Open door to terrorists

GRIGORI KHASKIN

The failure to extend crucial parts of the Anti-Terrorism Act will be viewed by future historians as an attempt on the part of our establishment to appease prospective terrorists; as a vain effort to direct their activities elsewhere. It may even be perceived as an act of surrender.

It looks like our Parliament is telling terrorists that it is OK to do fund-raising, recruiting, planning acts of sabotage and even plotting to kill Canadians, without fear of being arrested and interrogated. It is a modern Canadian version of the one-sided Munich pact; it is an act of surrender. The NDP, Bloc Quebecois (BQ) and Liberals are to blame.

I had given up a long time ago on the NDP and BQ. There is no terrorist on our planet they would not like to apologize to for the perceived cruelness of western civilization throughout history. There are no double standards left that they would not apply when dealing with Israel or the United States, when these two attempt to fight terror. But the Liberals? The Liberals used to be all over the map, covering left, right and middle ground, being sane and insane, trying to appease the electorate. Despite being unprincipled, they used to strike a chord occasionally, giving the populace hope and promise.

On Feb. 27, that political model collapsed. By voting against extending safeguards against terrorism, the Liberals and the rest of the opposition sided against security, reason, common sense and the wishes of constituents.

Trying to poke the Conservatives in the eye over that piece of legislation constituted a triumph of political expediency over principles. What hypocrisy it was to vote against the continuation of a national security measure that they themselves, when in power, initiated and invoked!

By dramatically weakening the powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to ensure our safety and security, the Liberals forfeited the moral authority given to them by the people they represent. Our security now is diminished, and a written invitation is being extended to thugs and terrorists lurking in this country.

CSIS states that terrorists from 50 different international terrorist organizations have come to Canada posing as refugees. According to an August 2002 CSIS report, "With the possible exception of the U.S., there are more international terrorist organizations active in Canada than anywhere in the world."

Now all these terrorists have been given the message that Canadians are fair game and that it is OK to prepare for carnage without any interference from the state. Well, it is not OK with me and, hopefully, not OK with any sane member of our community.

One might accuse me of peddling hysteria here, and one may think that the probability of terror attack in Canada is close to zero, because nothing big has happened yet. I am not sure that bombs will start to explode tomorrow or next week, and hope that it will never happen. But many people in London, Madrid, Bali and Moscow thought that such carnage was reserved only for places such as the Middle East or the United States. They have already been proven wrong. Do we have to live through the same experience because of a betrayal by the Liberal party? I do not want to hear any apologies from the Liberal hypocrites if the totally preventable terror attack, God forbid, happens.

Grigori Khaskin is a professor at Simon Fraser University.

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