Canadian

“Universities worldwide, under the guise of research neutrality, continue to profit from an [Israeli] economy now operating in genocidal mode. Indeed, they are structurally dependent on settler-colonial collaborations and funding.”

This is what United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese wrote in her latest report “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide”, which documents the financial tentacles of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and beyond. Its release prompted the United States’ governing regime to issue sanctions against Albanese in a move the Italian legal scholar rightly described as “obscene” and “mafia intimidation tactics”.

The report reveals how universities not only invest their endowments in corporations linked to Israel’s war machine, but also engage in directly or support research initiatives that contribute to it. It is not only a damning indictment of the complicity of academia in genocide, but also a warning to university administrations and academics that they hold legal responsibility.

In Israel, Albanese observes, traditional humanities disciplines such as law, archaeology, and Middle Eastern studies essentially launder the history of the Nakba, reframing it through colonial narratives that erase Palestinian histories and legitimise an apartheid state that has transitioned into what she describes as a “genocidal machine”. Likewise, STEM disciplines engage in open collaborations with military industrial corporations, such as Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, IBM, and Lockheed Martin, to facilitate their research and development.

In the United States, Albanese writes, research is funded by the Israeli Defence Ministry and conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with various military applications, including drone swarm control.

In the United Kingdom, she highlights, the University of Edinburgh has 2.5 percent of its endowment invested in companies that participate in the Israeli military industrial complex. It also has partnerships with Ben-Gurion University and with companies supporting Israeli military operations.

While Canadian institutions do not appear in Albanese’s report, they very easily could and, indeed, we argue, should.

Canada’s flagship school, the University of Toronto (UofT), where one of us teaches and another is an alumnus, is a particularly salient example.

Over the past 12 years, the UofT’s entanglements with Israeli institutions have snowballed, stretching across fields from the humanities to cybersecurity. They also involve Zionist donors (both individuals and groups), many of whom have ties with complicit corporations and Israeli institutions, and have actively interfered with university hiring practices to an extent that has drawn censure from the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

This phenomenon must be understood in the context of the defunding of public higher education, which forces universities to seek private sources of funding and opens up universities to donor interference.

After calls for cutting such ties intensified amid the genocide, the UofT doubled down on them over the past year, advertising artificial intelligence-related partnerships with Technion University in Haifa, joint calls for proposals with various Israeli universities, and student exchange programmes in Israel.

The UofT also continues to fundraise for its “Archaeology of Israel Trust”, which was set up to make a “significant contribution to the archaeology of Israel” – a discipline that has historically focused on legitimising the Israeli dispossession of the Palestinian people. It also inaugurated a new lab for the study of global anti-Semitism, which is funded by the University of Toronto-Hebrew University of Jerusalem Research & Innovation Alliance.

In addition to institutional partnerships, UofT’s Asset Management Corporation (UTAM), which manages the university’s endowment, has direct connections with many companies that are, as per Albanese’s report, complicit in the genocide in Palestine, including Airbnb, Alphabet Inc, Booking Holdings, Caterpillar, Elbit Systems, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, and Palantir Technologies.

A 2024 report found that 55 of these companies operate “in the military-affiliated defence, arms, and aerospace sectors” and at least 12 of UTAM’s 44 contracted investment managers have made investments totalling at least $3.95 billion Canadian dollars ($2.88bn) in 11 companies listed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as supporters of the construction and expansion of illegal settlements in the Palestinian territories.

Furthermore, 17 of UTAM’s 44 contracted investment managers are responsible for managing around $15.79 billion Canadian dollars ($11.53bn) in assets invested in 34 companies identified by The American Friends Service Committee as benefiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

UofT is not unique among Canadian universities in this regard. According to a report on university divestment, Western University, too, promotes ongoing partnerships with Ben-Gurion University and invests more than $16m Canadian dollars ($11.6m) in military contractors and nearly $50 million Canadian dollars ($36.5) in companies directly complicit in the occupation of Palestine and the genocide of Palestinians. The list of complicit companies again includes Lockheed Martin, as well others listed by Albanese like Chevron, Booking Holdings, Airbnb, and Microsoft.

McGill University, another top Canadian university, has also invested in Lockheed Martin, as well as notable military industrial companies like Airbus, BAE Systems, Safran, and Thales, which have also been accused of providing weapons and components to Israel.

In the context of the ongoing genocide, students, staff, and faculty at such complicit universities – including at each of our respective institutions – have been demanding that their universities boycott and divest from Israel and companies profiting from its warfare.

They are not only explicitly in the right according to international law, but are actually articulating the basic legal responsibility and requirement borne by all corporate entities.

And yet, for raising this demand, they have been subjected to all manner of discipline and punishment.

What Albanese’s report lays bare is that university administrators – like other corporate executives – are subject to and, frankly, should fear censure under international law.

She writes, “Corporations must respect human rights even if a State where they operate does not, and they may be held accountable even if they have complied with the domestic laws where they operate. In other words, compliance with domestic laws does not preclude/is not a defence to responsibility or liability.”

This means that those administrating universities in Canada and around the world who have refused to divest and disentangle from Israel and instead have focused their attention on regulating students fighting for that end are themselves personally liable for their complicity in genocide, according to international law.

We could not possibly put it more powerfully or succinctly than Albanese herself does: “The corporate sector, including its executives, must be held to account, as a necessary step towards ending the genocide and disassembling the global system of racialized capitalism that underpins it.”

It is our collective responsibility to make sure that happens at universities as well.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

A Canadian woman who is travelling around the UK and trying to keep costs down has shared her thoughts on one city in England – and says it’s ‘not worth the trip’

Kamilla Szpakowski, a Canadian digital creator, has been exploring the UK on a shoestring budget and documenting her journey on Instagram under @kamilla.travelling. The 23-year-old has spent five months last year dedicated to “low budget travel” and sharing her insights with her followers.

During her travels across the UK, Kamilla encountered one city that she found charming but ultimately wouldn’t recommend to fellow budget travellers. Despite its picturesque architecture, ghostly tales, and amiable residents, York didn’t make the cut for her. In an Instagram video, Kamilla questioned her audience: “Would you believe me if I told you this cute little city was not worth the trip?” She expressed disappointment in the city’s affordability.

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Kamilla pointed out that while York may be delightful and photogenic, it doesn’t cater well to those watching their wallets. “Although York is super cute and picture-perfect it is not for the budget traveller,” she remarked, reports the Express.

She shared her frustration about the unexpected costs, saying, “When I was doing my research on things to see [and] do in York I already knew there weren’t going to be many places we could go in and enjoy but I was not expecting for places like the York Art Gallery to be advertised as free to actually cost £7 when I got there.”

Though Kamilla initially believed York Art Gallery was free of charge, a quick check on their official website reveals that entry fees apply: £7 for adults, £4.20 for kids aged five to 16, and a discounted rate of £6.40 for those aged 17 to 24 or with a student card.

However, there are some who can enjoy the gallery at no cost, including local children under 16, Art Fund members, Friends of York Art Gallery, and various other concessions detailed on the gallery’s website.

Kamilla remarked: “The York Minster is beautiful from the outside but unfortunately costs £18 to enter which I think is just way too much. The food was also very expensive. The burger I got was £11 with no fries!”

Despite encountering some pricey attractions, the travel blogger found joy in several complimentary experiences. Among these were visits to the iconic Shambles, said to be the inspiration behind Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley, and the local market. She also admired the stunning architecture of York Minster and Clifford’s Tower from the exterior.

Kamilla enjoyed a leisurely walk along the historic York City Walls, spanning 3.4km of ancient masonry, and meandered through the scenic Museum Gardens.

TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said late Sunday that trade talks with the U.S. have resumed after Canada rescinded its plan to tax U.S. technology firms.

President Trump said Friday that he was suspending trade talks with Canada over its plans to continue with its tax on technology firms, which he called “a direct and blatant attack on our country.”

The Canadian government said that “in anticipation” of a trade deal “Canada would rescind” the digital services tax, which was set to go into effect Monday.

Carney and Trump spoke on the phone Sunday, and Carney’s office said they agreed to resume negotiations.

“Today’s announcement will support a resumption of negotiations toward the July 21, 2025, timeline set out at this month’s G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis,” Carney said in a statement.

Carney visited Trump in May at the White House, where he was polite but firm. Trump traveled to Canada for the Group of 7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, where Carney said that Canada and the U.S. had set a 30-day deadline for trade talks.

Trump, in a post on his social media network last Friday, said Canada had informed the U.S. that it was sticking to its plan to impose the digital services tax, which applies to Canadian and foreign businesses that engage with online users in Canada.

The digital services tax was due to hit companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb with a 3% levy on revenue from Canadian users. It would have applied retroactively, leaving U.S. companies with a $2-billion bill due at the end of the month.

Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, called Carney’s retreat a “clear victory” for Trump.

“At some point this move might have become necessary in the context of Canada-U.S. trade negotiations themselves, but Prime Minister Carney acted now to appease President Trump and have him agree to simply resume these negotiations, which of a clear victory for both the White House and big tech,” Béland said.

He said it makes Carney look vulnerable to Trump’s outbursts.

“President Trump forced PM Carney to do exactly what big tech wanted. U.S. tech executives will be very happy with this outcome,” Béland said.

Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne issued a statement after speaking Sunday with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

“Rescinding the digital services tax will allow the negotiations of a new economic and security relationship with the United States to make vital progress,” his statement said.

Trump’s announcement Friday was the latest swerve in the trade war he’s launched since taking office for a second term in January. Progress with Canada has been a roller coaster, starting with the U.S. president poking at the nation’s northern neighbor and repeatedly suggesting it would be absorbed as a U.S. state.

Canada and the U.S. have been discussing easing a series of steep tariffs Trump imposed on goods from America’s neighbor.

Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as 25% tariffs on autos. He is also charging a 10% tax on imports from most countries, though he could raise rates on July 9, after the 90-day negotiating period he set would expire.

Canada and Mexico face separate tariffs of as much as 25% that Trump put into place under the auspices of stopping fentanyl smuggling, though some products are still protected under the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement signed during Trump’s first term.

Gillies writes for the Associated Press.

It was a successful day all round for Mercedes with 18-year-old rookie Kimi Antonelli finishing third for his first podium in Formula 1.

Antonelli – at 18 years and 294 days old – becomes the third-youngest podium finisher of all time behind Verstappen and Lance Stroll.

Starting fourth, he overtook championship leader Piastri at the start and dealt with pressure from the Australian in the closing stages of the race.

“It was so stressful but super happy,” Antonelli said. “The last stint I pushed a bit too hard behind Max and I killed a bit of the front left and I struggled a bit at the end, but I’m really happy to bring the podium home.”

“This track has been good for us and the car has been incredible all weekend. Hopefully we can carry the same momentum into the next few races.”

Russell said Mercedes performed so strongly at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve because a “smooth” track and “low-speed” corners suited the characteristics of the car.

Next on the calendar is Austria from 27-29 June and the Red Bull Ring will be a very different challenge to Montreal.

“It’s going to be on old tarmac, more high-speed corners and it’s going to be hot as well,” Russell said.

“We’ve got three things working against us. I’m not going to sit here and say Mercedes is back because we were the quickest team here last year but we didn’t win the championship. We know where we need to improve.”

George Russell wins his fourth career GP while McLaren’s Lando Norris crashes out after touching teammate Oscar Piastri three laps from the finish.

George Russell won his first race of the Formula 1 season as the Mercedes driver held off defending race winner Max Verstappen at the Canadian Grand Prix.

It was the fourth victory of Russell’s career, and the race ended under a yellow flag when McLaren teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris staged a wheel-to-wheel late battle that ended with Norris hitting the wall on Sunday.

Russell started on pole for the second consecutive year in Montreal and held the advantage most of the race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The British driver became the fourth race winner this year, joining Piastri, Norris and Verstappen, the four-time reigning F1 champion.

Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished third behind Verstappen for his first F1 podium.

The two McLarens came together when Norris, then in fifth, attempted to pass Piastri multiple times on the 67th lap out of 70.

Norris ultimately ran into Piastri and bounced into the wall, drawing a safety car for the final laps.

Piastri finished fourth, ending an eight-race podium streak dating back to the second race of the season. McLaren as a team failed to reach the top three for the first time this year.

Norris, who ended at a standstill by the side of the track with no front wing and a broken car, was quick to blame himself.

“I’m sorry. All my bad. All my fault. Stupid from me,” he said over the team radio.

Piastri pitted as the safety car was deployed and rejoined with a tyre advantage over Antonelli that he could not use as the racing never resumed.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished fifth and sixth, with Fernando Alonso seventh for Aston Martin and Nico Hulkenberg bringing in more solid points for Sauber in eighth place.

Piastri stretches his lead over Norris in the drivers’ championship to 22 points after 10 of 24 races in the 2025 season.

The next race of the F1 season is the Austrian Grand Prix on June 29.

The track characteristics have the opposite effect on championship leaders McLaren, whose car is the best in the field at managing tyre temperatures.

As a consequence, McLaren have been struggling to make it operate at its best in Montreal.

Championship leader Oscar Piastri is third on the grid behind Russell and Verstappen but his team-mate and title rival Lando Norris could manage only seventh, admitting that he had made two mistakes in the final session of qualifying.

Norris said: “I think we can go forwards anyway, but not a lot. You know, it’s not like we’re easy one-two, like we have been on other tracks.

“It’s just very low grip, first of all is one of the bigger things. And therefore the car balance just never comes together as much as what it does in other tracks.

“Probably just low grip and some of the kerb-riding and bumps, which just hurts us, it seems, more than some others.”

Norris was using a revised front suspension layout that was designed to increase the feel from the front axle of the car, the lack of which the Briton believes is important in the flip in form between himself and Piastri between last year and this.

Norris said it was “tough to say” whether this had improved the feeling coming from the car.

“This track, everything just feels different,” he said. “So I think it’s something we’ll have to wait and see on the next few races through Austria and Silverstone and so forth to understand and maybe back-to-back tests between them both.

“It’s nothing that I’ve felt just yet. But it’s more that when you go to a new track, it’s hard to remember everything perfectly relative to other tracks. So we just need a bit more time to understand if it’s any better or not.”

Piastri stuck with the old layout, saying: “It’s not an upgrade. It’s a different part. It changes some things, some things are better, some things are worse. I have been happy with how the car has been this year.”

Team principal Andrea Stella said: “From Lando’s point of view, there were no downsides. If anything, despite the result that we had in Q3 with Lando, pretty much right away, Lando has actually been competitive, especially compared to Oscar throughout the weekend.

“So we think that the experimentation of the front suspension is a successful one, and it’s a preference, it’s a set-up option in a way, that might be even different across drivers depending on their requirements from a driving point of view.”

The grid gives the Australian a good chance to extend his championship lead over Norris, who had a tricky session.

He missed the final chicane on his first lap of the top 10 shootout and had to be reminded not to push too much in the braking zones.

His second attempt was slower than Alonso’s first and Norris failed to improve on his final run, and was bumped further down by Russell, Antonelli and Hamilton.

Norris said: “Just a couple of big mistakes. One, hitting the wall on the last lap in the exit of (Turn) Seven and first lap, I think, last corner. So, yeah, just two mistakes that cost me, I guess.

“We’ve clearly not been as quick as normal. I think that’s just because of the layout of the track. I think the cars have been performing relatively well and I was happy through all of qualifying. Maybe not the car to take pole today, but good enough to be up there and fighting for top three.”

Alonso’s sixth place was Aston Martin’s best grid position of the season and confirms the progress the team have made since introducing an upgrade at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

“We maximised for sure the potential of the car,” Alonso said. “I feel happier with the car since Imola, since the upgrade.

“At the beginning of the year, it was a challenge to understand what the car needed and what kind of direction in the set-up I needed to go, but since Imola I am more comfortable and I can be more precise on the feedback and make the changes that I know will make the car faster and sometimes you succeed on that.

“Last four races, four Q3 (places). It makes the whole team a little more relaxed.”

Rounding out the top 10 behind Leclerc were Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and Williams’ Alex Albon.

But Hadjar faces an investigation for impeding Williams’ Carlos Sainz at the end of the first session, preventing the Spaniard from progressing.

Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, who qualified 11th, will start at the back because of a 10-place grid penalty for overtaking Piastri’s damaged McLaren after a red flag during final practice.

Stewards rejected Tsunoda’s explanations for his actions, saying Piastri was not going slow enough to excuse the breaking of a safety rule.

Warwick won the Le Mans 24 Hours, is a former president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club and is one of the most senior driver stewards in F1.

An ex-F1 driver is always one of the four stewards officiating at every grand prix.

Last week Warwick was quoted as saying that a penalty given to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the Spanish Grand Prix after the Dutchman apparently deliberately collided with Mercedes’ George Russell was “right”.

On a gambling website, Warwick said: “Should he have done what he did, in Turn Five with George Russell? Absolutely not. Did he get a penalty for that? Yes.

“It seems to me that, although he dove in, he then did turn away from George, but momentum pushed him against George. It is absolutely wrong and the FIA was right to give him a penalty.”

Warwick is the second driver steward to be punished by the FIA for commenting on races in the past six months.

In January Johnny Herbert was dropped by the FIA, which said his “duties as an FIA steward and that of a media pundit were incompatible”.

The FIA’s decision to suspend Warwick came a day after controversial statute changes were passed by the organisation’s general assembly.

The changes are said by critics to “risk further contributing to the erosion of the FIA’s reputation for competent and transparent governance” under president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

Ben Sulayem’s time in office since 2021 has been marked by a series of controversies, the majority of which have been focused on the erosion of accountability and good governance and the introduction of measures that enhance his power and reduce oversight.

When there are questions about how stewards arrived at decisions during a grand prix, the FIA refuses to comment on the basis that stewards are “independent from the FIA”.

On Monday night, Summer McIntosh won the 200-meter individual medley at the 2025 Canadian swimming trials to set her second world record in just three days.

She had already achieved one world record at the trials in Victoria.

McIntosh won the 200-meter individual medley in 2 minutes, 5.7 seconds. The previous world record of 2:06.12, set by Hungary’s Katinka Hosszú, had stood for 10 years.

After shaving a second off her previous best time on the backstroke leg, McIntosh was still a tenth of a second off Hosszú’s previous record pace at the final turn. But McIntosh crushed the freestyle leg in 29.65 seconds, another personal best, to finish in world-record time.

“It’s been one of those records that’s always been in the back of my mind since trials two years ago,” the 18-year-old Toronto native said afterward. “I’ve been knocking on the door on this one. I’ve just tried to chip away, chip away at it. To finally do it, it’s kind of like ‘Wow, I’ve finally got that done.’”

Two days earlier, McIntosh had reclaimed the world record in the 400 freestyle. She first set the mark with 3:56.18 in 2023, but was bested the same year by Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus’ 3:55.38. But on Saturday, McIntosh was back on top of the world after swimming a 3:54.18.

“That last 100, I’m usually really, really hurting. But I flipped at the 200, and I was just cruising,” McIntosh said. “I knew I was having a strong swim and I could tell by the crowd and the way they were cheering that I was probably close to the world record, so I really tried to push that last part for them.”

In between those two historic swims, McIntosh also improved on her Canadian record in the 800 freestyle, with a time of 8:05.07. U.S. swimming star Katie Ledecky holds the world record in that event after finishing in 8:04.12 at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last month.

McIntosh won four medals at the Paris Olympics last year — three golds (200 butterfly, 200 and 400 IM) and one silver (400 freestyle). She holds the world record in the 400 IM; she swam it in 4:24.38 at last year’s Canadian swimming finals.

With three more days of competition, is there a chance she’ll grab a fourth world record before the event is over? Maybe. The 400 IM is scheduled for Wednesday.

Italian Matteo Manassero and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox were tied for the lead after the third round at a closely contested Canadian Open.

Manassero and Fox both carded rounds of 64, each including seven birdies and one bogey as they moved to 14 under.

“It was a really good round,” said Manassero, whose bogey came at the 17th hole before he recovered the stroke with a birdie at the last.

“I missed the short one on 17, and I did miss a couple more short ones. I try to think of them just like a shot really, like a driver, like a six-iron, whatever. It’s just a shot.

“It wasn’t that hard for me to stay focused into what I was doing and not ruining [it] at the end.”

Manassero will be chasing his first PGA Tour title, while Fox is seeking a second just a month after his first triumph on the tour at the Myrtle Beach Classic.

“Obviously there’s a lot of good players behind me,” said Fox. “I feel like it’s going to take a pretty low [score] to get the job done.”

Lee Hodges and Kevin Yu both shot seven under par rounds of 63 and sit one back along with Matt McCarty.

A 65 from England’s David Skinns moved him on to 11 under along with seven other players, including overnight leader Cameron Champ.

Champ could only manage a one over-par 71 at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley.

England’s Danny Willett (67) and Ireland’s Shane Lowry (68) are a shot further back on 10 under.

Rory McIlroy carded a woeful eight-over-par 78 as he missed the cut at the Canadian Open.

It is the first time the Northern Irishman has failed to make the weekend in a tournament since the Open Championship last July.

The Masters champion, who won this event in 2019 and 2022, ended his second round at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley on nine over par overall, 149th in a 153-man field – a remarkable 22 shots behind leader Cameron Champ.

McIlroy, who started the day on one over par, made a quadruple-bogey eight on the par-four fifth and dropped further shots at the eighth, 10th, 11th and 13th holes before recording his first birdie of the day on the 15th.

Another bogey arrived at the 17th, and while he delivered a birdie on the final hole it left McIlroy well short of the projected cut line at three under.

Champ, who only arrived in the early hours of Wednesday morning having been the eighth alternate last weekend, followed up an opening 62 with a four-under 66, as he opened a two-stroke advantage over fellow American Andrew Putnam.

It was also a good day for Ireland’s Shane Lowry, whose two-under-par 68 took him to eight under, four shots adrift of Champ.

Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen is just ahead of Lowry at nine under along with home favourites Richard Lee and Nick Taylor, and France’s Victor Perez.

However, there was also disappointment for Justin Rose, who McIlroy defeated in a play-off at the Augusta National in April.

The Englishman will also not be around for the weekend after missing out in unfortunate circumstances at one under par.

After finding the rough off the seventh tee, the 2013 US Open champion unintentionally caused his ball to move while shifting a loose impediment and was given a two-stroke penalty after failing to put the ball back in its original position.

France’s Matthieu Pavon also had a second round to forget, signing for a 10-over-par 80, which included a 12 on his opening hole, the par-four 10th.

Rory McIlroy was off the pace at the Canadian Open as he carded a one-over-par 71 in the first round.

The Northern Irishman hit three birdies but four bogeys in Ontario to trail clubhouse leader Thorbjorn Olesen by 10 shots.

Dane Olesen’s nine-under-par round of 61 included an eagle, eight birdies and a bogey.

McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam of winning all the majors with victory at the Masters in April.

However, he produced a disappointing showing at the US PGA in May and his struggles continued at the Canadian Open as he prepares for next week’s US Open.

Elsewhere, Irishman Shane Lowry carded a promising 64 to end the first round on six under, while defending champion Robert MacIntyre, of Scotland, and England’s Danny Willett were a further shot back.

May 27 (UPI) — A Canadian man who pleaded guilty to stealing an iconic portrait of Sir Winston Churchill from a storied Ottawa hotel more than three years ago has been sentenced to two years less a day in prison.

Jeffrey Lain James Wood received his sentence Monday in an Ottawa courtroom, CBC reported. He had pleaded guilty in March to forgery, theft over $5,000 — or $3,640 USD — and trafficking property obtained by crime.

The Roaring Lion is a world-famous photograph of Churchill taken by renowned Armenian-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh in 1941 in the Canadian capital of Ottawa.

A resident of Ottawa’s famed Fairmont Chateau Laurier for nearly two decades, Karsh moved out of the hotel in 1998, and upon his exit, gifted the hotel seven photographs, including the Churchill portrait, which hung on its walls until the pandemic hit.

According to the Chateau Laurier, the photograph was stolen between Dec. 25, 2021, and Jan. 6, 2022, and was replaced by the thief with an imitation, “deceiving everyone until a hotel staff member discovered the theft” that August.

Ottawa police said the hotel employee had noticed differences with the frame and the wire mechanism, which led to the discovery of the fake print, complete with a forged Karsh signature.

An investigation brought Ottawa police to the attention of a Roaring Lion print that was said to be from the Karsh estate and was up for sale at London’s Sotheby’s auction house. It was then sold to a buyer in Genoa, Italy.

Ottawa police said neither the buyer nor the auction house knew the photograph was stolen.

Police then learned that the seller was Wood, a man in his 40s from Powassan Ont., who had created a fake identity and credentials in an effort to move the famed photograph.

Wood was arrested and charged on April 24, 2024.

The photograph was returned to the hotel in September of that year and returned to its walls on Nov. 15, 2024.