Four
hundred heavily armed officers -- including snipers -- arrested
seventeen Canadian Muslim youth and young men, who were mostly
under the age of 25, for charges of plotting a terrorist attack
on Canada. Of course, the scenario of a heavily armed fortress
could be found every single day that the accused enter the
courtroom. The scene of the arrest was definitely grand, which
fuelled reports from the media culminating into such stupidity
as showing the public the specific addresses of the suspects.
Soon thereafter, the public was bombarded with such
sensationalist reports claiming that an "Islamist" terrorist
conspiracy has been smashed and the police, government and the
many political observers putting this up as proof that Canada is
smack down the middle of this "war on terror".
Today, there has been a media ban, prohibiting
all parties involved to refrain from speaking about the case;
imposed after the entire public has been given ample time to
condemn and demonize the accused. Despite what the media ban
claimed to be aiming to achieve (a fair and just trial), it came
far too late; under the sensationalist reactions of a
shortsighted and hysterical media, the damage is already
evident. The ban only now serves to cut the ability for the
accused and their family to communicate their side of the story
to a disinterested media. No longer are they able to counter and
comment on the many idiotic actions major news outlets took
because if there is nothing to sensationalize, there is nothing
to report on. The media took its jabs, made its millions and
left the ring calling an end to an exchange which has not even
begun.
Posting the specific street addresses of the
suspects was complete and utter irresponsibility (if not
stupidity) on the parts of all news network that did it - the
pioneer being CTV. CTV officially cited that it was in the
public’s safety interest to know where these people lived. They
also stressed that their addresses can be found in phone books
anyway, overlooking the fact that there has never once been an
instance of an accused party being condemned as criminals
without the right to a fair trial under the due process of law.
Also, the logic of making the addresses available to the public
because they are available anyway in phonebooks eliminates the
possibility of the families asking themselves to be unlisted
(for good reasons). In addition, the last names of the families
are quite common and CTV is absolutely delusional if they think
that people will look into their phonebook to contact every
single one of them to see which belonged to the family of the
accused. The media did nothing but instill paranoia throughout
the public, in an attempt to justify their bout of
sensationalism. The reporting of the addresses held no public
value and did nothing but create fear and paranoia from local
residents. Such idiocy also threatened the public safety of the
residents residing in those homes and they have been harassed
and more.
Another issue of interest for the media at the
time (for some, continues to do so), was the wife of one of the
accused, Nada Amara. She was immediately attacked in the media
for 'hateful' internet postings she made in 2004. She was not
even given a chance to explain her side of the story once
reports began to air. How many of us have made statements in the
past which we do not agree with today? I know far too many
people, including myself who have regretted what they have said,
wishing to take harsh words back. Instead, the public was
bombarded by an image of a woman who was overtaken with hateful
rhetoric at a young age. Yes, an angry, emo teenager, that is
far from being a recent phenomenon.
Of course, the capacity for public compassion and
understanding has been diluted and distorted by a society which
is constantly preoccupied with sensationalized reporting. I
still remember when an event called "Muslim Youth Speak Out" was
held by the University of Toronto Students' Union a couple of
weeks after the arrests. One of the additions to the panel of
Muslim speakers was Nada Amara. Before the event began the
'breaking news' from the Globe and Mail was broadcasted
throughout Canada and her appearance was abruptly cancelled. The
purpose of her appearance was to ask for help from the Canadian
public, since the arrests left many families in financial
difficulties while the primary breadwinners of each family were
held in custody -- this was in addition to having their credit
cards and bank cards confiscated by the RCMP. To those people
who agree with this course of action, where is your humanity?
More importantly, where is your penchant for
critical thinking and in seeing the line between accused and
convicted, providing justice and prejudice, humane treatment and
cruelty, and punishing the family of the accused and, again,
providing justice. Not surprisingly, ALL the major media outlets
that came to the event were only concerned about Nada Amara’s
message board statements in 2004. When she did not appear, only
a single, 2-minute report was aired, which did not even focus on
any of the main focal points brought up during the event --
primarily, what young Muslims had to say regarding these
circumstances and all the insightful statements that were made
by prominent and representative individuals for the wider Muslim
community like Professor Jasmine Zine and Faisal Kutty from CAIR-CAN
(Canadian Council On American-Islamic Relations). Instead, there
it was again, Tarek Fatah and Irshad Manji -- unrepresentative
individuals for the larger Muslim community -- jumping at the
opportunity to strengthen their agenda and the media was more
than happy to jump on their backs for a quick tour of the Muslim
community.
Today, there is a far more serious concern
regarding the treatment of terror suspects in Canadian prisons.
There have been many complaints put forth by the lawyers of the
accused and there is definitely a lack of interest from the
media and the government to pick up on this issue the same way
they drooled all over it when four hundred heavily armed RCMP
officers arrested all the suspects. All of this is not
surprising because they are just reflecting a common attitude
that is rampant within the Canadian government -- primarily,
those in charge of Canadian security.
Martin Collacott, a senior fellow from Fraser
Institute and a former federal foreign affairs official who was
responsible for the coordination of counter-terrorism policy
commented on the case. He argued that it is "fairly standard" to
make claims of torture according to al-Queda training manuals
and that is exactly what the prisoners are doing. Of course,
only an incompetent individual would not detect the far from
subtle insinuation that the group was guilty already of
succumbing to al-Queda training and influence. To individuals
such as himself, this is definitely a great rule of thumb when
it comes to treating prisoners (guilty or not) who are pleading
for help from torture or abuse. It is useful to argue that:
anyone who makes such a claim must have received pointers from
some training manual of a terrorist organization who's name and
existence could be utilized to stifle any criticism of the state
apparatus and to throw prejudiced opinions regarding anyone with
an opposing viewpoint by the wayside - in this case, "Islamist
Muslims", "Traditional Muslims" or whatever other vague term the
media have come to love when spouted out by people like Fatah
and Manji who, again, are totally unrepresentative of the large
portion of the Muslim community.
Therefore, according to Collacott, being locked
in a room with three concrete walls and a door with a tiny slit
that opens when food is given to the inmate, an 11 feet by six
feet cell, no windows, with lights on 24-7 (sleep deprivation),
only being allowed for 15-30 minutes a day (perhaps even less)
does not merit any inquiry or investigation, nor should it be
classified as cruel and unusual punishment designed to
psychologically break down the "accused" for the years following
up to the possible trial. Lock yourself in a room for a couple
of days and block off your windows and see how you feel. Of
course, there have been other charges as well which I do not
want to get into here.
To accept this stance as the simple “routine
procedure” of handling an inmate, despite claims of abuse is not
only completely neglectful, cruel and a total disrespect to many
people who have been imprisoned before in North American and
beyond, mistreated and later released or died in prison, but it
is also stunningly hypocritical. It calls for selectively
applying a policy to some as opposed to others in a blatant
double standard -- of course, that is to say the policy is to be
accepted as a fundamental Canadian value. Surely we are supposed
to make a connection that barely stands the scrutiny of closer
inspection for factual basis, to some sort of training manual of
a "terrorist organization" to justify prisoner torture and
abuse. The examples are endless and one only needs to point at
recent examples which I will not go into here.
Is it possible that the RCMP and the government
are wrong? Is it possible that the accusations are real? While
both may be feasible, the former possibility cannot be
overlooked, it has happened before. It was not long ago when 19
foreign students, mostly from Pakistan, was arrested in 2003 in
Toronto. They were accused and arrested for plotting to blow up
the nuclear reactors at Pickering or the CN Tower. It was
claimed that an “al Qaeda sleeper cell” had been uncovered. In
the end, all charges were dropped within two weeks of the
arrest.
Even those who noticed the inherent flaws and the
outright prejudice this entire issue has been plagued with have
taken the reactionary stance of “better to be safe than sorry”
to justify this otherwise unorthodox treatment of Canadian
citizens. As a result, any avenue to ask questions regarding the
case has been closed off. Questions such as: "How exactly did
the group come into the possession of the Ammonium Nitrate
Fertilizer? How did the RCMP conduct its sting operation? How
did the media conduct themselves throughout all this? Are the
'accused' being treated humanely in prison?" and so forth have
all been buried under the sheer amount of sensationalism that
was and continues to be pumped out by the media. Even Stephen
Harper, David Miller and many other leaders jumped at the chance
of congratulating the RCMP for its successful capture of a
dangerous threat to Canada, convicting the accused before a fair
and just trial was even set. Of course, the RCMP and the media
never failed to embrace personalities like Tarek Fatah who
quickly utilized this issue in order to push his agenda and
demonize a large part of the Muslim community that he does not
represent whatsoever -- quickly throwing around vague and
undefined terms (or when defined, the media has a particular
spin on what it is which is far from being fair) such as
Islamists, Fundamentalists, Shariah, Muslim Extremists, Moderate
Muslims, Democratic Muslims and so forth.
If the
media had any genuine concerns regarding the accurate portrayal
of sentiments within the Muslim community, they would have
approached more representative personalities within the wider
Muslim community such as those from the CAIR-CAN or many other
mosques within the GTA area starting with an event such as the
"Muslim Youth Speak Out" that was held last year. Instead, in
addition to message board posts made in 2004, they take one
readily available personality who is always ready to spout a
perspective the media has grown accustomed to and, sadly, the
large part of the Canadian population finds easy to listen to
regardless of what this man's standing is in the Muslim
community. It is far from dialogue, far from relation building,
it is outright alienation. Most important, this is far from
justice. The only beneficiaries of such hysteria,
irresponsibility and outright stupidity are the state security
apparatus and the party in power.
