Celebrating Canada Day: A rightward political drift, post 9/11, and sleepwalking towards a cliff (Part 2)

The convergence of Canada’s treatment of Indigenous peoples, the escalating attacks on residential school truth‑telling, and the vilification of pro‑Palestinian demonstrators reveals a political environment where dissent is increasingly criminalized and racialized communities are systematically targeted.

By Fareed Khan

A version of this article can be found on Substack.

As Canadians get set to celebrate Canada Day tomorrow, we all need to demand an honest assessment of the country’s political trajectory. Since the post‑9/11 era, Canada has been drifting steadily to the right, reshaping its laws, institutions, and public discourse in ways that erode civil liberties, normalize racism and Islamophobia, and legitimize far‑right political views. Many Canadians, comforted by the belief that “it can’t happen here,” are sleepwalking Canada towards a cliff and the rest of us are doing little or nothing to stop it.

The post‑9/11 security climate marked a turning point. Under the banner of fighting terrorism, Canada expanded surveillance, strengthened security agencies, and introduced legislation that disproportionately targeted Muslims, Arabs, and other racialized communities. Islamophobia became embedded in policy and practice, with Muslim communities treated as suspect and their institutions subjected to heightened scrutiny. This securitized mindset has never fully receded, it has simply shifted targets and language.

Recent commentary has documented how Islamophobia and anti‑Palestinian racism have become entrenched at the highest levels of Canadian politics. One analysis of the appointment of MP Anthony Housefather as special advisor on antisemitism argues that his record of pushing anti‑Palestinian narratives reflects a government willing to appease pro‑Israel organizations while ignoring the surge in hate against Palestinians and Muslims. This is not an isolated incident; it reflects a broader pattern in which those who protest genocide are smeared, surveilled, and punished.

Since October 7, 2023, this pattern has intensified. Palestinians and their allies have been vilified as “terrorists” and “antisemitic” simply for opposing Israeli state violence and pointing out that it is committing genocide in Gaza. Pro‑Palestinian protesters have faced harassment, doxing, job loss, and political condemnation. It can be safely said that Palestinians are “the most persecuted people in the world today,” in light of the fact that Western leaders—including Canada’s—have seemingly shed their humanity towards Palestinians by treating their deaths at Israeli hands as acceptable collateral damage. The refusal of both the Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney governments to intervene to stop genocide, do nothing beyond issuing PR platitudes, even as polls show overwhelming Canadian opposition to current Canadian policy, exposes the gap between democratic rhetoric and actual practice.

This widening gap is where Canada’s rightward drift becomes most visible. When hundreds of thousands of Canadians march against the Gaza genocide and their leaders respond by continuing arms sales, diplomatic cover, and launching smear campaigns against protesters, democracy becomes a façade. A detailed analysis of Canada’s complicity in the Gaza genocide argues that successive governments have maintained military cooperation with Israel despite clear evidence of genocidal acts, thereby breaching both domestic and international legal obligations. This is not just foreign policy failure; it is moral bankruptcy.

At the same time, Canada’s right‑wing parties have moved further into territory that can only be described as quasi‑fascist. The Conservative Party under Pierre Poilievre has embraced rhetoric and talking points that mirror those of the Republican Party under Donald Trump—attacks on “woke” culture, demonization of refugees and immigrants, hostility toward journalists and academics, and a constant framing of political opponents as enemies of “real Canadians.” While the specifics differ, the underlying strategy is familiar—weaponize resentment, stoke cultural division, and present strongman politics as the solution to perceived chaos.

The People’s Party of Canada (PPC), led by Maxime Bernier, has played a crucial role in legitimizing far‑right discourse even without major electoral success. A 2021 analysis of the PPC argues that the party has normalized racist, xenophobic, and anti‑immigrant narratives, giving them a veneer of political respectability. By railing against “globalists,” attacking immigration, and flirting with conspiracy theories, the PPC has helped shift the narrative—making previously fringe ideas part of mainstream debate. Even if the PPC fails at the ballot box, its impact on political culture is undeniable.

This is how far‑right politics advances, not only through winning elections, but through changing what is considered acceptable to say in public. When parties like the PPC push fascist talking points—about “invasions,” “replacement,” or the supposed threat posed by racialized communities—they create space for larger parties to adopt softer versions of the same narratives. Over time, the centre of gravity moves rightward, and what once seemed extreme becomes ordinary.

Meanwhile, Canada’s media ecosystem has often amplified these shifts rather than resisting them. Right‑wing commentators and outlets have demonized pro‑Palestinian protesters, framed solidarity encampments as security threats, and echoed government talking points about “extremism” and “hate” against Jews, even though many Jews are part of the movement. Anti‑Palestinian racism and Islamophobia are not only present in political institutions, they are reproduced daily in Canada’s news media ecosystem, through coverage and opinion columns. Multiple published commentaries have argued that this media environment dehumanizes Palestinians and legitimizes state violence against them.

The convergence of Canada’s treatment of Indigenous peoples, the escalating attacks on residential school truth‑telling, and the vilification of pro‑Palestinian demonstrators reveals a political environment where dissent is increasingly criminalized and racialized communities are systematically targeted. The same forces that once justified the dispossession and dehumanization of Indigenous nations now rationalize contemporary efforts to suppress solidarity with Palestinians. Residential school denialism and anti‑Indigenous propaganda have become tools for undermining truth‑telling and defending the settler‑colonial status quo, while politicians, right‑wing media, and pro‑Israel advocacy networks deploy similar tactics to delegitimize pro‑Palestinian voices — branding them extremists, security threats, or enemies of “Canadian values.” In both cases, historical and ongoing state violence is obscured through narratives that portray marginalized communities as dangerous or suspect, and those who challenge official narratives as destabilizing forces. As a result, protests against genocide and colonialism are met with police crackdowns, university sanctions, employment terminations, and political condemnation, reinforcing a broader pattern in which far‑right narratives seep into mainstream discourse and the machinery of the state is mobilized to silence those who resist it.

Canadians often comfort themselves with the belief that “we’re not like the United States or the United Kingdom” and that what’s happening to their politics can’t happen here. But the trajectories are increasingly similar. In the US, the far right has captured The Republican Party and reshaped national politics around authoritarian impulses and racial resentment. In the UK, xenophobia and anti‑immigrant hysteria have become central pillars of political discourse, with far‑right groups exploiting economic instability and cultural anxiety. Canada is not immune because it is simply at an earlier stage of the same process.

As Canadians get set to mark Canada Day they must remember that a nation complicit in genocide cannot credibly celebrate itself as a force for good. When Canada continues to sell weapons to a state accused of genocide, refuses to support international legal efforts to hold that state accountable, and punishes those who protest its actions, it forfeits any claim to moral leadership. Silence is not neutrality—it is complicity.

Canada is at a crossroads. It can continue drifting down the path towards a right-wing, authoritarian future, with the scapegoating of racialized peoples, and moral abdication, or it can choose a different future. But that choice will not be made by politicians alone. It will be made by Canadians who decide whether to accept the drift or resist it.

Millions of Canadians will celebrate Canada Day tomorrow and they are free to do so. But if they celebrate without reflection, without reckoning, without pushing back against the rightward political drift that has been happening for years, they may find that the country they once celebrated no longer exists. And by then, it may be too late to turn back from the cliff.

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

Celebrating Canada Day: Colonial foundations and the myth of innocent celebrations (Part 1/2)

Canada is a settler‑colonial state which required the dispossession of Indigenous lands, the destruction of Indigenous societies, and the attempted erasure of Indigenous cultures and identities.

By Fareed Khan
A version of this article can be found on Substack.

In two days—July 1st—millions of Canadians will celebrate Canada Day. Yet few pause to ask what, exactly, is being celebrated. The familiar rituals—fireworks, barbecues, flags, and patriotic speeches—invite a comforting narrative of national unity and progress. But beneath this spectacle lies a reality that cannot be reconciled with easy patriotism—Canada was built on Indigenous genocide, white supremacy, and systemic racism. To celebrate Canada Day without acknowledging these foundations is to participate in a collective act of denial and an erasure of history.

Canada is a settler‑colonial state. Its creation required the dispossession of Indigenous lands, the destruction of Indigenous governance systems and societies, and the attempted erasure of Indigenous cultures and identities. Scholars of genocide and settler colonialism have long argued that colonization is not merely about land theft—it is about the destruction of peoples, laws, and ways of life. Residential schools, the Indian Act, forced relocations, the reserve system, and the criminalization of Indigenous ceremonies were not unfortunate mistakes. They were deliberate tools of a project aimed at eliminating Indigenous nations as self‑determining peoples, and as a result are today seen as acts of genocide.

In recent years, Canada has been forced to confront this history more directly. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls concluded in 2019 that the violence inflicted on Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQ+ people amounts to “deliberate race, identity, and gender‑based genocide.” Parliament has acknowledged genocide in relation to residential schools, and political leaders have used the term publicly. Yet recognition without transformation is hollow. The structures that enabled genocide—policing, courts, resource extraction, child welfare systems—continue to produce what scholars call “multisided violence,” where state action and inaction normalize conditions in which Indigenous people can be harmed or killed with impunity.

Canada Day, in this context, becomes a ritual of denying this nation’s ugly history. It invites Canadians to celebrate this country without reckoning with the fact that its very existence depended on the destruction of Indigenous societies. Even when Canada Day events include acknowledgements of Indigenous peoples, the underlying narrative often remains one of progress and benevolence: that Canada has “learned from its past” and is now on a path of reconciliation. Yet the rise of residential school denialism and anti‑Indigenous politics on the far right shows that even the limited gains of truth‑telling are under attack.

Some communities have attempted to reshape Canada Day to reflect this reality. In Winnipeg, organizers renamed the main July 1st event “A New Day,” cancelled fireworks, and centred reflection on colonialism and residential schools rather than uncritical patriotism. Such efforts are important, but they remain exceptions. Across the country, the dominant message is still one of pride, promoting unity, and celebrating with a nationalistic fervour—often with only a brief, symbolic nod to Indigenous history and suffering.

The problem is not simply that Canada has a violent past. It is that this violence continues in the present. Indigenous communities still face disproportionate rates of poverty, incarceration, child apprehension, and police violence. Encampments of unhoused people—many of them Indigenous—are destroyed in the name of “public safety,” while solidarity encampments protesting genocide and colonialism are violently dismantled by police. The criminalization of poverty and dissent is not a deviation from Canadian values, it is a continuation of the logic that has always governed this country, one where some lives are expendable in the service of order and property.

Contemporary commentary has drawn connections between Canada’s colonial foundations and its foreign policy. One writer argues that Canada’s complicity in the Gaza genocide reflects a continuity between domestic colonial violence and international support for state violence abroad. The argument suggests that a nation built on genocide at home is predisposed to enable or excuse genocide elsewhere. This perspective reframes Canada Day not as a celebration of national virtue but as a reminder of unresolved injustice.

Canada’s self‑image as a human‑rights champion is fundamentally at odds with its record. A country that still struggles to provide clean drinking water to Indigenous communities, that has failed to implement the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and that remains complicit in ongoing violence against Indigenous women and girls cannot credibly claim to embody justice and equality. When Canadians gather on July 1st to celebrate “our values,” they are often celebrating an illusion.

This does not mean there is nothing worth preserving in Canada. There is beauty in its landscapes, richness in its diversity, and potential in its institutions. But potential is not achievement, and celebration is not owed—it is earned. A nation that has yet to fully acknowledge, let alone repair, the harms it has inflicted on Indigenous peoples has not earned the right to uncritical celebration.

Canada Day, then, should not be a day of simple celebration. It should be a day of reckoning. A day to ask, what does it mean to celebrate a country whose birth was a catastrophe for the peoples who already lived here? What does it mean to wave a flag that has flown over residential schools, police raids, and courtrooms where Indigenous rights are denied? What does it mean to celebrate a society that erased the original nations of this land?

On Wednesday, millions of Canadians will celebrate Canada Day. But if they do so without confronting the genocidal and white supremacist foundations of this country, they are not celebrating a mature democracy—they are participating in a collective act of denial. The question is not whether Canada can be celebrated. The question is whether it has done the work necessary to deserve celebration.

Until Canada fully acknowledges its genocidal past and present, and commits to dismantling the structures that sustain colonial violence, Canada Day should be less about fireworks and more about reflection. Less about pride and more about responsibility. Less about what Canada imagines itself to be and more about what it has actually done.

Only then—if ever—will Canada Day be something more than a ritual that papers over injustice with celebration of the red and white maple leaf.

Part 2 will follow tomorrow.

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

As Canada Day approaches should Canadians celebrate a nation complicit in Gaza’s genocide?

To celebrate Canada's birthday as usual would be to ignore the cries of Palestinian children, the destruction of an entire society, and the blood of the innocent that stains Canada’s moral fabric.

By Fareed Khan

A version of this article can be found on Substack.

As Canada Day approaches, the question of whether this country deserves celebration becomes impossible to ignore. Those who speak out against Canada’s role in Israel’s genocide—whether Palestinian, Jewish, or otherwise—are routinely met with smears, professional retaliation, and accusations of being antisemitic simply for opposing state violence. The cost of dissent has grown steep, with pro-Palestinian supporters being harassed, doxed, vilified and fired from their jobs, revealing a political culture increasingly hostile to those who still express moral clarity. This climate is especially chilling for racialized Canadians, particularly Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims, who have been villified by politicians and right‑wing commentators as threats to “Canadian values.” Their calls for justice are dismissed, their identities scrutinized, and their loyalties questioned. It is difficult to celebrate a nation that punishes those who demand accountability for mass atrocities.

This repression is not an aberration but part of a long and troubling continuity. Canada’s foundations rest on the dispossession and genocide of Indigenous people. Residential schools, the Indian Act, forced relocations, and systemic discrimination were not unfortunate side notes—they were central pillars of Canadian government policy. It was and is all part of an ugly history shaped by policies rooted in white supremacy, and sustained by institutions and systems built on racist foundations that continue to oppress and marginalize racialized communities across Canada.

The same colonial logic that justified the destruction of Indigenous societies at home now echoes in Canada’s support for the destruction of an Indigenous people abroad. The parallels are stark. A nation built on colonial violence and genocide now enables colonial violence and genocide in the Middle East. In such a context, the idea of celebrating Canada Day becomes morally troubling.

This also raises an unavoidable question. How can a nation claim pride in its commitment to human rights and international law while ignoring the human rights of Palestinians facing genocide, selling weapons to the perpetrators, and disregarding the very treaties it is obligated to uphold? The contradiction is too glaring to be papered over with fireworks and patriotic speeches.

Canada’s response to what is happening in Gaza—a place that has been described as a “concentration camp” by many respected human rights voices—cannot be dismissed as a foreign policy miscalculation. It reflects a deeper erosion of the values Canadians are told to celebrate on July 1st. The ideals of justice, equality, and compassion—values often wrapped in the symbolism of the maple leaf—ring hollow when that same symbol is implicated in the suffering of an entire people. Domestic achievements such as universal healthcare or multiculturalism cannot absolve a nation of its role in enabling mass atrocities. A country cannot claim moral leadership abroad while facilitating a genocide.

History offers no refuge from this reckoning. After the Holocaust, many Germans claimed that they did not know the extent of the horrors unfolding around them. Today, such claims would not be believed because the genocide in Gaza has been visible to the world every single day for almost a thousand days. The evidence of genocidal crimes committed by Israel is overwhelming, the suffering undeniable. Conservative estimates place the Palestinian death toll near 100,000, including tens of thousands of children. Entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble, entire family lines erased, and an entire society pushed to the edge of annihilation.

These atrocities have unfolded in real time, documented by journalists, human rights organizations, Palestinians themselves, and even Israeli soldiers. The world has watched the destruction livestreamed to their devices. And yet Canada—despite its constant declarations of commitment to human rights and international law—has chosen a path of political cowardice and moral abdication. It continues to sell weapons and support the state responsible for these crimes while offering only empty rhetoric about peace and restraint. In such a context, silence is not neutrality, it is complicity. And complicity should not be something to be celebrated on July 1st.

When this genocide ends—and it will end—there will be those eager to insist they opposed it from the beginning. But history will not be fooled. It will remember who spoke, who acted, and who chose complicity over conscience. The Canadian government’s continued arms sales to Israel, its refusal to impose broad sanctions, its failure to uphold its legal obligations under the Genocide Convention, and its unwillingness to back international legal efforts such as South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice—all of these decisions implicate this country and its leaders. And it also stains those who choose to celebrate Canada Day as though these realities do not exist.

As July 1st approaches, Canadians who believe in human rights face a profound moral dilemma. To celebrate as usual would be to ignore the cries of Palestinian children, the destruction of an entire society, and the blood of the innocent that stains Canada’s moral fabric. The threats facing Canada from Donald Trump pale in comparison to the ethical crisis unfolding within its own borders. A nation that enables genocide cannot credibly celebrate itself as a force for good.

However, there is beauty in Canada—its landscapes, its diversity, its potential for justice. But potential is not achievement, and celebration is not owed, it is earned. A nation complicit in genocide celebrating while that genocide continues is a perversity that should be called out. To mark Canada Day with pride under these circumstances would be to participate in a collective act of denial.

This July 1st should not be a day of fireworks and flag‑waving. It should be a day of reckoning—a moment to confront Canada’s role in Israel’s crimes, to demand an end to the policies that enable them, and to insist that this country finally honour the international conventions and laws it claims to uphold. Only then can Canada begin the long process of restoring its moral integrity. Only then can it aspire to be a nation worthy of pride.

Until that day arrives, Canada Day is not a day to celebrate. It is a reminder of the work that remains to be done to fulfill the potential of this nation.

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

Canada Day 2025: A time for reflection, not celebration

I cannot celebrate the birthday of what is supposedly one of the best countries in the world when Canada is complicit in Israel's genocide of Palestinians

By Fareed Khan 

On July 1, 2025, as Canadians draped themselves in red and white and gathered for fireworks and festivities, I found myself unable to join the chorus of celebration.

 

 

Fifty-seven years ago, as a young child newly arrived in Canada, I marked my first “Dominion Day” with a sense of wonder. Every year on this holiday my family would picnic on the Toronto Islands or at one of the city’s beaches, a ritual that defined my early Canada Days. As I grew older, the holiday evolved into gatherings with friends, often culminating in one of the spectacular fireworks displays across Toronto.

 

Back then, wearing a Canadian flag shirt felt like a proud declaration of belonging to a nation that stood for justice, compassion, and opportunity. But now, Canada Day feels hollow, a mere date on the calendar, overshadowed by a profound disillusionment with what this country has become.

 

My pride in Canada has waned over the decades, particularly in the last twenty years, as I’ve watched our leaders steer the nation down a path that betrays this nation's ideals. The Canada I once celebrated feels like a distant memory, replaced by a nation led by politicians who, in my view, exhibit a disturbing sociopathy. They violate their oaths of office and disregard the treaties and international conventions to which Canada is a signatory.

 

This betrayal has been most glaring in the past two years, as Canada’s complicity in the ongoing tragedy in Gaza has tarnished its reputation on the world stage. The genocide unfolding in Gaza—where over 63,000, including countless children, have been killed amid relentless violence—has been met with Canada’s tacit support while at the same time Canadian leaders uttering mealy mouthed platitudes claiming Canada opposes Israel's crimes.

 

Our government, through Canadian based Jewish charities and through public policy, has continued to fund and arm a nation committing what many, including myself, see as some of the gravest crimes against humanity since the Holocaust. This is not a distant historical event but a horror unfolding in real-time, documented on social media, often by the perpetrators themselves. Yet, when Canadians—Jewish or otherwise—dare to call out this complicity and demand accountability, they are smeared as “antisemitic.” Some have lost livelihoods for standing against genocide, a chilling reminder that dissent, even opposing genocide, in today’s Canada comes at a steep cost.

 

This is not the Canada I once knew, nor is it the Canada that millions still celebrate as one of the world’s best places to live. The irony is stark: a nation founded on the genocide of Indigenous peoples, rooted in racism and white supremacy, now finds itself entangled in another genocide of indigenous people thousands of miles away. The destruction of Indigenous societies in Canada’s past is a wound that remains unhealed, yet our leaders seem to have learned nothing, repeating history by enabling atrocities abroad, and running interference for the perpetrators. How can we celebrate a nation that, despite its virtues, is complicit in such profound moral failures?

 

Canada’s role in Gaza is not an isolated misstep but part of a broader erosion of the values I once associated with this country. The ideals of justice, equality, and compassion that I wrapped myself in alongside the Canadian flag feel betrayed. When I think of Canada Day now, I cannot ignore the blood on our hands—blood that stains the maple leaf as surely as it stains the conscience of those who remain silent.

 

While some may argue that Canada’s domestic achievements—its healthcare system, its multiculturalism, its relative stability—warrant celebration, these accomplishments ring hollow when our nation supports a state committing crimes that echo the worst of humanity’s past.The parallels to history are haunting. After the Holocaust, many claimed ignorance, insisting they didn’t know the extent of the atrocities. Today, there is no such excuse. The horrors in Gaza have been broadcast daily for more than 18 months, and they are undeniable and inescapable.

 

When this genocide finally ends, when the architects of these crimes face justice, and when Palestinians secure their right to a recognized nation, there will be those who will claim they opposed the violence all along. But silence in the face of such clear evidence is complicity, and Canada’s relative silence—its active support through selling arms to Israel and its diplomatic support—implicates us all.

 

This Canada Day, I did not celebrate. The threat of external challenges, like the spectre of Donald Trump's annexation threats, pales in comparison to the moral crisis within our borders. To celebrate would have been to ignore the cries of Palestinian children, the destruction of an entire society, and the stain on Canada’s soul. There are indeed good things about Canada—its natural beauty, its diverse communities, its potential for greatness—but these cannot overshadow the reality of our complicity in atrocities. Celebration is reserved for moments of triumph, for times when a nation lives up to its ideals. This year, Canada falls far short.

 

As Canadians, we must confront this uncomfortable truth. We cannot hide behind our historic reputation as a beacon of progress while our government enables a rogue, terrorist state’s crimes. Instead of fireworks and flag-waving, this Canada Day should have been a moment of reckoning when we demanded that our leaders end Canada’s support for Israel’s actions, honour the international conventions we’ve signed, and restore the moral integrity of this nation. Only then can we begin to rebuild a Canada worthy of celebration—one that stands for justice and humanity. Until that day, Canada Day will remain for me, just another day.

  

© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

I Couldn't Disagree More With Glenn Greenwald About His Take on Acts of Terrorism in Canada

By Fareed Khan

 

October 23, 2014 -- I generally agree with Glenn Greenwald.  He's one of the most incisive and intelligent journalists to write on issues of international politics and public policy.  His reports last year on the Edward Snowden NSA leaks were the definitive stories about US abuses of their national security apparatus to spy on ordinary Americans and on US allies.

But on the issue of terror attacks in Canada I couldn't disagree with him more (for the most part)!

GLEN GREENWALD: Canada, At War For 13 Years, Shocked That "A Terrorist" Attacked Its Soldiers

He obviously hasn't followed the political nuances and internal debates of what has occurred in Canada over the past 13 years when it comes to terrorism and related issues and so I question his logic since he couldn't have read up on more than a decade of Canadian political dialogue and the public debates they generated in the day or so since he wrote his article.  In addition, his linking Canada's role in Afghanistan to the attack on the Canadian soldier outside Montreal earlier this week is a total disconnect since one has nothing to do with the other. (NOTE: His article was written before the Ottawa attack.)

Related:
*  Terrorism rocks Ottawa
*  Ottawa terrorist attack prompts worldwide step-up in security from Australia to England to Iqaluit
*  Day of chaos in the capital leaves soldier and terrorist dead
*  Terror strikes Canadian capital as attacks leave one soldier and one suspect dead
*  Ottawa shooting: Harper, Mulcair, Trudeau speak about attack
*  Ottawa shooting: How the terror unfolded
*  Quebec hit-and-run attacker 'radicalized,' PMO says
*  Ottawa terror payback for Harper's war in Iraq?

Where I do agree however is his take on the use of the word "terrorism" by governments (particularly the US) to define acts of violent protest that governments disagree with.  The US has used the word terrorism to lable many actions against American policy over the past two decades.  And since 9/11 Russia, China, France, Israel and others have applied the terrorism lable to any acts of political protest or political violence that are in opposition to the policies of those nations.  In Canada the Conservative government of Stephen Harper has used the terror lable to try and silence environmental groups that have opposed the Conservative governments pro-oil and anti-environment policies.

However, where we don't see the word terrorism used (and it should be) is when the governments of the US, the UK, France, Israel, India and many others take military actions which target supposed terrorists but instead end up killing and maiming mostly innocent people far away from the centres of power.  And while most will agree that the attack in Ottawa yesterday was an act of terror, we should also then agree that any act of brutal violence (whether perpetrated by an individual or by a government) are acts that terrorize people.  

With this in mind one has to question how acts of terrorism are labled.  For example, why was the Ottawa attack considered an act of terror while the June 2014 shootings of five RCMP officers (three of whom died) which terrorized Moncton, New Brunswick were not.  Certainly that entire community was terrorized as a killer roamed the streets targeting RCMP officers the same way that the Ottawa shooter targeted the Canadian Forces members at the National War Memorial and Parliament.  There was a similar incident in May 2014 which terrorized the community of St. Paul, Alberta where an individual once again tried to kill RCMP officers.  And then there was the Mayerthorpe, Alberta incident where four RCMP officers were ambushed and killed.  That incident certainly terrorized and traumatized a community and the nation.

So if the definition of terrorism isn't locked down, as Greenwald says, and is used by politicians selectively then maybe it should be defined more accurately by those who make a career of studying and writing about it.  Or better yet, why don't we just define it as any deliberate violent act that creates the feeling of terror in people.  That way school shootings and gun violence in the US would also be considered acts of terror and maybe the American government would finally do something about that (but I digress).

We should also keep in mind that when US drones and fighter jets drop bombs and missiles from 20,000 feet on unsuspecting villagers in Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia, with the goal of killing terrorists, and when a large number of the dead and dismembered are innocent civilians, that too is terrorism, and more so it is by international definition a war crime.  Studies and interviews done with those who live in those affected areas have certainly demonstrated that those people feel terrorized everyday, but the (state) terrorism lable is never applied to those circumstances.

The only difference between the incidents mentioned above and what happened in Ottawa yesterday is that drone attacks and bombings by fighter jets always happen out of sight of the western media.  And since we didn't see it happen on TV or watch the progress of the event on social media it's as if it never happened and, therefore, it wasn't an act of terror.  But if you talk to the survivors of those attack I will bet that they would think differently.  And if we as Canadian citizens and our government are truly committed to fighting and eliminating terrorism then we should be thinking and acting differently also.

© Fareed Khan.  © The View From Here.  All Rights Reserved.