Menachem Freedman, 37-38, is a Canadian from Quebec who joined the Israeli army when he was 19, according to a 2014 French-language report in La Presse. The newspaper noted that Freedman spent about 10 months in 2006 patrolling the border between Gaza and Egypt as part of an infantry unit. Describing how he was received in Israel, Freedman said (auto-translated from French), “People are going to stop you in the street when they realize who you are, that you come from another country, and they’re going to thank you.”

La Presse stated, “His experience at the border, where he managed the influx of asylum-seekers fleeing war, gave him a taste for humanitarian law.” After returning to Canada, Freedman went to Concordia University for his undergraduate, and then McGill University for law school, where he was also a director for McGill’s Human Rights Working Group. Freedman also volunteered at the BC Civil Liberties Association. He now works as a labour lawyer at HHBG Lawyers, a firm with locations in Vancouver and Surrey, B.C.