Asheville has been isolated after Helene wrecked roads and knocked out power and cell service

MONTREAL – Members of Montreal’s Muslim and Maghrebi communities gathered at a city park on Saturday afternoon to decry – and fight back against – what they described as a “scourge” of street gangs recruiting youth to carry out criminal acts.

Several dozen participants gathered in Wilfrid-Bastien Park in the city’s St. Leonard borough , including children carrying blank, black placards suggesting mourning.

“The Muslim community is mobilizing,” said Hadjira Belkacem, president and founder of Muslim Sepulcher Association of Quebec, a group that supports mourning Muslim families.

“We have had enough of seeing our children get massacred … We are enraged, and we are in mourning,” Belkacem, who organized the event, told those in attendance.

Elected officials, parents and other community members took the stage to sound the alarm following several recent incidents in the province, including the death of a 14-year-old boy of Algerian descent who media reports say was found near a Hells Angels-linked bunker in Frampton, Que., about 50 kilometres southeast of Quebec City.

Provincial police have not confirmed the boy’s identity or cause of death, but multiple media reports say the victim fled his home in St. Leonard, where the gathering took place, and was reportedly sent to attack the bunker. The Sûreté du Québec declined to comment on the case on Saturday.

Borough Mayor Michel Bissonnet called on all levels of government to intervene.

“We need the help of the city centre and help from the provincial and federal governments,” he said.

Bissonnet said the additional funding is needed to put more intervention workers on the ground and provide more services to keep children out of trouble.

Quebec’s Public Security Minister François Bonnardel has publicly acknowledged the issue of alleged gang recruitment in recent weeks, describing organized crime groups enlisting youth in their activities as “vile.”

“Like many Quebecers, what I hear coming out of Frampton shocks me,” he posted on X on Sept. 19. “It is vile for street gangs to enlist young people — children — to do their dirty work.”

Belkacem says she has heard from multiple parents, especially those with roots in northern Africa, afraid that their kids may be targeted.

“It starts at 12, 13, 14-years-old. Street gangs ask them to steal cars, go out and kill, that sort of thing… They recruit kids to do their dirty work,” she said in an interview on Saturday before the event.

“We know because we’ve been called by several families asking for help and telling us that, ‘my child has been recruited into a gang,’” she said, adding that Quebecers of Algerian and Moroccan descent have been especially affected. “Unfortunately, there have been many deaths of young people in our community.”

Nazar Saaty, a lawyer who volunteers with the Muslim Sepulcher Association of Quebec, works with young criminal offenders. He said youth are being recruited “at an explosive rate,” and families fear youth protection services may take their children away if they speak up.

Saaty argued criminal groups are exploiting vulnerabilities in Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act.

“They’re saying: Listen, I’m not going to commit a crime, I’ll send some youngster to do it. The worst that’ll get is be put in a centre … whereas I’ll go to prison,” he said.

“My solution wouldn’t be to strengthen or crack down on young offenders. It would be to introduce legislation within the Criminal Code for adults who recruit these minors to have very, very stiff penalties.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2024.

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REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — The Israeli strike that killed Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah was a “measure of justice” for victims of a four-decade “reign of terror,” President Joe Biden said Saturday.

The comments came after Lebanon’s Hezbollah group confirmed earlier Saturday that Nasrallah, one of the group’s founders, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut the previous day.

Biden noted that the operation to take out Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’ massacre of Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023.

“Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a ‘northern front’ against Israel,” Biden said in a statement.

He also noted that Hezbollah under Nasrallah’s watch has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese.

Hezbollah attacks against U.S. interests include the truck bombing of the U.S. Embassy and multinational force barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the kidnapping of the Central Intelligence Agency chief of station in Beirut, who died while held captive. The U.S. said Hezbollah leaders armed and trained militias that carried out attacks on American forces during the war in Iraq.

The White House sees the death of Nasrallah as a huge blow to the group. At the same time, the administration has sought to tread carefully as it has tried to contain Israel ‘s war with Hamas, which, like Hezbollah, is backed by Iran, from exploding into an all-out regional conflict.

The White House and Pentagon were quick on Friday, shortly after the strike, to say publicly that Israel offered it no forewarning of the operation.

“President Biden and I do not want to see conflict in the Middle East escalate into a broader regional war,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement Saturday that echoed Biden’s description of a “measure of justice.” She added, “Diplomacy remains the best path forward to protect civilians and achieve lasting stability in the region.”

The confirmation of Nasrallah’s death comes during a week that began with Biden’s top national security aides working on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly to build support for a 21-day Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire that they hoped might also breathe new life into stalled efforts to secure a truce in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a defiant speech Friday to the United Nations, vowing to keep up operations against Hezbollah until tens of thousands of Israeli citizens displaced by rocket attacks can return home. Shortly after, Israel carried out the strike killing Nasrallah.

Biden reiterated on Saturday that he wants to see cease-fires both in Gaza and between Israel and Hezbollah.

“It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability,” Biden said.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the United States of supporting the killing that took out Nasrallah and dozens of others.

“The world community will not forget that the order of the terrorist strike was issued from New York and the Americans cannot absolve themselves from complicity with the Zionists,” Pezeshkian was quoted as saying in a statement read on Iranian state television.

The State Department on Saturday ordered the departure of the families of U.S. diplomats who are not employed by the embassy in Beirut and authorized the departure of those who are, as well as nonessential employees because of “the volatile and unpredictable security situation” in Lebanon’s capital.

The State Department has previously advised American citizens to consider leaving Lebanon and reiterated its warning against all travel to the country.

“Due to the increased volatility following airstrikes within Beirut and the volatile and unpredictable security situation throughout Lebanon, the U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial options still remain available,” the department said in a statement Saturday.

The State Department routinely orders or authorizes the departure of nonessential embassy staffers and the families of diplomats when security conditions deteriorate in the country where they are posted.

An ordered departure is not technically an evacuation but does require those affected to leave. An authorized departure allows those affected to leave the country voluntarily at government expense.

Biden, who was spending the weekend at his vacation home in Delaware, and Harris, who was campaigning in California, held a call with national security aides on Saturday to discuss the situation in the Middle East.

In a brief exchange with reporters as he left church on Saturday, Biden did not directly respond to questions about the conflict potentially escalating further.

“It’s time for a cease-fire,” he said.

The president on Friday directed the Pentagon to assess and adjust as necessary the U.S. force posture in the region to enhance deterrence, ensure force protection and support the full range of U.S. objectives.

He called for the assessment after the Pentagon earlier in the week announced it was sending an unspecified number of additional U.S. troops to the region because of rising tensions.

TORONTO – Scott Cresswell was behind the wheel of an unmarked white police truck as he drove across the Greater Toronto Area looking for compounds that might be used to hide stolen vehicles.

The York Regional Police detective entered a crowded commercial zone in Mississauga, Ont., where dozens of cars were parked, scanning for suspicious signs. He then drove to a neighbourhood outside the Halton Hills region, where a large, isolated home sat near farmland, surrounded by a fenced yard.

After inspecting the property from the outside, Cresswell said he had strong reason to suspect it could be a “cool off” site where stolen vehicles are kept for a few days to ensure they aren’t being tracked.

“That is the spot,” Creswell told his colleague over the phone. “This is a dynamite spot.”

The country has an auto theft problem so severe the Insurance Bureau of Canada has called it a “national crisis.” The issue is particularly acute in the Greater Toronto Area, where police forces have been refocusing efforts on tackling the situation.

In York Region, made up of nine communities north of Toronto, Cresswell’s unit of 10 officers is on the front lines of attempts to combat auto theft. The unit is tasked with surveillance, tracking and arresting suspects. The team also aims to return stolen vehicles to their owners.

While driving from site to site on a surveillance mission, Cresswell said dozens of criminal groups are involved in auto theft across southwestern Ontario, motivated by what he called a massive supply of high-end vehicles parked on easily accessible driveways.

“The issue is that the cars are super valuable,” he said. “They’re very easy to steal, they’re in high demand overseas.”

That creates a “perfect situation” for thieves, the detective said, particularly as stolen vehicles can fairly easily be taken to the Port of Montreal and shipped out of the country.

Most stolen cars head to countries in Africa and the Middle East, where Toyotas and Hondas as well as luxury brands such as Lexus and Range Rovers are in demand, Cresswell said. Electric vehicles often aren’t targeted because of a lack of charging infrastructure in those countries. A small percentage are disguised as new cars and resold in Canada, he said.

More than 70,000 private vehicles were stolen across Canada last year, with more than 30,000 taken in Ontario, according to the Équité Association, an anti-crime organization funded by insurance companies.

Those statistics have been noticed internationally: in a report published earlier this year, Interpol said Canada was among the top 10 worst countries out of 137 for stolen vehicles, based on data collected between February and May.

The overall picture might be looking slightly better this year –the first six months of 2024 saw a decline of 17 per cent in auto theft over the same period in 2023, according to the Équité Association.

But a new problem has emerged.

“There has been a decrease in overall car theft,” Cresswell said. “But there has been an uptick … in carjackings as well as overnight break-and-enters for car keys.”

Last month, York Region’s police chief said the force had seen 64 violent carjackings this year, a surge of 106 per cent over the same period in 2023 and a 400 per cent jump compared to 2019.

The force announced it would form a task force specifically to combat carjackings.

In Toronto, police said in June that there had been 149 carjackings, a hike of 86 per cent compared to the year before.

Mark Mendelson, a former police officer who now runs a consulting firm in Toronto, said the rise in carjackings is worrying because those are far more “traumatic.”

“When you’re stealing a car from somebody’s driveway at four in the morning, yes, it’s a violation to the victims but there was no threat of violence,” he said.

“When you are the victim of physical violence, like a robbery in an intersection or a shopping mall parking lot, it’s very, very different.”

Auto theft has surged dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with thieves donning masks and hoodies and using devices to clone key fobs before breaking into parked cars and driving off.

Car owners are now trying to safeguard their vehicles with steering wheel locks, Faraday pouches for their keys to hide fob signals and air tags to track vehicles.

The barriers might have prompted thieves to resort to more brazen attempts, Mendelson said.

“They realized that sometimes the simplest method is to follow the vehicle that they wanted, wait until they got to a red light or a stop sign … where people are not on guard,” he said. “The next thing you know people were running up to the vehicles armed with knives and firearms.”

A multipronged approach involving all levels of government, law enforcement and auto manufacturers is needed to address the issue, Mendelson said.

The federal government convened an auto theft summit in February, urging closer collaboration between law enforcement, border services, the insurance industry and automakers.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada has said the cost of insurance claims for stolen vehicles surpassed $1.5 billion in 2023, which was 20 per cent more than 2022.

The situation is making it more expensive for car owners to insure their vehicles. In Ontario, the bureau estimates auto theft adds around $130 to the average annual premium.

“If you drive one of the vehicles on the high theft list, there is a chance you’re going to be paying a little bit extra for your insurance,” said Morgan Roberts, vice-president of insurance at Ratehub.ca.

The incredible pace of technological advances has contributed to the evolution of car thefts, said Cresswell, the York Region detective.

“They could still break into the car, reprogram a key, but it would take them 10 minutes, seven minutes,” he said about theft in the past. “Now they do it in one minute.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2024.