Terrorist Trash

A story from CTV News is not a surprise. A number of US politicians will try and raise border concerns about Canada and terrorists after the arrests in Toronto. And others will use the arrests to further other causes. As an example, Senator Levin from Michigan has used "security" as an argument to keep Toronto garbage out of Michigan for some time now so this will fall right into his lap! That's how the game is played.

The arrests over the weekend may have other political fall-out as well and in Canada too.

I can just hear opponents of the Bridge Co. using the arrests as an excuse to demand that Bill C-3 be passed immediately! The entire Bill, and right now! After all, it will be argued, the pressure is now focused on the US border with Canada. With Mexico, it is merely illegal imigrants but with Canada it is terrorists! We certainly do not want the Prime Minister to be embarrassed when he meets with the US President in early July. We had better do something to show the Americans we are serious it will be said.

Others will demand that a new crossing be built for "redundancy" purposes even though that argument is absurd when "reverse customs" is what is required. The Star did not disappoint "Security and redundancy----Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scheduled to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush July 6 and must make the expedited construction of a new and public border crossing between Windsor and Detroit an urgent priority."

Of course the easy answer is to pass the "health, safety and security" provisions of the Act as the Bridge Co. supported at the Bill C-3 hearings but that will not be enough for some. Nope, they want the Ambassador Bridge Co. put out of business so that a new "public" bridge can be built at an expenditure of billions.

If they have to use "terrorist" arguments to do so, it does not matter. You see, their cause is in the "national interest" isn't it. What garbage!

• Arrests raise security concerns about border
  CTV.ca News Staff
  
  A weekend raid ending in the arrest of 17 suspects on terrorism-related charges in Toronto has renewed security concerns about the U.S. border, and accusations that Canada is a haven for militant Islamic groups.
  
  News of the arrests made the front pages of both The New York Times and the Washington Post.
  
  "Americans should be very concerned, because Canada is our northern neighbour and there's a large al Qaeda presence in Canada," New York Republican Peter King, chairman of the House of Representatives homeland security committee, said Sunday on CNN.
  
  "I think it's a disproportionate number of al Qaeda in Canada because of their very liberal immigration laws, because of how political asylum is granted so easily."
  
  Most of the suspects are Canadian citizens and all are Canadian residents.
  
  Democratic Senator Carl Levin, who has already complained about Canadian garbage entering Michigan landfill sites, said the trash makes a perfect hiding spot for bombs or weapons.
  
  "Most of (the garbage trucks) are not inspected, and particularly in the way garbage trucks from Ontario cannot be inspected, represent a real significant security threat," he said.