by Klaus Rohrich
august 19, 2004
Shortly after September 11, 2001 our then Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, made a statement that was either an outright lie, or it was evidence of just how far out of touch with reality Chretien was. The statement essentially asserted that there were no terrorists operating in Canada.
Stewart Bell, in his book Cold Terror (John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd., 2004) confronts Chretien and his band of merry Liberals with the truth. Not only are there terrorists in Canada, they have been operating here with impunity for more than 20 years; in some cases with the blessings and financial support of the Liberal government and its key politicians.
Not in Canada, you say, our home and native land. Canada, the country that is morally superior to all other countries, especially the United States; Canada, the country that unquestioningly accepts everyone from everywhere with a chance for a new life and true happiness; Canada, where people of all cultures and all nations come to live in peace, acceptance and harmony.
Bell’s work belies this conceit with hard evidence that Canada has long been a safe haven and a source of cash and logistics to many of the world’s worst terrorist organizations.
He details how the Tamil Tigers raise money in Canada to purchase arms, explosives and ammunition by intimidating Tamil immigrants and naturalized Canadians of Tamil Descent. He details how known terrorists, such as Manickvasagam Suresh, who heads up the Canadian wing of the Tamil Tigers, utilize the Canadian justice system to co-opt immigration laws and avoid deportation. He even details how Liberal politicians such as Paul Martin and Maria Minna publicly support such groups by attending their functions, despite warnings from organizations such as CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) that they are terrorist organizations.
Bell details how Sikh terrorists planned and executed deadly terrorist attacks on two airliners originating in Canada in 1985. One was Canadian Pacific Flight 003, which landed at Narita airport in Japan. Two baggage handlers were killed and four more were injured, as a bomb in the plane’s cargo hold exploded while it was being loaded. The second was air India flight 182, which originated in Montreal and exploded in mid-air en route to London, killing all 369 aboard. Both bombs were made in Canada and secreted aboard the planes by Sikh extremists, who had been agitating in North america for violence against Indian interests. Yet, the government of Canada treated the incidents as law enforcement problems, rather than armed terrorist attacks.
The most vitriol, however, is saved for Canada’s complicity in allowing Islamic terrorists to use this country as a base of operations. He begins with the tale of ahmed Ressam, the algerian-born bomb maker who attempted to bomb the Los angeles airport on New Year’s Eve, 1999. Ressam’s first target of choice was a Jewish synagogue in Outremont, but was quickly prevailed upon to opt for another target, preferably outside of Canada, to keep attention away from radical Islamic activities in Canada.
Ressam’s capture, attempting to cross from Canada into the U.S., should have been a heads-up for Jean Chretien’s motormouth when he said after 9/11 that there were no terrorists in Canada.
Bell also writes extensively about the Khadr family, calling their actions "the al Kanadi family Jihad". The Khadrs were members of the Salaheddin Islamic Centre in the Eglinton ave./Kennedy Rd. area of Toronto. ahmed Said Khadr, the patriarch, was an Egyptian immigrant to Canada, who founded an Islamic aid organization in Canada that funneled its proceeds into terrorist uses. Khadr, a good friend of Osama bin Laden, was implicated in a 1995 terrorist bombing of the Egyptian Embassy in Karachi, Pakistan and had been held by Pakistani police. It was the efforts of our vaunted Prime Minister, the abovementioned Jean Chretien, that helped Khadr in winning his release from the Pakistani police.
Of course, Khadr then went on to much bigger and better endeavours, providing four well-trained and deadly sons to the Jihad. Eventually the senior Khadr was killed in a shootout with Pakistani police, while the four boys, abdullah, abdurahman, Omar and abdul all went on in pursuit of their own infamy.
Two things come through loud and clear in Stewart Bells’ book: one is just how contemptuous most "Canadian" terrorists are of Canada. They seem to have an intrinsic understanding that Canadians, as a people, are squeamish when it comes to race or ethnicity. In our efforts at being inclusive, embracing and politically correct, we are putting ourselves and our survival at risk. The second is how our legal system has become a weapon to be used against us in our efforts to fight terrorism.
Bell’s message is loud and clear. The only people who value multiculturalism, tolerance and the celebration of our differences are Canadians. The rest could care less.
In Samuel P. Huntington’s 1993 essay, "Clash of Civilizations", the author argues that politics has undergone a metamorphosis. He believes that future international conflicts will largely be cultural, that historic, religious, language and ethnic divisions will take on greater importance than pure national distinctions. He urges alliances with cultures that are similar to ours in an effort to spread our values. Cultures that are unlike ours should be accommodated, wherever possible, but we also should not shy away from conflict, where conflict is necessary.
Canada’s commitment to multiculturalism runs counter to this trend. Stewart Bell’s book shows how other cultures are fighting to preserve their ways of life by utilizing our institutions at the expense of our own cultural survival. a must read for anyone who cares about the future.