Seraphim
12-02-2003, 10:09 AM
http://www.macleans.ca/switchboard/columnists/article.jsp?content=20031208_71005_71005
Columnists
December 08, 2003
Rolling the Dice
Our ability to handle a terrorist threat is so weak, it's good we haven't faced a crisis
MARY JANIGAN
FOR the security experts, much accustomed to dire thoughts, there were three gloomy, if all-too-possible, scenarios for discussion. One combined a dirty bomb attack in Seattle with pneumonic plague in Vancouver and a radiation attack from a ship. The second considered an imprecise threat to East Coast energy infrastructure. And the third replayed the real-life journey of terrorist Ahmed Ressam, who tried to enter the U.S. from Canada in 1999 with explosives.
The participants had gathered behind closed doors at Toronto's C.D. Howe Institute this fall to concoct longer-term security strategies from these events. But, amid grim ****ouncements and friendly squabbling over the extent of Canada's risk, one chilling fact emerged. "The threats are going to be accelerating and more pervasive," says institute policy analyst Danielle Goldfarb, "but Canada does not really have a security policy. The level of co-operation that is going to be needed, internationally and among Canadian levels of government, is unprecedented."
There is no easy fix. Paul Martin has declared that the development of a national security policy to protect us from terrorism is a top priority. But he inherits an alphabet soup of organizations, reporting to departments ranging from Defence to Health. Ten poorly supported analysts in the Privy Council Office are the only ones generating overall government approaches. There is a bright spot: Deputy PM John Manley, one of the more competent ministers (but alas, retiring), chairs an ad hoc cabinet committee handling U.S. security issues, especially the border. But there is no national operations centre for emergencies. Worse, the notorious case of Maher Arar, the Canadian whom the U.S. deported to Syria based on RCMP reports of his alleged terrorist links, indicates the need to preserve civil liberties and devise better rules on information sharing.
There are formulas for reform. Maclean's has learned that Auditor General Sheila Fraser will take the highly unusual step of declaring in her March report that Canada needs more internal security coordination. Two months ago, the Senate national security committee noted that ministers responsible for security are too junior, the appropriate department in any emergency is often reluctant to take the lead because it means paying the bills -- and other departments do not pay attention anyway. "We want a senior cabinet minister whose first thought every day is the job of keeping Canada safe," says the committee's chairman, Senator Colin Kenny.
The former head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Reid Morden, told Maclean's that the solution is to create a special central intelligence body that would receive reports from every group ranging from CSIS to the money-laundering experts at Finance. "The director would be responsible for putting a serious intelligence summary on the desk of the prime minister and senior ministers every morning by 8 a.m.," adds Morden.
That director would face disparate challenges. The C.D. Howe conference heard that Canada probably does not have enough antibiotics to deal with a germ attack. But the U.S. would likely halt antibiotic exports to provide for itself. The wonder is that we have escaped such serious problems for so long. The urgency stems from the fact that our luck cannot last forever.
Mary Janigan is a political and policy writer.
Columnists
December 08, 2003
Rolling the Dice
Our ability to handle a terrorist threat is so weak, it's good we haven't faced a crisis
MARY JANIGAN
FOR the security experts, much accustomed to dire thoughts, there were three gloomy, if all-too-possible, scenarios for discussion. One combined a dirty bomb attack in Seattle with pneumonic plague in Vancouver and a radiation attack from a ship. The second considered an imprecise threat to East Coast energy infrastructure. And the third replayed the real-life journey of terrorist Ahmed Ressam, who tried to enter the U.S. from Canada in 1999 with explosives.
The participants had gathered behind closed doors at Toronto's C.D. Howe Institute this fall to concoct longer-term security strategies from these events. But, amid grim ****ouncements and friendly squabbling over the extent of Canada's risk, one chilling fact emerged. "The threats are going to be accelerating and more pervasive," says institute policy analyst Danielle Goldfarb, "but Canada does not really have a security policy. The level of co-operation that is going to be needed, internationally and among Canadian levels of government, is unprecedented."
There is no easy fix. Paul Martin has declared that the development of a national security policy to protect us from terrorism is a top priority. But he inherits an alphabet soup of organizations, reporting to departments ranging from Defence to Health. Ten poorly supported analysts in the Privy Council Office are the only ones generating overall government approaches. There is a bright spot: Deputy PM John Manley, one of the more competent ministers (but alas, retiring), chairs an ad hoc cabinet committee handling U.S. security issues, especially the border. But there is no national operations centre for emergencies. Worse, the notorious case of Maher Arar, the Canadian whom the U.S. deported to Syria based on RCMP reports of his alleged terrorist links, indicates the need to preserve civil liberties and devise better rules on information sharing.
There are formulas for reform. Maclean's has learned that Auditor General Sheila Fraser will take the highly unusual step of declaring in her March report that Canada needs more internal security coordination. Two months ago, the Senate national security committee noted that ministers responsible for security are too junior, the appropriate department in any emergency is often reluctant to take the lead because it means paying the bills -- and other departments do not pay attention anyway. "We want a senior cabinet minister whose first thought every day is the job of keeping Canada safe," says the committee's chairman, Senator Colin Kenny.
The former head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Reid Morden, told Maclean's that the solution is to create a special central intelligence body that would receive reports from every group ranging from CSIS to the money-laundering experts at Finance. "The director would be responsible for putting a serious intelligence summary on the desk of the prime minister and senior ministers every morning by 8 a.m.," adds Morden.
That director would face disparate challenges. The C.D. Howe conference heard that Canada probably does not have enough antibiotics to deal with a germ attack. But the U.S. would likely halt antibiotic exports to provide for itself. The wonder is that we have escaped such serious problems for so long. The urgency stems from the fact that our luck cannot last forever.
Mary Janigan is a political and policy writer.