For our own safety and security, Canadians — starting with His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition — must be relentless in insisting that Ottawa give the same priority and attention to detail to national security that they deliver in abundance to anything concerning climate change or the extermination of the oil and gas industry.It is utterly scandalous that people with terrorist links are able to enter Canada undetected and stay here.Beyond scandalous however is that some of these people, having used Canada as a convenient stepping stone, have migrated to the US. We do not know what were their exact intentions. Nor do we know how many of them there were.However we do know that on 22nd August, former President Donald Trump told an American audience that at least 233 known or suspected terrorists have been apprehended trying to enter the US from Canada, just this year.Some people will, of course, reflexively dismiss anything Trump says.In this case, they shouldn’t.Trump was merely quoting the US Customs and Border Patrol, a perfectly credible agency. Indeed, he could conceivably have ultimate charge of it next year, as newly re-elected president of the US.From the Canadian perspective, it is also a matter of who is entering and leaving the country. Do we not care to know?As Western Standard columnist Linda Slobodian pointed out in a recent column, the Customs and Border Patrol recognizes that unlawful immigration from the Canada hardly moves the needle compared to the millions of illegal immigrants crossing the southern border. But, while former Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan say illegal northern border entries are “minuscule” compared to the millions (an estimated 12.5 million to 18 million) entering through the southwest US border, “the threat is not.”Trump, by the way, was not the first person of stature to bring up the matter. In July, Senator Marco Rubio raised it with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, urging him to heighten precautions along the U.S.-Canada border. We are surprised the matter has not caused more of a stir.The conclusion however, is uncomplicated. Canada needs to do a better job at screening people coming into the country.Actually, it needs to do a better job of screening generally.Unfortunately, as a country we have become blasé about government incompetence. We have reached the point that we shrug it off as just Ottawa being Ottawa, whether it’s the unintentional honours done to a Waffen SS veteran, the obvious lack of due diligence in public appointments such as those this year to the Senate and the Canadian Human Rights Commission or the chilling possibility that a recent immigrant believed to have ISIS links who had acquired citizenship was apprehended while — allegedly — preparing to launch a mass casualty attack in this country.Of course, we want Ottawa to do better. But we do not expect them to and are not surprised when they don't.This must change. It is actually astonishing that the 233 number has only been mentioned once (at the time of the Rubio letter) in Canada’s mainstream press. Linda Slobodian’s article in the Western Standard on August 22, appears to be only the second time it has been mentioned in any kind of news report north of the border.It has not been discussed at all in political circles, other than when the Conservative Party of Canada has brought it up.This is serious.People who don’t like Trump should take no refuge in the thought that if he said it, we don’t need to listen. The Democrats have their own reasons for allowing millions of illegals to cross the southern border. Those reasons give Canada no exemption from the closest scrutiny by a future putative Harris administration.Our failure to give effective attention to border security will in the first place result in a loss of trust that we can ill afford, with attendant damage to cross-border trade and travel.More than that however, do we not even care? To what kind of an unserious country do Canadians wish to belong?
