Toronto terror 'plot'... 6pak - comments?, Large terror cell recently busted Options

[Hellfighter]

Apparently a London terror style plot targeting various Toronto/Ontario objectives was foiled. No time to comment in depth on it myself.
Perhaps 6pak [with her regional/work experience] can add some of her thoughts on the topic?

[Hellfighter]

I see all of your points Wotansvolk and respect them -really! But these issues are not unique to bending-over-backwards democratic nations- foreigners are de-'libertised' in some Asian, Muslim, African nations... those states are repressive in the fact that they engage in laws to keep everyone conforming to one ideal in my opinion-> sure are own system is not perfect but it's generally based on freedom of choice; of course there are a few clowns who come here and want to bring ugly repressive cultural practices and honestly though these issues produce lively debates, generally such ideas in reality will be squashed [like the proposal banning Ethiopian[?] young female circumcision practise in Toronto [90s ?] ....

I deplore people culturally isolating themselves, but I don't care if folks have their cultural festivals AND integrate with the general society. I myself immigrated here from the UK -the only cultural thing I do now is have chips with salt n' vinegar [and blabber with Cross here in cockney ] . I've lived all across Canada and been around a bit seeing how many cities has their own little Italy, Chinatown, Carib section, and heard all the "immigrants are turning anti-Canadian/West lifestyle" arguments for years and years... but our great country though not perfect, is VERY healthy compared to other nations who have large settlements of recent immigrants. From these 'enclaves' are future citizens who do integrate to keep our great nation healthy and free and from which have come the builders of our new nation as we know it and enjoy the benefits of [ another fact is that quite a few of the new arrivals though we see them doing everyday jobs not considered highly skilled are in fact very very high skilled by what their former job was in their country of origins but have no choice with their current employment-temporarily] You can imagine the first generations of all these immigrants had their original cultural routines in their community lifestyles [eastern europe, asian, carib, mid east lately... and I argue in reality only a very small percentage of new arrivals are self-cloistered/anti social and/or BS disturbers by nature.

Like I said we would probably in fact have very similar agreements on many ideas on this topic and I'm all for slapping down some of the same 'cultural' proposals as you perhaps. But my contention is that we[Canada and other immigrant influxed democratic nations] show ourselves as the way of the future by openly discussing even contreversial of ideas by not fearing to at least confront the issues [ in this process too, those foreign/cultural hardliners may learn about freedom of choice and discussion- and even get used to that 'foreign' idea]. I'm glad we're not a backwards fundamentalist state where there are goons in jackboots enforcing sweeping 'everyone tows the same line' rules/laws and the fear is of your family/friends turning on you if you whisper any dissension. I just have serious misgivings about starting to tread on that path of hardcore conformity... its hard to turn back and something precious/unique is lost.

ps. regarding people branding someone with a 'title' rightly or wrongly that goes along with expressing an opinion... why be defensive about that- it's part of the debate process... it's then up to you to make your argument that in fact you are not what you are accused of being... If you're correct, you will easily silence your critics or leave them muttering without a counter argument. I'm mostly about people just simply getting along decently above all else and knowing perhaps each others roots to better appreciate inclusion and diversity. I love the Quebecois since moving here and unlike a few across the nation that brand Quebec in unfair terms, I find folks here as friendly as anywhere else... now regarding the French sign laws ... another topic.


This post has been edited by Hellfighter: 06/16/06 9:39am