Three men. Two failed abductions. Two targets: young women to rape and worse, and the Jewish community more broadly.

2025 Canada. Here we are.

Toronto police have arrested Waleed Khan (26), Osman Azizov (18), and Fahad Sadaat (19), slapping them with nearly 80 charges collectively. The allegations are chilling: the trio orchestrated abduction attempts in May and June of 2025, explicitly young women from the Greater Toronto Area, and subsequent investigations revealed targeting of the Jewish community..

Khan received the heaviest charges, facing terrorism-related offenses, including conspiracy to commit murder for ISIS. Authorities allege he didn’t just consume terrorist propaganda, he provide social media accounts knowing that they would be used by or to benefit ISIS, and funneled cryptocurrency to the terrorist group.

When law enforcement moved in, they didn’t just find the suspects. They revealed what could have lead to a massacre: an AR-style rifle, high-capacity magazines, and ammunition.

This isn’t an isolated incident. Following the Bondi Beach massacre where Jewish celebrants were gunned down at a Hanukkah gathering, this news hits hard. It reinforces a terrifying reality for Jewish Canadians, and the data backs the fear.

According to Statistics Canada, Jewish people remained the most targeted religious group in 2024, with roughly 70% of reported hate crimes motivated by religion.

Consider that the total Jewish population in Canada is only roughly 400,000, or approximately 0.963% of the total population.

You read that correct, Jews – making up less than one percent of the total population – accounted for roughly 70% of reported hate crimes motivated by religion.

Consider further that what this number truly means is that for every 100,000 people in Canada, roughly 963 are Jewish, or from another angle, there’s roughly 1 Jewish person for every 104 Canadians total.

The picture gets bleaker when you look at the scope.

The RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) was already running a parallel investigation into these men, leading to the terrorism charges. Intelligence assessments now warn that attacks on Jewish holiday events in Canada are a “realistic possibility.”

In response to Bondi Beach and these local arrests, police have ramped up patrols near Jewish institutions, including synagogues and community centres.

It’s a visible show of force, and for the Jewish community, a sight that is all too familiar to see.

What is there to say? How did we get to this point?

We know how: a permission structure built by elected and unelected leaders tolerating weekly hate marches under false pretenses, genocidal rhetoric protected by parliamentary privilege, academics calling for violence while falsely accusing others of genocide, and far too many people endorsing bigoted boycotts who should know better.

We have ideologically captured governments, political parties, and institutions that are so afraid of being branded bigoted that they inadvertently permit – or worse, enable – blatant bigotry, discrimination, harassment, vandalism and violence.

Canada is the proverbial frog in the pot and the water is slowly boiling. No one seems to have noticed though that the temperature is rising, driven both by external and internal forces alike.

Fortunately, there’s still time to turn the temperature down.

But if we don’t act soon, it will boil over, and that’s when things get very dangerous.

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