Peace And Security
Municipal police forces, their provincial counterparts like the Ontario Provincial Police, and the federal security agencies like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) are living in straitened times as far as funding is concerned, as well as more security-heightened times with respect to vigilance and security surrounding public safety.These are professional positions within these forces that are increasingly well paid, with training specialized in a manner never before seen. A good level of academic education, along with a demonstrated ability in physical prowess is now required before potential candidates even get past applying to begin with. And increasingly, those who apply who can be categorized at a swift glance as white-Anglo-Saxon males need not.
The search is on for female applicants, for aboriginals, and for visible minorities, and if two can be combined, all the better. That there is an ongoing need for more members of all of those law and order, security and intelligence agencies is undeniable, partly because of population increase, partly because the world is becoming an ever more dangerous place, thanks to both technology and terror international.
Because Canada is a country of immigrants, and because Canada absorbs immigrants at the spectacular rate of roughly a quarter-million invited and accepted into the country each year, there is a perceived need to have police forces reflect in larger part, the face of the changing national demographics. Law and order is seen to be more effective when a social deviant looks at the face of a uniformed officer reflecting his own facial features.
So new recruits are sought, but sparingly, and with a narrow emphasis on type: female, visually identifiable minorities. Qualified and eager supplicants may entreat, but they will not prevail. Young men who have all their lives aspired to become police officers and whose academic degrees and physical characteristics lead them to believe they represent perfect applicants are swiftly disabused of their notions of applicability.
The emphasis now in police forces is to "build relationships" in recognition of the hugely diverse nature of the Canadian population. Recruits who represent minorities and who are capable of speaking the language of that minority, of understanding the minority culture and tradition, give the force they represent greater credibility within that minority.
In the case, for example of two resident Canadian suspects in the Via Rail bomb plot, a formidable barrier is seen between policing agents and the religion and culture that the suspects represent. Their representation is of an ideology attached to the religion and the culture, but with its emphasis on traits within the religion that can lead to fanatical interpretation. The theory is that the community involved could be helpful in identifying for the authorities those among them who pose a potential threat to the country.
And so, collaboration and outreach into the community are seen as winning points for both sides. In the process the security agencies open themselves up to the community anticipating reciprocation. And while some of that most certainly does ensue in good faith, there is the additional possibility and likelihood of infiltration. Into the naive trust of the security agency, for one thing, and the revelations that might prove useful to those seeking to manipulate the politics involved, to their singular advantage.
These are all risks that are taken in the hopes that a greater understanding between people, their values and their religious faith may result. Making the likelihood of recruits to jihad, for example, when noticed through furtive and fanatical activities, being identified to the authorities in the name of useful social integration.
Only time will tell how useful all of this sensitivity to ethnic, religious, cultural differences will be. In the hopes that those whose backgrounds are different will eventually meld into the Canadian mainstream, become assimilated into Canadian values, respect the majority social mores, and adhere to Canadian law.
At the very least until they become the Canadian majority themselves.
Gary Clement/National Post
Labels: Canada, Crime, Defence, Human Relations, Immigration, Security
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