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‘We will never be the same’: Oct. 7 killing of Montreal native leaves gaping hole

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MONTREAL – Raquel Ohnona Look wipes back tears when her eyes fall on the plaque in honour of her son Alexandre, affixed to a bench in a suburban Montreal green space that was recently renamed for him.

“Forever in our hearts. Our hero,” it reads above his name and the dates of his birth and death — Sept. 10, 1990, to Oct. 7, 2023.

Alexandre Look, a 33-year-old Montreal native, was among the concertgoers who were murdered a year ago Monday at the Supernova music festival during a brutal assault on Israel carried out by Hamas militants. He is among at least eight people, either Canadian citizens or with ties to Canada, who died during the Oct. 7 attacks.

“It’s been a tough year. It’s a new reality. Our family dynamic changed,” Ohnona Look said in an interview last week, just before Rosh Hashanah. “Obviously he was such a huge persona, and we will never be the same people as we were before Oct. 7.”

The day was every parent’s worst nightmare, as Ohnona Look and her husband, Alain, bore witness to their son’s final moments from their Montreal home. They were on a video call with Alexandre as the Hamas assault unfolded and he huddled in a shelter with about 30 other concertgoers.

His mother heard the gunfire and dropped the phone in shock. His father picked it up to try to understand what was happening. When he heard the Arabic phrase “Allahu akbar,” he knew their son was gone.

Ohnona Look says a year later, the emotions come in waves. “It’s a hole in the heart. It’s anger. It’s trauma, because, you know, having a child murdered, and you’re on the phone … it’s something you don’t come back from.”

She spent long hours during the past year trying to learn the circumstances around her son’s death, speaking to survivors who were in the bunker.

“He was a hero that day,” she says she learned. “He sacrificed his life. He put himself in the front of the shelter where they were hiding,” She says survivors described her son trying to keep up their spirits while the terror attack unfolded around them.

He did the same for his mother during their video call, trying to keep her comforted, asking about holiday meals and keeping his tone upbeat. She even heard him trying to reason with the attackers. “But you can’t reason with monsters,” she says.

In a recent meeting with a first responder who attended to Look’s body, she was able to fill in some gaps that had been haunting her. The first responder said Look was found on top of two people he had tried to protect at the front of the shelter, and he had taken most of the gunshots and grenades. Many survived hiding farther back in the shelter.

“But we know that’s Alex, and he would have done that 100 times over,” she says. “He was always led by his fearless, gigantic heart. That’s how he lived his life.”

She says Look was a born salesman who spoke six languages. He had been most recently living in Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, selling cosmetics. He was in Israel on holiday.

After his death, the Look family moved from a nearby Montreal borough back to Côte-St-Luc, a predominantly Jewish suburb where the newly renamed Alexandre Look Place is located. It is next to the Jewish high school he attended and near the synagogue where his father prays every morning.

The community grieved with the family and still does. During an interview with The Canadian Press, at least a dozen people, some of them strangers, stopped to offer hugs, condolences and wishes for a Happy New Year.

Now she wants to ensure that those who were killed on Oct. 7 aren’t forgotten — the victims she calls the “Nova Angels” from the music festival as well as those murdered in their kibbutzes.

They include Judih Weinstein Haggai, 70, who held Canadian, Israeli and American citizenships. She died on Oct. 7 while out for a walk with her husband near the Nir Oz kibbutz, which sits less than three kilometres from the Gaza Strip. Their bodies were being held in Gaza and have not been recovered, their daughter has said.

Vivian Silver, 74, died at the Be’eri kibbutz where she lived, which also sits near the border with Gaza. For weeks, officials initially believed the Winnipeg-born woman had been taken into Gaza, but her body was identified in mid-November.

Others found dead immediately after the attack included Look and another Canadian, Ben Mizrachi, 22, of Vancouver.

Hamas also killed dual Israeli Canadian nationals Netta Epstein, 21; Shir Georgy, 22; and Adi Vital-Kaploun, 33. Tiferet Lapidot, 22, an Israeli whose family was from Canada, was also at the music festival and found dead days later.

The emotions remain raw, but Ohnona Look says she’s in “warrior mode” in a fight against rising antisemitism and to speak for those still missing.

“I’m doing what my son would want me to do,” Ohnona Look says. “I’m the voice for all the forgotten ones, the hostages that still remain … even if there is only bodies, we need their bodies back.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 6, 2024.

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End of Manitoba legislature session includes replacement-worker ban, machete rules

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WINNIPEG – Manitoba politicians are expected to pass several bills into law before the likely end of legislature session this evening.

The NDP government, with a solid majority of seats, is getting its omnibus budget bill through.

It enacts tax changes outlined in the spring budget, but also includes unrelated items, such as a ban on replacement workers during labour disputes.

The bill would also make it easier for workers to unionize, and would boost rebates for political campaign expenses.

Another bill expected to pass this evening would place new restrictions on the sale of machetes, in an attempt to crack down on crime.

Among the bills that are not expected to pass this session is one making it harder for landlords to raise rents above the inflation rate.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Father charged with second-degree murder in infant’s death: police

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A Richmond Hill, Ont., man has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of his seven-week-old infant earlier this year.

York Regional Police say they were contacted by the York Children’s Aid Society about a child who had been taken to a hospital in Toronto on Jan. 15.

They say the baby had “significant injuries” that could not be explained by the parents.

The infant died three days later.

Police say the baby’s father, 30, was charged with second-degree murder on Oct. 23.

Anyone with more information on the case is urged to contact investigators.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Ontario fast-tracking several bills with little or no debate

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TORONTO – Ontario is pushing through several bills with little or no debate, which the government house leader says is due to a short legislative sitting.

The government has significantly reduced debate and committee time on the proposed law that would force municipalities to seek permission to install bike lanes when they would remove a car lane.

It also passed the fall economic statement that contains legislation to send out $200 cheques to taxpayers with reduced debating time.

The province tabled a bill Wednesday afternoon that would extend the per-vote subsidy program, which funnels money to political parties, until 2027.

That bill passed third reading Thursday morning with no debate and is awaiting royal assent.

Government House Leader Steve Clark did not answer a question about whether the province is speeding up passage of the bills in order to have an election in the spring, which Premier Doug Ford has not ruled out.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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