The attacks in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2011, were real, no question about it. But they sparked fears of terrorism 鈥� and countermeasures that continue today 鈥� that are far out of proportion to the actual risks. The threat of domestic terrorism should not be ignored, but neither should it be exaggerated to the point we spend millions and billions uselessly, money that would be better spent on such things as health care, mental-health treatment, education and fighting poverty.
Last Friday was the 14th anniversary of those attacks. 91原创 party leaders did not hesitate to make political hay out of the anniversary, trying to assure voters that each of them is the one qualified to keep Canada secure, and Stephen Harper led the pack.
鈥淥n Oct. 19, you will have to choose between experience and the unknown, between security and risk,鈥� Harper told a crowd of partisans in Quebec.
It鈥檚 hard to quantify 鈥渢he unknown,鈥� but not too difficult to list what is known: Since 9/11, four 91原创 deaths have been attributed to two incidents of Islamic-extremist terrorism on 91原创 soil, and two of those deaths were the perpetrators. Other planned attacks have been detected and foiled, including a plot to detonate pressure-cooker bombs at the B.C. legislature on Canada Day, 2013.
An examination of those incidents, though, makes as strong a case for launching an attack on mental illness as it does for fighting terrorists.
Dick Meyer, chief Washington correspondent for the Scripps News Service, wrote this last week: 鈥淯nless we snap out of it soon, the legacy of 9/11 in America will be a chronic, irrational fear of terrorism that will continue to sanction wasteful spending, tragically futile military adventures and growing compromises of our civil liberties and international principles.
鈥淎s taxpayers, we are being scammed. As citizens, our constitutional values are being compromised. As human beings, we are being needlessly frightened.鈥�
When our American neighbours sneeze, it has often been said, we 91原创s catch the cold. The same irrational fears and disproportionate reactions can be found this side of the border.
Those fears feed racism and xenophobia and are used to justify 鈥渢hey are not like us鈥� attitudes.
We should not deny sanctuary for hundreds of thousands fleeing violence and oppression because there might be a few bad apples among them. Canada has taken in many thousands of refugees from war-torn areas: Europeans following the Second World War, Hungarians fleeing the crushing of the 1956 uprising in their country, the Vietnamese boat people fleeing for their lives in 1979 and 1980. But we had no problems with Nazi subterfuge, communist plots or Viet Cong sabotage.
It would be na茂ve to think a flood of refugees from Syria would not include a few terrorists, and reasonable efforts should be made to screen out those who seek to abuse the refugee process. We need to remain vigilant, not hysterical; cautious, not paranoid.
The risk of a 91原创 being killed in a traffic accident, according to a U.S. study, is one in 13,500, a level of risk we have decided we can live with. That same study puts the risk for a 91原创 of being killed by terrorism at one in 4.3 million. We should not let such a low level of risk rob us of compassion.
