Rue Copernic

What's it got to do with Canada, anyway? Well, quite a lot, actually. In that Canada has an investment, as a Western liberal democracy to ensure that acts of terrorism are not condoned, nor overlooked,nor readily forgotten. And, in case it slips anyone's mind, we have our own problems with attempts by religious fanatics at fomenting violence right here at home.

Canadian security has thus far been successful enough in uncovering plots in the planning stages, before planned execution. Which, if carried to fruition, would result in bloody carnage of a type we've seen hit elsewhere in the West. But Canadian society and its governmental institutions are blandly unengaged, seemingly unthreatened by even blatant attempts at destabilization through violence.

We simply cannot get our heads around the possibility, and the very real threat of ongoing links within Canada to terror organizations abroad. We are temperamentally placid, refusing to believe that anyone, or any groups, are interested in inflicting harm upon us a society. We're too nice. Easy to get along with, accommodating with minorities, accepting, and equality-engaged. Why would anyone want to attack us?

For the same reasons attacks take place elsewhere, where they haven't been successfully apprehended, and have taken innumerable lives. Places as diverse as Spain, Indonesia, Britain, Egypt, China, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Israel, Russia. Oh, and the United States. You do remember 9-11...? And Canada has its very own home-grown terrorism-central threats; the Internet is downright useful for initiating jihadi induction and training.

We've put away several notable threats that were found to be on the cusp of launching violence, and with sufficient evidence to prove them guilty of intent and culpability. And we've others who have been arrested, with sufficient evidence in tow to ensure that trials take place with predictable outcomes. Our well-disposed judiciary - justices of the peace, would you believe it - have confoundingly offered bail to these jihadis.

Aren't we really, really nice? And we've got another out on bail, awaiting a hearing as to whether this country is formally prepared to honour its extradition treaty with France. You know, the country that formulated that unforgettable humanistic and just formula: "Freedom, Equality and Fraternity"...? France wishes to put its house in order, to place on trial a prime suspect in a terror event.

One described at the time as representing a "scene of war, bodies and burning cars" in the aftermath of a deadly explosion that left four French people dead and forty more injured, in 1980. This was an attack on a synagogue during one of the happier festivals in Judaism. The attackers had thoughtfully placed 40 kilograms of plastic explosive in a motorcycle's saddlebags they had parked outside the synagogue.

French legal-justice authorities are confident they have finally amassed sufficient evidence to implicate a Lebanese-born Canadian citizen, Hassan Diab, who failed to divulge his past connections to the Palestine Liberation Organization when he applied for entry to Canada. Mr. Diab claims his is a common Palestinian name combination, and that he is innocent of any and all charges that France wishes to lodge against him.

He is fighting extradition, and his lawyer claims that Canadian authorities have no legal right to remove him to stand before a French court of law. Which is puzzling, since one might assume that it is in Mr. Diab's best interests to clear his name. Which can only be achieved by a trial that will either find him innocent or guilty.