Rick Kardonne, The Jewish Tribune, June 29, 2006, page 10
Government shows signs of security improvement, ex-CSIS head tells US
OTTAWA - David Harris, former head of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) and now Senor Fellow for Terrorism and National Security at the Canadian Coalition for Democracies, recently returned from a US Congressional hearing in Washington where he testified that while Canada's record regarding surveillance of terrorist groups was dismal in the recent past, there are signs of improvement in the future thanks to the new federal government in Ottawa.
In an exclusive telephone interview with the Jewish Tribune, Harris said that he told the US congressmen: "I am concerned that Canada has been in a terrible slide, with extremist groups gaining, with politicians at best maintaining a benign interest." He gave as an example "the Tamil Tigers, with which the Liberals had reached an accommodation with dangerous radical tendencies. But I see hope for the future. The Conservatives are coming to grips with counter-terrorism."
He felt that the recent multi-level law enforcement arrest of 17 alleged Muslim terrorists who are charged with planning massive deadly bombings in downtown Toronto as well as plotting to storm the Parliament buildings in Ottawa and to behead the prime minister, "enhances Canada's police and security credibility." After all, this plot was foiled, in contrast to 9/11 in New York, and the Madrid train bombings and London subway bombings. "But this plot reminds the world that Canada is a target and has been infiltrated."
Harris is sharply critical of what he believes are Canada's "unthinkably absurd" immigration, and especially, refugee acceptance policies, which he feels are much too lenient.
"There are now 10,000 refugees in Canada. There has been an aggressive state-sponsored policy. The people who are the most unassimilable are getting in. Once they come, they are subsidized not to acculturate.
"This policy forecloses freedom," by allowing for the practice of "Islamic lawy, which to these immigrants is a much greater agenda than would be the freedom of Jews and Christians." He heartily agreed with a proposal by Randall Hanse, University of Toronto immigration expert specialist in second-generation radicalism, reported in the June 12 issue of the National Post: "Canada should consider monitoring the curriculum of private Muslim schools and ensuring imams are Western-trained and not unilingual in Arabic."
This issue of unassimilable Muslim immigration is especially serious considering what US lawyer Ron Motley said at his Beth Torah May 25 speech in Toronto, where he claimed Saudi Arabia was a major financier of terrorism through its funding of the extremist Wahabi Islamic sect in mosques and educational institutions throughout the world. When asked about the danger of Saudi Arabia, David Harris repied:
"We (meaning Canada) must take the most stringent measures against Saudi Arabia. We must ban Saudi funding to any Canadian mosque or school. Saudi petrodollar contributions to universities must be banned."
When asked about a challenge to the Canada Anti-terrorism Act, which is currently before the Supreme Court of Canada, specifically in regards to the security certificate for which suspected terrorists can be detained without trial, Harris replied: "The security certificate is not unprecedented. It has been in existence for 20 years, and in the past was used against the Mafia and the IRA."
Besides, he asked: "What credible alternative is there to the security certificates? Opponents of this act say: 'Charge suspected terrorists or release them.' But this is a false dichotomy. This principle imposes upon the prosecution a burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt" that the suspects are terrorists." Harris implied that, in the meantime, the suspects are free to commit more acts of terror.
Harris is very critical of elements of the media which state that Canadian Muslims are being victimized by a virulent wave of Islamophobia.
"I am astonished by the failure of many media outlets who have not asked basic questions about some of the more remarkable claims of certain Islamic groups," he said. The statistics just don't support these claims of a hate wave against Canadian Muslims. For example, Harris claims, "Out of 105 hate crimes reported in York Region in 2005, 75 were against Jews. Only two were against Muslims, despite the fact that there are twice as many Muslims in Canada as there are Jews. Two are too many. But, by creating a feeling of victimization of Muslims, (some elements of) the media are creating an atmosphere of alienation among young Muslims, which makes them more vulnerable to join extremist groups and poison the general well of goodwill."
Harris concluded the interview with high praise for Israel.
"Israel continues to be one of the rare islands of democracy and human rights in the Mideast. Israel continues to be under siege by tyrannical regimes. One only hopes that (Ariel) Sharon was wrong when he likened Israel to Czechoslovakia in 1938."
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