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Toronto family remembers their son, Tyler Wallace-Cohen, with a twinkling tribute
Two months after their 13-year-old son Tyler Wallace-Cohen died, his parents Jennifer Wallace and Eric Cohen did what their son would have wanted them to do and banished the mid-January darkness by filling their yard with glowing lights, inflatables and joy.
In the midst of the colourful display was the logo for Loeys-Dietz Syndrome, the genetic disorder that led to Tyler’s death in November 2024.
The family invited friends, classmates and neighbours to drive by the Toronto house and give a honk, or get out of their car and enjoy the lights display, take photos and share stories about Tyler. The special event was called Twinkling Tribute Hour for Tyler.
“We wanted to bring joy to others during the holiday season and shine a light on Tyler and the kind of kid he was,” said Wallace.
He was known for his infectious smile and cheering up those around him.
“Tyler would always champion for others. If someone was having a bad day or being bullied, he would always step in and advocate for that person,” said Wallace.
Tyler had no shortage of challenges himself. When Wallace was pregnant, the couple went to an ultrasound early on and found out there was a ‘laundry list of problems’ with their unborn child.
They decided to continue the pregnancy and hope for the best. After a difficult labour, Tyler was born and immediately whisked away by a medical team.
“In the middle of the night, Jen called me and said that he may not make it through the night, and I had to go to SickKids (Hospital),” said Cohen.
Tyler survived but this was the first of many dire medical situations that he would face throughout his life including 17 surgeries, four being major heart procedures.
He lived with Loeys-Dietz, a rare genetic disorder that affects connective tissue. It can cause aneurysms in the aorta and other arteries, as well as other abnormalities.
When he was born, there were fewer than 500 people worldwide with this diagnosis and he had one of the most severe cases the doctors had seen.
“We made it our mission that he was going to not just defy the odds but beat them,” said Wallace.
They tried to ensure Tyler did everything that other kids did including going to school, participating in extracurricular activities, and more.
“A cardiologist said to me, ‘we’re going to give him the best medical care that he can possibly have. Your job is to let him just be a kid,’ and so we did.” said Cohen.
They took family trips and tried to enjoy life as much as possible. One year they went to Niagara Falls and upgraded to the Presidential Suite.
“When Tyler found out, he was so happy and excited. He looked at me and goes, ‘Mom, we’re big ballers’,” recalled Wallace.
At one time, Tyler was followed by 18 different healthcare professionals. Tema Stein was Tyler’s osteopath. They first met when he was less than two years old.
“When he first came to me, he couldn’t bear weight on his feet. He couldn’t stand or walk,” said Stein.
She helped expand Tyler’s capabilities in different ways including introducing him to Kyoshi Dominic Moscone at the Northern Karate School.
“When I first heard about the medical issues he was going through, I was a bit skeptical. I was told to just meet him and right away he stole my heart,” said Moscone.
They started working together for just 10 minutes at a time because of his condition. They made their big goal to get up to an hour.
“His knees would buckle and he would fall over due to muscular imbalance. I would test his balance, push him over a bit. I would ask him if he fell and he would say no or that he almost fell. The almost fall was a huge accomplishment because it meant he could control that stuff,” said Moscone.
Before long, they were training together consistently every Saturday. They worked together for about seven years.
“He accomplished everything according to the same curriculum as everyone else,” said Moscone.
Just last year, Tyler got his black belt. According to Moscone, he never gave up no matter how difficult things were and his parents also played a big role in this major accomplishment.
“He’s a one in a million kid,” said Moscone, “He’s going to be deeply missed. He lived a short but meaningful life. He brightened the lives of everyone he came in contact with.”
Moscone attended the twinkle tribute hour with his sons last week.
“It was amazing. You look at his parents and his whole family and you can see why Tyler was as good as he was. They’re making this terrible thing into something fantastic. It’s just what they do,” he said.
On Nov. 5, 2024, Tyler had his 16th surgery, this time for his aorta. Just two days later, he had chest reconstruction surgery. He came home from the hospital and was recovering at home.
Shortly after, he wasn’t doing well and his parents took him back to SickKids.
“I was hoping it was just a panic attack and the pain was related to the surgeries. But when they hooked him up to the heart monitors, all hell broke loose,” said Cohen.
The doctors did everything they could to try and save Tyler one last time.
“The doctor came over and said there’s nothing we can do, your son is dying. Everyone just left the room and we were alone with him.” said Cohen. “It was the worst feeling because I knew he was gone.”
The couple said the holidays were an incredibly difficult time for them and their family but soon Wallace had an idea.
“Jen convinced me to put up the inflatables and then we started to expand it,” said Eric.
They started to get more inflatables donated to them and it just kept expanding. Eventually, the yard was filled with light and colour.
“We did everything we could to turn that darkness into something bright and fun because that’s what Tyler would have wanted us to do,” said Cohen.
At the tribute evening, they were joined by friends, family, community members, and even the police who flashed their lights and honked their horns in honour of Tyler.
“Tyler would have loved this and the world needs more kind, caring, and compassionate people like him,” said Wallace.
Proceeds from the event went to SickKids Hospital.
The post Toronto family remembers their son, Tyler Wallace-Cohen, with a twinkling tribute appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says
A closed Israeli military gate stands near Ramallah in the West Bank, February 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, in the West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday, after Arab ministers planning to attend were stopped from coming.
The move, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government announced one of the largest expansions of settlements in the West Bank in years, underlined escalating tensions over the issue of international recognition of a future Palestinian state.
Saturday’s meeting comes ahead of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, that is due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood, which Israel fiercely opposes.
The delegation of senior Arab officials due to visit Ramallah – including the Jordanian, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian and Bahraini foreign ministers – postponed the visit after “Israel’s obstruction of it,” Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the block was “a clear breach of Israel’s obligations as an occupying force.”
The ministers required Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” the official said. “Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”
A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud had delayed a planned trip to the West Bank.
Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries which favour a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity.”
Palestinians want the West Bank territory, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as the core of a future state along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.
But the area is now criss-crossed with settlements that have squeezed some 3 million Palestinians into pockets increasingly cut off from each other though a network of military checkpoints.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the announcement this week of 22 new settlements in the West Bank was an “historic moment” for settlements and “a clear message to Macron.” He said recognition of a Palestinian state would be “thrown into the dustbin of history.”
The post Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Armed men hijacked dozens of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip overnight and hundreds of desperate Palestinians joined in to take supplies, local aid groups said on Saturday as officials waited for Hamas to respond to the latest ceasefire proposals.
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close but Hamas has said it is still studying the latest proposals from his special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the proposals.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
On Saturday, the Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war began 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
At the same time, a separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on the social media platform X.
NO BREAD IN WEEKS
The World Food Program said it brought 77 trucks carrying flour into Gaza overnight and early on Saturday and all of them were stopped on the way, with food taken by hungry people.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” it said in a statement.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Overnight on Saturday, he said trucks had been stopped by armed groups near Khan Younis as they were headed towards a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza and hundreds of desperate people had carried off supplies.
“We could understand that some are driven by hunger and starvation, some may not have eaten bread in several weeks, but we can’t understand armed looting, and it is not acceptable at all,” he said.
Israel says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
The post Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a US-backed proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but President Donald Trump’s envoy rejected the group’s response as “totally unacceptable.”
The Palestinian terrorist group said it was willing to release 10 living hostages and hand over the bodies of 18 dead in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. But Hamas reiterated demands for an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, conditions Israel has rejected.
A Hamas official described the group’s response to the proposals from Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as “positive” but said it was seeking some amendments. The official did not elaborate on the changes being sought by the group.
“This response aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to our people in the Strip,” Hamas said in a statement.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks told Reuters that among amendments Hamas is seeking is the release of the hostages in three phases over the 60-day truce and more aid distribution in different areas. Hamas also wants guarantees the deal will lead to a permanent ceasefire, the official said.
There was no immediate response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to the Hamas statement.
Israel has previously rejected Hamas’ conditions, instead demanding the complete disarmament of the group and its dismantling as a military and governing force, along with the return of all 58 remaining hostages.
Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close after the latest proposals, and the White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the terms.
Saying he had received Hamas’ response, Witkoff wrote in a posting on X: “It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.”
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had killed Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’ Gaza chief on May 13, confirming what Netanyahu said earlier this week.
Sinwar, the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza. Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied his death.
The Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said on Saturday it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
On Saturday, aid groups said dozens of World Food Program trucks carrying flour to Gaza bakeries had been hijacked by armed groups and subsequently looted by people desperate for food after weeks of mounting hunger.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” the WFP said in a statement.
‘A MOCKERY’
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on X.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
A separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Israel denies operating a policy of starvation and says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
Hamas denies looting supplies and has executed a number of suspected looters.
The post Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.