Global Courant
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We hope all our loyal Posted readers have a nice weekend.
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MAYHEM IN THE MOB OF MONTREAL
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The Montreal Mafia was once the pinnacle of Canadian organized crime, envied the world over. Under his godfather Vito Rizzuto, veteran National Post crime reporter Adrian Humphreys reports, it was a smooth and successful criminal machine. But Rizzuto’s imprisonment in the United States and death in 2013 left the crowd in splinters. Now an outbreak of reckless public violence has gripped the city. In June, corpulent Francesco Del Balso was shot by a sniper and killed outside a gym in Dorval, Que. In March, Leonardo Rizzuto, Vito’s only surviving son, was shot at and wounded while driving his Mercedes on the highway. The messy violence, Humphreys writes, means that the drug trade, extortion and gambling are all so profitable they are worth dying for.
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FUNDRAISING FOR A Blacksmith
Thanks to Sergii Skorobohatskyh jpg
Sergei Skorobohatskyh is a Ukrainian blacksmith fighting on the frontline against the Russian invasion of his homeland. His wife, Irina Tereshchenko, and two daughters take shelter in Ontario. “Of course I am proud of my husband and I know that he would not have acted differently if he suddenly turned back time. But without him alone with two children, also in another country, it is very difficult morally,” Tereshchenko told Joe Brean of the National Post. At Canada’s National Blacksmithing Conference, held next month in Fergus, Ontario, blacksmiths will be auctioning a metal gate, a doorway-sized work of art made of intricately worked steel, bronze and copper. Proceeds from the fundraiser will go to Skorobohatskyh and his family. Every element of the door is made the old-fashioned way: hammer, heat and craftsmanship.
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AND CETERA
When a Quebec woman tried to get information about a prescription diet for her ailing husband, she ran into Quebec language laws. Susan Starkey told the Montreal Gazette that when she called RAMQ, the provincial health insurance board, the official on the other end of the line told her, “I don’t need to speak to you in English, speak French.” When Starkey asked if anyone could help her in English, the man hung up. William Majcher, a retired RCMP officer, has been arrested and charged with conspiracy and preparatory acts for the benefit of a foreign entity. He is accused of helping the Chinese government identify and intimidate a person. Brian Boucher, the Montreal-area priest serving an eight-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting two boys, has been charged with sexually assaulting a man. Boucher is being held at La Macaza Institution, a federal prison that specializes in treating sex offenders. The Toronto City Council has declared gender-based violence and violence between intimate partners an “epidemic” in the city and is calling on the provincial and federal governments to do the same. Canada increases sanctions against Russians involved in the war against Ukraine and mercenary violence in Africa. The sanctions target the Wagner group of mercenaries and Russia’s nuclear, drone and cultural industries. Move over cocaine bear, we now have cocaine sharks. Scientists are now conducting experiments to see how sharks and other marine life might react to all the cocaine and other drugs dumped into the sea off the coast of Florida. Sounds like a fun job, although your child may not have to participate if you take your child to work. The National Post News Quiz returns next week.
DEAR DIARY
In the weekly satirical feature Dear Diary, the National Post reimagines a week in the life of a newsmaker. This week Tyler Dawson takes an imaginary journey through the mind of J. Robert Oppenheimer: I need a formula to explain to me what Kenergy is. And why people care about a doll and not a big bomb.
SNAPSHOT
Protests in Sweden, where a copy of the Quran, the Muslims’ holy book, was torn apart and kicked, and in another instance burned, sparked riots and protests across the Islamic world. In Iraq, protesters this week stormed and set fire to the Swedish embassy before the Swedish ambassador was expelled from the country. Earlier this month, Turkish strongman Recep Erdogan thundered: “We will teach the arrogant Western people that it is not freedom of speech to offend the sacred values of Muslims.” In Iran, these students chose a quieter path, brandishing slogans written on their hands during a protest outside the Swedish embassy in Tehran. AFP via Getty Images Photo by – /AFP via Getty Images