If there was ever a word that has been overused in the wake of the arrests of 17 people in the Greater Toronto area on terrorism charges, it was the word "shocked". Since September 11, 2001, when Islamofascist attacks came to the United States proper there have been attacks in Bali, Madrid and London. Osama bin Laden on more than one occasion has named Canada as a target of a potential attack. although a vast number of Canadians prefer not to think about it (or did until Scary Stephen Harper became prime minister) we have had Canadian troops in afghanistan since shortly after 9/11. and ahmed Ressam, a failed algerian refugee claimant in Canada, was caught trying to enter the U.S. to blow up Los angeles International airport almost two years before the attacks on New York City and Washington when then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien told the country and the world that there were no terrorists in Canada. Yet following the arrests ten days ago, the only response that many Canadians could make was to say that they were shocked. No Canadian who has been paying attention should be surprised or shocked at the fact that not only do we have terrorists in our midst, but many are homegrown.
Canadians have this smug notion that we are so nice, so tolerant, that no one would ever want to do us harm. Our country is based upon multiculturalism and we pride ourselves in our diversity. Multiculturalism has become a lot more than simply welcoming immigrants to our shores and allowing them to succeed while keeping the traditions of their homelands. Since the days of Pierre Trudeau, the concept of multiculturalism has morphed from a government policy into a state religion. Multiculturalism, together with never having to pay a doctor pretty well defines who we are as a people.
Immigrants who come to Canada for other than nefarious purposes try really hard to become "good Canadians", but the only way they can achieve this objective is by adopting multicultural principles and practices. For immigrants to be good Canadians they are required to celebrate the customs and practices of the country that they came from. With the exception of French Quebec, Canada no longer has a culture — our culture is nothing more than everyone else's culture.
Our notion of multiculturalism is not restricted to immigrants who are grateful for the opportunity to live in Canada. Multiculturalism is worshipped in our schools where young people, Canadians by birth, are taught to believe that Canada is of secondary importance to the country that their parents or grandparents came from.
During the summer of 1994, the World Basketball Championships were held in the old Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. When Greece played Canada there were reports that many in the stands, presumably young Greek Canadians booed the Canadian team. Writing a piece in the Toronto Star entitled "Lighten up Canada, flag-waving isn't treason", sports writer Mary Ormsby concluded her article by saying "One of the many precious rights Canadians enjoy is the right to buy a ticket to a sporting event and cheer or boo whomever they want. It's not an immigrant thing. It's a Canadian thing."
Precisely. Canadians booing Canada is a Canadian thing.
Ormsby was also correct when she wrote that the booing occurred because the Greeks "are so proud of their roots". and of course being proud of one's roots (that naturally comes at the expense of Canada) is, as Ormsby so eloquently put it, is "a Canadian thing".
Canadians booing one of their national sports teams is not the only "Canadian thing". It's a Canadian thing to refuse to wave a Canadian flag (which would make us too much like those damn americans) while the waving of foreign flags abound. and it's a Canadian thing for Canadians to believe that Canada is of secondary importance to the country that they or their ancestors came from. Canadians are encouraged to be prouder of other countries than they are of Canada and this is a direct result of how Canada promotes the policy of multiculturalism. Or as Mary Ormsby would put it, preferring another country over Canada is one of our "precious rights". So it should really come as no surprise then that some, albeit a minority of Canadian born citizens who have roots in countries where Islamic fundamentalism is prominent have adopted the beliefs of such groups as al Qaeda rather than the Canadian way of life.
There is a vast difference between booing the Canadian national basketball team and planning to blow up buildings and kill Canadians. But there is a commonality in both of these actions and it has nothing to do with immigrants or terrorists. It has to do with us and the way we minimize our country on the altar of multiculturalism.
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