Canada's PM Says Diversity Stops Terror

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday that Canada's open and diverse society was its greatest weapon against terrorism.

Speaking at the opening of the U.N. World Urban Forum, Harper noted that Canada has been criticized by some U.S. politicians who claim the country is vulnerable to terrorist attacks because of lax border security and immigration laws.

That criticism has been heightened in the past few weeks with the arrest of 17 suspects in the Toronto area who are charged with plotting bomb attacks against targets in southern Ontario.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivers the keynote address at the opening ceremonies of the World Urban Forum in Vancouver, B.C., Monday, June 19, 2006. (AP PHOTO/CP, Richard Lam)

"I believe exactly the opposite is true," Harper said at the week-long forum attended by more than 10,000 urban planners and politicians from around the world.

Harper said Canada's ethnic communities flourish because they are not cut off and isolated from the rest of society, like some "urban ghettos" in other countries.

"We will find these apostles of terror," Harper said. "They hate open, diverse and democratic societies like ours because they want the exact opposite — a society that is closed, homogenous and dogmatic. But their vision will be rejected."

The biggest anti-terrorism sweep since the the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. has Canadians still reeling from the arrests.

Two of the men were in court Monday for bail hearings but details of the proceedings cannot be released under a blanket publication ban imposed by the court that prevents the public from learning of any further evidence in the stunning case.

Meanwhile, international experts on disaster management gathered for a conference in Toronto and claimed Canada remains vulnerable to terrorist attacks and other potential disasters.

"I think we're all targets, we're all responders, we're all victims," Peter Power, a former Scotland Yard investigator and veteran of the anti-terrorism branch of the London Metropolitan Police, told the World Conference on Disaster Management.

In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, security was stepped up at big office towers in New York and Washington. No similar measures are in place in Canada, noted business crisis consultant Michael Smith.

"I was in one office just last week, I was not escorted as I walked through the office, didn't have a badge, didn't sign in, didn't sign out," he said. "That's incredibly lax."

Associated Press
Jeremy Hainsworth, AP Writer

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