The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutClinton News Record, 2015-01-21, Page 44 News Record • Wednesday, January 21, 2015 opinion www.clintonnewsrecord.com NowsCl Record PUBLISHED WEEKLY — EST. 1860 53 Albert St. P.O. Box 39 Clinton ON NOM 1L0 (519) 482-3443 www.clintonnewsrecord.com SUN MEDIA A Quebecor Media Company MARIE DAVID Sun Media Group Publisher - Grey Bruce Huron Division 519-364-2001 or 519-372-4301 NEIL CLIFFORD Publisher neil.clifford@sunmedia.ca MAX BICKFORD Advertising Manager max.bickford@sunmedia.ca TARA OSTNER Reporter clinton.reporter@sunmedia.ca DAWN JOHNSTON Sales Representative clinton.ads@sunmedia.ca TERESA SMITH Front Office clinton.classifieds@sunmedia.ca SUBSCRIPTION RATES 1 YEAR $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GST) 2YEAR $95.00 (90.48+4.52GST) SENIORS 60 WEEKS $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GST) 120 WEEKS $95.00 (90.48+4.52 GST) Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, the advertising space occupied by the erroneous Cern together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged but that balance of advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. In the event of a typographic error advertising goods or services ata wrong price, goods or services may not be sold. Ad- vertising is merely an offer to sell, and may be withdrawn at anytime. The Clinton News -Record is not responsible for the loss or damage of unsolicited manuscripts, photos or other materials used for reproducing purposes. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40064683 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES: CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 53 Albert St., Clinton ON NOM1L0 (519) 482-3443 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. Canada pocna Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and the Ontario Community Newspapers Association editorial PM is right: This means war QM! Agency UVhen our liber- ties are threatened, it's no time to mince words. Bravo to Prime Minister Stephen Harper for getting it right on Thursday. Speaking publicly about the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack, Harper explained: "The international jihadist movement has declared war. They have declared war on anybodywho does not think and act exactly as theywish theywould think and act.' Canadians have learned this through bitter and painful experience. The Octo- ber terror attacks on our Parliament build- ings and in Saint- Jean -sur -Richelieu, Que., did not happen in a vacuum. More than 100 of our young men have gone abroad to wage jihad. Ottawa man John Maguire, now going by the name Abu Anwar al-Canadi, is one of them and he wants to see more attacks on home soil. As he said in a December video, "waging jihad against the West and its allies around the world is beyond a shadow of the doubt a religious obligation binding upon every Muslim." Thankfully most Muslims disagree. But what we're witnessing in Australia, France and here is war waged by an intemational movement. Some people want to deny this. Or down- play it. But Harper got it right when he said: "I don't say this with any particular pleasure or excitement... but it is a fact" Hey, we wish it wasn't true. We genu- inelywish everyone got along. But they don't. Harper added: "And we may not like this and wish it would go away, but it is not going to go away. And this is going to be unfortunately the reality of the world that I think we're liv- ing in for some time to come, and we're just going to have to face that head on and deal with it:' There are different ways to win this war. One is to continuing to do our part in inter- national efforts such as the coalition against the Islamic State. The brutal caliphate Abu Bala al-Baghdadi is trying to carve out in Iraq and Syria is the physical and spiritual base for all these emerging jihadis around the world. Another way is the cultural fight. We need to send the mes- sage to potential homegrown jihadis that we won't tolerate their radical senti- ments anymore. column Dealing with radicalization Tara Ostner The Clinton News Record Multiculturalism is defined as the preserva- tion of different cultures or cultural identities within a unified society, state or nation. Here in Canada we take it for granted that multiculturalism is something to be embraced. In fact, in 1971 Canada declared multiculturalism as offi- cial state policy making it the first country to do so. In other parts of the world, however, multi- culturalism is far less successful. Take the two recent terror attacks in France, for instance, namely, the killing of 12 innocent people at the Paris head- quarters of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly French magazine and the killing of four innocent Jewish men at a Paris kosher market by an Islamist militant. Shortly after these attacks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that the Jews in France move to Israel where they would be safer. And apparently Netanyahu isn't the only one who thinks this as, according to a new report, in 2014 more Jews left France for Israel than any other country. As a result of the two recent attacks, as well as the numerous other deadly examples of radi- calization and anti-Sem- itism in Europe, it can safely be said that multi- culturalism is not valued in Europe like it is here in Canada. This is often said to be the case because Europe is com- prised of a bunch of soci- eties - quite distinct from each other - that are in very close proximity to each other thus making them more prone to conflict. Should multicultural- ism be valued in Europe like it is here in Canada? Of course we see the merits of multicultural- ism here in Canada and for this reason we like to encourage it: countries around the world should value multiculturalism because, as the argu- ment goes, radicalization is less likely to occur within an open society than within a non -open society. This is a plausible posi- tion; radicalization may be less likely to occur in a country such as ours than in France. I suppose what I won- der about, however, is how much less likely it is for it to occur here. As we saw in the recent terror- ist attack in Ottawa, we certainly are not immune to it. As our world becomes smaller and smaller it's becoming increasingly clear that, unfortunately, radicalization exists eve- rywhere in the world, including multicultural Canada and, whether a society is open or non - open, multi -cultural or not, the key question is exactly what kind of soci- ety can ultimately deal with the problem better. It will take years, maybe decades, I think, for this to be known for certain. clintonnewsrecord.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The News Record welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must be signed and include a daytime phone number for verification purposes. Letters can be sent care of the Inter- net at clinton.news@sunmedia.ca, sent via fax at 519-482-7341 or through Canada Post care of The Editor, P.O. Box 39, Clinton, ON NOL 1LO. CLINTON NEWS RECORD — HOURS OF OPERATION MONDAY: 9:00 - 5:00 • TUESDAY: - CLOSED • WEDNESDAY: - 9:00 - 5:00 • THURSDAY: - 9:00 - 5:00 • FRIDAY: - 9:00 - 5:00 • SATURDAY & SUNDAY: - CLOSED ADVERTISING DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 2:00 • PHONE 519-482-3443 • FAX: 519-482-7341 www.clintonnewsrecord.com