Never waver

The terrorist attacks like the ones that rocked Paris on Friday night, and the bombing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula two weeks ago, are unleashed with one goal in mind: to spread fear.
The economic fallout often is immediate—and potentially devastating—if that fear prevents people from travelling and injecting much-needed tourism dollars into countries.
The other consequences of fear are more subtle yet equally profound. Fear that prompts nations to curtail civil liberties in the name of security. Fear that turns neighbour against neighbour; that allows people to turn their backs on the plight of refugees desperate to flee war-torn homelands.
With word that one of the Paris attackers may have slipped into Europe under the guise of being a refugee, it didn’t take long for a groundswell of support to surface—on social media and among politicians—in favour of stemming the flood of people begging for a chance at a better life.
Trojan horse-like ruses have been around since, well, the Trojan Horse. And in this case, it’s being used as a convenient excuse to slam the door on all refugees.
That, in turn, has the terrorists rubbing their collective hands in glee. Terrorism thrives on chaos and the refugee camps teeming with human misery are perfect breeding grounds for the sentiment that fuels their actions—and new recruits.
Canada is right in not wavering from its commitment to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees into our country by the New Year; to not take the easy route, in the wake of the Paris attacks, to put that plan on hold.
Instead, Canada, including right here in Rainy River District with the current effort to open our arms to yet another refugee family, is showing the world we welcome diversity and, more importantly, we won’t succumb to the fear terrorists are bent on fostering.
Obviously, screening is paramount to ensure only legitimate refugees are allowed in. But just as we cannot allow terrorists to disrupt the freedoms and values we cherish, we also must never abandon our humanitarian principles and beliefs that are the cornerstone of our civilization.
Otherwise, the terrorists win.