Deroy Murdock Blames Canada

National Review's Deroy Murdock has a pretty big summary on terrorist activity in Canada.

What can America do about all this? Pressing the Canadians to tighten up may require constant engagement. Amplifying the calls of Canada's Tories for stricter immigration and easier deportation would help. For starters, President Bush should broach border security when he meets his North American counterparts in Mexico on March 23.

The warm U.S.-Canadian relationship, illustrated by our 3,145-mile unprotected boundary, cooled somewhat when Ottawa recently refused to help Washington develop defenses against incoming nuclear-tipped missiles. But that modest dispute will pale beside the northward-flowing rancor that will erupt if a terrorist attack kills innocent Americans, and U.S. officials discover that the butchers slipped past complacent Canadians.

One thing I think Mr. Murdock gets wrong: he seems to blame Canada's less vigilant anti-terrorism activities on ideology. I think it's more a matter of competence -- the trials of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri would have ended quite differently if the RCMP and CSIS had handled things better.

Nonethless, Mr. Murdock's assemblage of stories does seem pretty damning -- even though he reports near the end that Canada's policies are getting stronger. It's worth a read.