toronto terrists! pffft....

Um, so... terrorism.
Anybody who doesn't want to behead the PM, raise your hand.
What were these kids, sixteen? At sixteen I had a plot to dip the prime minister (Jean Chretien) in a vat of sulfuric acid. The details of the plan were scrawled on the margins of my Geography notes. I guess that's worth a headline in the National Post. Also, I am the owner of various incriminating flashlights, a camouflage jacket, a soldering iron... um, an old cellphone that doesn't work... here I am serving the Crown* an 'ironclad' case. Plus I have been known to listen to punk rock. That's gotta be worth a couple snipers on the courthouse rooftop, right?
All joking aside, I am highly skeptical of the recent arrests of a 'terrorist cell' in Toronto. The suspects who were attending a flight school, except they weren't; attending a training camp in Northern Ontario, except they don't have guns... witnesses recall hearing 'gunshots'... you don't say. During hunting season, perhaps?
Except we have this 3 tonnes** of ammonium nitrate. That's spooky, I admit it. It was however, bought from cops as part of a sting operation.
I know better than to comment on a case before all the facts are in. I will anyway. Does anybody remember a group arrested just before the FTAA meeting in Quebec City? There was a table of evidence at the police press conference, eerily similar to the most recent press conference. Five people were accused of bringing bombs and baseball bats to the protest. It later emerged that the bats didn't belong to them, and the bombs were smoke bombs. The plan was to set off smoke bombs as a diversion, in order to break through the perimeter and 'read a manifesto.' Still later, if I'm not mistaken, it was revealed that this plan was proposed by an undercover cop, posing as a member of the group. That's called entrapment. By this time very few people were paying attention. The 'bomb and bat' press conference was held some forty hours before the protest. To this day, some people will try and convince me that protestors had all brought baseball bats, ball bearings, tennis balls full of poisonous gas. I assure them I saw none of these things in Quebec City. Excuses are found for this discrepancy, or the issue is quickly dropped but not refuted. This is the power of media.
If I can propose a chain of events, based on the small amount of information available to me: a couple angry muslims buy some ammonium nitrate. Probably enough to blow up some mailboxes, and maybe stifle the Toronto economy to a degree comparable to your average transit wildcat strike. Cops discover this. The decision is made to 'sex up' the terrorist threat, from Basque-ETA minor league to Al-Qaeda major league. Whaddaya know, it works! International headlines. Promotions all around for the top brass, and a press conference that the Toronto Star compares to the Academy Awards. Long-winded acceptance speeches.
Caveat: I don't know if I can believe that these people are devoid of malign intent. Y'know what? After Abu Ghraib, it doesn't surprise me in the least that people are pissed enough to set off bombs. This doesn't shake my belief system to its core or anything. My point is that a limited and inexperienced group of people, who, left on their own, would do a very superficial amount of damage, are now being 'sexed up' to be a serious group of people who would be killing hundreds of people. How much Ammonium Nitrate did they have before the sting, before the 'three tonnes' came into the picture? How much diesel fuel did they have? How many detonators? Silence speaks volumes: I'm guessing none. These guys were rank amateurs. In other words, without a little help from CSIS et. al., these guys couldn't have hoped to kill as many people who die every year as a result of air pollution in this city. Y'know what? That doesn't qualify for the same amount of hysteria as 'three tonnes' of Ammonium Nitrate. It certainly doesn't worry me as much as the state's bold plans to 'address' the issue of national security. A city besieged by Islamofascists(sic)?! Whoa... perfect timing... what with a tory administration eager to cozy up to losers in D.C., and with an electoral majority as their ultimate goal... and a bunch of 905*** voters who will whore off their liberties when confronted with a bunch of fucking chump wanna-be 'terrorists'...
It's been my experience that since the radical mobilization before the war in Iraq, activism has been in a holding pattern both in Canada and South of the border. The brute reality of war has been doing all the work for the peace camp. There is no need to further articulate just how fucked up all this shit has become. Indeed, protesting gives the right wing a target when in the absence of scapegoats they come off as just more ludicrous than ever. I think this state of affairs is about to change quite rapidly, at least in Toronto. Ha... just as I was about to get bored. See you on the streets!

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*replace with 'prosecution' for you yanks out there.
**figure it out, with a measure converter!
***'905ers' are denizens of surburban areas around Toronto, notorious for voting conservative in Federal elections.