Stick it to 'em Dosanjh!

For once, I agree wholeheartedly with Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh... "Stop pandering to radicals in our midst".

I say we make room in our recently reintroduced Crime Bills for it... it's time to put an end to terror on Canadian soil.

Stop pandering to radicals in our midst
Ujjal Dosanjh, National Post
Published: Tuesday, November 27, 2007

When the Indian military confronted Sikh militants at the Golden Temple in the Indian city of Amritsar in June, 1984, the resulting violence gave rise to a reign of terror for the Indo-Canadian community, including Sikhs.

The events sparked a reaction from some Sikhs in Canada that included hatred, violence, threats and hit lists. This included attempts to silence broadcasters, journalists, activists and anyone else who spoke out against violence. One journalist who broadcast the speech of the president of India on his television program was assaulted. A single mother who owned a radio station was told that if she did not stop broadcasting moderate views, her nine-year-old son would not see his 10th birthday.

Those who spoke out did so in part because of a fear that if we did nothing at the time, we would be suffocated --both literally and figuratively. But the price was high. My family lived in an atmosphere of fear for many years. Anonymous people and groups said they would kill my children, my wife, myself. They threatened to firebomb my home in the middle of the night. And for a period of years, my wife and I slept on a mattress on the first floor of our home in case a bomb (or bullets) came in through the windows.

The threats were real, because people had been assaulted. I was among them. On an evening in February, 1985, upon leaving my law office, I was attacked by an assailant wielding an iron bar.

There was a legitimate concern about the potential for serious and larger-scale violence. I wrote to the then-prime minister expressing my concerns, but never received a response.

Yet despite all the warnings, activists such as myself could not have imagined the scale of the Air India tragedy. We can never lose sight of its enormity. It has been said before that Air India Flight 182 was Canada's 9/11. But at the time, there was little understanding that it was truly a Canadian tragedy. For it to take over 20 years for a commission of inquiry to be established shows that the lack of understanding prevailed for some time.

There seemed to be a blind spot within Canadian institutions -- particularly government and law enforcement -- toward what was occurring in the Sikh community during the mid-1980s. There was a feeling that those who could help the community didn't have the knowledge or experience to deal with these issues. The perception was that they didn't care. We felt we were left to fend for ourselves.

The Air India bombing and the issues it raises are not, sadly, simply a throwback to the mid-1980s.

Activists and journalists who cover these issues continue to receive threats. As recently as this past summer, I was the recipient of new threats. No one has ever been prosecuted.

My experience with terrorism and its proponents has led me to believe there are certain steps that should be taken to combat this threat.

The provisions in the Criminal Code should be reviewed and amended, if need be, to ensure that encouraging others to commit violence is made a criminal offence. For example, I received a threat last July on Facebook to the effect of: "I hope someone beats the living [expletive] out of you just like they did before when ur ass was crying in the hospital." I am advised that as far as current law is concerned, such wording is considered an expression of "opinion" and so is not prosecutable.

Ujjal Dosanjh is the Member of Parliament for Vancouver South.

Just one after thought for you Mr. Dosanjh... you might want to speak to your fellow MP's who think it's okay to march with Hezbollah or support the Tigers. It might add more weight to your very accurate arguments.