Canada Not New To Terrorism: One Man's Opinion

By Ben Meisner

    
Were the events of the past weekend in the Toronto area in which 17 suspects were picked up for allegedly planning an Al-Qaeda style bombing in Canada, the first brush with terrorists in Canada?

The short answer is no.

You need to look no further than the just finished Air India Bombing to see there not only was a terrorist group working in British Columbia, but it  likely brushed Prince George. It was a known fact that the Sanyo receiver that was used in the Air India bombing was purchased in either Prince George or Kamloops. The people who died in that blast were, for the most part,  Canadian citizens.

The common thread in these two incidents is the fact both had ties with fanatical religious beliefs.

I certainly don’t want to suggest the Muslim community is alone when it comes to having fanatics within its fold.  

Some Catholics and Prostestants in Northern Ireland have waged war against each other for hundreds of years.  The Air India bombing was as a result of militants of one faith attacking the shrine of another.

What makes people who believe in a Supreme Being feel that they have the right to take matters into their own hands at the peril of others has long been debated; it does however speak volumes about their religious commitments.

Then there is Canada’s most famous terrorist group, The FLQ who held hostage to the province of Quebec and tried to disrupt our legislative system. You may recall that some of them went to jail, some off to Cuba, but no one really paid the price for the death of Pierre Laporte.

Indeed we do not have clean hands when it comes to our own experience with terrorists, and anyone who suggests this latest indication of home grown terrorism is an unfamiliar crop is, woefully, misled.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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