The June 4 arrests of homegrown Canadian alleged terrorists in Ontario have sent shockwaves throughout the world, and has left Canadians wondering what lessons can be taken from the events, and how exactly it came to a situation where it appears that privileged Canadian youth became extremists bent on harming their fellow Canadians.
"What we've learned is that we're not protected," says Professor Randall Hansen, the Canada Research Chair in Immigration and Governance at the University of Toronto.
Following last week's arrests of 17 terror suspects, many of them Canadian citizens, police said that they had stopped several terrorist attacks against prominent southern Ontario targets—including the Peace Tower in Ottawa, Parliament, the Toronto Stock Exchange, and others—in the planning stage.
"We used to think that because of this country's open immigration policy, its liberal citizenship, its very public embrace of multiculturalism… that somehow we were immune from this [terrorism], and this seems to have been entirely wrong," says Hansen.
El-Farouk Khaki, Secretary General of the Muslim Canadian Congress, agrees. While denouncing the acts of the alleged terrorists, he points the finger at the U.S.-led war on terror as the proximate cause.
"Canadians need to wake up and realize the recipe offered by George Bush and Tony Blair, and now being adopted by Stephen Harper, has only led to an increase of terrorism fuelled by the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan," he said in a press statement.
But the situation is much more complex than that, argues Hansen. While Canada's involvement in counter-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan may have played a role in inspiring the attacks, he focuses on what he sees as a deeper ideological issue.
"One thing we've got to realize is that we can't just explain this away; put it down to colonization or to Israel or to Canada's very modest participation in Afghanistan. These things are most likely triggers, but these individuals seem to hate the West and what it represents," he says.
"That hatred is going to exist whether or not we're in Afghanistan, or whether or not the Prime Minister is Conservative, or whether or not Israel builds a wall blocking itself off from the Palestinians. To suggest otherwise is trying to bring rational categories to people who are obviously not rational."
Hansen sees the fact that the accused are from different ethnic backgrounds, but are largely Canadian citizens from apparently privileged homes, as among the most disturbing aspects of the story.
"What this [the alleged terrorist activity] means is that a group of individuals who share nothing with other individuals, nothing with the people of Afghanistan… nothing beyond something as abstract and diffuse as a religion, think that that abstract tie is more important than their families, their communities, the society in which they've been raised," he says.
How is it that young, ostensibly normal Canadian youth might have found themselves on such a dark path?
John Thompson, President of the Mackenzie Institute, a think-tank examining political instability and organized violence in the Canadian context, has a theory. As of 2002, Al-Qaeda has placed an emphasis on recruiting Westerners, people who naturally fi t into Western societies, in contrast to extremists born and raised in Middle Eastern countries, he believes.
"That's been one of the major thrusts of Jihadist recruiting since Afghanistan was liberated from the Taliban in 2002," he says.
Since that time, Al Qaeda has been encouraging its supporters to operate independently, but it has provided training materials, in particular the Al Quaeda Internet manual, "which is one of the more disturbing how-to guides I've ever seen," says Thompson.
In its recent report on internet extremism, Digital Terrorism and Hate 2006, the Simon Wiesenthal Center documents how the Internet has become a virtual 'university' for terrorists, and estimates that the number of terror and hate sites grew by 20 percent in 2005.
As much as extremist groups can recruit on the internet, Hanson believes that it is through personal contact with advocates of extremism that young Canadians could consider such borderline approaches themselves.
"Young men and young students in particular seem to be particularly subject to radicalization— subject to the influence of extremist forms of Islam," he says.
"So you have a propensity for radicalization among a highly impressionable group, and you have conduits for that radicalization in the form of a few radical Muslim clerics, a few radical Muslim imams, or even just people in the mosques who have no position at all, or within the schools."
Following the arrests, the Canadian Muslim community is once again in the spotlight, as it has been following any major act of radical Muslim extremism. Many Muslim organizations published statements soon after the arrests, feeling compelled to make clear their position with respect to terrorism.
The Canadian chapter of the Islamic Circle Of North America, a large grassroots Muslim organization, made a point of commending police efforts in making the arrests, as well as condemning terrorism "in all of its forms," in a press statement.
While there appears to have been some backlash against the broader Muslim community in the wake of the arrests, including the vandalism of a Toronto mosque, many Canadians have also been quick to rally support behind the Muslim community, the vast majority of which is composed of religious moderates.
"I think it's sad for everyone involved…It's unfortunate that the entire Muslim community is once again presumed guilty," says Toronto Graphic Designer Allison Merker, 36.
Ontario Lieutenant Governor Hon. James K. Bartleman delivered "a statement denouncing racism" in a show of support for the Ontario Muslim community at Queens Park on Wednesday.
"There may be some concern within the community about stereotyping, retaliation or simply suspicion. I want to be clear that any retaliation or retribution against any group in our community will not be tolerated," Peel Regional Police Chief Michael Metcalf wrote in a press statement, to show his police force's commitment in a region where several of the suspects reside.
Maurice Tugwell, former Mackenzie Institute President, is appalled at the backlash exemplified in the vandalism of the mosque in Toronto.
"What we might bring from this weekend's events is the importance of supporting the majority of the Islamic people everywhere who are struggling to resist this extreme body which has grown out of theirs. Nothing could be more counter-productive as well as evil as to go and break windows at a mosque," he says.
But this support is not enough, argues Hansen.
"We have to enter into discussion with the Muslim community. Modern mainstream Muslims who are the majority of Muslims in this country as indeed in all countries…But we also need to think about the unthinkable."
He suggests that Canadian officials need to look at more regulation in terms of the curriculum of separate Islamic schools, and to look at where and how imams are trained, and whether they should be trained in Canada—all to avoid extremist views being promoted on Canadian soil.
"One has to recognize that this is a minority of the Muslim community, recognize that most [Muslim] immigrants to this country are law abiding, peace loving, and just want to live their lives. Finding that balance is always the trick," he says.
With additional reporting by Joan Delaney in Victoria
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