Liberal Blogs Were NOT Silent About Ontario Arrests

Cruising through the various blogosphere posts about the arrests in Ontario of 17 possible terror suspects last nite, I came across this one: 'Liberal Blogs Silent On Massive Terrorism Bust' over at the right-wing Ace of Spades HQ. I decided to leave a simple comment to let the blogger know that his assertion was wrong.

I quoted his question and responded with one word:

"IS ANY LEFT WING BLOGGER COMMENTING ON THIS STORY AT ALL?

Yes."

When I tried to post it, my comment was flagged for 'objectionable content' and did not appear on the blog. I tried a few more times. No luck. So, I e-mailed the site owner to see if I was banned for some reason. I don't recall ever commenting on that blog before. No response. So, I decided to write this post to get my point across : we, on the left, ARE talking about these arrests and you, Mr Ace of Spades, are simply wrong to say that we're silent.

Canadian Cynic asks the question, "And your point is..."? about this whole situation. I agree with that sensibility. What exactly would the right-wing like us to do here? Go into hysterics that possible terrorists were arrested in our country? Sorry, but that's not what we do (most of us, anyway).

As with every story, we take a look at the facts presented and do a little digging to see what else we can discover since we are at the mercy of our mainstream press and the security services for the full story. We wait for events, like court hearings and press conferences, to unfold and we remember that these people are innocent until proven guilty.

Yes, Canadians were reminded of our vulnerabilities but, as I wrote yesterday, we are not in denial about the possible dangers we face. We were told to live our lives after 9/11 and that's what we have done. Somehow, that's seen by some as 'appeasement' or 'softness'. That's not what it is at all. It's acceptance without fear. We've all become more cautious but we don't let that engulf us or our lives.

It's now become open season on Canadians (and the left) again and some of the comments I've seen on some right-wing blogs show the lack of understanding of our nature as a people. Our fellow Conservatives in the country, especially the strict law and order types, think these arrests of proof of something. As CC asks, proof of what exactly? Something that we didn't know about before yesterday? That there are people among us who would do us harm? Those types of people have existed in various forms for decades. This is not new.

Go back in time: we've had threats from white supremacists, the FLQ, biker gangs, the KKK, the FLQ, street gangs, the mob, crazies like Weibo Ludwig and on and on.

There is always a threat. We are not surprised. If we were, that would be proof that we actually were in denial.

These arrests serve as yet another reminder, as many events do, that we are at risk. The fact that some of us are actually level-headed in our response to that shouldn't be seen as nonchalance. It's just a quietly serious realization of the world we live in.