Her conclusion: the “real source” of the tragedy was mental illness. October 24 on CBC radio round table discussion 3 members of the media, Jonathan Kay, editor at National Post, Judy Rebick, a self-styled “radical feminist” and John Cruikshank, Publisher of the Toronto Star declared the terrorists to be crazy and “clinically insane.” Then on their CBC morning show November 4 the host Matt Galloway introduced the idea of mental illness as the root cause by sharing with us the letter written by Corporal Cirillo’s twenty-something girlfriend, Andrea Polko, who expressed her concerns on Facebook about lack of treatment for the mentally ill. Studies have shown that people suffering from anxiety or depression are more prone to sympathize with violent protest and terrorism than those not affected by mental illness.”ĬBC tried twice to pivot away from terrorism to mental illness. Globe and Mail declared “The unspoken issue…is the link between mental illness and radicalization. But here’s the letter from the terrorist’s mother saying her son was mentally ill.
The National Post had written the murderer of Cirillo was “unstable, untrained and engulfed in personal turmoil that blurred the line between religiously inspired terrorism and purely psychotic acts of violence.” Unfortunately, I can’t access this editorial on-line. I wrote to all three media outlets with my concerns about their fact-free opinions. Couldn’t be terrorism! So the media declared the murder was the result of mental illness, acts of craziness, not terror. Fear of acknowledging terrorism in our land, in our country, a multi-ethnic country, tolerant and accommodating and inclusive. “The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than their minds.”Īnd that’s what happened in Canada. Their words reminded me of the teachings of Will Durant: And so the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) –who call terrorists militants, The Globe And Mail and National Post, two national newspapers, quickly declared, almost unequivocally, that the murderers of Canadian soldiers Corporal Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent were mentally ill, despite the dearth of facts and that the few facts available spoke to lone-wolf terrorists. Instead they promote their own ideologies, trying to make facts fit their “progressive” conclusions. We trust them to search for facts and present a semblance of truth. The Fourth Estate is guilty of promoting this arrogance. We will let comments and behaviours pass by unquestioned, unheeded oh they didn’t really mean that! Or we will justify evil with root causes, or as has become popular here in Canada, explain it away as mental illness, until too late when we will come face to face with the real meaning of entropy.
And as long as we believe that to be true, we won’t be as vigilant as necessary. And that’s where our arrogance resides continuing to believe that fallacy that 7 billion people want our life style. That freedom-rights and responsibilities that come with it-are sought by all. Yet, we continue to believe that people all over the world want to live as we do. Forty years passed in the desert before the Jews were allowed entry into the Promised Land because they had to be ready to look forward with hope not backward from fear. We learned that from the Biblical story of the Exodus. The rhetoric was exalting but the action required was not there. Sadly, that’s exactly where they were-in the wind-easily blown away because words without action are like whispers in the wind. I remember the glory days of the Arab Spring. There are 7 billion souls in the world 1 billion live in functioning democracies perhaps 2 billion more struggle with democracy.Ĭontrary to hopes here in the West, the world is not aflame with the desire for freedom. That everyone wants to live in a democracy. We believe that our way of life is not only the right way, but the only way of living. After all, who in their right mind would not want what we have? Our media say “no,” they must be mentally ill. And our media are leading the way by refusing to see that there are those who hate the West and are prepared to terrorize.
The arrogance of those privileged to live in the West will ultimately usher in an age of entropy the inevitable social decline and degeneration of our culture. Jonas and said: “I think in Canada there are too many whose civilized response to wanton savagery is to call it mental illness.”