Tax-Funded Apologies

Where does a government's responsibility to its entire population and its security begin and end? To ensure security in the face of a real and present danger, particularly when a human-engineered catastrophe like 9-11 occurred to shock the world at the depth of its successfully sinister disregard for innocent lives, represents a monumental challenge. Exacerbated and complicated by the need to protect the civil liberties and freedoms of the very citizens that the government must protect.

Invariably, there will be some untoward and unforeseen consequences.

It stands to reason that if and when violent antagonists of law and order take it upon themselves to destroy the comfort and serenity of entire populations through their dedication to mass murder, and those who represent those violent antagonists are exclusively Muslim, that all Muslims will then be viewed with suspicion as potential terrorists. Reasonable people most certainly do not believe that all Muslims are terrorists.

It is simply that reality has presented the obvious; all the terrorists that threaten the security of the West are Muslim.

That the Muslim community by and large, remains relatively silent on the issue, other than to decry the situation they have been placed within, being targeted as a visible minority by a newly-coined term; Islamophobia, simply masks their collective lack of responsibility in taking back the peaceful aspect of their religion. There has been no mass protest among Muslims, insisting that Islam does not prescribe mass terror as a mechanism and means by which Islam may spread its influence.

Muslim intellectuals and religious leaders, and the heads of some Islamic states have been severely implicated in encouraging violent jihad. Across the Islamic world calls to honour jihad have echoed and young Muslims have responded. The net of terror that has been spread across the world by the violence visited upon various parts of the globe, directed toward Jews, Christians, Hindus, Muslim 'apostates' has completely unsettled the world.

Within Canada there are mosques which have been implicated in proven and real instances where successfully-received messages of violent jihad have been absorbed and acted upon. Foreign clerics travel to Canada to preach incendiary versions of Islam, and to recruit from among eager conscripts to defence of Islamic values. Values recognized as Islamic often seek dominance over the laws of Canada. From within mosques and community centres come attitudes of aggressive denials of peaceful pluralism within Canada.

It's little wonder that there will be instances where Muslims, particularly those of Arab descent, double citizens of Western countries and the countries where they were born, would have been viewed with suspicion and no little amount of alarm, when incomplete 'evidence' surfaced to implicate them in activities which might prove to be harmful to the West. Which is precisely what happened to a number of Arab-Canadians, particularly those of Syrian descent.

The unfortunate case of Maher Arar, who suffered a year in a Syrian prison on suspicion of terror-affiliation, when he was rendered against his will to Syria for 'interrogation' with the assistance of the U.S. and Canada, was settled with an apology and a $10-million settlement. Now, three other Canadians who suffered detention and torture in Syria and Egypt are suing the Government of Canada for its alleged role in their incarceration and torture.

A government-ordered enquiry found that Canadian officials with Foreign Affairs lacked alacrity in acting on behalf of the three men. And that both the RCMP and CSIS were in possession of faulty information implicating the men in terrorist activities, information that was shared with their Syrian and Egyptian counterparts. Now long returned to Canada after their ordeal, the three are each suing the government for $60-million, and their families are additionally suing the government, as well.

Will $200+-million of Canadian taxpayer funded compensation soothe the humiliation and the pain of those involved? Will this sum enable the three men and their families to forgive and forget? Will this somehow make Canadians feel better and safer about themselves, if they know that the government has doled out this financial apology? Will this ensure that Muslims within Canada have a keener appreciation of what life in this country avails them?

Judge Iacobucci, in his findings of 'deficiencies' on the part of Foreign Affairs and the country's two policing agencies for failing to properly consider the likelihood that the men in question would be tortured, delivered his considered and honest and juridical opinion on the case. He did not, needless to say, deliver himself of the opinion that the country's treasury should be significantly drained to assuage the harm done.

There are some who might consider that the claims of the three men are extraordinarily out of whack with what occurred. The lawsuits against the country and the taxpayer are somewhat excessive in character and demand.