Falling Behind!

I find myself eagerly looking for Christie Blatchford, Margaret Wente or Jeffrey Simpson’s columns in The Globe and Mail every morning. I like how deep Simpson goes, how honest Blatchford writes and how outrageous Wente sounds!

Blatchford’s column focuses on Almrei’s trial, today. She writes how impressed she was to hear Almrei speak fluent English. The man had been locked up in Canada for 5 years. Yet, the Canadian judiciary couldn’t pronounce his name or his affiliates’.

Hundreds of thousands have immigrated from the Middles East and North Africa to Canada over the past few decades. Mostly Muslim, they speak different dialects of Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Pashto, etc. They are educated and skilled and have well merged in with the Canadian work force. Their children are Canada’s future elite. Yet, Blatchford admits that their language, their names and their ways have remained a mystery to others in this country.

Is that what happened in UK? The country falling behind in knowing its own citizens?

I love Canada. I received my post-secondary education here and I am now in public service. I pay my taxes and I have vowed to “stand on guard” for this country. I feel that I have done my part, but has the country stood up to its part of the deal?

Obviously the 18-year old that blew up himself and his fellow citizens in London didn’t think so. Something somewhere must have gone wrong and somebody failed him. Perhaps the country fell behind.

Is Canada keeping up?