As I enter work today, hoping for a peaceful day, I find an e-mail from a friend with a link to this BBC story.

If you’re wondering where this is coming from, well, it’s apparently related to the recent alleged terrorism threat to Canada, which was intercepted in time by the Canadian intelligence community. I say alleged because even nowadays some countries adopt the legal maxim innocent until proven guilty and heavens forbid that I offend a plausible offender.

Truly, I am starting to fume. There’s tolerance – where Canada has shown time and time again that it is one of the most tolerant states in the world – and then there’s sheer disregard for reality – and recently Canada’s showing a lot of that as well. First of all, the Canadian non-intervention policy has served us quite well in the past: we do not make wars – we send peacekeepers; we do not get searched when crossing borders – we get hugged; and so on. And that policy might still work for quite some time. But when it comes to homeland security (’scuse the pun), especially when a nation as generally embracing and peaceful-minded as Canadians gets targeted, we should be drawing a firm line. Allowing a potential terrorist to challenge the country’s constitution as a line of defence? Asking the federal government to quash the special measures provided for in the Anti-Terrorism Act for exactly this type of situations?

Two things are starting to worry me enormously. True terrorists are indeed the greatest evil of our times, notwithstanding the valid criticism brought about by the notion of the Culture of Fear. Why should humanity deal with them on equal terms as with other humans if acts of terrorism are generally considered crimes against humanity? Due process should be undertaken to ensure that an accident has not been made, but beyond that… today’s world’s leniency when it comes to crimes strikes me as one of the good reasons for wanting to commit crime. The second worrisome item is the state of law today. Honestly, the judicial system has acquired too much power and a lot of it is a direct result of the intricacies of law and the ever-present loopholes in the very same law. I lost my trust in law’s ability to actually uphold justice. And so I worry that they might just…. win.

I was hoping to finish this post with some constructive, positive comments. I can’t think of any. I think the world shifts faster then we can blink, and much faster than any government can adapt. I’m almost hoping that somebody, somewhere, somehow, can suggest a new system of government. A new metastructure that will take into consideration today’s turmoil, have provisions for quick adaptation (versus bureaucracy) and deal with the problem of law.