The Ben Mulroney Show - Charges dropped against man who defended his home/Israel prepares for war with Iran

Episode Date: February 26, 2026

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This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. All right. Here's the question is the justice system, finally getting cases of self-defense right. We've heard a spate of stories of people minding their own business inside the home that they pay for with their hard-earned money. asleep with the things that matter most to them. And when I say things, I mean the people that matter most of them, possibly sleeping in the next room. And somebody gets it in their head that they want to get in that house. And they show up with a weapon. And they are ready to do some damage. And the end result can be an altercation between the homeowner and the invader.

And depending on the story that we've talked about, that homeowner can get in trouble. with the law for being woken from a slumber in his home, defending his people against somebody he doesn't know who has broken the law and come into his home. And it feels now that charges have been dropped against Lindsay Ontario tenant J.D. McDonald's after the Crown said there was no reasonable prospect of conviction in last summer's violent home intruder fight. So let's take you back in time. The alleged intruder into J.D. McDonald's home, Michael Kyle Breen, who police say broke in armed with a crossbow. Yet you're not going in on a social call in the middle of the night with a crossbow.

So that guy still faces four charges, remains in custody. But he suffered life-threatening injuries in the 320 altercation and was airlifted to a Toronto hospital. I'm going to telegraph my conclusion here. I don't care. Don't care. Court records show both men have violent histories. And this, guys, yesterday at the end of the show, I read parts of one of the most biased articles you could possibly read about safe supply and how the paraphernalia for drug use was being sent in the mail in Newfoundland. And the person who wrote it was determined to convince the reader that.

that this could save lives. Okay? Now I'm going to read you a little bit of this article written about the story I just told you about. Assault charges dropped against Ontario a man who confronted home intruder. Sounds great, right? But then you get to the end of this article on the CBC website. McDonald had violent history court docs show. And this goes into how McDonald was no saint.

Here's my problem with that. I have been living in a world that I'm glad to live in where the secretary, past of a rape victim has no bearing on a case as it relates to the rape of that person. It doesn't matter whether that person was the Virgin Mary or a streetwalker down the block. If that woman was raped, that woman was raped and we have rape shield laws to protect her. This was a violent act where someone came into this guy's house. I don't see a single difference between a man armed with a crossbow coming into your home and assaulting you and a rape victim. I don't. I'm sorry.

So you want to tell me why I should give a flying F if this guy had run afoul of the law? Are you blaming the victim? Because it sounds like you are. Now do rape victims, CBC. Go ahead. I'll wait. Ah, you can't. I'm tired.

I'm tired of living in these moments of situational hypocrisy where we clutch our pearls in one situation and close our eyes in another. These are violent assaults happening in people's homes. I don't care that the man has a violent past. He has a right to feel secure in his own home. How dare you bring up his violent past? Would you ever deign to bring up the sexual past of a rape victim? No, you wouldn't. Be consistent.

Yeah. Meanwhile, Doug Ford, I think probably agrees with me. Let's listen to his fiery response. When asked about sort of the state of play in these situations. Well, what I understand, if the guy breaks into your house and he has a crossbow ready to kill you, it's free game. You protect your life, you protect your family, and there's one person anywhere in Ontario anywhere, that if someone's breaking in your house and they're going to harm your children, harm your spouse, and I don't think they had children in the room, to be fair, that, but you're protecting your property.

Guys, if you break into someone's home, you need to pay the price. I'll tell you, anyone breaks into my home, it's going to be a bad day for him. Real, real bad day. I should have said Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, saying what I think any good faith, rational, normal human being would say.

I cannot believe that we've gotten to this point in society, where we have normalized the importance and the supposed value of the life of the criminal over the victim. I can't believe we're here. I can't believe that when we post this online,

there will be pushback to my position. There will be. I don't get that. I don't understand why a rational person can look at a home invasion where somebody shows up with a crossbow. And by the way, there were a few of them. Think about this. It took six months for the learned justice system

to appreciate what I appreciate instantly and what most people appreciate instantly, which is people who are just going up their business in their home, who are attacked and invaded in the middle of the night, should not be facing any, any legal ramifications for defending themselves. Any, it should be automatic. You walk into my house, you have to be prepared not to walk out. that is the risk that you take as a home invader. We've talked about this before.

When you normalize and when you prioritize the value of the life of the person who's prepared to come take mine in my own home, the value proposition for the home invader, it's an attractive one. It's a very attractive one. Let me see. I want to do a crime. And I know that the person in that house has some stuff that would be valuable to me. So I'm going to go in there. I'm going to go in there and scare the crap out of that family.

I am prepared to actually assault them physically. But I could come out with thousands of dollars, some jewelry, some watches, some cash, maybe even a car. And if I get assaulted, and I probably won't get assaulted because the justice system is going to tell that guy that if he assaults me, he could end up in prison. So I'm going to do that crime. or we could live in a world where criminals know, okay, there's stuff in that house that I want.

However, if I walk into that house, that homeowner has been empowered by society to bludgeon me to death in protection of his family and in furtherance of his rights. So maybe I won't do that crime because all of a sudden, my life, in the eyes of the law, is worth less than the homeowner. And you know what?

It should be worth less. Because you are valuing the person in that house is less. So guess what? That's what we're going to do. To establish the balance, if you look at the people in that house as something that you have to get through, including kill them, to get their stuff,

then in order to balance out the scales of justice, the justice system is going to treat you as lesser than. You start doing that and the value prop for that crime changes. And by the way, as a reminder here is the alternative. Reminds you of a crime that happened in September. 46-year-old Abdul Faruqi was shot and killed in September during a date targeted home invasion in Vaughn. In other words, people knew what was in that house. He was targeted.

They went in and they killed him. Killed him dead. York Regional Police said that three masked suspects broke in through the back door, fled in a dark SUV stole cell phones. That's what they got. Cell phones for this man's life. Farruki, a father of four, was not involved in any criminal activity. He was remembered as a hero. And the police were urging residents not to confront intruders. Well, you tell him not to confront intruders, intruders are going to walk in knowing they won't be confronted. You should be telling people, do whatever you want to do. It's Thunderdome. The second they walk in there,

it's Thunderdome. All bets are off. If you walk in with a crossbow, you you better be prepared to get a knife to the chest. I don't care how violent this sounds. I don't care. People deserve to know that they can do what they need to protect their family, and this society will have their back. Anything less unacceptable to me. All right, we are going to take a break,

and when we come back, prepping for war with Iran, we're going to talk to somebody with boots on the ground in Israel to talk about, is this the calm before the storm, or is it always calm over there? Let's talk with Adam Zivo, when we come back on the Ben Mulrini show. Well, if you are following the buildup of a U.S. military in close proximity to the Islamic Republic of Iran, one wonders is war imminent. President Donald Trump's state of the Union offered no clarity on whether he plans military action against Iran.

He says he would prefer a deal over either air attacks or an invasion. Iran insists it will never pursue nuclear weapons. Yeah, I don't believe them as far as I can throw them. They are the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. They are proud of it. The things they say about their neighbor Israel and the acts taken against them are proof that left to their own devices. They will probably go back on their word and do exactly what they said they wouldn't do.

And then, of course, we have the stories of them literally mowing down innocence in the streets to the point that the country has run out of body bags. So that's the lay of the land. However, I'm saying that from the comfort of our studio here in Toronto. Let's talk to somebody who is a little closer to where potential war could break out. Please welcome to the show, Adam Zivo, from the National Post, who finds himself in Israel. Adam, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me back. So where are you?

And tell me what you know that we don't know? So I am currently in Tel Aviv and I am here, you know, so I can report on the ground in case the war breaks out. I was in Tel Aviv last summer when the 12-day war happened and was in the bomb shelters then. And what I can say here, and this is not very well understood by anyone outside of Israel, is that people here are remarkably relaxed about the situation. So you go to the beaches, they're full, you go to the restaurants, they're full, you talk to people and you ask them if they're stressed. Some of them are. Some of them aren't. Of course, there's a spectrum. But a common theme that I hear from people is that years of war, years of conflict have inoculated them against panic. And so they say, look, if there's war, they'll go to the bomb shelters, they'll follow protocol, and that's it. Well, look, I follow enough people on social media, and there's a particular brand of American Blowhard who says, nobody in America wants this. The only reason that America is even considering this is because Israel has such,

has its tentacles in the American administration that they get whatever they want. They pull the strings of America like a marionette. What do you say to that? I mean, I think that's ridiculous. I think it's very clearly in the United States' interest to topple this regime. You know, let's not forget that Iran is one of the largest state sponsors of terrorism in the world and that it is a key player in this new anti-Western slash anti-American axis of quote-unquote resistance. So Iran is partnering with Russia. It's partnering with North Korea. It's partnering with China to thwart Western interests across the globe in any way possible.

And it would be ludicrous for the United States to simply allow Iran to continue doing that. anyone who thinks that Iran's aggression has nothing to do with American or Canadian interests is taking a very my open view. If in fact the Americans go in and somehow topple the regime feels to me like that would be a pretty significant change in the world order as it relates to access to oil. Because Venezuela, we look at what's happening in Cuba, Venezuela has turned off the taps to Cuba, now that Maduro is out and the Americans are, I don't want to say in charge, but certainly keeping a very close eye on how that government treads moving forward.

And the same would go with Iran. I have to believe Iran has been a lifeline for those who oppose America in the region. If all of a sudden America finds friendly governments in both Venezuela and Iran, what does that do to the power balance in the region? Well, I don't think it's going to do much when it comes to oil flows. So one thing I want to clarify with Venezuela is the amount of oil they were selling to China was really marginal. So most of China's oil does come from Iran. But the thing is that if the Islamic regime were to fall and let's say resapaphtli, the exiled crown prince were to form government, you know, in his transition plan,

he makes it very clear that he wants Iran to be kind of non-aligned. Yeah. So it's clear from the document that he wants to be Western oriented, that he wants to build relationships with the EU, that he wants to normalize the relationship with Israel. But if you read the foreign policy section of the transition plan, he makes it very clear that he wants to maintain respectful relations with Russia and with China. And there's a reason for that, which is that any regime, any government that comes after the Islamic regime will be very vulnerable and a bit unstable. It takes time to transition to democracy, especially after decades of misrule.

And they know that there could easily be, you know, a civil war. There could be interethnic strife. Iran is not just filled with Persians. You have Azeris as well and Kurds. And that could mean loss of territorial integrity. So for the sake of stabilizing Iran, I think any government that were to come after this regime would continue selling oil to China. But they would just stop sponsoring terrorism in the Middle East and they would stop being so antagonistic towards Washington.

Well, you know, that idea actually, when you just presented that to me, that seems very clear-headed. And it seems like somebody who has been paying attention to the changes on the playing field. Like, I don't think what the world needs in reaction to the liberation of the people of Iran is a desperate China backed into a corner because all of a sudden they're starved of oil. I think I think that that presents sort of a sober, level-headed look at how things are. And I'd have to say kudos to the crown prince for being able to say that and be able to see that. I mean, what did Clinton say about leadership? Leadership is to be able to look around the corner of history just a little bit. Yeah.

That did me feel like that. The thing with Papa Viz is that, you know, he's been working with Iranian civil society actors for about two or three years on this transition plan. And they're very well read. You know, they're usually from international think tanks. And so these are pragmatic people that are thinking very clearly and carefully about what governance entails. And there are some people in the West who think that, you know, a post-Islamic regime Iran would be America's biggest cheerleader or an American puppet. But the reality is that Iranians are in a tricky situation and they're pragmatic people and they know that they have to kind of play with all sides. And even though many Iranians want to align with the West, they're in a region where they cannot afford to antagonize their other neighbors who could destabilize them.

Yeah, well, you'd be exchanging one set of problems for another, right? And so to walk that middle ground, create a third path is probably the smart thing. Now, let's talk about the alternative to war, that, you know, there is a key round of talks in Geneva expected to shape Donald Trump's decision. what's going on, what's on the table, and what could come out of this? Because there are a lot of people who say nothing short of the removal of the mullahs and the Ayatollah will be acceptable given what they've done to the innocence over the past few weeks. Well, so I haven't been following the peace process too carefully because I've been focusing on on-the-ground realities in Israel. And to be honest, I feel like with these peace talks, unless you're really, really following it super carefully, it's easy to get the wrong sense of what's happening, you know, just as happened as,

happened with Ukraine. But I do know that, you know, at least within the Iranian diaspora, there is very little support for a deal that keeps the mullahs in power because it is generally seen, it is generally believed that the massacre of tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters early this year is something that is completely unforgivable. And for many Iranians, they would view this as a betrayal of their fight for freedom and true self-determination. And for the Mullahs, I mean, they're very ideological.

They view the United States as the big Satan and Israel as the little Satan. And so they're not fully rational actors. Of course, they're not irrational. I mean, they're very savvy and cunning. But at the same time, you know, they're not like a normal government and that their religious fundamentalism means that there might be a certain suicidleness to them. And we have to be aware of that. And we have to be aware of that the fact that they might choose.

is to make their last stand in lieu of just coming up with an agreement. Well, Adam Zivo from the National Post on location in Tel Aviv. Thank you for the update. And if there's anything else in the next few days, on Friday next week, we hope to hear from me again. But please be safe, my friend. This winter on global. Have you ever told a lie? Are you serious?

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