Nothing More At This Time

Whoops! There's another one. Canadians popping up all over the place, it seems. Of course it just seems that way. One tends to notice the violently engaged, the threats to stability, the vicious murderers.

Was once a time when Canadians thought of themselves more as respectful tourists, going abroad. Proud to sew that tell-tale Maple Leaf on back-packs to inform the world, hey, we're Canadian! As distinct from those equally-peripatetic North Americans south of us who tend to be bumptiously impolite. That's not us, decidedly not.

Now, Canada has emissaries going abroad that it hardly wishes to acknowledge as citizens, so worrying their orientation.

Good grief, Canadian university students famously travelled abroad to broaden their minds, to discover things about other parts of the world, other cultures, their heritage and fascinating histories. Coming back informed and better people for it, willing to embrace differences, at the same time acknowledging the differences to be veneer; we're all the same.

Except, perhaps some of us are not. Not peace-inclined, not studiously involved in understanding what compels others to adopt cultural mores so at variance with our own, but demonstrating, indelibly, the humanity that propels us all in our wish to live together in a semblance of harmony and reciprocity. Coming back to Canada with expanded minds and the memory of experiences that help shape a broader view of humanity.

And now we have Canadians who study at our universities, having adapted to Canadian society and Canadian values -- we trust -- but determined to embark on trips taking them far from Canadian society and values, deliberately and with intention to leave that baggage behind and take up instead the demands of a surrender of self to a cause and a claim upon those who worship a religion expounding jihad.

Another violent jihadist attack somewhere in the world, and another Canadian implicated. Somalia's prime minister, Abdi Farah Shirdon announced 29 dead as a result of a two-hour attack on the Supreme Court complex in Mogadishu. The two-hour attack was complete with six suicide bombings, two car bombs. A two-hour assault resulting in a rapidly diminishing life-count.

One of whom is identified as a former student at York University in their math and history departments; Mahad Ali Dhore. Among the dead in the Mogadishu attack. Quibblers claim that Mahad Ali Dhore was at the complex by happenstance not by intention as one of the attackers. He had been there, they claim, arrested on charges of belonging to the terrorist group al-Shabab.

"We are concerned about the foreign involvement in this attack, and this is why we are working so hard with our international partners on security and intelligence sharing. Once again we see that terrorism is an international problem", stated Prime Minister Shirdon. Canada is concerned to keep al-Qaeda affiliates out of Canada; Somalia is concerned that Canadian jihadists enter Somalia.

As for the RCMP -- investigating yet another incident involving yet another Canadian, they acknowledge the obvious, but little else. "We cannot provide specific details, but are working with relevant domestic and international partners to gather information. We have nothing further to provide at this time", was the information conveyed by Sgt. Greg Cox.