Cynics Unlimited

Given the current global environment and uproar over recently published and re-published cartoons, I find myself appreciating life in Canada more than ever. A bastion of peaceful harmony, in which all people are welcome to live and celebrate their unique cultural traditions. We have ‘official’ multi-cultural policies that celebrate and promote this. One can argue that this has become our ‘culture’ and really is in no need of any government sponsorship. This reality is more than evident in our major urban centres, and as long as the common value of mutual tolerance and respect is maintained, the system works fine. What would happen if our pre-multicultural national commitments ever conflicted with this ‘live and let live’ neutral attitude. The thought occurred to me that we are not technically a neutral country. As a standing member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) since WWII, we as a nation-state would be obligated to defend any attacks upon some of the very nations whose flags are being burned around the Muslim world.

Is it inconceivable to imagine further escalation of this tension? After all, actions usually beget reactions. European nationalism had been on the decline since Jeorg Haider and Jean Marie Le Pen first made headlines over a decade ago. I am sure the ‘mainstream’ secular Europeans are intent on defending secularism against Islam, just as they did and continue to do against the Vatican. No doubt the long standing xenophobic elements in Europe will try and pounce on this collective mood, to raise their political stock.

And what will Canada do if the festering anger and economic dysfunction within much of the Muslim world results in some coordinated terrorist attacks against certain European Allies? Are we as a nation even psychologically prepared to deal with such attacks and the mass celebrations likely to follow? In true Canadian spirit, we would likely find a way to maintain the moral position and continue to follow the mantra of fighting international terrorism. But what if such an attack was state sponsored or condoned? Would Canada be prepared to engage any radical Middle Eastern country that attacked a fellow NATO member through terrorist strikes? Perhaps we should do more to diffuse the situation now in the great tradition of Canadian Diplomacy. Today’s interconnected world was established largely under a Western post WWII paradigm - in which Canada’s place was clearly defined. What will happen if a radicalized Muslim world wants to change the rules?