I've grown accustomed to American ambassador Paul Cellucci's warnings that we Canadians should stop pretending to be an open society and cower under our beds while our betters instruct our government on how best to combat terrorism. But now it seems we have a new instructor. Alan Baker has been Israel's ambassador to Canada for all of five weeks and already appears destined to be a more polite version of Cellucci.
Alan Baker said Canadians must realize additional restrictions on rights and freedoms are necessary to counter the relative ease with which terror groups can now infiltrate Canadian society and launch attacks here, against the United States or on Israeli and other foreign interests in Canada.
With all due respect, Mr. Baker, I think it's up to Canadians to determine the extent to which we're prepared to allow our civil liberties to be compromised. I'm a little tired of being told that the fight against terrorism is a defence of our freedoms only to be further instructed that the best defence is to compromise the freedoms we're supposed to be defending. Freedom isn't something you save by gathering it all up and storing it away where no one can use it.
Now consider the timing:
His comments to the Citizen's editorial board come as a parliamentary committee prepares to review a sweeping series of anti-terrorism laws enacted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and which many legal and civil liberties experts believe already violate fundamental rules of law and democratic rights.
Baker acknowledges later in the article that he's not familiar with the specifics of our anti-terrorism legislation. Since he's only been in the country for five weeks, I'm not surprised. So why is he weighing in?
The question in the title of the post is a serious one. This article is the lead story on the front page of the Citizen's website right now. Would I be correct in assuming that given Baker's self-acknowledged ignorance on the subject, it's unlikely that he called up the paper's editorial board to insist that his opinion should be front page news?
Now where have I heard that speech before... no, wait, it'll come to me...
Hmmm...
I'll get back to you on that...
Perhaps someone in Ottawa could remind Ambassador Baker of one serious and continuing abuse of Canada's "openness" -- his own government's repeated use of counterfeit Canadian passports to conduct murderous "security" operations, in the Middle East and lately, we discover, in Australasia, in spite of previous assurances that such violations of our sovereignty would not be repeated.
Canadians don't need to be patted on the head by Ambassador Baker.
Canadians don't need to be patted on the head by Ambassador Baker.
Nor do they need to be lectured about preventing terrorism by Israel of all places.
I just about exploded when I saw that headline this morning. In the past 15 years, the U.S has had two terrorist attacks on the world trade center, not to mention the Oklahoma City bombing, non of which could be linked to Canada in any way; Canada has had...well, I suppose you could consider the Dec 6th attack at L'Ecole Polytechnic. And Celluci is lecturing *us*?
Nov. 2 can't come fast enough.
According to today's Globe and Mail, Ashcroft is up in Ottawa talking about security. They're really working this.
From CSIS May 2000 report:
Inderjit Singh Reyat was convicted of building a suitcase bomb that killed two men in 1985 when it exploded at Narita Airport in Tokyo. This attack occurred on the same day that an Air India flight originating in Vancouver exploded in mid-air, killing all 329 passengers;
Thalayasingham Sivakumar, a high-ranking member of the LTTE,(7) travelled to Canada on a false passport in June 1989
In December 1989, two IRA supporters living in Toronto attempted to purchase a Stinger anti-aircraft missile and grenade launchers.
In April 1993, Canada Customs at the Alaska-Yukon border seized 130 grams of the deadly poison ricin from an American possessing neo-Nazi literature who later was linked to ?survivalist? groups.
In 1995, the Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) recruited 50 new members in Canada and the UK, according to media reports citing the Indian Intelligence Research and Analysis and Wing.
Hani al-Sayegh is a member of Saudi Hizballah, and a suspect in the deaths of nineteen US soldiers during a June 1996 truck bombing at the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia attempted to integrate quietly into the community...
In September 1998, Muralitharan Nadarajah, a top international leader of the LTTE, walked into Canada at a border crossing south of Montreal.
Ahmed Ressam was arrested crossing the US border from Canada with explosives in December 1999...
Clearly there is a threat and one wonders if it wouldn't be better addressed by a moratorium on immigration rather than renewing C36.
Notice that all those incidents predate 9/11 and Bill C36. I noted elsewhere that our government is being a bit reticent about reporting on how they've used their new magic powers. And I've noted repeatedly that while we've received regular warnings since then about the danger we're in, those warnings are pretty short on specifics.
If someone would come across with more specific information on current threats, we might better be able to judge how to respond. Instead all we're getting is "be afraid". A moratorium on immigration sounds like a pretty sweeping response to me considering the apparent absence of terrorist activity here in Canada, and the lack of attacks in the U.S. in over three years except for the incidents of domestic terrorism which aren't getting the attention they should.