Terrorism Experts Worry Attacks on the United States Could Be Launched from Canada Share Tweet

While most of the discussions about securing our nation’s borders focus on threats from the south, a growing bevy of experts says the United States should be concerned about growing threats to the north.

Tom Quiggin, who worked for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Armed Forces and the United Nations Protection Force in Yugoslavia, believes Canada underestimates the threat to itself and the U.S. from extremists living within her borders. He said, “Canada is becoming a foundational sort of place for Islamists of all stripes including Iranians.”

Quiggin believes Canada’s leadership denies the severity of the issue and points to a debate in the Canadian parliament about how to handle Canadian citizens who joined ISIS and were returning to the country as evidence. He said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau argued that “if you are opposed to ISIS fighters returning to Canada it is because you’re Islamophobic. In other words, it’s not them that’s the issue. It’s your opposing their return that makes you Islamophobic. It makes you racist.”

In a debate in the Canadian Parliament in 2017, the Prime Minister got into a shouting match with Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer over the issue. Trudeau said conservatives, “ran an election on snitch lines against Muslims. They ran an election on Islamophobia and division. And still they play the same games trying to scare Canadians.”

Quiggin also expressed alarm about Trudeau’s appearances at Canada’s “Reviving the Islamic Spirit” convention as a member of Parliament in 2012 “even after news reports the event was linked to a group that had funded Hamas.” Trudeau greeted the convention via video in 2015 and said the meeting was about “celebrating our shared beliefs of fairness, equality, opportunity, and acceptance.”

Quiggin wanted to ask several questions about his comments at the event, including, “Do you know who you’re talking to? And why would you say that you share their values when their values are anti-democratic, anti-women’s rights, pro-slavery, pro-stoning of women?”

Anthony Furey, a columnist for the Toronto Sun and host at XM Sirius Canada expressed his disbelief at how Canada’s leadership has turned a blind eye to the dangers within their borders. He told CBN, “I think there’s the idea that, well, we need to welcome everyone because everyone’s wonderful, so Kumbaya. This notion that ISIS fighters are somehow deserving of kind of a respect and cultural accommodation just as much as anyone else is nonsense.”

Furey also worries that police have not been forthcoming about the true motive behind July’s attack on the Danforth in Toronto, which resulted in two deaths and thirteen injuries. He claims that “There’s been a total cone of silence around the Danforth shooting story. I wrote a feature where I found out that the family statement which said [the suspect Faisal Hussain had] mental illness had actually been put together by a spin doctor, a self-described spin doctor who’s associated with the NDP, Canada’s left-wing party, and also a Muslim Community activist.”

Most ominously, former Canadian Security Intelligence Service officer David Harris told CBN that an attack on the U.S. from extremists who live in Canada is “only a matter of time.” He also said that “Many years ago I suggested that many of the Islamist extremists might regard Canada as an aircraft carrier from which to maintain operations against the United States.”

The Toronto Star recently announced in 2016 that they would no longer use “Islamic State” to refer to ISIS, but rather the term “Daesh.” They said that ISIS is a “criminal gang that has murdered, raped, and pillaged its way across the Middle East, while sending sycophants to slaughter millions abroad.” They claim the group “is neither Islamic nor an internationally recognized state.”

Islam is currently Canada’s fastest-growing religion.

Scott Slayton writes at One Degree to Another.

Photo courtesy: Maarten van den Heuvel/Unsplash