a Jewish resettlement organization established a community at Sosua. 'Sosua was an abandoned banana plantation … and these bedraggled refugees, doctors and lawyers and professors, came to this piece of land where there was one building we all slept,' Steinmetz said in an interview posted to Instagram in April. 'And there was water, and the women did the cooking, and the men tried to do the agriculture.' After four years of attending a Dominican Catholic school, telling no one she was Jewish or European, Steinmetz and her family were granted visas to the US. She and her sister immediately began attending Jewish summer camps, where they 'knew no one and didn't speak any English,' Boulder Jewish News reported five years ago, as Boulder JCC prepared to honor Steinmetz at its annual gala. The camps 'offered the opportunity to excel in sports and exposed them to what it means to be a Jew,' it continued. The family eventually settled in Detroit, where her mother ran the lunchroom at the Jewish Community Center (JCC), which became Steinmetz's 'home in America,' the outlet reported. 'Barb met and married Howard while still a teenager and college student. They moved to Saginaw, Michigan when she was a young mom,' it continued. 'They built a life there around Jewish community.' The Steinmetz had three daughters – Ivy, Julie and Monica – and lived in Saginaw for decades before moving to Boulder two decades ago. They left Michigan after filing suit against Dow Chemical over alleged dioxin poisoning on their property. Both Ivy and Howard Steinmetz died of cancer, ten months apart, in 2011. Steinmetz has been a frequent featured speaker in Colorado, sharing her experience as a Holocaust survivor for students and local groups as recently as March. She has been a vocal Jewish presence in Boulder for decades. Steinmetz's son-in-law, Bruce Shaffer, is a co-lead of Run for Their Lives, which orchestrated the event attacked on Sunday. The Shaffers split their time between Boulder and Jerusalem. Steinmetz had previously expressed fears about anti-Semitism and hate finding her in Boulder, writing to city authorities in 2016 to oppose the establishment of Nablus, in Palestine, as a sister city – which ultimately went ahead. 'I AM NEAR 80 YEARS I ONCE AGAIN HAVE TO DEAL WITH ANTI - JEWISH SENTIMENT IN MY OWN TOWN?' she wrote to Boulder's council in a letter publicly available online. 'HAVE I NOT COME TO AMERICA WHERE I CAN FIND DON'T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME AND MY COMMUNITY OF VERY ACTIVE CIVIC CITIZENS.'
Daily Mail
04-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Holocaust survivor who survived Colorado terror attack breaks her silence
An 88-year-old Holocaust survivor who was burned in the shocking terror attack in Boulder, Colorado broke her silence with a message of unity. Barbara Steinmetz condemned the attack on Sunday, where at least 12 people were injured when suspect Mohamed Soliman allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at a pro-Israel protest, as a horror event. 'We are better than this,' she told NBC News. She said the attack 'has nothing to do with the Holocaust, it has to do with a human being that wants to burn other people.' The 88-year-old said she and other members of the Run for their Lives event were 'peacefully' demonstrating when the attack unfolded. 'It's about what the hell is going on in our country,' Steinmetz continued. 'What the hell is going on?' The outlet said Steinmetz appeared to still be rattled by the shock attack, but said she just wanted 'people to be nice and decent to each other, kind, respectful, encompassing.' 'We're Americans,' she said. 'We are better than this. That's what I want them to know. That they be kind and decent human beings.'
NHK
27-05-2025
- Politics
- NHK
German Chancellor Merz blasts Israeli military operations in Gaza
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has slammed Israel's recent actions in Gaza. The military operations have been causing increasing numbers of civilian casualties. The Israeli military announced on Monday that it had conducted airstrikes over a two-day period against more than 20 targets in Gaza, including strongholds belonging to the Islamic group Hamas. Palestinian media outlets have reported that Israel bombed a school where a number of residents were taking shelter. Health officials in the enclave say 38 people were killed during the previous 24 hours, due to attacks by the Israeli military. Merz said in a TV interview on Monday that he no longer understands why Israel is harming the civilian population. He also suggested that Israel's behavior can no longer be justified or described as a fight against terrorism perpetrated by Hamas. The chancellor indicated, however, that Germany will remain on Israel's side. He added that the Israeli government must not do anything that its best friends are no longer prepared to accept. German media outlets have noted that it is unusual for pro-Israel Germany to criticize the Israeli government. Germany has taken a pro-Israel stance because of its history. The Nazis killed millions of Jews in the Holocaust during World War Two.
