Yaniv was born on June 12, 1987, only child of Yitzhak Yaniv and Miriam Altman Yaniv. We know Miriam emigrated to British Columbia from Israel, and suspect Yitzhak was also an immigrant. In photos, Miriam appears to be two or more decades younger than Yitzhak. Yitzhak was 50 when Jonathan was born, meaning that like Chris Chan, Jonathan Yaniv was the product of geezer sperm (a factor that often appears in autism cases).
We haven't been able to find much about the family, possibly because they lived in a fairly isolated manner and possibly because Jonathan, in developing his SEO skills and fearing backlash for his online lechery, shielded his family and personal histories.
According to Miriam's testimony this month before BCHRT, her young son was effeminate, enjoying Barbies and wanting a princess outfit. She said he was allowed that at home, but had to be more gender conforming outside to avoid bullying. That could be true.
Miriam also testified that Jonathan was born as "both" boy and girl. If she means he was an effeminate boy, she wasn't lying. If she means he is a hermaphrodite, that's very unlikely. If she means he is a hermaphrodite with the functioning genitalia of both male and female, she's lying. In any event, she said her son began menstruating at 13 or 14, a claim rendered bizarre by her saying nothing about that causing medical concern for her or her husband or psychological concerns for a kid with a boy's name and boy's presentation. Her claim followed months of her son's postings about his period, intended to shield himself from backlash over his predatory postings about counseling pre-teen girls on menstrual products.
In the BCHRT hearings, Yaniv has said he was in some kind of SPED program - even applied the word "exceptional" to himself - but said he can "do some things" anyway. He posted earlier in the year of having symptoms of a form of epilepsy throughout his life, not the twitching on the floor grand mal version, but a sort of blanking out from time to time. Could be true, but he said he'd been turned down for MRIs to check that out, which seems unlikely.
He lays claim to a four-year computer science degree from Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, BC. While a student there, he basked delightedly in publicity garnered by his Internet campaign for a National Sex Day.
His first job out of Kwantlen, appears to have been at the local cable tv provider, Shaw Cable, where he was shown the door due to being an annoying dysfunctional asshole. He then began jobbing SEO work, creating dozens of accounts he could use to leave glowing commentary on clients' sites. He ended up suing the guy whose clientele he served.
He set up a tech-oriented site calling himself a consultant and editor-in-chief, and posting "tech" reviews that mostly hyped things he got for free as a reviewer. Virginal fool reviews of sex toys predominated. He tweeted links to his own shit and to businesses's press releases he grabbed from the PR Wire.
Yitzhak died in 2013 at 79. Jonathan posted some sad notes about that, saying his father had always been "supportive," but not his mother. When Jonathan "came out," Miriam says she was the last one he told. She left it unclear what he came out as and what year he came out in. She said it was in July - and since she was saying that in July 2019, he may have come out to her in July 2018 or 2017 when he was 31 or 30. As of 2015, he'd been angrily posting about Sears personnel misgendering him as a woman because "I am a man."
Miriam, who now seems subsumed by her son's predatory machinations, worked for a time in hospital administration, maybe (my memory's hazy) at Langley Memorial rather than Jonathan's most-used hospital, Surrey Memorial - both operated by Fraser Health, a company Jonathan lambasts for not being nice enough to him.
She posted once that she and her sister both have mitochondrial disease. Miriam posted elsewhere a glowing review of a hearing aid center's service and, since hearing impairment can be one result of mito, there may be a connection. At this month's BCHRT hearings it was noted that she now needs to lip read, meaning hearing aids can no longer get the job done for her. Dementia is another condition that can result from mito and could be a cause of some of her stranger behavior.
Lots more good background information in the original post on this thread. Some fam photos gathered by others here: