Canadians Want Strict Security, Poll Finds

Canadians want strict security, poll finds
Most favour video cameras everywhere and deportation of terrorist sympathizers

By Campbell Clark
Globe and Mail
August 11, 2005
With a report from Daniel Leblanc

OTTAWA -- Canadians overwhelmingly pick tough security measures over civil liberties as terrorist attacks abroad fuel a climate of fear at home, a new poll has found.

The Strategic Counsel poll conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV found that 72 per cent of Canadians support placing video cameras in all public places, and 81 per cent favour "deporting or jailing anyone who publicly supports terrorist bombers."

And although an inquiry is currently examining whether information from Canadian authorities led to the United States deporting Canadian citizen Maher Arar to detention and torture in Syria, 62 per cent of respondents believe Canada should give the U.S. "any information they request about Canadian citizens whom they suspect of being terrorists."

The federal government has raised the ire of Canada's Privacy Commissioner by moving toward a "no-fly" list of suspected terror threats and installing security cameras on transit systems, but the new survey suggests most Canadians do not fear that the balance between rights and security is being shifted too far.

Instead, there is an apprehension of danger: A majority (62 per cent) believe a terror attack will occur in the country within the next few years, and only 25 per cent believe Canada is very well or well prepared.

Pollster Allan Gregg, chairman of the Strategic Counsel, said that underlying concern about an attack probably left Canadians more willing to trade off rights for security, especially after four years of the so-called war on terror.

"It has caused kind of a quiet national anxiety that gnaws at part of the public consciousness," Mr. Gregg said.

But he suggested the national character has always been security-conscious, asserting that the imposition of the War Measures Act in the 1970 October crisis was popular.

"We have never had a very strong civil-libertarian tradition. The interests of stability and security has almost always trumped civil liberties in this country."

Overwhelming support for deporting or jailing anyone who expresses support for terrorist bombers is a free-speech issue that leaves open the question of where Canadians would draw the line, Mr. Gregg noted.

In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair has floated the idea of laying treason charges against Muslim imams who praise suicide bombers -- apparently leading a radical cleric who had expressed "understanding" of the bombers' motives, Sheik Omar Bakri, to leave the country.

Overall, about half of poll respondents -- 51 per cent -- think Canada has struck the right balance between civil liberties and combatting terrorism.

But those who think the balance is wrong tend to believe there is "too much emphasis on protecting civil liberties."

Mr. Gregg said Canadians appear to be more concerned when it comes to measures that they believe are more likely to harm the innocent.

They are evenly split on whether they would allow suspected terrorists to be detained without trial, or whether the government should send agents to infiltrate the Muslim community.

A majority, 53 per cent, are against "severely restricting the numbers of immigrants from Muslim countries."

"They do discriminate [between different types of measures]," Mr. Gregg said. "It's not like they're saying, 'do whatever you have to do.' "

The Strategic Counsel poll is based on interviews with 1,000 Canadians conducted between Aug. 3 and 7. A sample of that size is considered to have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The survey period coincided with Transport Minister Jean Lapierre's announcement of a security review of transportation systems, including plans to expand the use of security cameras on urban transit systems and to create a made-in-Canada no-fly list of people barred from boarding planes because of security concerns.

Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart attacked those initiatives, saying preparing a no-fly list could intrude on the privacy of many Canadians.

"We think, 'well anything to catch the bad guys.' The problem is, these kind of measures to catch the bad guys involve sifting through mounds and mounds of data that concern everybody in society, putting them into huge databases, and making links between information on individuals," Ms. Stoddart said.

"And as we've seen from the American experience, some of this is not always accurate."

She has also opposed the broad use of video surveillance cameras, which are extensively used throughout London, and have been credited with aiding the investigation into the July subway bombings there.

Mr. Lapierre said yesterday: "I think people saw that it can be useful, and, in the case of London, how it can be useful not to prevent, but to understand the modus vivendi.

"It didn't prevent the first attack, nor the second, but people saw that the system was useful," he said at a meeting of Liberal MPs from Quebec.

Mr. Lapierre said all measures must respect the balance between security and privacy, and added he feels that Canadians are now willing to adopt new measures that have proved their effectiveness elsewhere.

"We've got to be careful not to become paranoid. That's why the measures that are adopted must be well thought out. That's why we've taken our time on the no-fly list."

A majority of Canadians feel the country will be targeted by terrorists and security must be improved, according to the latest Globe-CTV poll conducted by The Strategic Counsel.

Question: How likely will an act of terrorism take place in Canada within the next few years?

Deporting or jailing anyone who publicly supports terrorists or suicide bombers.

Giving the U.S. any information it requests about Canadian citizens whom they suspect of being terrorists.

Let us hope for once polls are somewhat indicative of the "national attitude" on this issue. Then let your government take the responsibility of becoming very very unfair, and follow the Brits,French and others to make life miserable at best for any muslim cleric or "leader" to want to even consider grooming future terrorists. And do everything in ones power to first try to figure out how to put them away for very long jail terms on the slightest of charges. And if no loopholes can be found export them to pre-arranged ME countries where the arrangements can be made to turn them into fertilizer. A few years in this mode and we shall see a much improved security condition in our countries. What else is going to work, outside of law breaking actions. Change the laws as required.

Western "Canada" probably want to fight, Central Canada asks "what problems?", Quebec wants to cut and run, and the Maritimes say "Wherever Central Canada stands we stand, wherever he goes we go" (Borrowing the words coined by Michael Joseph Savage, the WWII era Prime Minister of New Zealand)

Well, maybe we should vision this as what happens in the year 2015:

The War on Terrorism is now in its 14th year. After George W. Bush's presidency and the defeat of US Democratic candidacy of Hillary Clinton and Rod Blagojevich, the US Democrats finally decided to adopt the war on terrorism as their policy platform, particularly as the simultaneous nuclear bomb attacks in San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston in May 2011 had killed 39% of teh Democratic Party base and Washington had the first Republican Senate and Governor for the first time in more than 30 years, while the reconstituted City of San Francisco elected its first ever conservative Republican mayor.

Meanwhile President Owens is busy negotiating with the Federal Republic of the Prairies over coordinating North American missile shield strengthening project and for the first time, the missile shield system will cover areas outside the United States. President Ted Morton had described President Owen as a very valuable friend of the Prairies while Owen remarked that the Prairies is the first nation adjacent to the United States to be serious about the war on terrorism. Following the Prairies' decision to tighten all immigrations and expulaion of all foreign born (including Canadian) inams, the two countries had agreed to form a single labour market by 2018. When it becomes effective, residents from Yellowknife to Victoria, from Vancouver to Winnipeg will effectively be treated as US citizens when they cross the US border.

Meanwhile, relations with the Realm of Canada remained semi-officially frosty. Many in Canada blamed Washington for the terrorist attacks in Toronto in July 2013 and Washington's recognition of the Federal Republic of the Prairies in 2010. The Canadian Prime Minister Dalton McGuinty has not yet met President Owen in any bilateral occasions. Because Canada appeared unconcerned with news that the 2011 terrorist attacks used Canada as their staging point, the United States had decided to inspect all incoming visitors crossing from the International Falls to Calais crossings and reclassified canadian visitors as equal in status as the visa-waiver nations meaning they are required to carry their passports to enter the United States and cannot stay in the United States visa free for more than 90 days. Teams of volunteers have guarded the Canada-US borders since 2013 and they are unconcerned with the ridicule from Canadian press and people.

The Realm of Canada has been losing its population to the Prairies and the United States by 600,000 per year. The Prairies now has the GDP of 70% of Canada, versus 35% 10 years ago. Many of the best researchers have moved to Calgary from Ontario and industrial growth of Canada has been 1.5%. On the other hand, 1/3 of Chinese, Indians, and 90% US draft dodgers in Vancouver have decided to relocate to Canada as they are unhappy with the direction the Prairies is going. Muslims continue to settle freely in Canada - it is now estimated Canada's Middle Eastern and Pakistani Muslim population is five times the nunber in 2005. The four Maritimes provinces are raising the spectre of joining the United States while Quebec separatism remains strong, the Prairies' strong economic performances have convinced the Quebecois that socialism does not work and they intend to go it alone without all the federal payment transfers. Ontario residents blame the developments on "those Yanks and their fifth columnists in the West, who have wrecked our nation!". Even five years after independence, Ottawa still has no official diplomatic relations with Edmonton even when Canadians can cross the Canada-Prairies border freely.

Let's see if this becomes reality? ;-)

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