David Jefferess, HW Columnist
In late August of this year news headlines across Canada announced the arrests of three men on terrorism charges, with a fourth arrested for having connections with the others but charged with non-terrorism related crimes. Canadian mainstream media widely reported the story, which the RCMP dubbed “Project Samosa”, focusing on the threat of “Islamic extremism,” and particularly “homegrown terrorism,” in the abstract. Many of the commentaries and editorials on the arrests focused on the “ethnic backgrounds” of the accused, and their place in Canadian society. For instance, much was made of the fact that one of the accused had auditioned for the television show Canadian Idol, while another was a respected physician. As the Vancouver/Coast Salish Territories based migrant rights organization, No One Is Illegal notes: “despite the fact that the men arrested are all residents and citizens of Canada, the questioning of their ‘Canadian-ness’ reveals a shallow multiculturalism and reinforces the racialized national space”. No One Is Illegal’s response to the media’s sensationaliation of the story provides a critique of the arrests by providing a critical history of highly publicized cases of “homegrown terrorists” in Canada. For instance, in 2003 more than 20 men were arrested in Toronto. News media emphasized that all were of South Asian background and most Pakistani Muslim; ultimately all of the men were released, and none of them were formally charged, but this news did not capture headlines. While the men were never found guilty of any crime, the media’s portrayal of them reinforced the rhetoric of the so-called “War on Terror” and particularly the construction of all Muslims as potential threats. In this case, while the four men are presented as the specific threat to Canadian security, the operational name of the investigation, “Project Samosa”, reflects the way in which the discourse or narratives of “our” security rely upon notions of racial difference.
…To finish reading the article, please go to the following web address http://blogs.ubc.ca/davidjefferess/2010/10/08/samosa-terrorism-and-multiculturalism/
where it was originally published on 8 October 2010 for David Jefferess’ UBC Okanagan blog “Culture and Decolonization”…
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Article photo: Wayne Cuddington, The Ottawa Citizen
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