I too am waiting for proof of action from Canada. I wrote to Elinor Caplan, Minister of Immigration, my local MP and Joe Clark, leader of the Conservative party. Why not the Alliance? I think they will disappear in the coming 4 years...
I realize that much or all of this response is probably canned, but still find it interesting to note that neither Caplan nor my MP -- who have staffs and budgets far in excess of the Hon. Joe Clark -- have responded.
"Dear Mr. Watkins,
Thank you for sending me a copy of your e-mail to the Minister of
Immigration. I appreciate your taking the time and the effort to write to
me and share your thoughts on the government's response to the tragic events
of September 11th.
It is not often that we recognize a turning point in history. But we are a
different world than we were before September 11th, when hijacked planes
were flown deliberately into crowded buildings, at the throbbing heart of a
superpower, with the explicit purpose of killing innocent people, and
breaking the confidence of societies built upon freedom and order.
Our hearts go out to the individuals and families - including far too many
Canadians - who have been struck directly by this terrorist tragedy. The
direct victims started their day Tuesday, as we all did, expecting the
ordinary. And suddenly, without warning, without reason, they became the
innocent victims of a terrible, premeditated strike against order and
humanity.
We have all suffered personal losses, but this goes beyond the experience of
most civilized societies, and we can only offer our deepest sympathy, our
prayers, and our determination to ensure that, while terrorists can take
lives, they cannot destroy free societies, or our faith in our ability to
prevail over the most brutal instincts of human kind.
This is a challenge in which Canada must play a leading role. Our sons and
daughters died in these tragedies too. But even more than that, at our
best, Canada's role in the world has been to ensure that order prevails.
Canadians have done that in war - in Europe, and Korea, in the Gulf. We
have done it in peacekeeping, and in diplomacy. We have been leaders in
establishing rules of orderly trade, and high standards of human rights. We
have earned a reputation as a nation that stands in the front line of
defending and advancing free societies.
Canada must exert that leadership now. We must look honestly at home at
weaknesses in our own arrangements - whether at our borders, or in our
airports, or anywhere else - and we must act urgently to correct them.
And we must stand firmly with the United States, and with Europe, and with
other nations who are organizing now international responses to this
provocation.
Canada is not and cannot be neutral on these issues. They reach to the
heart and core of our history and our nature as a nation. As leader of my
national party - as leader of a coalition in Parliament - I assure the
government of our full support, if they act boldly.
Sometimes events present nations with opportunities, which we can accept or
put aside. But this is more than that - this is an obligation, which Canada
must grasp.
The technology of terror didn't change. What changed was the understanding
of what terrorists will do - and where they will do it. Their target was
not the thousands of people who died - except that they chose deliberately
institutions that symbolize the vigour and self-confidence of modern Western
economic and defence systems. And they chose deliberately the kind of
trained and accomplished individuals whom the world would never otherwise
consider victims.
But the real target of these terrorists - as it usually is -- was the sense
of security that is essential to any successful society. The purpose of
terrorism is, quite precisely, to show that no one is safe. It seeks to
explode the order and the confidence that are the basis on which most of us
live our lives, and take our risks, and make our assumptions about what a
civilized society offers and requires of us. In striking that target, the
attacks both succeeded, and they failed.
They succeeded in creating a shock felt round the world, and in stimulating
an immediate panic, and a lingering doubt, about the individual security of
each of us and each of our families and friends. Each of us does feel less
safe, more exposed, than when we woke on that Tuesday morning.
Less safe - but more determined.
And that is where the terrorists failed. They had hoped to expose the
weakness of free and ordered societies, which they believe to be
materialist, complacent and selfish. Instead, their terrible attacks have
revealed a strength of free societies - a resilience, a rationality, a
responsibility.
What we are seeing in the long lines of volunteers at blood banks, and in
the people going back to work in places that so recently were targets, is
more than just compassion or courage. And it is more than clenched-fist
determination - more than just a defiant proof that we cannot be threatened
or cowed.
Much more importantly, it reflects the values that we have always claimed
free systems nourish -- the optimism, the activism, the balance in resisting
a rush to judgement and, most of all, the palpable sense of personal and
community responsibility. In such a material and self-indulgent world, one
sometimes wonders whether those values will erode. Now they have been put
to a shocking test, and they seem robust.
But if, ironically, the terrorist attacks have proven the strength of the
values they deride, those attacks also demonstrate how much the world has
changed, and how urgent it is for us to ask how prepared we are for this new
world.
You will know that the Canadian Intelligence and Security Service - CSIS -
has a mandate to monitor threats to Canada. Let me quote from their report
released June 12, 2001 - less than three months before planes ploughed into
the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre Towers:
"Terrorism in the years ahead is expected to become more violent,
indiscriminate and unpredictable.... There will likely be terrorist attacks
whose sole aim would be to incite terror itself. A hardening attitude, and
a willingness on behalf of certain terrorist organizations in North America,
reinforce the belief that Canadians, now more than ever, are potential
victims, and Canada a potential venue, for terrorists attacks."
The Prime Minister has been too cautious and faint hearted in his remarks.
It is still not clear where Canada stands on crucial questions like tighter
border controls and what kind of military action the country would be
prepared to take.
This was an attack not only upon the United States, but upon all
democracies. What other world leaders have made clear, and what the Prime
Minister should have made clear to all - is that in the wake of these
attacks, we are all threatened, we are all "Americans" now. Rather than
indicate that Canada was not immediately threatened, the Prime Minister's
response should have been - like the Europeans', especially the British -
that this was an attack on all free, democratic countries.
The federal government has to look at everything from Canada's immigration
laws to airport security. If there are gaps in our system we should find
them quickly and fill them quickly. It is our responsibility and our duty.
We need to stand beside our allies, beside the United States and Europe and
others, in this fight. Canada can do much to tighten airport security,
border controls, and immigration screening procedures, as well as increase
the budget of its intelligence-gathering agency, CSIS, which is responsible
for counter-terrorism.
Thank you again for your correspondence.
Sincerely,
Joe Clark
" |
