Testifying before a Senate committee, Justice Minister Vic Toews said that he was thinking about proposing amendments to Canada's terrorism laws that would broaden the definition of terrorism. In answer to questions from senators, the Justice Minister said that he was considering changing the definition of terrorism under s.83.01 of the Criminal Code by deleting the requirement that acts or omissions be carried out "in whole or in part for political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause."
The reason for dropping what is now an essential ingredient in making an act or omission one of terrorism is that criminal organizations could be prosecuted under Canada's terrorism laws. The Hells angels were specifically mentioned as a group that would highlighted for prosecution under a newly revamped terrorism law.
While patiently waiting for bird flu and West Nile virus to sweep across the nation, we have been recently overcome by a plague of political correctness. a couple of weeks ago we had Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, in the wake of the arrest of 17 men and boys on terrorism charges, openly beat his chest and brag about how neither he nor any other law enforcement official ever used the word "Muslim" or "Islam" when describing the arrest of the alleged jihadists at a press conference. It seemed that the refusal to describe the accused as anything other than "young men from diverse backgrounds" was a greater coup than actually making the arrests, which, if the allegations are true, prevented the blowing up of Canadian buildings and saving what could have been hundreds or thousands of innocent lives.
Next we have the native standoff in Caledonia where, in the name of political correctness, the OPP stand around and watch as the natives beat and terrorize innocent people while Premier Dalton McGuinty brags that negotiations are going well and there haven't been any major incidents.
The federal Conservatives have shown that no matter how racist, sexist and homophobic they appear to some Canadians, they are not immune from the scourge of political correctness. On Monday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a United Nations conference in Vancouver that our diversity will help defend Canada from the "apostles of terror". This comes awfully close to the head-in-the-sand attitude that because we are so nice, so diverse and so tolerant that no one would want to attack us. While being open to immigrants does not make Canada a target for terrorists our ethnic makeup does nothing to isolate us from terrorist attacks. While it is true that Canada lacks the ethnic ghettos that abound in Europe, we are not immune from terrorism and to say that our tolerance somehow protects us from terrorist acts, especially in light of the recent terrorism arrests, is at best naïve, at worst disingenuous.
The proposal to drop the requirement that a terrorist act must have a political, religious or ideological component is nothing more than politically correct nonsense. While the changes might make it easier to go after organized criminal groups, it will downplay what the real threat to our way of life is. There have been other terrorist groups operating in Canada like the Sikh terrorists who brought down the air India flight 21 years ago. But currently, we are at risk of terrorist attacks from radical Islamists and bringing the Hells angels and groups of wayward boy scouts into the definition of terrorism does nothing to protect the country.
Organized criminal groups such as the Hells angels, no matter what criminal activities they engage in, are not enemies to our way of life. They don't hate us. More importantly, they don't blow up buildings and kill people for the sake of blowing up buildings and killing as many innocent people (infidels) as possible. This is the danger of terrorism that goes beyond mere criminal acts no matter how well organized the criminals are.
Terrorism laws should be limited to terrorists. If not, there is really no point in having them on the books.
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