Fabriqué au Canada

[jawnbc]

For those unawares, we seem to have a bit of home grown Islamist terrorism here in Soviet Canuckstan™. Hit up Google News if you want more info.

My initial reaction was "wow!" My shortly thereafter reaction was "our government's on it, which reassures me greatly." It's been very interesting to follow how this is playing out in our media. There's been little Muslim bashing, and there's also been no shortage of Canadian Muslims to step up and say "these people are whack." To which the rest of us have seemed to reply "yeah we know, and we won't hold it against you."

I expect some will see how quickly our officials acted as a product of the new (neo)Conservative government. The big dark secret about Canada is that much of the quotiidan task of getting things done is conducted by lifelong, expert civil servants. They develop the systems of governance, working within the purview of both policy and law. It generally means stability, consistency and efficacy.

I'm not worried at all. Nor would I be if I lived in Toronto (where the ostensive targets are located).

Comments

[schillerium.livejournal.com]

Thomas Walkom did a good job yesterday summing up what I find troubling about this whole thing. I suppose it's distinctly possible we just haven't been told the whole story yet, but the evidence I've seen so far has yet to fully reassure me that this isn't a case of "since they're Muslim, they must be terrorists".

If the police really did foil a terrorist plot, then good on them, but I'm not yet convinced that this isn't another Maher Arar.

[jawnbc]

Arar was apprehended by the US, not Canada.

We're gonna have to disagree on this one.

[poohbearjim.livejournal.com]

The US media is trying to whip up all sorts of fear in relation to the Canadian arrests.

[schillerium.livejournal.com]

I'm obviously not expressing myself clearly enough if you think there's a fundamental disagreement to be had here. I'm not saying the police case is definitely invalid; I just think people are reacting emotionally to a situation where we don't entirely know the whole story yet.

I certainly hope the police have further evidence they haven't publicized yet, because I don't want to live in a country where the law enforcement system could be wrong about something this big any more than you do. All I'm saying is that if I were the presiding judge and this came before me with no more evidence than what's been publicized so far, I wouldn't feel comfortable ruling that guilt had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

If there's more evidence the cops haven't revealed yet, then yeah, by all means, bring it on. Proving the case is precisely what the trial is for -- I just don't want to see people convicted and hanged in the media before their trial even begins, that's all.

I don't think we really fundamentally disagree on that much; I just think the media are getting a bit further ahead of what's actually been revealed so far than I feel comfortable with, that's all.

(I also think that Christie Blatchford should be ashamed of herself for letting the sentence "They have first names like Mohamed, middle names like Mohamed and last names like Mohamed" appear in print under her byline, but...that's another story.)

Arar was apprehended by the US, not Canada.

Well...we know there was some RCMP collusion. For what it's worth, anyway.

[detailbear.livejournal.com]

Apparently there was a 2-year investigation leading up to a sting operation. 'Discovery' of the evidence hasn't taken place yet, buy may take several days just show to the defence attorneys.

I'm fully expecting that most of the minors will be released shortly after the adults confess. Leverage.

[jawnbc]

We already do that now (we had to get querrelle landed recently. 10+ years ago procedures were much more lax; today the security clearances are what hold most immigration files up: Max needed 4, one for each country he lived in for 6+ months since the age of 18.

The countries in Europe that have huge assimilation problems for the migrants accepted massive numbers from a handful of countries (Algeria and Tunisia for France, Morocco and Turkey for Netherlands, as examples): Canada's not done that.