June 13, 2006: Memory Lane: What? Me worry?

Is Canada Next? Report: Western Canada's Conservative Voice, Paul Tuns, September 10, 2005. Posted by CCD in Business Report on 18:12:49 2005/09/10

Just a matter of where and when

The government's own intelligence agency would seem to confirm that analysis. According to a report from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), there are 50 terrorist groups in Canada, including Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Force 17 and Egyptian al Jihad. While there are some supporters of the Irish Republican Army, and it is suspected that the headquarters for the Tamil Tigers is in suburban Toronto, most groups on the CSIS list are Islamist groups. CSIS called the presence of such groups "a direct threat to Canada." [....]

Although [ex Deputy PM and Minister of Public Security, Anne] McLellan admitted that Ottawa could be doing more, her ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness points to its publication "An Overview of Canada's Counter-Terrorism Arrangements" to highlight what is being done. The overview outlines communications protocols and which minister is responsible for what under different circumstances, but it is all rather mundane, day-to-day issues of what happens within government. None of it makes Canadians safer; it only assigns responsibilities if a terrorist attack were to occur.

To the CCD's Gordon, that reinforces the idea that, at best, Ottawa is ready to react to attacks and not prevent them. While he does not consider the Martin Liberals serious about tackling the issue of terrorism because to do so would require a politically incorrect honesty that would alienate their core of Muslim voters, he would suggest that if Ottawa wanted to prevent terrorism it should stamp out its root cause ­ Islamic fundamentalism and the hatred it engenders. He urged Ottawa to apply hate laws to deal with preachers of hate such as Younus Kathrada, who teaches at the Dar al Madinah Islamic Society's information centre in East Vancouver and who preaches that Jews are "monkeys" and "swine," exhorting followers to kill Jews and infidels.

Gordon said Canada must also stop repatriating into Canada Al Qa'eda families such as the Khadrs. He said that the immigration system had to be fixed, including imposing higher standards on refugee claims from countries known to incubate terrorism.

Dave Harris, former chief of strategic planning for CSIS, agrees. He told a recent disaster-management conference that Canada needs "to get a grip on our disgraceful immigration policies because we don't know what radicals are coming in." [....]