NCJ Number
171572
Date Published
1995
Length
29 pages
Annotation
Using a detailed database of terrorist incidents recently developed by the author and his colleagues for the Solicitor General of Canada, this chapter examines patterns of international versus domestic events, incidence, geographical and temporal occurrence, perpetrator group-type, tactics used, and targets attacked.
Abstract
Although over the past 30 years, terrorist incidents have occurred in Canada, on average, every 4 weeks, they peaked in the early and late 1960s, and in the past decade attacks have been sporadic. Yet as terrorist attacks in Canada have declined, elsewhere they have continued. The most prolific or dangerous domestic terrorist groups have been geographically concentrated in the Kootenays and in Montreal, or they have targeted groups outside the mainstream of society (notably diplomats). Only rarely, therefore, has the central element of terrorism -- the instilling of fear and a sense of unpredictability -- had any impact on Canadian political life. There are revealing similarities and differences between terrorism in Canada and terrorism elsewhere. One distinguishing feature is the high proportion of attacks committed by the idiosyncratic Sons of Freedom (SOF), a religious group that rejects normative society. The unique motives and targets of the SOF, along with the strong leftward tilt of the nationalist Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ), have rendered targeting patterns in Canada somewhat dissimilar to those prevailing elsewhere. The comparable American experience suggests that geography has played an important role in insulating Canada from international terrorism and in isolating domestic terrorism from foreign sponsorship and nurture. 6 tables, 18 notes, and 32 references