Home and Away

April 01, 2008

Ever wonder what kind of stuff the teenagers of Canada are up to? Let me tell you about a dozen of them I just met in an airport waiting line in Cairo. But you'll have to read through the rest of this column first.

Last week I told you I'd report on my meetings in the Middle East on counter-terrorism and security. In six days I met with some heads of state and my counterpoint security Ministers in Israel, Ramallah, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Why? The sober fact is that we share some common threats and enemies. The other sobering thought is that each of those nations has actually been hit by those very terrorist forces which are a concern to us.

When I first arrived it took some getting used to, being surrounded by machine guns (friendly) and sirens everywhere I went. (Even going for a pre-dawn run could have created a security headache so I had to stick to the treadmill in some of those countries). For obvious reasons I can't go into all details of the meetings and information sharing but I can tell you this.

In each one of those places, without exception, their security people talked in glowing terms about training or mentoring they had received from agents or officers in our Public Safety portfolio. Our RCMP trains their federal police, our Corrections people have visited their jails and our Border agents have helped them at their frontiers.

At one point when I was in Cairo, I had the honour of presenting one of our Border agents with an Exemplary Service Medal for his work in exposing a fraudulent document operation in Damascus. (Hey, no wonder there's even a weekly hit TV show about our Border Agents)

This week was also a reminder that neither money nor having a one party, one-religion state can guarantee immunity from attacks from Al-Qaeda type terrorists.

It was quite insightful to listen to the deep concern of key Princes in Saudi Arabia talk about the shock of terrorist atrocities committed by their own kin inside their Kingdom and how those same terrorists now export their venom abroad.

Equally enlightening were separate meetings with Prime Minister Olmert of Israel and President Abbas (Abu Mazen) of the Palestinian Authority. Even with the major differences which divide them there are some common concerns related to Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups which also pose threats to democracies like Canada.

The silver lining in these dark clouds is that countries that normally would do little with each other on security matters are now becoming more united in their efforts against a common enemy. It's a reminder of how fortunate we are in Canada. Though we are not immune from these threats we are somewhat removed geographically. However, we know that radicalization can also take place on the Internet, leaping borders and operating invisibly. On this matter we were also able to share information with other countries to prevent these people from doing harm.

It is kind of surreal to spend six days in intensive counter terror discussions and then 24 hours later to be hiking along an alpine meadow trail with an outdoors group back here in the constituency. Makes me thankful for what we have.

Now I told you I'd mention these Canadian kids I met in Cairo while we waited in line at the airport. There were about a dozen of them, energetic, robust but well behaved. When their teacher recognized me they all wanted to crowd in for a photo op. (No politician would refuse that, right?)

Then they told me what they'd been up to. They had saved and raised money for three years for the purpose of traveling overseas to visit many of the historic sites, like Vimy Ridge, where Canadians had paid the supreme price for our freedoms. Their comments to me about their feelings towards so many brave veterans left me with a lump in my throat and a sense of pride in my heart.

It bodes well for us that they realize the forces of terror and totalitarianism can be pushed back, if people are willing.