Government’s Choice for Chief of Human Rights Commission Cited Terrorism as a Rational Strategy With High Rates of Success
The effectiveness of terrorism is certainly within the scope of academic study. But citing terrorism as a rational, successful strategy surely raises alarm bells for someone who wants to lead the CHRC
The government’s choice for chief of the Canadian Human Rights Commission has been mired in controversy this week given his failure to disclose a record of posts and appearances that call into question the ability for Jewish or Zionist Canadians to get a fair, impartial hearing at the Commission. Birju Dattani, who formerly was known as Mujahid Dattani, is now the subject of an independent investigation by the Ministry of Justice as the calls for his resignation or replacement from stakeholder groups continue to mount, former Justice Minister David Lametti questions his suitability for the position, and MPs express non-confidence in him.
In addition to the previous revelations that sparked the controversy, the Globe and Mail is now reporting that in early 2015, Dattani delivered a presentation titled “Terrorism and the Targeting of Civilians under International Law.” The description of the presentation includes the following on terrorism as a strategy:
Contrary to conventional wisdom (which is far more convention than it is wisdom), terror is not an irrational strategy pursued solely by fundamentalists with politically and psychologically warped visions of a new political, religious or ideological order. It is in fact, it is a rational and well calculated strategy that is pursued with surprisingly high success rates.
The effectiveness of terrorism and counter-terrorism efforts is certainly within the scope of academic study. However, citing terrorism as a rational, successful strategy surely raises alarm bells for someone who wants to lead the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Indeed, it is hard to see how an advocate for human rights can reference the use of terrorism against civilians without engaging in the human rights violations that directly arise from those terror activities.
In fact, the fuller description even questions the value of the use of the term “terrorism”, stating:
The first part will look at the value of the concept of ‘terrorism’. The term is, more often than not politically loaded which has rendered int’l consensus impossible for the purposes of definition. I will attempt to navigate through some of the hazards that recent scholarship has pointed out.
The full paper is not available online, but scholars engaged in definitional issues note that definitional issues can revolve around efforts to justify terrorism with arguments that the “situation is also complicated by the failure to draw a line between actual terrorists and those persons that try to justify their actions by claiming to be freedom fighters.” From a Canadian perspective, a 2009 study for the Department of Justice examined the issue, clarifying that “legal definitions continue to serve as the primary and formally recognized definitions utilized by many governments and people.”
No matter the views on academic study of terrorism, the question for the government is whether Dattani’s undisclosed scholarship and advocacy further undermines public confidence in him, the Commission, and Bill C-63. Two political parties have already called for his resignation or dismissal and those calls are only likely to grow as there seems to be little to hope that trust can be restored.
Post originally appeared at https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2024/06/governments-choice-for-chief-of-human-rights-commission-cited-terrorism-as-a-rational-strategy-with-high-rates-of-success/
Find me on:
After doing a freedom of information request in 2019 regarding my longstanding, aggressive targeted surveillance including crimes of violence and torture committed against me by the State, I received a letter from CSIS implying that I am a terrorist.
I am a college graduate, former competitive athlete at the national level and letter-carrier at Canada Post for 27 years. I have an excellent credit rating, am a Sustaining Member of the BCCLA and I have never been charged with a crime. However, I did exercise my Charter rights by laying criminal charges against the Director of Mail Operations for the City of Vancouver, Jen Gall for administering Canada Post's mandatory mask, test and jab policies which involve crimes of warrantless search and seizure of our biometrics using Smart nanotechnology for surveillance under the skin via the Internet of Bio-Nano Things contrary to the Criminal Code.
Interestingly, I had been designated as a terrorist BEFORE I laid any criminal charges. This is evidence of the dangers of AI pre-crime algorithms to the lives of dissidents and whistle-blowers. I was designated a terrorist simply for being a student of a certain criminology professor who is on CSIS's shit list. That's it.
Rule of law has been inverted via Network Concentric Warfare. You are the enemy unless you kiss corporate ass.