I find it truly remarkable: in the aftermath of last week’s tragic attacks in Montreal and Ottawa, Edmonton Centre MP Laurie Hawn issued the statement that we should “round up” everyone on the government’s watch list:
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/10/23/edmonton-mp-laurie-hawn-round-up-everyone-on-the-terror-watch-list .
Laurie’s talk of “rounding up” people is not just an unfortunate choice of words, in the light of Canada’s shameful “round-ups” of Japanese Canadians under the auspices of the War Measures Act in 1942 and of law-abiding separatists and student radicals during the October crisis in 1970. It is an actual reflection of the Conservative attitude that, in Stephen Harper’s words, “our laws and police powers in the areas of surveillance, detention and arrest ..need to be much strengthened …work which is already underway will be expedited. ” This is not the view of security experts , including the prime minister’s own former legal advisor, Prof. Benjamin Perrin, who stated on CBC radio on October 27 that government already has all of the tools it needs and simply needs to resource and implement them properly. But then, this is not a government that has shown a very high regard, either for expert opinion or for the CBC!
I do see a need for greater preparedness on the part of uniformed soldiers and a need to beef up security at the Parliament Buildings; I also share a sense of gratitude that the Sergeant -at-Arms proved to be more than a ceremonial position on this singular occasion.
In related news, I was glad to see that Justin Bourque will be serving an unusually harsh sentence for the premeditated murders of three RCMP officers in Moncton. (Even if forcing judges to hand down a sentence of 75 years without parole gives him little incentive for rehabilitation.) But I have just one question: why is he not a “terrorist”? Because he is a right-wing survivalist who hates cops ( and not a Muslim), and acts alone, he gets treated as just a deranged individual. But if he is channeling extreme Islamist propaganda instead of extreme American conservatism, and acts alone, like Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, he attracts the terrorist label and is used to justify a more extensive surveillance state and increased police powers. It makes you think….
