While Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau concerns himself with the “root causes” of terrorism, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) with some assistance from the FBI are busy uprooting terrorism. 

Two men, Raed Jaser from Toronto and Chiheb Esseghaier from Montreal, were arrested on Monday for plotting a terrorist attack against a VIA Rail passenger train. The RCMP said the two men received assistance from al-Qaeda elements in Iran. Jaser is a Palestinian from the United Arab Emirates while Esseghaier hails from Tunisia. His Linkedin page contains the black flag of the Islamic State of Iraq which is an alliance affiliated with al Qaeda.

The RCMP said the two men targeted a route though declined the identify it. If I were to hazard a guess, they would have been plotting an attack on the route between Quebec City and Windsor, Ontario. VIA Rail earns two thirds of its revenue on that corridor and more than half of Canada’s population lives in that 700 mile stretch. 

Having travelled along that corridor, a successful terrorist attack could have claimed scores of civilians. Bravo to Canada for thwarting this plot.