December 17, 2025 • 9 mins
Jon Liedtke joins 610 CKTB's Gene Valaitis to discuss the December 14, 2025 targeted terrorist attack at a “Chanukah by the Sea” celebration in Bondi Beach, Australia, that resulted in the murder of fifteen Jewish people, including a 10-year-old child and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor.
The perpetrators—an ISIS-radicalized father and son—exploited severe systemic failures within Australia’s security apparatus. Despite the son being on a national security watchlist since 2019 and the pair recently visiting a known jihadist hub in the Philippines, the father maintained a legal firearms license for six weapons under the same roof as the son. This disconnect between intelligence databases and gun registries allowed a high-risk household to remain armed, leading to a daylight mass-execution that sent shockwaves through the global Jewish community and the world more broadly.
While the tragedy highlights a breakdown in security, it also brought forward acts of profound heroism and communal resilience.
Ahmed Al Ahmed, a Syrian refugee and local shop owner, risked his life to tackle one of the shooters, sustaining multiple injuries while successfully disarming the attacker. This act of cross-community bravery stands in stark contrast to the hate that fueled the massacre.
Boris and Sofia Gurman, 69 and 61 respectively, attempted to prevent one of the terrorists from opening fire on a highway. After several minutes of struggling back and forth, the terrorist overpowered them, regained his weapon, and shot the two of them, with both dying.
May their memories be blessings.
In Windsor, Ontario, the local Jewish community mirrored this resilience by proceeding with its annual riverfront Hanukkah lighting under heavy police protection. Supported by local officials, the event served as a necessary act of defiance against a backdrop of increasing threats and a refusal to allow international terror to silence local Jewish life.
The Bondi massacre serves as a dire warning for Canada, where antisemitism has reached record levels. According to B’nai Brith Canada, 2024 saw 6,219 reported incidents—an average of 17 per day and a 124% increase since 2022. This surge includes a nationwide pattern of violence, from the firebombing of synagogues in Montreal to repeated shootings at Jewish schools in Toronto.
As Australia moves to close its legislative and security gaps, Canada faces its own reckoning regarding the normalization of hate and the radicalization occurring within its borders. The escalating data suggests that without urgent, decisive intervention and improved security protocols, the risks to the Canadian Jewish community remain at an all-time high.
The perpetrators—an ISIS-radicalized father and son—exploited severe systemic failures within Australia’s security apparatus. Despite the son being on a national security watchlist since 2019 and the pair recently visiting a known jihadist hub in the Philippines, the father maintained a legal firearms license for six weapons under the same roof as the son. This disconnect between intelligence databases and gun registries allowed a high-risk household to remain armed, leading to a daylight mass-execution that sent shockwaves through the global Jewish community and the world more broadly.
While the tragedy highlights a breakdown in security, it also brought forward acts of profound heroism and communal resilience.
Ahmed Al Ahmed, a Syrian refugee and local shop owner, risked his life to tackle one of the shooters, sustaining multiple injuries while successfully disarming the attacker. This act of cross-community bravery stands in stark contrast to the hate that fueled the massacre.
Boris and Sofia Gurman, 69 and 61 respectively, attempted to prevent one of the terrorists from opening fire on a highway. After several minutes of struggling back and forth, the terrorist overpowered them, regained his weapon, and shot the two of them, with both dying.
May their memories be blessings.
In Windsor, Ontario, the local Jewish community mirrored this resilience by proceeding with its annual riverfront Hanukkah lighting under heavy police protection. Supported by local officials, the event served as a necessary act of defiance against a backdrop of increasing threats and a refusal to allow international terror to silence local Jewish life.
The Bondi massacre serves as a dire warning for Canada, where antisemitism has reached record levels. According to B’nai Brith Canada, 2024 saw 6,219 reported incidents—an average of 17 per day and a 124% increase since 2022. This surge includes a nationwide pattern of violence, from the firebombing of synagogues in Montreal to repeated shootings at Jewish schools in Toronto.
As Australia moves to close its legislative and security gaps, Canada faces its own reckoning regarding the normalization of hate and the radicalization occurring within its borders. The escalating data suggests that without urgent, decisive intervention and improved security protocols, the risks to the Canadian Jewish community remain at an all-time high.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We welcome back our regular contributor. Just love this guy.
John Lidkey is here. Good morning John, Good morning Jeane.
Now you and Adamer are buddies, aren't you.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah, we've I interviewed him for a couple of years
while I was here in Windsor on the local radio station,
and we've got to know each.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Other pretty well. Yeah, he's a good guy, really does
excellent reporting, and his reporting on the safe supply scam
is well. He leads the way in the country. I mean,
he's an expert in that field. This is a really,
really quite incredible Well listen, listen, my friend. You know,
I woke up on Sunday morning and I know you
(00:36):
do a lot of work in the Jewish community in
your area, and you know I thought of you, and
I thought of Sue Ann Levy, like right away. And
you know, I'm watching the news out of Australia and
it was the eleven dead. Now it's up to fifteen dead,
so many people wounded, one small baby was killed. And
the first thing that came to mind was the Nova
(00:59):
Music Festival two years ago on October seventh in Israel,
people running away from gunmen, and thank goodness that one
guy captured one of the gunmen, the other was shot
to death by police. But as a Jewish man and
as somebody who works hard in his community, what did like,
what was your gut feel on Sunday morning?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Woke up, I turned on my phone and I just
I froze. It was the same feelings from October the seventh,
blooded over me again. Just this this tragicness, the bleakness
of it all. But there was a bit more resolve
this time, because, unfortunately, it wasn't unexpected. This is something
that Jews have been screaming at the top of our
(01:43):
lungs about for the past two and a half plus years,
since October the seventh, We've been expecting another mass targeted
attack like this, and now this is the largest one
since October the seventh. In October the seventh was the
largest since the Holocaust. And you know, here we are.
It's not surprising, it's not unexpected. It's still shocking to
(02:05):
see it, of course, don't get me wrong, but I
don't think anybody should be surprised.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Well, you know, our friend Joe Wormington from the Son who,
by the way, is going to be on tomorrow talking
about the big stories in the twenty twenty five You know,
he said in a calumn the other day, Canada has
dodged a bullet And I believe he is right. If
you take a look at Canada, France, and Australia all
on the same day. They said they're recognizing the Palestinian state.
(02:33):
The mayor of the largest city in Toronto, that would
be you know, Olivia chow down the highway in Toronto.
She was speaking to a group and she described how
Israel defended itself against that October seventh attack as a genocide,
and the police in Toronto do nothing when Jews are
(02:54):
being taunted in the streets of Toronto, and the police
chief and the mayor claim their hands are tight because
of some lawyer. I mean, it's out of control. I'm
frightened that if they don't start cracking down, something really
bad is going to happen in Canada. I'm worried.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Well, let's take a step back, because things bad have
already happened. We have seen synagogues targeted in Toronto. In
Toronto and North York, there was one that was targeted
ten times of windows being smashed. The Pride of Israel
had its windows smashed in Montreal. Multiple synagogues have been
defaced with anti Semitic slogan symbols and red paint symbolizing blood.
(03:34):
We've seen schools and community centers have their windows smashed
as well businesses. A school bus in Toronto was destroyed
by arson. There have been bomb threats. In August of
last year, there was a mass coordinated threat of over
one hundred Jewish institutions nationwide receiving identical email bomb threats.
Jewish day schools have been targeted with bomb threats Hillel chapters.
(03:57):
This pattern seems to occur on Fridays before Shabbab or
on Jewish holidays to maximize fear and disruption. We've seen
physical assaults and harassment on university campuses, in public spaces,
in residential neighborhoods, and then there's been fire bombings and
arsons and shooting attacks at synagogues and institutions and at
private residences. So I mean this, we're already in the
(04:19):
bad place right now, but the floor can always be
pulled out from under you a little bit lower. There's
always a lower place to go.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, Well, I mean Honikah is a time for celebration.
And lighting them in the area. And I know that
in the course of preparing my show, most synagogues have
heavy duty security happening right now during the time which
should be a celebration not having armed guards around your synagogue.
(04:48):
I don't know what's happening in.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Canada, you know, Jeene. I can't tell you a time
that I've gone to high Holidays at my local synagogue
where there hasn't been armed armed police presence there, and
then private security as well. These are just things that
our religious institutions have come to accept as being necessary,
and it's unfortunate. Our governments should be doing far more.
(05:11):
And the situation has only gotten exponentially worse since October
the seventh. We've seen the great think about that, since
the Holocaust, the largest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust
has resulted in our country with the highest rates of
anti Semitism that we've ever seen. I mean, it's just
it's obscene. It's like we have gone through the looking glass.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Why is there so much hate?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Why is there so much Jew hate?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
You know?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I mean, this is a it's the age old question.
It goes back to the dawn of time. There has
always been a hatred of a group of people who
have sought to maintain our own religious identity, our cultural identity,
our core values of who we are. It separates us
from others, and we don't always as similar in nice
(06:01):
neat ways. We become proud members of our community, we
contribute to our communities, but we refuse to bow and
to accept to giving up what it is to be
who we are religiously, and that upsets power groups. Of course,
there have also been, you know, just mass anti Semitic
campaigns that we've seen over the twentieth century that have
resulted in some of the worst horrors, and for us
(06:22):
to pretend like that there aren't still echoes or adherence
to those ideologies would make us naive.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I scratch my head, like, why are the police not
doing anything?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
You know, that's a great question. And I can say
I've spoken with politicians in power about this off record
on record as well, but I can say off record
without naming any sources are divulging. It's because they're not
receiving the full support of the political class. And the
political class is motivated through votes, and I think that
(06:56):
there is a concern to come down hard in a
way where it is perceived that this will go against
certain voting blocks, whether it be those who are perceived
to be you know, again, I wouldn't say against Jewish people,
but maybe more pro of the Palestinian side of the spectrum,
people more on the left side of the spectrum. And then,
of course, you know broadly, there are people who might
(07:17):
not be educated and aware, but we see what's happening
and don't realize that it's a war, and a war
results in awful images on our screens, and those are
being hyper intensified. So if there isn't the support that's
coming from the political class, the police don't feel like
the political class has their back, and they're correct in
that stance. So what we need is for all of
(07:38):
our elected officials or unelected officials, our community leaders to
come down and just say clearly, this is unacceptable. It
doesn't matter if it's happening to Jews, it doesn't matter
if it's happening to Blasts, it doesn't matter what minority
it's happening to. It's unacceptable.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, well, my dad is a Halt. Well he has
since passed and he lived in ninety seven, so that
was a darn good life, thank you. But he was
a hull of survivor. He wasn't Jewish, but he got
locked up in a terrible place and just about died.
And apparently they didn't kill him because he was a
doctor and he was sort of helping out, I guess
you could say. But in my home when I was
(08:12):
growing up, you know, I heard the stories over and
over again, and it was always Eugene, never forget. Eugene,
never forget. We'll never forget is right now, but it's
taking on a whole new dynamic and I find it.
It makes me. It upsets me, but it really makes
me angry.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
John makes me angry as well. And it's good to
be angry. It's good to harbor that feeling. But you know,
chat channel it pushed towards advocacy. Call up your local
elected officials if you're upseessed about it, get engaged, volunteer,
join those interfaith coalitions. We can overcome this. This is Canada,
This is not how things have always been in this country,
and we can get back on our way. It's just
(08:49):
going to take a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah. Hey, finally, on a brighter note, I love having
your voice on the show. I'm glad that we got
introduced by Adam and I love how you just tell
it the way it is. I'm taking a little bit
of time off, but we will be seeing you in
January once again for your opinions. And in the meantime,
a happy New Year and Merry Christmas and happy Honica
(09:12):
and everything else.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Thank you so much, ging and to you and yours.
Merry Christmas, happy Honica, a happy New Year and everything
in between.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
All right, talk to you in the new year.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Curious John Litke another great voice on the show. We
love having these people on. And how did we meet
John Lidke, Well, we met him through Adam's evel. Who's
coming up next? It's six n c KTV, Niagara's News
and Talk
We welcome back our regular contributor. Just love this guy.
John Lidkey is here. Good morning John, Good morning Jeane.
Now you and Adamer are buddies, aren't you.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah, we've I interviewed him for a couple of years
while I was here in Windsor on the local radio station,
and we've got to know each.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Other pretty well. Yeah, he's a good guy, really does
excellent reporting, and his reporting on the safe supply scam
is well. He leads the way in the country. I mean,
he's an expert in that field. This is a really,
really quite incredible Well listen, listen, my friend. You know,
I woke up on Sunday morning and I know you
(00:36):
do a lot of work in the Jewish community in
your area, and you know I thought of you, and
I thought of Sue Ann Levy, like right away. And
you know, I'm watching the news out of Australia and
it was the eleven dead. Now it's up to fifteen dead,
so many people wounded, one small baby was killed. And
the first thing that came to mind was the Nova
(00:59):
Music Festival two years ago on October seventh in Israel,
people running away from gunmen, and thank goodness that one
guy captured one of the gunmen, the other was shot
to death by police. But as a Jewish man and
as somebody who works hard in his community, what did like,
what was your gut feel on Sunday morning?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Woke up, I turned on my phone and I just
I froze. It was the same feelings from October the seventh,
blooded over me again. Just this this tragicness, the bleakness
of it all. But there was a bit more resolve
this time, because, unfortunately, it wasn't unexpected. This is something
that Jews have been screaming at the top of our
(01:43):
lungs about for the past two and a half plus years,
since October the seventh, We've been expecting another mass targeted
attack like this, and now this is the largest one
since October the seventh. In October the seventh was the
largest since the Holocaust. And you know, here we are.
It's not surprising, it's not unexpected. It's still shocking to
(02:05):
see it, of course, don't get me wrong, but I
don't think anybody should be surprised.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Well, you know, our friend Joe Wormington from the Son who,
by the way, is going to be on tomorrow talking
about the big stories in the twenty twenty five You know,
he said in a calumn the other day, Canada has
dodged a bullet And I believe he is right. If
you take a look at Canada, France, and Australia all
on the same day. They said they're recognizing the Palestinian state.
(02:33):
The mayor of the largest city in Toronto, that would
be you know, Olivia chow down the highway in Toronto.
She was speaking to a group and she described how
Israel defended itself against that October seventh attack as a genocide,
and the police in Toronto do nothing when Jews are
(02:54):
being taunted in the streets of Toronto, and the police
chief and the mayor claim their hands are tight because
of some lawyer. I mean, it's out of control. I'm
frightened that if they don't start cracking down, something really
bad is going to happen in Canada. I'm worried.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Well, let's take a step back, because things bad have
already happened. We have seen synagogues targeted in Toronto. In
Toronto and North York, there was one that was targeted
ten times of windows being smashed. The Pride of Israel
had its windows smashed in Montreal. Multiple synagogues have been
defaced with anti Semitic slogan symbols and red paint symbolizing blood.
(03:34):
We've seen schools and community centers have their windows smashed
as well businesses. A school bus in Toronto was destroyed
by arson. There have been bomb threats. In August of
last year, there was a mass coordinated threat of over
one hundred Jewish institutions nationwide receiving identical email bomb threats.
Jewish day schools have been targeted with bomb threats Hillel chapters.
(03:57):
This pattern seems to occur on Fridays before Shabbab or
on Jewish holidays to maximize fear and disruption. We've seen
physical assaults and harassment on university campuses, in public spaces,
in residential neighborhoods, and then there's been fire bombings and
arsons and shooting attacks at synagogues and institutions and at
private residences. So I mean this, we're already in the
(04:19):
bad place right now, but the floor can always be
pulled out from under you a little bit lower. There's
always a lower place to go.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, Well, I mean Honikah is a time for celebration.
And lighting them in the area. And I know that
in the course of preparing my show, most synagogues have
heavy duty security happening right now during the time which
should be a celebration not having armed guards around your synagogue.
(04:48):
I don't know what's happening in.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Canada, you know, Jeene. I can't tell you a time
that I've gone to high Holidays at my local synagogue
where there hasn't been armed armed police presence there, and
then private security as well. These are just things that
our religious institutions have come to accept as being necessary,
and it's unfortunate. Our governments should be doing far more.
(05:11):
And the situation has only gotten exponentially worse since October
the seventh. We've seen the great think about that, since
the Holocaust, the largest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust
has resulted in our country with the highest rates of
anti Semitism that we've ever seen. I mean, it's just
it's obscene. It's like we have gone through the looking glass.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Why is there so much hate?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Why is there so much Jew hate?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
You know?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I mean, this is a it's the age old question.
It goes back to the dawn of time. There has
always been a hatred of a group of people who
have sought to maintain our own religious identity, our cultural identity,
our core values of who we are. It separates us
from others, and we don't always as similar in nice
(06:01):
neat ways. We become proud members of our community, we
contribute to our communities, but we refuse to bow and
to accept to giving up what it is to be
who we are religiously, and that upsets power groups. Of course,
there have also been, you know, just mass anti Semitic
campaigns that we've seen over the twentieth century that have
resulted in some of the worst horrors, and for us
(06:22):
to pretend like that there aren't still echoes or adherence
to those ideologies would make us naive.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I scratch my head, like, why are the police not
doing anything?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
You know, that's a great question. And I can say
I've spoken with politicians in power about this off record
on record as well, but I can say off record
without naming any sources are divulging. It's because they're not
receiving the full support of the political class. And the
political class is motivated through votes, and I think that
(06:56):
there is a concern to come down hard in a
way where it is perceived that this will go against
certain voting blocks, whether it be those who are perceived
to be you know, again, I wouldn't say against Jewish people,
but maybe more pro of the Palestinian side of the spectrum,
people more on the left side of the spectrum. And then,
of course, you know broadly, there are people who might
(07:17):
not be educated and aware, but we see what's happening
and don't realize that it's a war, and a war
results in awful images on our screens, and those are
being hyper intensified. So if there isn't the support that's
coming from the political class, the police don't feel like
the political class has their back, and they're correct in
that stance. So what we need is for all of
(07:38):
our elected officials or unelected officials, our community leaders to
come down and just say clearly, this is unacceptable. It
doesn't matter if it's happening to Jews, it doesn't matter
if it's happening to Blasts, it doesn't matter what minority
it's happening to. It's unacceptable.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, well, my dad is a Halt. Well he has
since passed and he lived in ninety seven, so that
was a darn good life, thank you. But he was
a hull of survivor. He wasn't Jewish, but he got
locked up in a terrible place and just about died.
And apparently they didn't kill him because he was a
doctor and he was sort of helping out, I guess
you could say. But in my home when I was
(08:12):
growing up, you know, I heard the stories over and
over again, and it was always Eugene, never forget. Eugene,
never forget. We'll never forget is right now, but it's
taking on a whole new dynamic and I find it.
It makes me. It upsets me, but it really makes
me angry.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
John makes me angry as well. And it's good to
be angry. It's good to harbor that feeling. But you know,
chat channel it pushed towards advocacy. Call up your local
elected officials if you're upseessed about it, get engaged, volunteer,
join those interfaith coalitions. We can overcome this. This is Canada,
This is not how things have always been in this country,
and we can get back on our way. It's just
(08:49):
going to take a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah. Hey, finally, on a brighter note, I love having
your voice on the show. I'm glad that we got
introduced by Adam and I love how you just tell
it the way it is. I'm taking a little bit
of time off, but we will be seeing you in
January once again for your opinions. And in the meantime,
a happy New Year and Merry Christmas and happy Honica
(09:12):
and everything else.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Thank you so much, ging and to you and yours.
Merry Christmas, happy Honica, a happy New Year and everything
in between.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
All right, talk to you in the new year.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Curious John Litke another great voice on the show. We
love having these people on. And how did we meet
John Lidke, Well, we met him through Adam's evel. Who's
coming up next? It's six n c KTV, Niagara's News
and Talk
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