Barrel Strength

It’s rising two years since that June day Canadians awoke to the thrilling news that a dozen and a half men, mostly ‘youths’, had been apprehended trying to blow up downtown Toronto – and went back to sleep. Well, publications bans will dilute even the strongest stimulant and the story was appearing to be less than cask potency anyway. There was more than a little evidence that the junior jihadis had been heavily stage-managed. Paid informants? Really? Really well-paid informants? Really well-paid informants who seemed to know the plotters’ plots even before they did? Really well-paid informants who had to be hastily deterred from sharing their thoughts and memories with the press? Paintball? Camping trips? Fertilizer in agri-business quantities?

This shapes to be one of those excruciatingly embarrassing made-in-Canada productions, complete with stilted scripts, plots that creak and groan, barely competent acting and production, and credits that attach an endless list of government agencies to the failure. One of those amateurish, thoroughly unwatchable shows that are the inevitable result of a system that has lost its way? We shall see. Perhaps more instructive is the fact that the left is more or less invisible on this one. Invisible in the same way that feminists have abandoned their Muslim sisters – nothing to be gained, energy to be lost and distraction from the ultimate goal of conquest of the west? Or is it a matter of timing? Perhaps the activistas are simply waiting for a bigger stage.

Either way, it is truly surprising that a place as self-regarding as Toronto (and I regarded myself there for a dozen years quite as much as any) should simply forget the Toronto 18 for weeks and months at a time. After all, had their machinations succeeded, cross-town traffic would have been snarled for days! At any rate, it is safe to assume years and perhaps many years will pass before anything is in any way resolved. This is a country that cannot prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country, find them once they jump bail or, should they be unlucky or inept enough to be caught, actually deport them. What conceivable chance does this system have against Canadian-born or naturalized citizens with rights, relatives and rapidly growing communities?

Given the handicaps under which they work, it may be miraculous if law enforcement, intelligence and justice agencies come out of this with dignity and credibility, let alone victories. In the meantime, don’t bother to stay tuned for more news of the Toronto 18. There won’t be much and it won’t be good.