Terror in Canada? Surely Not
by John Thompson
July 15, 2002
The Maple Leaf? Forget it. As a symbol for this country, a Lotus Leaf would be more appropriate. Calm, placid, and forgetful — that’s us.
Michael Marzolini’s Pollara group confirmed our Lotus-eating habits on July 5th, with the release of findings showing that 77% of us do not believe that a terrorist attack could happen here; and that only 14% believe an attack is likely. The poll provides an argument that it is time for the security agenda sparked by the attacks of September 11th to be sidelined, so we can go back to our usual preoccupations.
If I had a dollar for every time I have heard Canadians say that terrorism doesn’t happen here, and that the world loves us, I’d never buy another lottery ticket.
Until the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre, the most lethal act of aviation terrorism had been the 1985 bombing of the Air India Flight off Ireland. A bomb placed on board the aircraft in Toronto snuffed out the lives of 329 people — 154 of whom were Canadians. Typically, most of us gave the incident a big yawn — it was an Indian Jet off Ireland, so that made it far away and not our concern. After all, terrorism never happens here.
If we can’t remember the Air India Bombing, then that means we’ve also forgotten the Narita Airport Bombing (likewise with a bomb that originated in Canada) and the shooting of an Indian diplomat here. I suppose it also means that it is too much to ask if any Canadians remember all those moderate Canadian Sikhs who were shot or tortured to death by Sikh militants, or the arson attacks and beatings to which they were subjected.
That was about the time a Turkish diplomat was shot to death on Ottawa’s prestigious Island Park Drive, and there was the takeover of the Turkish Embassy by a trio of Armenian gunmen — who blew some poor Canadian security guard to bits with shotguns. But terrorism never happens here, so consider it forgotten already.
Terrorist bombings happen in other countries, and never in Canada. So we forget about the FLQ bombs that added that extra thrill to life in Montreal in the 1960s. We also forget about the 1970 October Crisis; what the heck, they were just misguided kids even if they did murder somebody or other. But terrorism never happens here; so the incident that year about the anti-tank rocket being fired at the Cuban Consulate in Montreal mustn’t have happened either.
Then there’s the Tamil Community: Of course, with the ceasefire (the third one so far in 30 years), it is a safe guess the millions of dollars raised here to fight a war in Sri Lanka have been forgotten already. Besides, it was someone else’s war and not ours, so we can forget about the arson, drive-by shootings and beatings that occurred to Tamils here who thought they should oppose the thuggery of the Liberation Tigers. After all, it was just a squabble inside some ethnic community or other, and nothing to do with us, right?
It might be too much to ask if anyone remembered that 24 Canadians who died in the World Trade Centre attacks. This would mean that it is far too much to remember other Canadians blown out of the sky over Lockerbie in 1988, or shot up in the firefight in a botched rescue of a hijacked aircraft on Malta in 1986.
Anybody remember the Canadian anarchists who bombed the Litton Plant, or the fatal beatings laid on by sundry Canadian Neo-Nazis? Anyone?
Does Ahmed Ressam ring any bells? Or the dreams some of his roommates had for exploding propane tankers inside Montreal neighborhoods? Anyone? Guess not, after all it didn’t happen anyway, so of course, it’s safe to say that terrorism doesn’t happen in Canada. Of course, Al-Qaeda isn’t just after Americans — they did have plans to attack the European Parliament, down some Filipino airliners and introduce a number of unsuspecting French consumers to pressurized cyanide gas. But, since Canadians are off the target list (so far), I guess we are right to tell the rest of the world to chill out.
Personally, I know one other incident that my insurance company remembers — my premiums reflect the fact that a whole office tower was emptied out because of a terrorist mail-bomb sitting on my secretary’s desk. It is sort of reassuring to know that at least one Canadian agency remembers that one act of terrorism.
John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism. He can be reached at: mackenzieinstitute@bellnet.ca
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