www.vicnews.com A6 • www.vicnews.com
EDITORIAL
Friday, July 5, 2013 - PENINSULA
NEWS REVIEW
Jim Parker Publisher Steven Heywood Editor Janice Marshall Production Manager Bruce Hogarth Circulation Manager
The Peninsula News Review is published by Black Press Ltd. | #6 - 9843 Second St., Sidney, B.C. V8L 3C7 | Phone: 250-656-1151 • Fax: 250-656-5526 • Web: www.vicnews.com
OUR VIEW
Domestic terrorism a reality for Canada
A
mid the celebrations and fireworks Monday, Victoria suddenly found itself joined to the rarefied club of Canadian cities targeted for a high-profile terrorist attack. If the suspects had slipped under the radar and detonated pressure-cooker bombs outside the legislature during Canada Day celebrations, it could have been the worst terrorist attack in history on Canadian soil. Instead, the B.C. RCMP were able to announce two arrests — John Nuttall, a Surrey man (and former Victoria resident) with a significant criminal rap sheet and Amanda Korody, his partner. RCMP assert both of these Canadian born-and-raised suspects were “self-radicalized” by al-Qaida influence. Nuttall has been in and out of Victoria’s courts regularly for assaults, robberies, mischief and possessing weapons. In media articles, he was described as a former drug addict and a violent enforcer when it came to collecting drug debts. He’s also described as a recent convert to Islam. Whether this pair tried to copycat the pressurecooker Boston bombings, were angry antigovernment types, or were interested in promoting an Islamic caliphate in line with al-Qaida goals (or none of the above), the fact their alleged plot was identified, infiltrated and hijacked by RCMP agents is a testament to why Canada needs intelligence agencies. Organizations like the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which tipped off the provincial RCMP to the plot, and RCMP antiterrorism departments, almost always operate behind the scenes to ferret out domestic terrorism. It’s hard to know how many credible terror plots have been halted in Canada. Beyond oil pipeline bombings in the past, police and intelligence agencies have quashed an alleged plot to blow up a Via passenger train between Toronto and New York by two foreign men who supposedly received guidance from al-Qaida agents; and the so-called “Toronto 18,” (11 were convicted) a group of young Muslim men who plotted to blow up targets across southern Ontario with fertilizer bombs. The foiled Victoria bombing can be seen as a wake-up call to Canadians that terrorism is a reality in this country, and as analysts have predicted, attacks on civilians are not an “if” but a “when.” This is also an opportunity for a national conversation on the bounds of domestic surveillance — what will people tolerate to ensure agencies have the resources to keep Canadians safe?
What do you think? Give us your comments by e-mail: editor@vicnews.com or fax 250-386-2624. All letters must have a name and a telephone number for verification. The SAANICH NEWS is a member of the British Columbia Press Council, a self-regulatory body governing the province’s newspaper industry. The council considers complaints from the public about the conduct of member newspapers. If talking with the editor or publisher does not resolve your complaint about coverage or story treatment, you may contact the B.C. Press Council. Your written concern, with documentation, should be sent to B.C. Press Council, 201 Selby St., Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 2R2. For information, phone 888-687-2213 or go to www.bcpresscouncil.org.
2009 WINNER
Rights under attack on Canada Day
A
nother Canada Day has come rying alcohol onboard buses. While Canada Day could be a and gone and whatever vestime to celebrate the professed valtigial patriotism I may have ues of our country, police across had seems to have gone with it. the nation seem to interTry as I might to see the pret rowdy celebrations good in Monday’s celebraas an opportunity to tions, this year seems to illustrate their contempt hold more cloud than silfor those values. ver lining for our Nation’s In a letter to the Victofavourite holiday. ria Police Board in 2010, I remember the first the B.C. Civil Liberties year the joint police task Association condemned force used helicopters and the ongoing Canada Day armoured cars to disperse searches as a violation crowds of patriotic Canada of the Charter of Rights Day revellers even before Simon Nattrass and Freedoms. the final echoes of fireThe Capital On Monday, signs works had faded away. tacked to bus stops still Sitting on a bluff overinformed potential passengers that looking the city, I saw searchlights “you may be subject to search.” sliding across the sky and heard Folks harassed by police weren’t the pulse of helicopter blades cutthe only ones without a reason to ting the air as thousands were celebrate on Monday. In publicadriven from town. Several people tions and online, several indigenous would later relate how they had activists across the country shared been aggressively ushered out their thoughts on what it means to of the downtown core by police be a proud Canadian. and harassed while simply cutting As Athabasca Chipewyan First through the area on their way to Nation member Susana Deranger homes in James Bay or Fairfield. said in a recent article, “It would I remember the last time I took be strange indeed to celebrate the a bus downtown on Canada Day, birth of a nation that stole my land, when that same task force — composed of West Shore RCMP, Victoria forced hardships on my peoples and won’t recognize my place in police, other police agencies, and this nation or all that my ancestors B.C. Transit — set up checkpoints lost and sacrificed for this home on on all routes entering the region’s my native land.” core. Closer to home, a century and Passengers were ordered to leave a half ago Victoria was the staging the bus, line up on the sidewalk point for the genocide of indigenous and submit to searches by officers peoples up and down the coast. enforcing B.C. Transit’s ban on car-
From offices in Fort Victoria, colonial administrators orchestrated the spread of smallpox in indigenous communities, killing as much as 90 per cent of the population in some areas, as told by Tom Swanky in The True Story of Canada’s “War” of Extermination on the Pacific. Historian Chris Arnett also notes that Fort Victoria housed the ships which bombarded indigenous villages under the guise of justice when warriors fought back against encroachment by settlers. The brutal process of colonization continues today as we celebrate the confederation of a nation on stolen land. Today, the Harper Conservatives and B.C. Liberals have failed to bring out that ‘O Canada’ feeling in many of us. Canada is cut up and tied down as pipelines creep across the West and civil disobedience is increasingly met by mass arrests and the suspension of basic rights. I am proud of some things — I am proud that many Canadians support civil rights and the ongoing struggles of indigenous peoples. I am proud that alternative stories are being told alongside those which romanticize our history and minimize our flaws. As beer-commercial patriotism slowly gives way to honesty and self-awareness, I am proud that Canadians may soon have something worth celebrating. Simon Nattrass’s column can be found in Friday’s paper and online at vicnews.com.
‘This year seems to hold more cloud than silver lining.’