When asked if Canada is becoming a safe haven for terrorists, David Harris, former Chief of Strategic Planning of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) stated, “I think there is a dire risk of this happening. We are already playing a significant role in international terror funding. We have 50 terrorist organizations of a variety of descriptions and a good number of them are the so-called world class ones.” While addressing a Special Committee of the Senate, former director of CSIS Ward Elcock stated, “I’ll be as blunt as I can be, we cannot become, through inaction or otherwise, what might be called an official state sponsor of terrorism.”
These two statements by senior former security intelligence officials of Canada can be taken as a representation of the increasing concerns of many officials, scholars and people within Canada regarding the increasing proliferation of terror groups in Canada which has already resulted in highly tragic situations. The biggest of these tragedies was of course the Kanishka plane explosion. On 23 June 1985, a bomb exploded on the Air India 182 flight from Canada to India, killing all 329 passengers and crew. This was till then (and before 9/11) the biggest terrorist attack involving passengers in world history. In fact the tragedy could have been much bigger as part of the same conspiracy, a suitcase bomb was to be placed in another Air India plane in Tokyo but this exploded at the airport itself killing two baggage handlers and injuring four.
Among the 329 passengers who died in the AI-182 explosion, the overwhelming majority (268) were Canadian citizens of Indian origin and most of the remaining (24) were Indian citizens. Bob Rae, former premier of Ontario, who was asked by Canadian authorities to inquire into this tragedy, wrote in his report submitted to the Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, “Children going to visit grandparents, young tourists looking forward to their first experience of India, women and men of all ages, flight attendants and pilots, all 329 passengers and crew were killed…Whole families, children of promise, parents of achievement and kindness, were murdered.”
As later investigations revealed, the entire operation had been planned by Khalistani terrorists based in Canada. Rae wrote in his report, “No conflict in any homeland, no religious or ethnic dispute, no ideology can justify what happened.” He added, “Let it be said clearly the bombing of the Air India flight was the result of a conspiracy conceived, planned and executed in Canada. Most of its victims were Canadians. This is a Canadian catastrophe, whose dimension and meaning must be understood by all Canadians.” It is important that the perpetrators of the crime showed no remorse and set about spreading terror in their community to silence potential witnesses. Two potential witnesses were killed, many others were threatened. Two Sikh journalists were killed. One of them had been shot earlier too and hence was confined to a wheelchair.
Rae noted in his report after meeting several members of the Sikh community in Canada and other communities, “They pointed to the evidence of fear within communities that has stopped people telling the truth about what happened.” Further Rae wrote, “In the course of my work I encountered many in the Sikh community deeply troubled by threats of violence, the past misuse of Gurdwaras (temples) for political purposes and the abuse of charitable fundraising for extremist causes.” While potential witnesses were fearful of coming forward, reports nevertheless appeared of prior warnings regarding the disaster being ignored and serious mistakes being made in what appeared to be more and more a preventable disaster if adequate caution and alertness had been observed. Rae noted that Canada failed to embrace the case as its own and families who had lost their members felt isolated from fellow-Canadians.
Despite such a big tragedy, requests of India’s government for extradition of those accused of involvement in other acts of violence were refused. The case was pursued in highly questionable ways and despite the hand of Khalistani extremists being well-established and mentioned in several reports, when the two main accused were let off in 2005, several family members of victims who had waited a long time for justice broke down in the court. Keeping in mind the widespread distress and dissatisfaction with the way in which Canada’s most destructive terrorist act had been handled, the Canadian government set up another inquiry under a former Supreme Court judge. This inquiry concluded that this “largest mass murder in Canadian history” had resulted from “a cascading series of errors.”
Following this the then Prime Minister issued an apology to the victims admitting that their legitimate need for assistance and for empathy had been treated with administrative disdain for years. However neglect and isolation of victims continued. However the best informed realised that this terrorist attack as well as Canadian linkages to the WTC 1993 attack, the attack on tourists in Egypt and assassination attempts on diplomats were reflections of a very serious and high-risk problem the proliferation of several international terrorist groups in Canada.
Elcock, a former director of CSIS had earlier drawn attention to this increasing problem while speaking before a special committee of the Senate. He informed that with perhaps the singular exception of the USA, there were more international terrorist organizations active in Canada than any other country in the world and that the counter-terrorism branch of the CSIS was investigating over 50 such organizations and about 350 individuals. Elcock also stated what these organizations are involved in logistical support for terrorist attacks, fundraising in aid of terrorism, exploitation of ethnic communities through propaganda and disinformation, intimidation (also coercion and manipulation) of immigrants, provision of safe haven in Canada to terrorists, smuggling of immigrants and transit of terrorists to and from the USA.
In May 2003 the CSIS issued a report ‘Threats to Canadian National Security’ warning that virtually all notorious international terrorist organisations are known to maintain a network presence in Canada. In the Fraser Institute’s report titled ‘Canada’s Inadequate Response to Terrorism’ written by Martin Collacott, it is stated, “There is widespread evidence that the federal government is less than serious about taking effective measures in a number of areas.”
One aspect of this is that notorious terrorist organisations were not banned for a long time even after bans on them were imposed by countries close and friendly to Canada. Another aspect is that they were allowed to collect funds for ‘charitable’ purposes. Senior journalist Stewart Bell has written a book with a telltale title ‘Cold Terror – How Canada Nurtures and Exports Terrorism Throughout the World’. He writes, “Canada’s terror problem is responsible for untold carnage. It generates serious problems in Canada, particularly in refugee communities where extremists have seized control of communities…Terrorists who feel comfortable enough to raise money and forge passports in Canada will not hesitate to stage attacks as well.”
One aspect emphasized by several observers is that while terror groups claim to speak on behalf of community members, large numbers of community members feel threatened by them. In a research paper titled ‘The Evolution of Terrorism in Canada—Increased Threat in a Culture of Indifference’, Major Greg Leis of Canadian Forces College has written, referring to extremists, “Their violence and coercion has led to the suffering of Sikhs in their diaspora communities in Canada and the Sikh immigrants who were Canadian citizens. By claiming the moral high ground of religious extremism, they do not feel constrained in the ruthlessness of the methods as amply demonstrated in the Air India bombing.”
(The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Man over Machine, Planet in Peril and A Day in 2071.)