Canada tarred again as haven for terrorists
By COLIN FREEZE
From Friday's Globe and Mail
Canada will once again be painted as a terrorist haven when the widely watched television news show 60 Minutes tells Americans this Sunday that their northern neighbour has serious problems in its immigration system.
The exposé is the latest headache for the federal government, which has been battling fears that terrorists are entering Canada and are poised to slip across the border to attack.Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Ottawa has been working overtime to assuage such concerns. But much of this work threatens to be undone by two outspoken former civil servants from Canada.
The CBS show, which draws 16 million American viewers each week, relies on former spy-service official David Harris and former immigration czar James Bissett, who both complain of being Cassandras whose public warnings have long gone unheeded in Canada.
On 60 Minutes, Mr. Harris says there is a horde of terrorist groups in Canada — including al-Qaeda — and jokes that "Canada has everything for the discriminating terrorist."
Mr. Bissett, meanwhile, rips into the country's refugee system, which he has long regarded as a fundamentally flawed "charade" that has been defrauded by many asylum seekers, including terrorists.
On the show, Deputy Prime Minister John Manley says Canada's system is not fail-safe, but is improving. He points out that most Western nations have problems with terrorists lurking among them, including the United States.
In the days after Sept. 11, some U.S. reports said the hijackers crossed into the United States from Canada. But subsequent investigations determined all 19 of the men accused of being involved were in the United States legally at the time of the attacks.
Terrorists, however, do reside in Canada. A number of terrorists or alleged terrorists have lived here, most prominently Ahmed Ressam, a refugee claimant and al-Qaeda operative who came close to bombing the Los Angeles airport before U.S. authorities caught and convicted him.
Even so, 60 Minutes isn't simply singing Blame Canada. In an ongoing series concerning terrorist threats, the news program recently ripped into the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service over terrorism concerns.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Manley acknowledged Thursday that 60 Minutes asks tough questions, but dismissed the immigration criticisms as old news. She said Canadian critics have long been beating the same drum.
"I don't think it's entirely helpful when some of our strongest critics are Canadians," Jennifer Sloan said. "It's unfortunate that the media go back to the same old two or three guys."
Canadian Alliance defence critic Leon Benoit disagreed. "Don't blame the messenger," he said, citing inaction by the federal government. "Blame the people responsible."
If Canada gets a black eye on 60 Minutes, it's not necessarily a bad thing, Mr. Benoit said. "We have been hammering away at this for literally nine years. . . . Why the hell hasn't the government responded?"
Along with the Canadian Alliance, the two former civil servants have long faced governments unreceptive to their arguments. Having left their most prominent government posts more than a decade ago, the two men now frequently appear as pundits in news stories and opinion pages.
Since at least 1993, journalists have tapped Mr. Harris's expertise as a former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
Mr. Harris, who says he can't reveal exactly when or how long he was with CSIS, tells 60 Minutes that 50 terrorist groups — including Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network — are operating in Canada.
Recent CSIS reports have suggested the same thing. However, CSIS director Ward Elcock urges people to quote this number in context, saying that "few of those groups or individuals pose a threat of direct terrorist attack in Canada or, indeed, to our closest neighbour."
Mr. Elcock says that most groups here act to support terrorist causes abroad. Canada's multicultural makeup means the country has more terrorist groups than any other nation, "with perhaps the singular exception of the United States," he has said.
Mr. Bissett, meanwhile, was head of the Canadian Immigration Service from 1985 until 1990.
During that time he helped draft legislation that gave birth to the current refugee determination system, which he now decries as a system rarely used by bona fide refugees. The problem, he says, is a last-minute and catastrophic watering-down of the law by the Progressive Conservative government of the day.
Mr. Bissett has been a tireless and often controversial critic since leaving the public service. On the program, he describes how Canada's refugee system has recently let in 2,500 immigrants from what he calls "terrorist-producing countries" such as Algeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan; "most of them," he says, "we don't know who the hell they are."
Anyone else catch the irony?
By COLIN FREEZE
From Friday's Globe and Mail
Canada will once again be painted as a terrorist haven when the widely watched television news show 60 Minutes tells Americans this Sunday that their northern neighbour has serious problems in its immigration system.
The exposé is the latest headache for the federal government, which has been battling fears that terrorists are entering Canada and are poised to slip across the border to attack.Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Ottawa has been working overtime to assuage such concerns. But much of this work threatens to be undone by two outspoken former civil servants from Canada.
The CBS show, which draws 16 million American viewers each week, relies on former spy-service official David Harris and former immigration czar James Bissett, who both complain of being Cassandras whose public warnings have long gone unheeded in Canada.
On 60 Minutes, Mr. Harris says there is a horde of terrorist groups in Canada — including al-Qaeda — and jokes that "Canada has everything for the discriminating terrorist."
Mr. Bissett, meanwhile, rips into the country's refugee system, which he has long regarded as a fundamentally flawed "charade" that has been defrauded by many asylum seekers, including terrorists.
On the show, Deputy Prime Minister John Manley says Canada's system is not fail-safe, but is improving. He points out that most Western nations have problems with terrorists lurking among them, including the United States.
In the days after Sept. 11, some U.S. reports said the hijackers crossed into the United States from Canada. But subsequent investigations determined all 19 of the men accused of being involved were in the United States legally at the time of the attacks.
Terrorists, however, do reside in Canada. A number of terrorists or alleged terrorists have lived here, most prominently Ahmed Ressam, a refugee claimant and al-Qaeda operative who came close to bombing the Los Angeles airport before U.S. authorities caught and convicted him.
Even so, 60 Minutes isn't simply singing Blame Canada. In an ongoing series concerning terrorist threats, the news program recently ripped into the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service over terrorism concerns.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Manley acknowledged Thursday that 60 Minutes asks tough questions, but dismissed the immigration criticisms as old news. She said Canadian critics have long been beating the same drum.
"I don't think it's entirely helpful when some of our strongest critics are Canadians," Jennifer Sloan said. "It's unfortunate that the media go back to the same old two or three guys."
Canadian Alliance defence critic Leon Benoit disagreed. "Don't blame the messenger," he said, citing inaction by the federal government. "Blame the people responsible."
If Canada gets a black eye on 60 Minutes, it's not necessarily a bad thing, Mr. Benoit said. "We have been hammering away at this for literally nine years. . . . Why the hell hasn't the government responded?"
Along with the Canadian Alliance, the two former civil servants have long faced governments unreceptive to their arguments. Having left their most prominent government posts more than a decade ago, the two men now frequently appear as pundits in news stories and opinion pages.
Since at least 1993, journalists have tapped Mr. Harris's expertise as a former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
Mr. Harris, who says he can't reveal exactly when or how long he was with CSIS, tells 60 Minutes that 50 terrorist groups — including Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network — are operating in Canada.
Recent CSIS reports have suggested the same thing. However, CSIS director Ward Elcock urges people to quote this number in context, saying that "few of those groups or individuals pose a threat of direct terrorist attack in Canada or, indeed, to our closest neighbour."
Mr. Elcock says that most groups here act to support terrorist causes abroad. Canada's multicultural makeup means the country has more terrorist groups than any other nation, "with perhaps the singular exception of the United States," he has said.
Mr. Bissett, meanwhile, was head of the Canadian Immigration Service from 1985 until 1990.
During that time he helped draft legislation that gave birth to the current refugee determination system, which he now decries as a system rarely used by bona fide refugees. The problem, he says, is a last-minute and catastrophic watering-down of the law by the Progressive Conservative government of the day.
Mr. Bissett has been a tireless and often controversial critic since leaving the public service. On the program, he describes how Canada's refugee system has recently let in 2,500 immigrants from what he calls "terrorist-producing countries" such as Algeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan; "most of them," he says, "we don't know who the hell they are."
Anyone else catch the irony?
