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Justifying Insecurity: Canada’s Response to Terrorist Threat Circa 2015

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National Security, Surveillance and Terror

Part of the book series: Crime Prevention and Security Management ((CPSM))

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Abstract

On 22 October 2014, a gunman shot a soldier standing guard at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, Canada. An early statement by Prime Minister Stephen Harper indicated soon more would be learned. Media outlets picked up on this suggestion, with reports indicating the gunman was associated with Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). It is argued that Canada’s membership in a coalition of countries involved in air strikes against ISIS fighters served to create a context in which particular acts of violence were readily framed as evidence of the ISIS global threat. This chapter considers how framing perpetuates and sustains the notion of ‘foreign’ terrorist threat and considers implications for Canadian national security.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Section 83.01(1) CC defines terrorist activity “to include any act or omission committed inside or outside of Canada that, if committed in Canada, is one of the terrorist offences referred to in ten anti-terrorist international conventions into which Canada has entered. It is also defined to include a variety of other acts or omissions committed inside or outside of Canada, either partially or wholly, for political, religious or ideological purposes, causes or objectives” (Wispinski 2006, 2).

  2. 2.

    The USA determined that the group that they were fighting is “ISIL” not “ISIS.” While there is some speculation about why the acronym changed from ISIS to ISIL, it is considered by some to be a more direct translation of the Arabic name for this group of insurgents and may also denote an area much bigger than Syria (Fuller 2015).

  3. 3.

    This letter was signed by over 100 legal scholars in alphabetical order. As Jennie Abell is the first of this list of names, the letter is referenced as Abell et al. 2015.

  4. 4.

    The quotations in this section come from the (entire) video shot by Zehaf-Bibeau which may be found at Boutlier (2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot

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  1. Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada

    Randy K. Lippert

  2. Department of Criminal Justice, University of Winnipeg, Centennial Hall, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Kevin Walby

  3. School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

    Ian Warren

  4. School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

    Darren Palmer

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© 2016 The Author(s)

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Brunschot, E.G.V. (2016). Justifying Insecurity: Canada’s Response to Terrorist Threat Circa 2015. In: Lippert, R., Walby, K., Warren, I., Palmer, D. (eds) National Security, Surveillance and Terror. Crime Prevention and Security Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43243-4_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43243-4_9

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43242-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43243-4

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

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