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In fact, loudmouth Pat Buchanan has a point
Thursday, November 07, 2002 Criticism can be helpful. So, let's carefully consider Pat Buchanan's case for calling us juvenile whiners before we return any zingers. Specifically, the Washington D.C., political commentator last week referred to Canada as "Soviet Canuckistan," and accused us of "freeloading" off the U.S. defence budget. Guilty. Mr. Buchanan's salvos came in response to Canadian anger over a new policy forcing citizens from certain Mideast countries to be photographed, fingerprinted and registered upon entry to the U.S. Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham called the move inappropriate and troubling. This week, a new U.S. proposal came to light that could force Canada's landed immigrants from Commonwealth countries to obtain visas to cross the border. Immigration Minister Denis Coderre calls the plan annoying. This may be the only time I ever side with Mr. Buchanan, a loudmouth, right-wing extremist. But the guy's got a point. From the American perspective, Canada has been a pain-in-the-butt neighbor since 9/11. Not only has this country taken a lax approach to terrorism but it has failed to acknowledge the legitimacy of U.S. concerns about the threat to its citizens. The U.S. last year sustained a traumatizing blow at the hands of Islamic terrorists. Thousands were arbitrarily killed, in America's tallest buildings in its biggest city. No surprise, Americans are now consumed by terror and, based on continuing threats from the terrorists themselves, with good reason. It's not a secret that Canada has a liberal immigration and refugee policy. And, along with good immigrants and refugee claimants, come a few bad. It's the same story in the U.S. but the Yanks have started cracking down. In Canada, some 27,000 deportees are still running around the country, not being rounded up and shown the door. It was CSIS -- not the FBI or CIA -- that years ago informed Canadians that some 50 terrorist groups are operating here. Fifty! Four suspected al-Qaida members are in Canadian jails on immigration charges. Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, 16, was seized last July by the Americans. He was fighting on the wrong side in Afghanistan. He's now imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. Last week, it was revealed the Israelis have detained Canadian citizen Fauzi Ayub. They believe him to be a Hezbollah agent who had been operating in Canada before he trained in Lebanon and went to the Palestinian territories as a terrorist. Canada, meanwhile, continues to insist that Hezbollah has two entirely separate, compartmentalized wings: One a virtuous political/social service wing; the other, an evil military one. Canada allows the virtuous political wing to operate in this country. This, despite the fact, according to CSIS documents, Mohammed Hussein Al Husseini, a member in good standing of of Hezbollah, who lived for a time in Montreal, flat out told CSIS during a 1993 interrogation that all Hezbollah's wings are devoted to terrorism. In fact, Mr. Al Husseini identified Hassan Nasrallah as being the main man, controlling all the organization's wings. That's the very same Mr. Nasrallah who sat right near Jean Chretien at the francophonie summit in Beirut several weeks ago. Small world. (Mr. Chretien -- who doesn't know east from west Jerusalem -- sloughed off that little rendezvous: He was a guest at the summit, the terrorist was a guest -- like, what was he supposed to do?) The Americans still remember the case of Ahmed Rassam, member of a Montreal terrorist cell, who was nabbed by American border officials in 1999 as he crossed from Victoria to Port Townsend on his way to detonate explosives around the U.S. The Canada-U.S. border is a long one. Americans want to apply extra diligence to individuals from Canada who originate from countries that have spawned terrorists in the past. They don't have confidence in Canada's immigration laws and their application. This is unfortunate and potentially humiliating for the innocents who come from those countries. But the American position is perfectly understandable, and defensible, given Canada's pitiful response to terrorism. We should thank Mr. Buchanan for sharing a few realities with us. - - - Liberal House leader Don Boudria doesn't want to be ambassador to Slovenia and will run in the next election. Apologies for incorrect information. [EMAIL PROTECTED] © Copyright
2002 Vancouver Sun | ||||||
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