Canada gets more proof that threat of terrorism is real

Look for lots more stories like this one in the weeks and months ahead, as the Harper gang pulls out all the stops to convince the public they are at imminent risk and need the Police State Bill C-51 to save them from the jihadist hordes.

Frankly, had the 17 year old would-be terrorist been allowed to proceed to Syria, he would have been disabused of his illusions soon enough.

Given the fact that previous Foreign Minister John Baird declared dozens of times that "Assad must go," it seems ironic that when Canadians want to go to Syria to assist in the armed struggle against Assad they are targeted as terrorists. Meanwhile, the same government that claims Assad must go wants to expand and enlarge our war on the people fighting Assad... to say our government has an incoherent foreign policy would be an understatement.

But back to our wannabe terrorist in Alberta. I'll climb out on a limb and guess he is of a Somali-Canadian ethnicity. Hmm... is there any discussion of the difficulties that youth of that background have integrating into mainstream society?

Why of course!

There's been lots and lots of sociology done on this question.

Those Somali's are a marginalized sub-group in society, and just like those two French-Canadian misfits who were our first and second proofs that Canada is a target of Jihadi terror, they are vulnerable to finding the prospect of joining a radical group like Islamic State attractive. They fantasize that their imaginary new family of "brothers" will give them the sense of purpose they didn't find in Canadian society at large.

Therefore, if we were serious about reducing the threat of radicalized malcontents in our society, we should be doing more to ensure their inclusion, but alas, that smells suspiciously like sociology, and the macho warriors in the Harper gang will have no truck with that. Besides, the Harperites need jihadi terror threats to wave around.

It's all about Bill C-51.

Here's how our Alberta terror story looked at the Israeli news site Ynet, which got it via Agence France Presse;

Canadian teen arrested before Syria departure AFP Published:  03.21.15, 10:16 / Israel News A Canadian teen aiming to join the ranks of ISIS in Syria has been arrested, Canadian authorities said Friday. The 17-year-old's attempt to embed with the extremist group is "proof that the threat of terrorism is real," a spokesman for Public Security Minister Steven Blaney told AFP. The teen was arrested Thursday in the town of Beaumont, just south of Edmonton, Alberta in western Canada, by a special division of the Royal Mounted Canadian Police. In countries that have some experience with actual terrorism, Harper's desperation to conjure up a terrorist threat must look laughable indeed.