September
11, 2001: Standing Shoulder to Shoulder
As
a result of the event of September 11th, expect higher insurance
premiums, a round trip airline ticket tax of 24 dollars, a constant,
gradual attack on civil liberties, and worst of all, an American
administration dictating Canadian policies even more aggressively
than ever before.
Since
September 11, 2001, the Canadian Parliament has passed two anti-terrorism
bills. Both of these bills erode civil liberties. Both of the
bills arm the government to break the spirit of their very own
beloved Charter of Rights and Freedoms. With the new anti-terror
bills, individuals whom enforcement officials feel may commit
acts of terror can be locked up for up to 48 hours without being
charged or even accused of a crime. This provision alone tramples
all over the very notion of "due process." The definition
of an "act of terror" in these bills, some argue, is
broad and arbitrary. For example, would the actions of the student
protestors locked up at the APEC Summit a few years back in British
Columbia be considered an "act of terror"? On the other
hand maybe it would've be better to lock them up than to pepper
spray them.
Since
September 11th, many bilateral agreements with the American's
have been signed with respect to intelligence gathering and sharing
of refugee databases etc. Just how much information will be shared
with the Americans is unknown. Standing "shoulder to shoulder"
with our American brothers has meant allowing them to dictate
our policies on immigration and is pushing us towards a common
North American border policed by armed U.S. Troopers. It should
be no surprise that the American's have always in one way or the
other influenced Canadian policies; however, at least in the past
this activity was kept at least a little discreet. Nowadays they
just tell us what to do, how to do it, and when to do it, without
all the little niceties and discreetness that previously allowed
Canadian policy makers the opportunity to "save face."
The F.B.I. claims Canada is a haven for terrorists and wants to
"open shop" with a base in Toronto irrespective of the
fact that according to Canadian law only Canadian enforcement
agents are allowed to police within our borders. Speaking of the
F.B.I., be careful what you type, since September 11th, the F.B.I.
has gotten all the major virus detection companies like Symantec's
Norton Antivirus, and MacAfee to agree not to catch viruses that
they have developed. These F.B.I. developed viruses attach themselves
to your system, record your keystrokes, and send the information
back to F.B.I. computers, all without you realizing that you may
be sending them the passwords to your email accounts, web banking
accounts, and other online password protected services that you
thought were secure.
Canada has never been much of a terrorist target, except for a
few F.L.Q. Quebec separatists from the 1960's; Canada has a pretty
clean record. Until now that is. Standing "shoulder to shoulder"
with the American's will mean having Canadian foreign policy looking
more and more like American policy with every passing day, thus,
making Canada just as susceptible to terrorist attacks. At least
in this regard, we haven't been so dogged as the United Kingdom
in playing head waiter to the American's every whim. Doing so
has made themselves as much a target for terrorism as the Americans.
Thank goodness, the Canadian Alliance isn't serving as our current
government otherwise we would be playing a game of one-upmanship
with the United Kingdom in trying to be the better "brother"
to the Bush Jr. Administration.
Speaking of the Canadian Alliance, if it were up to them, the
Governor General's husband, John Ralston Saul, and UBC Professor
and former President of National Action Committee on the Status
of Women (NAC) Sonora Theban would be locked up as potential terrorists
for going against the "political wind" for "telling
it like it is." Mrs. Theban bravely and unrepentantly attributed
the terrorist attacks on a "blood soaked" American policy.
Mr. Saul similarly blamed the attacks on American foreign policy
and went one step further to criticize Bush Jr's leadership following
the attacks. However, in the land where human rights and freedoms
are paramount and free speech is cherished, Mrs. Theban has received
death threats for her comments and had to be guarded by the R.C.M.P.
That whole Charter of Rights thing probably should've been written
in invisible ink.
Still on the topic of the Canadian Alliance (and off the topic
of September 11th), they proved over 17 months ago when they selected
Stockwell/Doris Day as their leader, that a one-member, one vote
leader selection process could be hijacked by evangelical Christians
who held strong social conservative views. Maybe we should buy
up memberships for their next leadership convention and help select
someone that at least has some sense of fairness and justice with
respect to this whole Middle East crisis rather than the current
dogmatic and blatantly pro-Israeli thinking that permeates the
current leadership.
Did the terrorists of September 11th achieve their intended goals?
The Israeli's have an even stronger hold over the West Bank and
other supposedly Palestinian controlled enclaves, are getting
a free hand to execute Palestinians daily, the Bush Administration
got the political excuse they needed to withdraw from the ABM
Missile Treaty and beef up military spending, Muslims have had
their faith taken hostage and misinterpreted by a biased media,
and of course thousands of Afghanis are suffering yet another
war imposed on them at an already difficult time for them.
Once again, who exactly is a terrorist? One of the criticisms
of the new Canadian anti-terrorism bills is over the loose definition
of who is a terrorist and what acts constitute terrorism. Opponents
of the bill argue that someone like Nelson Mandela would qualify
as a terrorist rather than the freedom fighter and hero that he
was. What about environmentalist activists or how about those
who support an economic system that resembles Communism? Their
may be no problem under this act for those in this country who
support Communism as we have a Communist Party of Canada. However,
are Canadians still interpreting their own laws or are the Americans?
We all know how jumpy they get around even the mention of Communism,
so much for the land of the free and home of the brave.
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