This study is presenting insights by critically evaluating the counter terrorism strategy of Canada as a primary jurisdiction along with the findings from the material on two countries UK and US as secondary jurisdiction; in terms of finding their counter terrorism strategies. The study is supporting the counter terrorism strategy of the United Kingdom to define that Canadian government can look into the UK’s counter terrorism strategy to make its environment more secure. According to the recent information gained on the terrorism practices in Canada it has found that a section 83.01 of the criminal code defines, terrorism is include both, political, religious and other purposes with an intention to harm the common public and their security including the economic security (Department of Justice, Canada, 2015).
After the condition of 9/11, , ‘war on Terror’ declared by the countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, it means to implement new security and legislations to protect the economy as well as the whole state. Fight against terrorism is an ongoing phenomenon in all over the globe particularly, in Canada. Canadian government is doing an intelligent work to stop terrorism within the country and outside its border (Bryant, 2019). A situation of 9/11 not only influenced the countries like the UK and US but it also influenced other countries such as Canada therefore, it had changed and established various legislations like Anti-Terrorism Act as the government of Canada introduced Bill C-36 which is an omnibus bill in order to combat terrorism to the maximum extent.
According to the views and studies of various Canadian Scholars, Criminal Code was established to stop the terrorists activities in Canada and for creating the practice by which Canadian state can determine or monitor terrorist intentions by investing effort to create new powers. The study of Bryant (2019), had defined that Canada is not free from terrorism and there are various terrorist groups and number of extremist present in Canada. According to the study of Bryant (2019), terrorism is the biggest threat to the Canadian economy and for its citizens therefore, Canadian citizens expect from government to improve their freedom as well as security.
The aim of Counter Terrorism Strategy of Canada is to counter both, domestic as well as, international terrorism for the protection of Canada’s economy, Canada and Canadian citizens’ interest. Following are main elements and mechanism of strategy;
The elements of counter terrorism strategy of Canada includes; changing existing laws to make more secure practices for countering terrorism, establishing a protective environment or galvanizing a Canadian law enforcement and its intelligence community in more strategic manner. Canadian government has adopted a mechanism to counter terrorism by showing interest for common basis to communicate Canada’s approach and principles to stop terrorism. Periodically reviewing the nature of terrorist groups, monitoring their activities or threats and setting ways of how Canada could deal it
The strategies implemented by the Canadian government by the help of its counter terrorism strategy has also justified by the counter terrorism strategies of the United States and the United States of America and the strategy to stop terrorism formulated by the US, had defined critically by the research study of Combs (2017), according to the study of Combs (2017), the aim of UK’s counter terrorism strategy is also to reduce the risk to the economy and to its healthy state by protecting their security and interest so that citizens of the UK can freely live their life. Similar to this, the strategy of the United States also support counter terrorism strategy of Canada as the study of had defined that American government wants to secure national security through defeating terrorism and threats, such as making effort against terrorist organisations that are continuously making a threat to the United States. The National Counter Terrorism Strategy of the of the United States, includes; using instruments, which is the American power with a purpose to protect the whole nation to reduce terrorism at international level.
Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2015 contains effective measures to stop terrorism and terrorist attacks or threats to the Canadian state. The study of Jacoby (2016), had defined the information and guidelines or efforts of Canadian government provided in the following act. According to the critical insights of the study of Jacoby (2016), it is analysed that the first part of the Anti-Terrorism Act 2015, is related with the security of Canadian information which includes the responsibility of government. It includes; not disclosing information to any illegal body. First part of the following act also includes making amendments in some Canadian laws for just to encounter terrorism on global scale (Department of Justice Canada, 2015).
It was also mentioned that it is vital to secure air travel as the study of Jacoby (2016), had defined that responding to the terrorist in airline transportation is the most important aspect for which a Canada’s government has presented a new framework for the development and establishment new legislative framework to secure air travel. In addition to this, the study of Parent and Ellis (2016), ha defined that terrorists have also attacked to the British airways due to which the subsidiaries British airways stated the demand for high security in the year 2016, March for the protection of the public as well as travel business. During the year 2016, revenue trends affected due to the attack of terrorists and terrorists groups (Parent and Ellis, 2016).
The following legislative framework is mainly for the security of transportation in order to decrease the offenses of terrorism in Canada. Canadian Anti-terrorism Act 2015 is that act which had authorised the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency in order to prepare the list of such persons which directly carry materials with them without following the governance, rules and regulations as this act includes administrative processes and enforcements to counter terrorism (Parent and Ellis, 2016). The study of Sabillon, Cavaller and Cano (2016), had defined that the following act also specified the punishments for the contraventions of the provisions as by the Canadian government according to the authorised provisions.
On the other hand, the study of Sabillon, Cavaller and Cano (2016), had critically explained that war on terrorism is the fear which is very popular to all over the world. War on terrorism is popular like the fear and repression that is promoting violence to the public and economies. Terrorism is creating enemies and the countries likewise; Canada is finding difficulty and challenges to mitigate the impact and offense of terrorism as well as terrorists. Mitigating the attacks of terrorist is very much important (Thomas, 2017). Moreover, World Wide campaign often excuses with the government for their work as they are finding very challenging to overcome the terrorist groups; it shows that government groups are liable to address this common issue which is not only worst in Canada but also in the other countries including the developed countries-the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
According to the study of Forcese and Roach (2018), it has analysed that constant violence is increasing in the countries like Canada also due to Sunni Islamist extremism which have increased terrorism and since 1970s; violence due to Sunni Islamist has leaded to a threat for the national security of Canada. Similar to this, the study of Bryant (2019), had defined that instead of having intense pressure in past decades, Sunni Islamist extremists have proved themselves to be more resilient. It has been noticed that extremist groups have found Canada as the most common target for attacks and have taken various strong actions to threaten the Canadian economy and Candian international interest. The most Sunni Islamist group which has attacked in Canada, United States and the United Kingdom include Al Qaida led by namely-Ayman al Zawahiri after the death of the master mind Usama bin Laden since the year 2011 (Forcese and Roach, 2018).
Instead of the death of Usama bin Laden he still today is the forefront of the extremist groups and they follow their leader because he was mister mind, and had tactics to make strategic terrorism related plans to attack. Similar to this, the study of Combs (2017), had defined that terrorist groups follow the tactics and ideology of their leader Usama bin Laden as he is the inspiration for such groups. In addition to this, the capacities as well as capabilities of Al-Qaida have increased sonce last years because other terrorist groups had evolved or had adopted the ideology of Al-Qaida and thus, possessed the biggest threat to the Canada as well as to the international community.
The study of Jacoby (2016), had defined that there are different types of terrorism as according to the research there are also various types of terrorism and three basic kinds include; international terrorism, domestic terrorism and transnational terrorism. Each form of terrorism also comprises upon other sub-types which forms the basis for terrorism. According to the study of Jacoby (2016), terrorists in Canada are involve in doing attacks to its national border, increasing revolutionary terrorism and most of the terrorists activities are political in nature which shows reactionary terrorism. Likewise, the study of Parent and Ellis (2016), had defined that most of the activities are concerned to prevent the societal and governmental changes and it implies religious objectives of terrorists (Department of Justice Canada, 2015).
According to the study of Parent and Ellis (2016), international terrorism is very common in Canada which sows the threats which are mostly possessed by the Sunni Islamist extremist and it is the most dominating concern of Canada. Canada is facing a wide range of terrorist threats for example, the events of tragic bombing of Air Flight 182 in the year 1985. It was the worst attack by terrorist groups in the whole Canadian History. According to the research, it has shown that Sikh extremist were involved in this attack in which 280 of them were Canadian (Sabillon, Cavaller and Cano, 2016).
International terrorism means to increase violence also to the other economies. Canadian concerns to counter terrorism are not only limited to prevent attacks in Canada but it also includes preventing the terrorism at global level. On contrary to this the study of Sabillon, Cavaller and Cano (2016), had defined that Canadian people are also involved in making terrorism as well as they are also possessing threats by supporting violent conflicts. People who come from other countries in Canada for refuge, financing and for other purposes are also possessing some threats to Canada when they engage in terrorism related activities.
The study of Thomas (2017), had defined that international terrorism is increasing in Canada to the larger extent and the most common factors to increase terrorism include exclusion, marginalisation, political grievance and other behaviours which are increasing terrorism. According to the study of Thomas (2017), the integration of Canadians on economic, social and political basis maximises their capacity to take part positively in society. On contrary to this, it has reported that instead of it, various Canadian citizens significantly young males have seen to be involving in terrorism and are susceptible to cause terrorism.
Establishment of the National strategy in Canada is the important practice to prevent terrorism to the extent the government and other legal bodies can prevent it. The aim of this strategy is to prevent radicalisation that is leading to the maximum violence. According to the study of Thomas (2017), National strategy of Canada shows the efforts of its government to prevent radicalisation, to overcome the involvement of young Canadian individuals in extremist groups, and to prevent violent ideologies. IT includes establishing, planning, addressing, and gathering knowledge of radicalisation leading to violence and other interventions to reduce terrorism in Canada. The study of Bryant (2019), had critically defined that government of Canada is continuously making efforts to keep far away Canadian families from terrorism, the government is investing efforts to safe and secure communities from every type of terrorism.
The study of Bryant (2019), had defined that national security is crucial for communities and the current minister of the Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness in Canada thus announced to establish and release the report 2018 that is based upon the information regarding the threats of terrorists to Canadian economy and the following report which is totally public report such that to provide information to the common public for their safety, had provided up-to-date analysis of the threats and terrorists environment in Canada and gathered information from the all national government agencies and authorities of the world to work for the national security. The study of Combs (2017), critically analysed that threat level of Canadian economy is increasing regularly and it was remained unchanged since the year 2014. Furthermore, security agencies of Canada, intelligence and police agencies are working with collaboration with each other on the domestic as well as international patterns for countering the issue of terrorism (Jacoby, 2016). All these legal bodies are continuously assessing their operations and are preparing themselves to response to all the threats of terrorists or extremists groups to Canada.
In order to prevent terrorism in Canada, it is vital to set strategy for control and secure borders temporary as several countries are also doing it. Setting checks in internal borders is crucial. In addition to this, Canadian airlines which are operating flights, they should not expos the data to any illegal and third party of passengers and flights such as travel dates, names, payment method and itinerary. New rules and regulations should set to strengthen the Schengen information system (SIS) system; legal bodies as well as Canadian government must work for the case related terrorism activities to counter terrorism. It is also vital to prevent radicalisation as terrorist groups are using online channels such as facebook to spread terrorist content so, efforts must be taken to remove terrorist content from faceebook and Youtube.
Canadian counter terrorism strategy includes changing laws to implement more secure ways for countering terrorism likewise the counter terrorism strategies of the UK and US. From the overall discussion, it concludes that counter terrorism strategies of Canada need some changes to make more secure environment for Canadian state as the strategy made by the United Kingdom. A counter terrorism strategy of the UK is to reduce the risk of terrorist threats significantly for the interest of its citizens and their security because people make economy strong and an unconfident citizen cannot achieve desired success. It has also defined Sunni Islamist extremist who had increased terrorism in Canada, Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act 2015, root causes of terrorism and recommendations to the legal bodies of Canada and Canadian government for counter terrorism. From the overall discussion of this essay it concludes, terrorism is not only the issue of Canadian economy but it has threatened to the developed countries namely the United Kingdom and United States. It means that terrorism is increasing a sense of managing more secure and safe processes to protect economies borders and their citizens’ interest.
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