CKNW Editorial
for September 14, 2001

It’s natural that we all look for the cause of Tuesday’s terrible tragedy. I want to deal in part this morning with the suggestion that our Immigration laws are to blame and try to put this into some perspective. The suggestion is that the laws ought to be changed. In a moment I’ll deal with the administration of the law – quite a different thing – but just what changes to the law itself should we change?

It’s hardly going to be helpful to say, a la Basil Fawlty, terrorists need not apply. Should we screen prospective immigrants more closely? Perhaps but it’s hard to see what form this is to take. And at this stage of the proceedings just what sorts of questions do you ask? Do you ask a Punjabi whether he agrees on a separate state of Khalistan and if the answer is yes, keep him out? Even though he has no thought whatever of doing anyone any harm? Do you ask an Irishman if he believes in the union of the two Irelands and keep him out if he says yes, because he may be IRA? Or no, for that matter, because he may be a Protestant extremist?

The starting point is that the vast majority of immigrants and refugees, while they will naturally have opinions on the politics in the home they are leaving, are coming to Canada to get away from the strife around those beliefs.

It can be argued that the more immigrants you let in, the more chance that you will let bad people in. But it seems to me that you can make the same argument about the natural birthrate.

Unless we are simply going to stop immigration – and that’s a fair debate – and take no more refugees it seems to me we have got to concentrate our efforts somewhat differently.

What sort of tabs do we keep on newcomers? Do we know the organizations they belong to and what those organizations stand for? This underscores the need to have the police come from all ethnic backgrounds, including white.

But when you get right down to it, I think we’re lashing out without concentrating on the right questions. How did these 18 plus men get on these four aircraft with weapons and, once there, how did they manage to take control of them? I say this because I strongly believe that no matter how you tighten up your national security, terrorists will get into your country. At the national and international level the issues are too diffused. At the gate to the airliner, however, things should be pretty specific.

We started to do much better after the Air India crash then the Lockerbie disaster. We became accustomed to having our bags opened and inspected before they were checked in. So was hand luggage. Security checked you thoroughly and re-checked your hand luggage. I nearly missed a flight to New Zealand around this time because I had bought a new fishing knife and had it in my hand luggage.

It’s become farcical. The person at the counter asks you a number of inane questions as to who packed your bag … as if a terrorist is going to say "I must admit it was my fellow terrorist so-and-so and I think he may have put a bomb in it." In many airports the passage through security is a joke. Clearly the people are not all well-trained and you can often get through with all sorts of metal stuff on you. As my guest yesterday, Dr Kushner pointed out, even rings and necklaces ought to set off the alarms and bring on a personal search.

The planes themselves are lax in the extreme. Why isn’t the cabin sealed off with an unpenetratable door? Why isn’t there an anonymous law enforcement person on any long flights?

The plain fact is that the terrorist will get into the country no matter what immigration rules there are. I agree that we don’t have to make it any easier but at this end of the problem, the practical difficulties of finding bad people are too great. It’s rather like avoiding illness. You can, if you wish, get yourself sealed off by some sort of disease free container. The more practical person minimizes the amount of hazard he’s exposed to and maximizes the effort to get rid of it when bad germs inevitably get through.

These are horrible times – times when our fears cause us to lash out in every direction. The vast majority of all new Canadians or refugees are law abiding in every respect. When we blame the tragedy last Tuesday unspecifically on failed immigration or refugee programs we are clearly impugning the decency of millions of our fellow citizens … and that’s wrong.

We have more important questions to ask..