Re: “Senate seeks to bar ‘ideological radicals’,” July 9.
The article concerns the Senate’s national security and defence committee’s most recent report, Countering the Terrorist Threat in Canada.
I want to emphasise that I, along with the two other Senate Liberal members of that committee, dissented from the report.
I chose dissent because many recommendations were either redundant or were simply bad ideas, while others that I thought should have been included were not.
What the report should have focused on is the following: reversing major budget cuts for security and intelligence agencies; a need for police and other community outreach programs; additional research to understand radicalization; and better oversight of intelligence agencies.
We have to be very careful about not creating divisions in our society. What we need now are balanced ideas, a smart approach to the threats facing Canada and for all Canadians to work together.
Senator Grant Mitchell
Edmonton
