Security and engagement.

We expect the police and security services to locate serious threats to Canada's safety and well being. Under our security laws, the authorities have extraordinary powers to deal with terrorists and other major threats to the country. Canada's security laws are unlike other criminal laws. People can be detained and deported on the basis of suspicion and secret evidence.

Security laws have existed for a long time in one form or another. They did not begin with 9/11. For example, during the FLQ crisis in 1972, a dozen or so people killed a Quebec cabinet minister and kidnapped a British diplomat. Yet police detained over 600 persons for weeks at a time without charge, operating under the War Measures Act. The impact of these police actions was two fold: it ended the crisis, but it left the Quebec Separatist movement stronger than ever.

Currently, 17 young Muslims have been arrested and charged under newer and stronger security laws than existed in the 1970s. They are accused of plotting the death and destruction of public figures and public institutions.

Commentators are looking for explanations. They blame immigration policies as being too easy-going. However, all of these young people were either born in Canada or grew up here. They come from hard working families that are otherwise unremarkable and they went to Canadian schools. Whatever they are, these young people are products of Canadian society.

Others are blaming Canada's "multi-cultural policies," claiming they segregate people into ethnic groupings. This is largely nonsense. "Multi-culturalism policy" has consisted mainly of all too modest expenditures that have made a significant contribution to Canada's cultural life. We could use more of it.

Nevertheless, Muslim fundamentalism and militancy is a very real threat all over the world. Models of fanaticism in other lands are available to disgruntled Canadians as close as the nearest computer or satellite dish.

The accused young men number 17 people out of some 750,000 Muslims in Canada. Muslims come from a variety of ethnic and language origins, and bring with them a wide range of belief systems and ways of practicing Islam. It is very easy for groups such as these to isolate themselves behind their own differences, and fanatics promote isolation. They are also separated from the Canadian mainstream by the prejudice and indifference of the majority.

We cite one obvious barrier--the economic one. The immigrants who came to Canada in the last two decades are not doing as well as those who arrived earlier. The current group of immigrants were admitted on the basis of education, occupational skills and knowledge of English or French. They are largely better educated than any previous era of immigration and they are also generally better schooled than the average Canadian.

However, they come mainly from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Earlier groups of immigrants, largely from Europe, experienced the economic difficulties that most new-comers face in their first ten years, eventually reaching the same income levels as other Canadians. (According to Statistics Canada.)

The newer immigrants, with all their qualifications, are facing longer stretches of low earnings and do not, as a group, achieve average Canadian income levels.

Other barriers relate to their strange and different ways and appearances. We ourselves are often fearful of the stranger and put up unseen barriers. We need help and encouragement in understanding our own attitudes and behaviour.

It is all very well and good to invest heavily in security services but it is far from enough. We need approaches at every level of Canadian society that attempt to break down barriers and engage with, not just accommodate, the newer immigrant and ethnic communities. This requires resources and resources cost money.

Realistically, we cannot exclude Canada from the influence and effect of religious and political fanaticism that shows its ugly face in other parts of the world. Some of this will certainly spill over into Canada. It would be wrong to reduce the services that aim to break down social barriers. We need more of an investment in programs that encourage and enable greater engagement among all Canadians.

We can make a much greater effort to break down the barriers that keep Canadians separate and apart. Its not a perfect approach, but it should make us more secure in the long run.--L.K.