The arrest of seventeen people in the Greater Toronto Area on terrorism charges is very disturbing. What is even more disturbing is the information that has come out in the weeks since the event. The behaviour of the police seems to have been dangerously close to entrapment, and the treatment of the prisoners has apparently been inhumane and patently unacceptable in a country that calls itself democratic. Also disturbing is the backlash against immigrants generally and Muslims in particular that these arrests have provoked.

The fact that the RCMP stage-managed the delivery of three tonnes of fertilizer to this cell of people, who had allegedly been planning attacks for over three years, is disturbing. This stinks of entrapment. If, after three years, all that the people arrested had done was talk about maybe possibly doing something like raiding parliament (which is manifestly unfeasible), while simultaneously raiding the Toronto Stock Exchange and the CBC broadcasting centre, then they had committed no crime. The police offering to sell three tonnes of fertilizer to these people is entrapping them to commit a crime that they had made no move to commit otherwise.

It has come out as well that the arrested men are being badly treated. The most egregious examples being: held in brightly lit isolation cells 24-7, being given only five minutes to eat each meal and being physically abused during the body search upon their arrival at the prison. These kinds of abuses of people who MUST BE CONSIDERED INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY are unacceptable in a democratic society. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the freedom from cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. The Charter rights of these men (under Sec. 12) have been violated.

Also very disturbing is the fact that the men have been denied access to private conversations with their lawyers. All conversations between the men and their lawyers have taken place across a Plexiglas divider by phone. These phones are routinely monitored. It is a legal tradition in Canada that all conversations between client and lawyer are private and privileged. It is absolutely inappropriate for the authorities to be listening in on the conversations between accused and lawyer.

The backlash against Muslims and immigrants generally must stop. Even if these men are convicted of the charges against them, the Muslim community is still innocent. Also innocent are immigrants generally. Taking action now to bar immigration into Canada from the Middle East would do nothing to prevent an attack. The men who are accused are almost all Canadian citizens. They have lived here for many years or have been born here. If they were in fact terrorists, which has yet to be proven, placing bars to immigration would have done nothing. The staggeringly large majority immigrants are hardworking people who are committed to making a better life for themselves and their families.

Of course it is worrying that a group of young men became so radically disaffected with Canada that they were even considering blowing up buildings and raiding others, but Canadian foreign policy and society must take much of the blame for creating this situation. Canadian oil companies go into various majority-Muslim countries around the world and create enormous problems, for example funding the civil war in Sudan. The mainstream media is also only to eager to play to the stereotype of all Muslims as terrorists. Canadian troops are actively involved in occupying Afghanistan, a largely Muslim nation. Surely we cannot expect to be treated as though we are as pure as driven snow while Canadian companies and the Canadian military are actively making live hellish for Muslims.