THE SHOW GOES ON: TERRORISTS STILL DOING BUSINESS IN CANADA
By Robert Klein Engler (08/24/05)
STRATFORD, ONTARIO--(25 August '05) We make it with few delays through the
construction zone around Detroit's downtown and onto the Ambassador Bridge that
leads to Windsor. Once across the bridge and heading towards Canadian customs,
traffic begins to slow. Our lane into the checkpoint seems the slowest of
all. When we get to the customs window we understand why. The Canadian customs
agent working there asks many questions. We show our U. S. passports and answer
politely.
"You guys left all your bad habits in the States?" she asks, at last.
"Of course," I answer. Assured, she waves us through and then we head for
highway 401 that leads to London, Ontario.
It's hard to tell leaving Windsor that you are in a foreign country. Canada
melts into the U. S. and the U. S. melts into Canada at the Detroit/Windsor
border crossing. The language and culture seem superficially the same here.
Unlike a border crossing into Mexico, Canada and the U. S. have much in common.
It's only when we stop for dinner in Rodney, Ontario that what it means to be
from Chicago and not Toronto becomes clear.
We eat at the only restaurant in town. The sign in the window says,
"Southwest, Chinese, Canadian Cuisine." My friend looks at me and wonders what kind of
menu that could be. Once inside, we realize this is the place where families
from miles around come to eat. The atmosphere is eclectic, but homey.
Silverware on the table is rolled in checkered washcloths for napkins.
I order fish and chips. It is like what I remember from years ago living in
England, but they don't have any malt vinegar for the chips. Then I ask the
waitress what the weather will be like tomorrow. She says it was hot yesterday,
almost 29, but it will be cooling off and may even go down to 14 by the middle
of the week. Oops! I realize we are not in Kansas anymore. I just don't get
what 29 and 14 feels like weather wise. Different cultures do make different
worlds.
We've come to Canada to see plays at the Stratford Festival. The productions
of Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams are as good or better here than on
Broadway. The audiences are prosperous, intelligent and liberal. It's hard to
imagine that as one drama is taking place on stage, another involving terror and
destruction may be in the planning off stage. The worldwide failure of many new
immigrants to assimilate into their host societies seems to go unnoticed among
the lights, makeup and applause.
Nevertheless, the next day, the National Post for 23 August (p. A7) carries
an article about immigration to Canada. Reporter Gary Dimmock writes,
"Immigrants and refugees on whom authorities have little information should be forced
to wear electronic tracking bracelets--like criminals under house arrest--to
establish any links to the more than 50 terrorist networks operating in Canada,
says (David Harris) a former chief planner for the Canadian Security
Intelligence Service."
Canada, with its numerous terrorist networks, is becoming a problem for many
in U. S. law enforcement. Because of liberal immigration laws and welfare
policies, Canada could be a breeding ground for future terrorist attacks against
the U. S. Until recently, a terrorist threat from Canada has always been
downplayed when compared to the problems on the southern border of the U. S. With
about a million illegal Mexican immigrants detained already this year trying to
sneak into the U. S., hardly anyone in the media has looked north to see who
might be trying to cross that U. S. border illegally. This may soon change.
"'Virtually all of the...international terrorists organizations are known to
maintain a network presence in Canada,' said a report, first publicized in the
National Post." Unless the U. S. government takes seriously this report and
both its northern and southern borders, it will be vulnerable on all sides. The
Bush administration must recognize that not only does it have a border
problem in Iraq, but it also has one in the U. S. To keep the insurgents out of Iraq
and the terrorists out of the U. S. we have to forget about amnesty and start
talking about border security.
Canada is a wonderful place to visit. Everyone should leave their bad habits
behind before coming here. Nevertheless, a CSIS report claims that the world's
"most notorious" terrorists groups are still doing business in Canada. Let's
hope these terrorists don't disappear with their business into the great white
north, only to emerge later and strike again.
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