Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews responds to a question during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Monday October 4, 2010.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews says he wants Canadians, presumably Muslims, to report radicalized youth to the authorities. "Does he want us spying on each other?" asks Shahina Siddiqui, who runs the Islamic Social Services Association, a Manitoba group.
Well, yes. If spying is another way of saying report people who might be plotting to kill their fellow Canadians in cold blood, or others in similar fashion somewhere in the world, or Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan - yes, by all means, spy.
Tipping off authorities to an apparent risk of mass murder is a basic duty of citizenship. This is not about reporting one's neighbours for growing their grass higher than the bylaw allows. It's not about turning someone in for having a licence plate sticker past the due date. One does need to actively take sides, as a certain former president of the United States once said. One cannot be against mass murder only in principle, while in practice turning a blind eye to a known danger.
Fighting terrorism is an enormous challenge for Western democracies. There are, and should be, limits on what the state can do. Yet people expect 100-per-cent perfect prevention from their governments and security services, as Jonathan Evans, director-general of Britain's MI5, said last month. How to achieve anything near perfection, or safety, when unknown numbers of young people in Canada, and reportedly between 1,000 and 2,000 in the United States, have left their homes for terrorism training in Pakistan or Somalia or elsewhere? It's a nearly impossible job. The terrorism warning on Sunday from the United States - to be alert if travelling in Germany, France, Britain or anywhere else in Europe - reflects the scale of the task at hand. It's frighteningly large.
Canada cannot succeed in preventing terrorism without the help of people close enough to receive intimations of jihad. Three Muslim young men from Winnipeg are at the centre of an international manhunt after flying to Pakistan and disappearing three years ago. That disappearance was brought to light by a family member of one of the men, who acted in the interests of all, including the young man himself.
Al-Qaeda needs Western Muslims who move easily in and understand the culture of the West. And the West needs Muslims who are good citizens, as the vast majority are. The threat to the West is often said to be invisible - but as soon as someone sees it, it needs to stay visible. Anyone who sees it is obliged to report it.