Canadians must wake up to the real threat of domestic terrorism in our country
To the Expositor:
Recent and past events of domestic terrorism, including mass shootings, which clearly are the result of increasing extremism and hate, must now be denounced by us all if we are ever to reduce and ultimately stop the evil forces that perpetrate such heinous attacks on so many innocent people.
James Bauder, Tamara Lich, Pat King, Chris Barber, Max Bernier, Derek Sloan, Randy Hillier—just seven well-known names of alt-right extremists among the hundreds now active across Canada. The worst of these are the Christian extremists like James Bauder who stated that God told him to organize the Freedom Protest and to overthrow the Trudeau government! To cover their tracks these extremists, denounce mainstream media and refuse interviews with them as it would expose their true nature and intentions.
Extremists hate anything that conflicts with their alt-right ideologies and this includes common sense gun control. Canada’s Bill C-21 allows authorities to act against ideologically motivated, violent extremists and their platforms to propagate and advocate for hatred and violence against religious minorities and people of colour, including anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate speech, advocating violence.
As Bill Blair stated, “not every person who’s in the gun lobby is an extremist, but everyone who is an extremist is in the gun lobby.”
The .223 REM (5.56 NATO) firearm round first appeared in 1957 as an experimental military cartridge for the Armalite AR-15 assault rifle design. The .223 was specially designed to create large wound channels which is caused by a tumbling action upon impact and this is why the little girl that Matthew McConaughey spoke of from the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting could only be identified by the unique shoes she was wearing. Think of a tactical TRU 55 Grain .223 round leaving the muzzle of an AR-15 at 3,241 feet per second and impacting a human at close range. Just take a minute to try and imagine that much force and trauma.
Pierre Poilievre is one of the leading contenders in the federal Conservative leadership race. Jean Charest said of Poilievre’s flirting with the extremists that organized the so-called Freedom Protest: “You cannot make laws then break laws.” Poilievre, with his “Great Reset” theory is sending a message to those way over on the far right who traffic in hateful, baseless theories about global conspiracies and he knows exactly what he is doing!
With good examples across Canada, such as two thirds of all Canadians supporting stronger gun control, it is becoming abundantly clear that the federal Conservatives have absolutely no chance of ever forming government unless they are led by a centrist leader such as Jean Charest or Patrick Brown. Doug Ford just proved that in the last Ontario provincial election.
We as Canadians must all wake up to the real threat of domestic terrorism in our country. Many, like myself, are proud to be hunters and trappers and of our rich heritage and history but at the same time advocate for stronger common sense gun control and never condoning the man-killing weapons of war like the AR-15 assault rifle in the public’s hands in our great country ever again.
Greg Young
Wiikwemkoong
