How odd. The week after the Boston bombings, the Conservative government had MPs suddenly debating an anti-terror bill that had long been hanging around with its hands in its pockets. The very same day, conveniently, the RCMP arrested two alleged terrorists.

They had a tip from an imam, the cops said. They got it a year ago.

Call me cynical. I’m not, I am hopeful credulity itself, but the anti-terror bill is shameful and the arrests dubious. The police press conference consisted of a dozen white male cops — and a token female — in a variety of uniforms congratulating each other and offering next to no information.

“Let’s get the details in English and in French, it’s how they roll,” said a Fox News guy named Shep. “God love Canada, but they’re not great at the television.” God love Fox, but they’re not great at the journalism.

The attack was not imminent, the RCMP said, but was allegedly “Al Qaeda-sponsored” and had ties to Iran. It was aimed at a Via train route between Toronto and New York.

This seems strange. One could hardly choose a more unobtrusive target than Via trains which spend much time maddeningly stationary anyway. A lawyer for one of the arrested men noted in court the odd coincidence of timing Tuesday, as did NDP defence critic Jack Harris in the House on Monday. What fearful symmetry.

And why would Al Qaeda, Sunni by nature, work with Iran, a Shiite nation? But perhaps that’s just how Iran rolls.

The anti-terror bill, known as the Combating (sic)Terrorism Act is being rushed through its third reading. It is a horrifying bill, just as it was when it passed in 2001, when it was not renewed in 2007 thanks to the Liberal opposition, and when it finally reached the Senate last year.

But now the Conservatives have a majority and this is what they want. As Leslie MacKinnon of CBC News reported, “preventative detention” would mean that any Canadian could be arrested and held for three days on suspicion of terrorist involvement with no charge being laid.

“An investigative hearing” means that someone suspected of knowing about a terrorist plot could be imprisoned for up to a year if they refused to answer questions.

The bill would also make it illegal to leave Canada if you intend to commit an act of terrorism. This is presumably aimed at people going to training camps or meetings. But what it means is that Canadian police may well take the word of foreign governments making wild claims about any Canadian travelling overseas.

Imagine you or me, on vacation, being arrested on those grounds. The question is: Do you trust Stephen Harper and the Conservative government and the RCMP to do the ethical, informed, reasonable thing in your case? Or do you expect them to follow a hard-right ideology, to overreact as the Americans do?

The RCMP is a disgraced police force. Cute as it is when American journalists joke about arrests by scarlet-suited men on horseback, the most recent memory I have of the RCMP is watching them terrify, hood and tape down a young girl on an airplane.

She was the late Ashley Smith. The Smith videos are films of torture by committee, and the torture is being applied by Mounties and guards.

I do not trust them, just as I no longer trust Toronto police after the G20 debacle and do not trust a Harper majority government. Its calling card is to warn us non-stop of “Muslim terrorists,” which might not offend were this government neutral on religion.

It is not. Radio Canada reports that Ottawa has just given $20 million of infrastructure spending to 13 Christian universities, seminaries and colleges, from Evangelical to Baptist to Mennonite. These schools are taking our tax dollars even though they illegally prohibit gay relationships.

It isn’t a government’s role to build up one religion against another. It would be uncivilized. Equally, the terror bill is too draconian for Canada. It is more suited to a panicked U.S., but yes, it will pass because the Conservatives have a majority.

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It will be a shameful day.