Canada is heading towards yet another in a seemingly endless parade of federal elections. Hey, who doesn’t love an election? I’ve been getting increasingly less bored about Stephane Dion, and am pissed that he’s getting flack in the north over, of all things, trying to sunset the anti-terrorism laws the way they were always supposed to be sunsetted.

I am also flabbergasted that Steven Harper and Stephane are polling equally on global warming. Somebody has got to be joking.

Also, although not noted upon in any article I have read, the Greens appear to be polling equally to the NDP. Holy crap.

As for terrorism, I’m hoping that this is a case of the opposition party pulling out the easy “soft-on-terrorism” line and the public responding with “yeah, I guess that’s bad”, rather than any sort of actual nationally-held value. All this talk about the world changing on 911 was always BS and it still is. The world didn’t change, we chose to change our behaviour. The notion that our old values, which we have spent so much time evolving and testing, were suddenly obsolete on just the day when we could have used some strong values is the opposite of helpful. But it is almost universally accepted.

People died on September 11th. It is the test of US society, and the western societies who were drawn into the repercussions, wether or not we were able to support our values in the face of such a dark and symbolic attack. Success would have come if we had rallied around those values — freedom, justice, compassion — in face of attack. Instead we undermined them while specifically invoking their names. Civil liberties are exactly what guarantees freedom and justice. If it is impossible for policework sufficient to defend against terror to coexist with civil liberties, then the terrorists have won. Compromising civil liberties to defend against terror isn’t being strong on terror, it’s surrendering to it.

So yes we should damn well let the anti-terror laws die their overdue deaths. The police will have to rely on the old standbys of investigation, accusation, and prosecution in open court. There is a reason we demand due process. Not everyone the cops suspect is guilty is guilty, and we believe in freedom and justice.

In the meantime, at least the supreme court has identified that national security certificates aren’t compatible with our most fundamental legal rights. Score one.