Terrorism in Canada – Are We Next?

TWO of the most worrying revelations that arose from the 7/7 London bombings concerned the bombers themselves. They were suicide bombers, the first to commit an atrocity on British soil. Even more shockingly, they were British born and bred; not recent arrivals who had sneaked into the country planning death and destruction with the help of well-organized terror cells, but seemingly ordinary young men who had grown up in a quiet suburb of Leeds.

The big question for Canadians in the wake of the bombings was, of course. ‘Could it happen here?’ This is not just a question of security, although there are glaring omissions. It is also a question of the potential perpetrators. What good is heightened border security if, as in Britain, the terrorists are already in the country?

Canada is no stranger to acts of terrorism. The Air India tragedy is the best known example: having taken off from Vancouver on June 23 1985, bombs ripped the plane apart in mid-air, killing all 329 people on board.  The FLQ crisis in 1970 involved the assassination of a Quebec cabinet politician at the hands of separatists.

The masterminds behind the violence were, in both cases, Canadian residents (for example Inderjit Singh Reyat, pictured right, one of the Air India bombers). Like the British bombers, being relatively disorganized and small in numbers did not stop the FLQ assassins. Other observations can be drawn from the events in London, showing the likelihood of similar attacks in Canada.

First of all, the London bombers were motivated by conflicts affecting their co-religionists abroad. A report released after the attack confirmed a widely held belief – their cause was the Iraq war. Leeds resident Asif Iqbal, a childhood friend of one of the bombers, said: "They're crying over 50 people while 100 people are dying every day in Iraq and Palestine. If they are the ones who did it, it's because they believed it was right.”

Attacks on Canadian soil have often been the result of overseas conflicts – think the 1992 attack on the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa by MEK supporters, after their base was bombed by the air force in Iran; or the riots by the Kurdish PKK in Ottawa and Montreal in 1999 after the arrest of their leader in Kenya.

A terrorist attack motivated by Iraq is unlikely here, as Canada is not one of the occupying forces. However, Canada is present in Afghanistan, and this is enough to include it on Al-Qaeda’s notorious hit-list.

Secondly, the bombers had the means to attack. Their explosives were not crude or home-made, but sophisticated and hard to obtain. One theory, according to British security services, is that the young men contacted someone who trained as a terrorist in Afghanistan or Iraq. This bears similarities to September 11, where members of the ‘Hamburg cell’ were introduced to an al-Qaeda operative in Germany, and then to mentors in Afghanistan.

Aspiring terrorists in Canada would not have to travel far to find arms or mentors of their own. Vancouver’s Police Chief, Jamie Graham, has described his city as “a haven for terrorist activity.”

"If I was to tell your listeners what our intelligence is telling us, I tell you there would be some sleepless nights," he said in a radio interview in April last year.  

The city is home to 55 known terrorist organisations, including al-Qaeda and Hamas. Retired US border patrol chief Carey James said: "Some of the intelligence I had access to said there were terror groups from all over the world. Every group you can think of has a cell in the Vancouver area."

A third factor the young British men held in common was their recent increased Islamic fervour. Friends of Shahzad Tanweer said his relentless reading of the Qur’an and daily prayers became almost an obsession. Hasib Hussain’s friends said he started following Islam more closely about two years ago.

Becoming more religious does not, of course, turn someone into a suicide bomber. But senior British insiders say that there are certain social and psychological factors linked to extremism. Disillusioned with both their background and Western society, young men may come to see radical Islam as a ‘third way’.

Such disillusionment is particularly likely if people come from a poor background. Although material wealth does not stop people becoming extremists (as the middle-class and educated London bombers have proved), those who are poor are more likely to look for a way out. This thinking has been adopted at the top levels of British government.

Although, in the same way as their British counterparts, Canadian Muslims are often wealthy and highly educated, economic disadvantage can still be a problem. The level of post-secondary education amongst Muslims, according to a study released by York University last month, is almost double the national average. However, so is the rate of unemployment, with the average income of a Muslim family 37 per cent below national levels.  

York professor Haideh Moghissi added that, as women tend to adjust to a new culture and circumstances better, men may turn to religious conservatism to compensate: “The difficulties encountered in the new country can drive migrant men to embrace a more conservative religious practice, and a more vigorous attachment to the homeland, in an attempt to recapture the dominance they enjoyed in their countries of origin,” she said.

Add to these factors the radicalizing power of the internet, which provides contacts through chatrooms and rhetoric through websites, and it is easy to see how Canada could produce its own version of the British bombers. Extremists willing to resort to violence are in the vast minority amongst all Muslims. However, the British government has, in recent years, helped the Muslim population to police itself in order to prevent attacks, with constant co-operation between the authorities and Muslim communities. This led to the swift resolution of police investigations after 7/7, and should reduce the likelihood of further plots succeeding. If the Canadian government wants to prevent suicide bombings on its soil, it would do well to take a leaf out of Britain’s book.

Photos courtesy of CBC.com, BBC.co.uk, AFP photos, AP photos