Has it come to this?
Posted by lex, on June 5, 2006
Is it true?
Does this really reflect a “broad strata of Canadian society”?
Not to pre-judge, because fair is fair, and accusations don’t add up to proofs. Three hundred pounds of suburban ammonium nitrate or no. But for the arrest list below to be trumpeted as a “broad strata” of Canadian society, it just seems to me, you know: Otherwise.
From the several times I’ve been up there. See for yourself:
Zakaria Amara, 20, Mississauga
Shareef Abdelhaleen, 30, Mississauga
Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, Mississauga
Yasim Abdi Mohamed, 24, Kingston
Amin Mohamed Durrani, 19, Toronto
Steven Vikash Chand alias Abdul Shakur, 25, Toronto
Ahmad Mustafa Ghany, 21, Mississauga
Saad Khalid, 19, of Eclipse Avenue, Mississauga
I don’t know, gentle reader – it’s late, and I’m tired. But there’s a common thread in there, if only I could tease it out.
Pretenses aside: Good Lord, but the world has become a deeply silly and unserious place. When earnest public servants can stand in front of the microphone in a high functioning democracy and say – without an apparent trace of irony – that the arrests of the people named above reflect “a broad strata of Canadian society” then we’ve come to a very bizzare junction. But when everyone in the press nods their heads and agrees, yes, of course: Very broad. When that happens?
Snakes on the plane, man. Snakes on the plane.
But maybe it’s just me. Maybe things have changed since last I visited.
Who can say?
Oh, Canada.