An Initiative Long-Past Due

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft."
"[The move is meant to] significantly expand the scope and scale [of pressure on Iran]. If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism."
U.S. President Donald Trump

"Who are you to label revolutionary institutions as terrorists?"
"You are the leader of world terrorism."
"This mistake will unite Iranians and the Guards will grow more popular in Iran and in the region."
"America has used terrorists as a tool in the region while the Guards have fought against them from Iraq to Syria."
"[The US is the] leader of world terrorism."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

The Conservative government of Stephen Harper broke off diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran in recognition of its role as a terrorist-sponsoring state, and its responsibilities in the deaths of countless people in attacks it inspired, carried out by its Lebanon-based proxy militia, Hezbollah. Canada closed its mission in Tehran, while informing Iran that its missions in Canada were to be shuttered. Iranian assets in Canada other than those linked to diplomacy were frozen.

When Justin Trudeau became prime minister he made it clear he meant to re-establish diplomatic links with Iran.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with Israel's President Reuven Rivlin in April (Canadian PM Office)

In Canada's Senate, 2017 saw Conservative Party Senator David Tkachuk sponsoring Bill S-219 (the Non-Nuclear Sanctions Against Iran Act) requiring sanctions be implemented, along with a recommendation by the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness to recommend that the Islamic Republican Guard Corps be recognized and named a foreign terrorist entity, under the Canadian Criminal Code. The bill was defeated following a year-long debate. Canada has a majority Liberal government.

Once that sanctions bill saw defeat, the Conservatives proposed a House of Commons motion for the government to cease re-engagement talks with Iran, and to list the IRGC as a foreign terrorist entity. This time the majority Liberals voted to support the motion. Still, the motion was not legally binding, with Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale confirming that a number of options were being considered before implementation of the measure in formal practise. Sounds very much like evasion.

The United States has announced its decision to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a proscribed terror group. The IRGC, formed under the auspices of the 1979 Iranian Revolution in support of the Islamic Republic, is deeply influential in Iran's domestic and international politics. It has a stranglehold on the nation's economy and is fully invested in support of the Republic since leaders of both the political and military arms have much to gain or to lose. Both groups have grown wealthy as they manipulate the country's resources.

The IRGC's interests and control over the nation's telecommunications, construction, energy and automotive industries are integral to its vital importance to the regime and in the regime apart from its military function. Control of everything associated with Iran's ambitious nuclear program is vested in the IRGC. The al Quds division of the IRGC is the arm deployed abroad, training the Houthi rebels in Yemen as they did the Syrian military during its civil war, along with Hezbollah.

The IRGC al Quds division has a long acquaintance with the terrorism of martyrdom and carnage inflicted on Iran's enemies; primarily the U.S. and Israel. During Lebanon's upheaval when Syria, Israel, the Palestinians, the Lebanese sectarian factions, the Druze, Christians, Muslims, Sunni and Shia were battling, establishment of Hezbollah by Iran, its training and its arms acquisition were carried out enabling it to mount massive deadly strikes against the U.S. marine barracks, and the U.S. and French diplomatic missions in Lebanon.

The U.S. Treasury Department had already listed the IRGC as a banned terror group in reflection of Iranian aggression and its role in destabilizing the Middle East, along with its dedication to sponsoring terror to the extent of having been responsible for tens of thousands of deaths of innocent people. This designation is a first for the United States; the first time it has recognized an entire critical unit of another nation in such a manner.

This move will have an even greater impact on Iran than the already-crippling sanctions imposed in view of Iran's intransigence respecting its technical exploits in refining long- and medium-range ballistic missiles and its ambitions to acquire nuclear devices under the guise of domestic energy empowerment.

The impact will be more far-reaching, involving companies doing business with Iran, as well as banks, and countries with ties to the Republic. The European Union, and Federica Mogherini will certainly have much to think about; their insistence that Iran does no wrong while overlooking its terrorism links, and business and trade must not be impacted, leave them on the wrong side of history.

Now it remains to be seen whether Canada too will continue to vacillate between recognizing Iran for the dangerous threat it poses to stability in its region and throughout the world, given its campaign of assassinations, missile attacks and bombing campaigns from Latin America to Europe and the Arab world, and taking the necessary final step to completely isolate a theistic regime whose agenda includes the oft-stated destruction of the state of Israel.

Terrorism Writ Large: Islam/Jihad

"I think that [Norwegian Anders] Breivik was a turning point, because he was sort of a proof of concept as to how much an individual actor could accomplish."
"He killed so many people at one time operating by himself, it really set a new bar for what one person can do."
"This is a particularly strong wave [of white supremacism] and I think it's being fueled by a lot of political developments and also by the sort of connective tissue that you get from the Internet that wasn't there before that's really making it easier for groups to be influenced and to coordinate, or not necessarily coordinate but synchronize over large geographical distances."
J.M. Berger, research fellow, Vox-Pol, European academic study of online extremism

"There's a common framing of far-right terrorism or domestic terrorism as being 'terrorism lite' and not as serious."
"It's an interesting question given that far-right attacks can be quite devastating."
Erin Miller, database manager, National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, University of Maryland

"We conceive of this problem as being a domestic one. But that's not the case."
"They [supremacists sharing a common ideology] don't see themselves as Americans or Canadians, very much like the Christchurch killer didn't see himself as an Australian; he saw himself as part of a white collective."
"It has never been the case that these people didn't think in a global way. They may have acted in ways that looked domestic but the thinking was always about building an international white movement."
Heidi Beirich, Intelligence Project director, Southern Poverty Law Center, U.S.

The Christchurch killer acted alone but followed a terrifying trend

The identified and studied interconnectedness of the Internet, the ease with which people with particular agendas and fixed ideas of ideological dimensions can find one another, inspire and stir one another, share tips and declarations of hatred of noted groups, and set out to emulate one another's successful hit rates of hated groups is on the rise, it would seem. It would seem thus from the very increase in frequency of white supremacist attacks around the world. And that all too frequently those taken into custody after the commission of particularly gory blood-letting targeting the vulnerable, confess to their inspired contacts with others of their ilk.

White extremist terrorist attacks that took place in Norway, the United States, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom, as an example, appear to have inspired the man who stands accused of killing 50 people in a rampage in March at two Christchurch mosques in New Zealand, according to his online-posted manifesto preceding his hugely successful attack. His killing exploit serves as a particularly notable example of that informal global network of fellow extremists.

Continents are spanned as the incidents and their connectedness highlight the manner in which social media and the Internet have served to facilitate the spread of the ideology of violence through the white extremist message. A school gunman in New Mexico was seen to have corresponded with a gunman who had attacked a mall in Munich; between them eleven people were killed at their disparate geographical locations.

None, however, killed as many people as did Anders Bering Breivik with his bombing and mass shooting in 2011 in Norway, with a death toll of 77. His manifesto with its grievances listing immigration and Islam as dire provocations threatening the stability and future of his homeland has gone on to inspire others in his wake. His massive attacks were seen as a model to be emulated by aspiring hate-mongers.  A white supremacist, Frazier Glenn Miller wrote on a supremacist forum that Breivik had "inspired young Aryan men to action".

He appears to have done that and more for Miller, a prominent white supremacist in the United States who went on to attack a Jewish retirement home and community center, weapons ablaze, in Kansas, where he murdered three people. The Canadian who stormed a Quebec City mosque in 2017 and killed six worshipers had helped to inspire the Christchurch attacker who added his name to other killers whose names he wrote on his weapon. In turn Alexandre Bissonnette, the mosque shooter, had focused on American Dylann Roof who shot to death nine worshipers at a South Carolina black church in 2015.

Close to 350 white extremist terrorism attacks took place in Europe, North America and Australia from the years 2011 through to 2017, according to data from the Global Terrorism Database. The database defines terrorism as the use of violence by a non-state actor to attain a particular social goal. White extremism is a term used to describe white nationalist, white supremacist, neo-Nazi, xenophobic, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic ideologies. And which accounted for roughly 8 percent of all attacks around the world, many in the United States.

In the Oceania region, five white extremist attacks took place from 2011 to 2017 in Australia, all attacks on mosques and Islamic centers. The New Zealand attack was carried out by an Australian who claims to have been radicalized while travelling through Europe. The targets take place in Perth, Dresden, Germany, or Pittsburgh on mosques and synagogues, or asylum centers. Those who study white extremists lament the attention focused on Islamic extremism, pointing out it is not the only driver of international terrorism.


However, it's a safe bet that Islamic jihadist attacks, their frequency, ferocity, deadliness and ongoing threats against the West have inspired white nationalists to play back the Islamist game plan. And while any attacks on innocent people -- destroying lives and causing chaos in society -- are grim and soul-destroying, there is little comparison in total effect between those mounted by white extremists as opposed to the dreadful toll taken by the fearsome attacks launched by various Islamist jihadi groups for whom death deliverance is a sacred duty to Islam and to which no one is immune.

Too Much Hate In The Country

"We are a Jewish nation that will stand tall. We will not let anyone take us down. Terrorism like this will not take us down."
"[I saw] a young man standing with a rifle, pointing right at me. I couldn’t see his eyes. I couldn’t see his soul. [He raised his hands to protect himself and lost one of his fingers in the shooting.] Miraculously the gun jammed."
"[Lori Kaye was a] pioneering, founding member [of the congregation]. Lori took the bullet for all of us. She didn’t deserve to die."
Congregation rabbi Yisroel Goldstein

"I thought I heard shots, but I thought maybe it was a car. Then I heard it again, and I heard people screaming. I started to run outside and my wife yelled at me to call the cops instead."
"This kind of thing is getting too common. There's too much hate in the country right now."
Jake Padilla, Poway resident

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, center, arrives for a news conference at the Chabad of Poway synagogue, Sunday, April 28, 2019, in Poway, Calif. A man opened fire Saturday inside the synagogue near San Diego as worshippers celebrated the last day of a major Jewish holiday. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

"We completely deplore what he [synagogue attacker John Earnest, a church congregant] did. It is not part of our beliefs, our practices, our teachings in any way."
"Our hearts, our prayers, our tears go out to the victims. To all those wonderful neighbors at the synagogue, we pray for them."
"We believe in lifting high the love of Christ to all people -- men, women, old and young from every tribe and denomination. This is a complete surprise. He was quiet, kept to himself, sweet guy. We had no idea. This a surprise to all of us."
Zach Keele, pastor, Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church

How sweet this 19-year old man is can be disputed. He was inspired, it seems, by a manifesto posted on the online message board Schan that the gunman in the mosque attack n Christchurch, New Zealand had posted. Leading John Earnest to post his own anti-Semitic screed on the same site before his armed attack on the Chabad of Poway synagogue yesterday. The messages he received as a lifelong congregant of the Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church of equality and love evidently made less of an impact on his belief system than did that of a brief encounter with a message posted by a pre-massacre psychopath.

The concluding day of Passover was the day chosen for John Earnest to display his rejection of the message of love in favour of a more exciting message of hatred. He had evidently practised by setting fire to a mosque in Escondido, California a month before. Two men did their utmost to stop the carnage at the synagogue, one a new member of the Chabad congregation, an off-duty Border Patrol agent Jonathan Morales, as well as former soldier Oscar Stewart, who attempted to tackle the gunman when his gun jammed.

Mr. Morales was enjoined by the Rabbi to bring a weapon with him when he decided to join the congregation for Passover, to celebrate his newly-discovered Jewish roots, taking him from El Centro California to Poway. "We never know when we will need it" -- the protection -- he advised Mr. Morales presciently. As for 51-year-od Oscar Stewart, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department had praise for his intervention, when he rushed toward the synagogue after hearing gunfire, to confront the attacker, and deterred his intention to leave.

This was the point at which an off-duty Border Patrol Agent came on the scene, firing at the attacker's vehicle as it drove off. The gunman then called the California Highway Patrol with his location in Rancho Bernardo on Interstate 15 where a police officer en route to the synagogue, saw the gunman as he pulled over, exited his vehicle and surrendered to the police officer, his rifle sitting on the front passenger seat of his car. Had his AR-15-type weapon not malfunctioned there would have been more dead than 60-year-old Lori Kaye who had tried to shield Rabbi Goldstein.

There was no official guard stationed at the synagogue, with around a hundred people at the Passover service. When he entered, the gunman shouted that Jews were ruining the world. A young Israeli girl of 8 was wounded as well as a young man and the rabbi. Rabbi Goldstein had attempted to reason with the attacker before being shot in the hand. In the event, Lori Kaye's husband was also at the synagogue for the end-of-Passover service. A physician, he began tending to the wounded. And when he reached her, to attempt CPR, realizing it was his wife, he fainted.

"Apparently, God was looking after us because we got there a little later than normal."
"As we were getting out of the car, we heard gunshots. I thought maybe someone was stepping on those little plastic bubbles."
"She [Lori Kaye] can't do enough for people around her. If you are sick, she brings you food. She's a wonderful, wonderful person."
Nancy Levanoni, 80, Chabad congregant

A vigil for the victims of the Chabad of Poway shooting.

Sandy Huffaker/AFP/Getty Images

Waiting ... Waiting ... Waiting

"The group has certainly been decimated in terms of territorial ownership, but the ideology is ... thriving."
"The Islamic State affiliates, wannabes, inspired, are still around and they're going to do what they can, whenever they can."
"We have a tendency to think that current events dictate future events. But I see nothing to suggest this is the new normal."
Phil Gurski, former senior strategic analyst, Canadian spy agency CSIS

"[The Easter Sunday Sri Lanka attacks represented one added manifestation of ISIL's opportunism to spread terror to] whatever venues are available."
"The fact of the matter is that [ISIL] suffered grievous setbacks in Western Iraq and Syria. But severely damaging a terrorist group is not the same as undermining its ideology or destroying its raison d'etre."
Revenge and retaliation for the lost caliphate has now infused [ISIL] with newfound purpose and energy."
Bruce Hoffman, terrorism analyst, Georgetown University

"I think that what our security systems have to really get on top of is that, if you have small groups ... they can mobilize quickly nowadays."
"It's such an interconnected world, and once they believe this poison, it's very virulent."
Anne Speckhard, head, International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism

"[Extremists inspired by terror groups such as ISIL and al-Qaeda remain the No.1 national security danger to public safety in this country."
"[ISIL] has lost significant amounts of territory due to the military actions of an international coalition which includes Canada. It has now shifted away from a focus on statehood to rebuilding its capacity and influence, and conducting insurgencies in both Syria and Iraq, and CSIS assesses that [ISIL] will continue its efforts to inspire and encourage operations abroad."
"The phenomenon of radicalization to violence, both offline and online, remains a great concern to Canada and its allies."
John Townsend, CSIS spokesman

A statue is pictured next to shrapnel marks at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo on April 22, a day after the building was hit as part of a series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka. Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images

According to Kamran Bokhari, director of the Center for Global Policy in Washington, sole focus on ideology and radicalization diverts from an equally vital issues eluding intelligence analysts and law enforcement: tradecraft. An entire "middle management layer" and funding stream that operates behind the scenes has not yet been fully comprehended, much less explored. "We haven't mapped out the ISIL creature, this entity."

"We don't have a good map of who's who. We don't know how this thing operates", he insists. Perhaps he could direct them to re-read Dore Gold's Hatred's Kingdom for starters, and then peruse the Koran, go to the Hadiths, sit on on Friday prayers at any local mosque....

What terrorism analysts are saying is that the central command of ISIL is taking credit for at the very least, inspiring the Sri Lankan Islamist group that carried out the massive co-ordinated bombings at three mosques and three hotels on Easter Week Sunday, killing up to 250 people and injuring another 500, as yet another victory in their jihad against Christianity and the West. More to come. Wherever opportunity leads.

Islamic State is, in essence, celebrating its new, re-energized brand, its virally lethal repudiation of all that is not strictly in adherence to an original Islamic code of exclusion, domination and conquest. Sleeper cells, loyal to and dedicated to the martyrdom ideology are everywhere. Just as the Muslim Brotherhood and arms loyal to Hamas and Hezbollah have infiltrated civilized societies manifesting their presence during occasional 'protests' where their flags are seen, ISIL's influence is also present.

"I think it's fundamentally true we will be encountering much more than lone wolf attacks in the coming years in Canada and beyond", cautioned Amarnath Amarasingam, senior research fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. For just as Islamic State succeeded in drawing thousands of recruits from abroad to their caliphate sites in Syria and Iraq to its front lines, additional thousands absorbed by their strident militarism remain in situ to eventually disclose their presence through terrorist attacks.

Captured ISIS wives in Syria. What will become of the radicalized children? (Photo: DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Its propaganda machine will not be silenced. Defying the success of the international military coalition that managed to erase its regional geography, its ideological attraction has no boundaries and many receptors. According to a November report issued by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as many as 230,000 Salafi-jihadist and allied fighters around the world are in place, in 2018 figures representing an 270 percent increase from 2001.

That's an impressive number of the ideological faithful favouring martyrdom and mass slaughter. Those numbers representing broad constituencies linked to the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and affiliates, assorted other Salafi-jihadist and allied groups, their inspired networks and loyal individuals. But not to be too concerned; most of the bloody damage is being done within countries of the non-West where global intelligence levels are low as is intelligence-sharing.

"We have to be worried about those who have come back", cautions Kyle Matthews, executive director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University. "Are they prepping the next generation of young Canadians to their cause? Have they given up their world views? I'm not too sure". CSIS figures have it that about 190 "extremist travellers" from Canada travelled abroad.

The 2018 Public Report on the Terrorism Threat to Canada stated that close to 60 of that greater number had returned. And how to "contain" them? "The real battlefront is on the ideological level", states Matthews, with Canada and its allies urgently required to be more aggressive in the prosecution of ISIL fighters, domestically and through an international tribunal.

And . good . luck . to . that.

An American citizen and former college student, Hoda Muthana, left the US four years ago to join ISIS. She is currently being held in a refugee camp in northeastern Syria. President Donald Trump has tweeted that he had directed Mike Pompeo “not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the Country!” Hoda Muthana’s story is not unique – it reflects a widespread issue around the world, as democratic nations try to figure out how to deal with hundreds  of returning ISIS fighters.

Counterfeit Chinese-Tibetan-Canadian Friendship Group

"This year has been a special year -- the 60th anniversary of democratic reform in Tibet. Because of Chinese government support and help, Tibet has changed a lot. There's a big change in Tibet."
"Such as people's standard of living ... religious rights. And so on and so on."
"The purpose and aim of our association is to persist in reunification and oppose separation."
Dorjee Tenzin, president, Tibetan Association of Canada

"It's very disruptive. People are not able to distinguish between which is a genuine community-based organization, and which is a foreign-government-funded organization who's lobbying on behalf of another government."
Tsering Shakya, professor, Tibet expert, University of British Columbia

"This is definitely another propaganda tool by the Chinese State."
"I see it as a threat to me personally. I will not know about my Tibetan history if these entities gain power and start to influence our academic institutions and other cultural spaces."
Chemi Lhamo, president, University of Toronto Scarborough campus students union

"We are shocked at the extent this Chinese government-backed group went to deceive Canadians that they represent Tibetans in Canada."
"We call for a criminal investigation of this association and appropriate actions be taken. And for all their claims of development in Tibet, let’s start with opening of Tibet for international media, independent researchers and human rights experts."
Sherap Therchin, Canada Tibet Committee

Tibetan monks protesting, with the prohibited Tibetan flag and image of the Dalai Llama

A purportedly new Tibetan-Canadian organization held an opening gala to which they invited as many government officials as would respond positively to their invitation. The new group had the inestimable assistance in their set-up of the Toronto Confederation of Chinese Canadian Organizations which co-hosted a news conference for Chinese-Canadian media, to introduce the presence of this new group.

With their history of close relations with Beijing, the confederation's assistance to another group ostensibly one dedicated to furthering Tibetan interests should have smacked of suspicious origins to a sharp eye.

Beijing's Overseas Affairs office has praised the work of the confederation, extremely helpful in working with the Chinese consulate in Toronto, in putting on a lavish China exhibit about Tibet at city hall in 2001. Harmony, you see, is anti-splittist; the former the goal, the latter anathema. And portraying Tibet as wholly content and privileged to be a part of China -- and not as the Dalai Llama and most Tibetans would prefer, wholly independent of Chinese rule -- the very picture of harmony.

The Toronto school board was convinced that to establish a branch of the Confucius Institute would be of enormous benefit, thanks to the energetic lobbying of the confederation. The launching party of the new Tibetan-Canadian organization attracted the diplomatically supportive presence of provincial and municipal politicians accustomed to taking turns among their colleagues in attending such ethnic events to demonstrate just how obligingly inclusive Canadians are while at the same time demonstrating their oblivious innocence to deeper plots beyond their ken.

Several months ago Tibetan Chemi Lhamo experienced an organized campaign from thousands of Chinese students, both residents and foreign, to her elevation as president of the U.of T. student council at the Scarborough campus. She is a Tibetan activist, speaking openly of the Chinese takeover of her country, the People's Republic of China's repression of Tibetans, Buddhism and its insistence that Tibet is part of China, not a wholly autonomous nation.

She was threatened with violence on line and thoroughly distressed, but not intimidated.

On Chinese-language websites the two-month-old organization is referred to as the Tibetan Canadian Friendship Association. At the announcement of its existence at a news conference, speakers stood before a row of Chinese and Canadian flags. Signs were in English and Chinese, not Tibetan, at the group's launch where Chinese and Canadian anthems were sung.

With China's 1950s takeover of Tibet, many of the country's Buddhist monasteries were shuttered. A Chinese-approved-and-sponsored Tibetan replacement for the Dalai Llama was put in his place. Tibet's religion and language were suppressed, its people's rights as a sovereign nation abused. Han Chinese were encouraged to settle in Tibet to make them the dominant population base. 

"The strategy of this group, strongly supported by the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government, seems to be to divide the Tibetan community in Canada. As well, it is misleading senior Canadian officials into thinking that this new group actually represents Tibetans in Canada. A similar strategy by the Chinese government and the Communist Party have also been used in the United States."
"Even more troubling are the claims made by the president of the new group stating that Tibet now enjoys freedom of religion, economic development, ecological and environmental preservation, and improvement of Tibetans’ livelihood."
Joint statement from five Tibetan organizations in Canada

Take Tibet Train from Xi’an

Justin Trudeau's Canada: Environmentally Green-Green-Green

"I want a boat prepared. I'll give a warning to Canada maybe next week that they better pull that thing out or I will set sail."
"I will advise Canada that your garbage is on the way."
"Prepare a grand reception. Eat it if you want to."
"Let's fight Canada. I will declare war against them." 
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

"Currently, a joint technical working group, consisting of officials from both countries, is examining the full spectrum of issues related to the removal of the waste with a view to a timely resolution."
"In 2016, we amended our own regulations around hazardous waste shipments to prevent such events from happening again. We are committed to working collaboratively to ensure the material is processed in an environmentally responsible way."
"[Things are looking good for a resolution within weeks, not months, which] will most probably require Canada to take back the waste."
"Beyond the comments from the president, I don't think there have been any indications that there may be potential diplomatic ramifications. We are very hopeful that's not the case."
Sabrina Kim, spokeswoman, Environment Canada

"It's really the remittance angle [Filipinos living in Canada sending money back to the Philippines], so personal angle, that is the most important and the most vulnerable in the relationship. They [Philippine government] don't want anything upsetting remittance flows."
"[Duterte is being political by] standing up to Canada [rhetorically]. Taking a shot at Mr. Environment, Mr. Global Green Go-To Guy, taking [Trudeau] down a peg internationally isn't the worst thing that could fall into Duterte's lap."
Carlo Dade, trade expert, Canada West Foundation

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes hands with Mr Duterte in Manila in 2017  Getty Images

So, let's see now...what's all the fuss about? Dozens of shipping containers full of household and electronic waste, sitting in a port near the Philippine capital Manila, rotting, stinking, an eyesore that infuriates Filipinos. As it would Canadians if the Philippines sent its garbage to Canada for disposal. Those shipping containers were supposed to be full of recyclable plastic waste. Shipped to the Philippines in a private contract.

One hundred and three shipping containers left Canada in 2013 and 2014, ostensibly full of plastics, and labelled thus. When they arrived for recycling, Filipino customs inspectors determined that debris from Canadian trash bins filled the containers, not plastic. Government-to-government, Canada has been persuading the Philippines to dispose of the garbage, over a six-year period of failing to take action. In 2016, a Filipino court ordered the trash returned to Canada. Canada paid no heed.

On trips to the Philippines in 2016 and 2017 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was specifically asked to settle the matter; Canada had no legal means to force the company that shipped the waste to take it back, he said on the first trip. Then in 2017 he assured the Philippines that Canada was working on a solution; that "theoretically" it was possible for Canada to take steps to reclaim the trash. Possible? "Theoretically"? 

The Victoria-based Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation last week issued a legal opinion that Canada's actions related to the shipments violate parts of the Basel Convention, a treaty preventing countries from shipping hazardous waste to the developing world without the consent of the receiving country. Well, the Philippines consented to no such shipment on their soil or in their waters, but those containers sit there, rotting, toxic materials included.

The Canadian shipping company is no longer in business, having denied sending anything other than plastic to begin with, for what that's worth, and on the evidence, not much. Under the Basel Convention, should an agreement between parties not be feasible, the matter can be taken to the International Court of Justice. Should Canada not act now in good faith and retrieve what should never have been sent to a developing country, this is precisely what the Philippines should do.

Filipino environmental activists wear mock container vans filled with garbage to symbolize the 103 containers of waste that were shipped from Canada to the Philippines two years ago, outside the Canadian embassy south of Manila, Philippines on May 7, 2015.  THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Aaron Favila

Tough-talking, irascible, volatile Rodrigo Duterte has threatened "war" with Canada. One of the issues mentioned and promised during his campaign for election to the presidency was that the stinking pile of trash would finally be removed, at his insistent overtures to the government of Canada. The issue is one that infuriates Filipinos and with good reason; no nation appreciates another, more developed and wealthy nation treating their own as a trash receptacle.

The Philippines exports $1.3 billion in trade goods to Canada, double the $626 million Canada exports to the Philippines, There are also over 558,000 Filipino-Canadians, born in the Philippines and emigrated to Canada to become landed immigrants and citizens; an insult to the Philippines is an insult to that Canadian demographic of hard-working, tax-paying people. Those Philippine-born Canadian residents send back to their original country of residence $1.2 billion in remittances.

"This case is garnering so much attention because it’s an example of what the environmental justice movement has been saying for a long time — pollution flows according to a power gradient, from the most powerful to the least powerful."
“It’s on us, really. It’s our garbage, it’s poisoning people around the world and now it’s on us to fix."
Dayna Scott, associate professor, environmental law, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University

Officials check a shipping container holding garbage from Vancouver in Manila in this undated, handout photo. (Philippines Bureau of Customs/Canadian Press)

Mea Culpa: White and Colour-Guilty. Minimizing Islamist Terrorism

"Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, incels, nativists, and radical anti-globalists who resort to violent acts are a threat to the stability of my country and countries around the world. [Those attacks] need to be at the top of our agenda when we talk about confronting terrorism."
"[White supremacism is] one of the most serious terrorist threats of the current age. [The online spread of hate is] an international problem, and we need to act collectively to address it."
"[Hatred is] increasingly spread through the internet, [in online forums and on social media]. We must be aware of this, and work to stop it. Our work cannot be undertaken in isolation. Each of our countries will of course address this issue in different ways, but we need to recognise that this is ultimately an international problem, and we need to act collectively to address it."
"In the wake of acts of terrorism carried out by Muslim extremists, Western countries often call upon Muslim countries and Muslim leaders to condemn those attacks in the name of their people and their faith. It should follow that, as the foreign minister of a majority white and majority Christian country, I feel a specific and personal responsibility to denounce white supremacist attacks in the same way."
"Each of our countries will, of course, address this issue in different ways, but we need to recognize that this is ultimately an international problem, and we need to act collectively to address it."
"The Internet and social media know no borders and so we must work together to find ways to address online radicalization."
Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canada

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland addresses the United Nations Security Council debate on terrorism on March 28, 2019 in New York City. (Global Affairs Canada/Facebook)

"What our research [shows] is that there is a diversity of threats out there related to violent extremism, and there are many different ideologies that can create this problem."
"There are a number of ideologies where Alberta is disproportionately represented, in terms of the numbers that we're producing."
"The individuals that we're seeing are really on the margins of extremist movements."
John McCoy, executive director, Organization for the Prevention of Violence (OPV)

"[Alberta is home to] both intimate and established networks [tied to al-Qaeda and affiliated groups, and] highly isolated cases that are connected with AQAS networks wholly online."
"Today, the trend is very much towards the latter. As seen in the OPV’s research on hate, there was near unanimity in the belief that things are getting worse, not better, due in part to this global political climate where expression of discrimination, hate and broader ‘us versus them’ narratives are taking hold."

"Respondents were dismayed to see this occurring in Canada, a nation whose identity is in large part constructed on the basis of immigration and multiculturalism."

Extremism and Hate Motivated Violence in Alberta Report, Organization for the Prevention of Violence

The report, titled Extremism and Hate Motivated Violence in Alberta -- one hundred pages listing extremist groups in the province, estimates of membership, and views of violent or potentially violent ideological movements and whether the groups are growing or shrinking in membership and prominence provides a fairly wide view of threat activities with the potential to destabilize the province and perpetrate violence on a wide scale. OPV points out that al-Qaeda, its affiliates and splinter groups — referred to as AQAS in the report — continue to present as a direct threat in Canada despite international counterterrorism efforts.

The report was built painstakingly around interviews with over 170 law enforcement members representing the RCMP, as well as each municipal police service in the province of Alberta. What was established in the report is that Alberta represents the province with a disproportionate share of extremist movements; far-right groups and those travelling abroad to join armed groups such as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. An intervention program hoping to guide people away from extremist movements was developed as well by the organization.

Researchers interviewed roughly 120 people from communities where hate and extremism directly affected them. Some fifty service providers specializing in violence and at-risk youth, and 212 "formers"; people previously associated with extremist movements, or their family members, were also extensively interviewed. Mr. McCoy -- the OPV executive director, is also a professor at University of Alberta whose specialty is terrorism studies -- spoke of a major conclusion, that individuals on the edges of extremist groups, those who have been most frequently radicalized through social media, represent the biggest threat to society. 

A video was recently released of Toronto's Mohammed Abdullah Mohammed, after he was captured by Kurdish forces battling ISIS in Syria. (CBC)

According to the report, from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, fundraising, money laundering and promotion and propaganda took place in the province in support of foreign fighters in the Middle East, North Africa and Bosnia. The report estimated that between 30 and 40 people from Alberta travelled abroad to fight for armed groups in the Middle East, North Africa and Bosnia, disproportionate in number to Alberta's population as compared to the rest of Canada and the numbers of jihadis who chose to leave to ally themselves with Islamist terrorist groups overseas.

 From Calgary alone, roughly twenty jihadis travelled to Syria and Iraq; ten of that number sharing an identified connection with a now-shuttered mosque located in downtown Calgary. Shuttered not only due to its reputation as a breeding ground inspiring resentment against the West, but to its purposeful incitement to bring the faithful as recruits to the Islamic sacred duty of jihad, inspiring to the young and the restless, searching to fulfill meaning in their lives as required by their faith.

Given the situation in the Middle East, with the Islamic State Caliphate no longer a physical reality and the understanding that the searing ideology of hatred and martyrdom cannot be extirpated from the minds of dedicated believers as readily as geography can be wrenched from warring usurpers, the concern has turned inward in the realization and acknowledgement that ISIL has groomed its followers to attack anywhere, at any time, using any methods available to make their statement of jihad's resilience.

A Canadian man allegedly fighting for Islamic State was captured in Syria, according to Syrian Democratic Forces. In a video released Sunday he says his name is Mohammad Abdullah Mohammad.Screen grab

As to other worrisome groups of anti-social extremists which the report listed, the estimate is that approximately 150 to 250 Freemen on the Land in Alberta remain active in their perception that government is illegitimate and therefore no taxes need be extracted from them voluntarily to government coffers. The majority are recognized as non-violent though the report points out that ten to 15 Alberta Freemen have "demonstrated a behavioural propensity for violence". Left-wing extremists identified in the report are not seen to have been involved in major violent incidents, nor are they viewed as a "significant threat to public safety".

Moving on to patriot and militia groups motivated "primarily by xenophobia and anti-government views", many members share anti-Islamic sentiments with some engaging in survivalist activities such as "prepping" and firearms training as well as "street patrols", which "primarily target visible minority, newcomer and refugee communities -- Muslims in particular". Yet there is no evidence that groups such as the Three Percenters, Sons/Soldiers of Odin, the Canadian Infidels/Clann, True North Patriots and Northern Guard are violence prone or "would represent a significant threat to public safety or national security".


Which leaves White Supremacy/Associated Ideologies with the report pointing out that the Ku Klux Klan which once had 50 chapters in Alberta 90 years ago has been reduced to a few small, largely rural groups. And that organized white supremacist groups, largely dormant until the late 1980s with a membership of 100 has bloomed since with a number of skinhead, neo-Nazi and "Aryan" groups active latterly in the province; violent years falling between 2008 and 2012 with ten "noteworthy" incidents of assaults on immigrants and visible minorities.

None of these identified groups in the terrorism range or as threats to society have brought bloodshed in any sphere of society remotely comparable to the virulent threat that Islamism's jihad-aligned terrorism has. Yet the government of Canada chooses to wax eloquent and determined to eradicate the unsavoury (to be sure) presence of white supremacists, equating their hateful ideology with that of the murderous mass-death-delivering psychosis of religious divine edicts to the faithful in Islam to go out and slaughter the infidels.

Forewarned, Unprepared, Stricken

"The reality is that inevitably this group has links outside. My assessment is that the motivation, the masterminds, are outside the country."
"I think their aim is global, it's not in Sri Lanka. Wherever they can get a soft spot they hit because they need recruits all the time and the only way that they can get recruits is by doing these kinds of spectacular activities."
"This is essentially a recruiting tool for them."
Madhav Nalapat, professor of geopolitics, Manipal University, India

"These attacks appear to be quite different and look as if they came right out of the [ISIL], al-Qaeda, global militant jihadi playbook, as these are attacks fomenting religious hatred by attacking multiple churches on a  high religious holiday."
"It is not about a separatist movement. It is about religion and punishing."
Anne Speckhard, director, International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism

"Given the gradual but steady growth of radicalization in Sri Lanka and more importantly the emergence of the Islamic State in Sri Lanka, this could pose a serious threat to the security of Sri Lanka."
"Continued marginalization of the Muslim community in Sri Lanka has produced a conducive environment for extremist elements to breed. These extremist elements could exploit the fault lines within the Muslim community and use the situation akin to how the Rohingya crISIL in Myanmar was used to foment and create extremist groups elsewhere in the region."
"This situation could ideally present the jihadist groups such as the Islamic State with a window of opportunity to plant their footprint in the Sri Lankan soil."
Geopolitical Monitor

Dead bodies of victims lie inside St. Sebastian's Church damaged in blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday. (Chamila Karunarathne/Associated Press)

There it is in bold letters, former ISIL fighters returning to their  home countries intent on setting up regional terror hubs, a preoccupied concern of Europe and North America come to roost, its first showing since the destruction, but not complete demoralization of Islamic State, to turn to alternate means of evidencing its malign existence and its higher purpose, to slowly and steadily infiltrate and wreak destabilizing chaos through terror and slaughter, leaving the impression on vulnerable populations that they will never know where and when the next strike will appear....

The National Thowheeth Jamaath, a local Sri Lankan Muslim extremist group was a powder keg only needing the spark to set it in motion to create a devastating blow against government disinterest and inaction, its attention diverted by other pressing problems of political upheaval, separatist determination and violent terrorism by Tamil Tigers. The irony here is that the Tamil Tigers were credited with being the first such group to invent suicide bombing. An effective tactic of terror and mass slaughter enthusiastically embraced by jihadists.

The Tamil Tigers are a spent force in the wake of the destructive civil war and its ignominious defeat at the cost of untold numbers of Sri Lankan lives. Yet the Sri Lankan government and intelligence focus remained fixed on the Tigers, overlooking the more viral promise of Islamist jihadists revelling in their reawakening to the joys of Islamic martyrdom in service to the Koran's injunctions to the faithful. Friday mosque prayers are not complete without the customary jog to Muslim sensibilities of the sacred principle of jihad.



Out of Indian intelligence came a warning to Sri Lanka of imminent attacks, eliciting slightly more than a shrug, but not much more. And then came a whirlwind of action out of Muslim-majority Kattankudy in eastern Sri Lanka, reflecting detailed planning leading to a surprise multi-pronged assault where Christians and Westerners were both the message and the targets. In the aftermath, the realization that Thowheeth Jamaath aligned itself with global terrorism; ISIL or al-Qaeda on the Indian subcontinent (AQIS).

It was predicted. Analysts spoke of the "localization" of terrorism, reminiscent of Islamic State grooming its recruits to remain where they are, and to attack there,  using whatever means available. Small, local groups and individuals inspired by the magnificent exploits of those affiliated with global jihadi networks. And thus was outlined the future of Asia. Of Europe. Of North America. In this instance, with the Christian Sri Lankan churches and Western-style hotels targeted and the deaths of over three hundred innocents, the wounding of over five hundred, the message was sent, and received.

"The Bloody days in your church has begun", was the message alongside videos of the Sri Lankan bombings from an Indonesian Instagram account supporting Islamic State, reported SITE.

A Sri Lankan police commando enters a house suspected to be a hideout of militants following a shoot out in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Sunday. Thirteen people were arrested and three officers were killed during raids in search of suspects following the attacks. (Eranga Jayawardena/Associated Press)

The Soul of a Nation

"Notre Dame, by the fullest standards of human achievement, is remarkable. Longevity was at play even in its building, a common endeavour over 300 years, and its existence -- beyond time's decay or external ravaging -- near 900. Centuries cluster around that building, and thereby the motions of history, events great and small enacted so to speak within the great shadow of its long presence. People coming to view the cathedral are by it put in mind of the great flow of history, the accumulation of events, achievements, sorrows and joys of art and life, that played out around the magnificent towers, and within its vast ornamented spaces."
"We in the West are obliging amnesiacs of our greatest achievements. And it takes something like the jeopardy to Notre Dame to remind us of our common cultural and artistic heritage. That through literature, painting, sculpture, music and all the attendant arts the West has brightened and deepened the experience of life, and put in possession for generations past and to come creations that widen our souls. It is good, too, and of the essence of the near tragedy in Paris, to be reminded that from the power of religion in the so-called dim light of the Middle Ages, by the labour of hands and minds of a whole people, something as transcendent as the great vaults and towers of Notre Dame was given over to the world."
Rex Murphy, National Post

The Gallican French Church can assimilate all the vagaries of human nature; it is the ultimate worldly church. Some of its 20th-Century theologians, such as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Jacques Maritain, were among the most influential in the world. And Notre Dame, beyond all other buildings in Europe, has been in the seminal moments of the history of Europe through most of the Middle Ages, and through all the complexities of the history of France as one of the world's greatest nation states, which it remains."
"When Henry IV won the civil war and in order to unite the country under him, became a Roman Catholic -famously saying: 'Paris is worth a mass'], it was in Notre Dame that the mass occurred. All the kings of France from Philip Augustus in the 12th Century were frequent communicants here."
Conrad Black, National Post

"A small number of specialized insurers, notably Lloyd's of London, are often willing to accept the risk of undertaking such valuations, but the resulting premiums are very high."
"The insurance business operates by spreading risk over a large number of similarly situated insured parties, and obviously in the case of unique assets, there is not a large pool!"
"The cost to them [France or any nation-state] of financing the occasional repair or replacement of unique asset, they may calculate, will be lower than the sum of the insurance premiums. Thus I would doubt that Egypt has purchased a comprehensive insurance policy for, e.g., the Pyramids of Egypt."
Bruce Huber, professor of law, University of Notre Dame, Indiana

travelcaffeine.com

While it is beyond difficult to evaluate a priceless loss such as an incomparable work of art of ancient heritage, it is possible to imagine the price that the building and artistic professions such as architects historians and artisans' meticulous work involved in restoring the 850-year-old Notre Dame cathedral in Paris after the devastating and mysterious fire consumed its architectural integrity as a medieval-era landmark, to be in the neighbourhood of billions of dollars.

When catastrophic events cause untold damage, usually insurance can be relied upon to help defray most of the costs associated with reconstruction. But not in this case. The French state is the owner of Notre Dame and the artworks displayed within, and it and they were not insured, leaving the government of France responsible for restoration and rebuilding costs. National monuments are not generally insured; the cost would be monumental even if a valuation reflective of their inestimable worth were to be agreed upon.

Properties like monuments or religious relics defy valuation in any event since they are a product of not only great art but sentiment and heritage. These cultural artefacts are known the world over and become a magnet for pilgrimages. The choice when it comes to such priceless objects is to self-insure. Which is to say the unspoken but glaringly obvious esteem in which they are held bespeak their value, and the owners of such properties understand that they are obliged to history, culture and world heritage to protect and insure their existence.

The fire that destroyed much of the Notre Dame Cathedral in the heart of Paris is a tragedy that is irreparable. Even if the cathedral is rebuilt, it will never be what it was before. (Photo by Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images)

The investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing, and will continue for some time. That initially, that is directly upon the outbreak of the fire official assurances went the rounds through the news media that the cause was inadvertence, an unfortunate accident, ascribed to the relatively modest $6.75-million project to renovate and strengthen its roof. Since at this juncture the public hopes and the authorities promise that the cathedral in its former glory is to be restored, public figures of great celebrity and wealth have responded by pledging a billion dollars to date, as a start.

According to U.K.-based Ecclesiastical Insurance, in business for over a century, such structures as churches, owing to their age, are complicated to insure where buildings recognized for their great historical value must by law be restored in the very same manner as originally built. Sourcing appropriate materials and artisans to reproduce the work of medieval times is expensive because both are rare. According to specialist Paul Humphris of Ecclesiastical, if portions of Notre Dame appear physically insecure "a certain element of violence" will be required to eliminate the danger of collapse.

"If the fire really was an accident, it is almost impossible to explain how it started. Benjamin Mouton, Notre Dame's former chief architect, explained that the rules were exceptionally strict and that no electric cable or appliance, and no source of heat, could be placed in the attic. He added that an extremely sophisticated alarm system was in place. The company that installed the scaffolding did not use any welding and specialized in this type of work. The fire broke out more than an hour after the workers' departure and none of them was present. It spread so quickly that the firefighters who rushed to the spot as soon as they could get there were shocked. Remi Fromont, the chief architect of the French Historical Monuments said: "The fire could not start from any element present where it started. A real calorific load is necessary to launch such a disaster."
Dr. Guy Millière, professor, history, culture, University of Paris, author of 27 books on France and Europe

So, is there any reason to distrust or question the continued assertions made by French authorities respecting the cause of the fire, and their insistence of the disaster being the result of an unfortunate accident? None whatever, if there were no precedents in such declarations in the aftermath of horrific terrorist attacks in France. Distrust does not come from nowhere; it is the result of credible authorities deliberately steering the public away from the truth, motivated by a wish to have calm prevail by masking the truth.

Eventually, as on previous occasions, it is likely that the truth will prevail, that private investigative sources or enterprising investigative journalists seeking out the truth, whether it validates the official statements or contradicts them as it has in the past -- may unearth incriminating evidence of a malign source of the 'accident' that set about with great deliberation to torch and destroy a magnificent edifice of ancient heritage because of unreasoning hatred for symbols of the West, Christianity and the values of civilizational norms.

In this April 15, 2019 photo, flames and smoke rise from the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Thierry Mallet/The Associated Press