A controversial security analyst speaking in Hamilton tomorrow night, says the naivete of Canadians is just as daunting a threat to national security as are foreign and homegrown terrorists.
David Harris, a former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), says Canadians are "at least a generation behind reality" in appreciating the fragility of law and order in the land.
We need to be more aggressive in questioning politicians, security officials and the news media, says the director of international and terrorist intelligence for Ottawa-based Insignis Strategic Research.
In his talk at Adas Israel Synagogue, 125 Cline Ave. S., tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., Harris will address what he calls a lack of due diligence on the part of politicians, some police forces and "absolutely the media."
"They have a responsibility to look into the histories, links and agenda of some of these self-pronounced Arab or Islamic human rights organizations," Harris said.
Although he declined to name any particular group, a lawsuit launched against Harris by the Canadian branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Can), a group promoting understanding and civil liberties of Muslims, was dropped last April.
In 2004, CAIR-Can sued Harris for saying during an interview on CFRA Radio that Canadians should be asking questions about CAIR-Can's relationship to the more troubling Washington-based CAIR organization.
U.S. state attorneys have filed lawsuits against CAIR and several of its members under the U.S. Patriot Act, alleging support of terrorism and links to Hamas, a Palestinian Sunni Islamist movement (now the majority of the Palestinian National Authority).
Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and European Union, Israel and the United States. It is banned in Jordan.
CAIR-Can dropped its lawsuit against Harris without receiving damages, costs, an apology or a clarification.
Harris warns that the security threat posed by Canada's problematic immigration policies and practices is a "national emergency."
He told U.S. senators last June that Canada should introduce a moratorium on immigration until the threats posed to security are fixed.
A week later, Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador to Washington, said Harris worked just eight months for CSIS some 16 years ago and is working with outdated information.
Harris says he worked for CSIS less than a decade ago, but declined to comment further on Wilson's remarks.
He said he is "still in disbelief" that the previous Liberal government had to be "dragged kicking and screaming" into outlawing Hamas and then Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist party formed following the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which remains committed to the elimination of Israel.