As you may have heard, Al-Qaeda has told the Canadian government to end the Afghanistan mission or face a 9/11-type attack:
The threat, attributed to a member of the al-Qaeda information and strategy committee, condemns Prime Minister Stephen Harper for refusing to pull out of Afghanistan.
It also refers to Canada’s “fanatic adherence to Christianity” as well as its purported attempts to “damage the Muslims” and its support for the “Christian Crusade” against al-Qaeda.
20% of Canadians are regular churchgoers and that makes us fanatical? Man, that’s a low barrier to entry.
Regardless, let’s think like a terrorist for a minute. If you wanted to inflict some serious damage on Canadian soil, what would you do?
Keep in my that flying planes into things is probably out, and that the London and Madrid attacks featured multiple, simultaneous strikes.
Obviously the nation’s subways systems are a natural target. Targeting hockey arenas would also be a natural fit, and strike at the heart of our culture (more so than say, churches). What else?
DarrenBarefoot.com 
What do you mean by “serious damage?”
Schools, universities, malls, nightclubs, movie theatres, buses… Blow any of those up and you will terrorize a lot of people. Not enough?
Well, those aren’t on a 9/11 scale, but neither were the London or Madrid attacks. Of course, it’s the ‘terror’ the attacks generate that matters more than the actual body count.
Bridges. Or in Quebec, overpass.
How about the east coast nuclear power plant network, which is barely guarded? It would hurt the power system in huge devastation in the middle of winter, and could cause environmental issues if they could figure how to do that. (Total conspiracy theory here… but you asked).
Or taking out an icon of our country…. like Parliament Hill. Hitting Ottawa like that doesn’t kill a lot of people, but would seriously hamper the political ecosystem and cause a lot of civil discomfort. The tension could amass to quite a bit of unrest.
Lets hope these seem to unrealistic.
Ports, bridges, CN Tower, and the Toronto Maple Leafs…
Those are just a few things that first come to mind.
Is this a question you really should be asking on a public blog?
I.e., Hi let’s brainstorm a list of potential targets for them just in case they don’t have enough already in mind, let’s help them expand their possible list because we know they don’t know how to use the internet.
If Pete is right, may I suggest the big O? (Montreal’s Olympic Stadium) We’ve been trying to get rid of it for years before it falls on someone, we have no baseball team left, and destroying it would be too expensive. So perhaps some constructive terrorism… Oh, I promise we’ll act terrified!
I was thinking like Pete — isn’t this just suggesting a nice group of targets for potential terrorist attacks?
Pete, I’m not a terrorism expert but I’m sure they don’t read blogs to get ideas about where to strike. I mean seriously, if someone is dedicated enough to doing this they’ll do actual research or pick a highly symbolic target, not “I wonder what the bloggers say about this.”
I’m sure this wasn’t the intent, but if public discussion on security and how it applies to one’s local context, in this case the country, shouldn’t be discouraged as ‘risky’ because someone might get an idea to do it. Talking openly about things that can hurt you is elemental to the nature of human society. Supressing that is regressive and an act of fear, which leads to the knee-jerk panic attack that has gripped our neighbours to the south for the last 5 years.
Yeah, what Todd said.
We have one big fat target in BC, with no where near enough security. It’s a sitting duck. Which is precisely why I hate going over to the island on a long weekend.
Apparently, some people want the kitty corner Starbuckii taken out on Robson:). That would certainly weaken Vancouverites beyond what most of them can comprehend.
The Niagra falls hydro power plant would be a big hit to the Canadian and US power system I think.
Really though, they get their biggest bang for the buck by just issuing threats. They don’t have to do anything and the papers still splash “terror” for everyone here.
I say blow up every Tim Horton’s. That should slow down the Canadian economy;-)
Ambassador Bridge. Hundreds of millions of dollars of trade between the US and Canada travel over it every day. It would completely cripple Windsor and much of the Southern Ontario corridor’s economy, and greatly hurt Michigan’s as well.
Plus it’s a “symbol of freedom” between the US and Canada.
Not to mention the University of Windsor is DIRECTLY below/next to the bridge with 13,000+ students.
Oh and I forgot to mention… you don’t go through the border inspection booths for either country until you’ve already crossed the bridge. Meaning there’s nothing stopping anyone going over.
I think a big target is the first canadian place in toronto. Its a 70 storie tower with hardly any security. plus it would do damage to the sky dome and the cn tower
They are most definately planning something big. About a month ago, small bombs were planted on our C-Trains tracks, only some blew up, but these werent strong enough to hurt nor damage anything. They were profesional made bombs, not just firecrackers. Also, that same week, two men were found in the Calgary airport, here, carrying guns and amunition.
I have often thought of this type of thing happening here in Ontario. I can think of several things that would bring the country to a stand still, I worst would be to damage the many nuclear generating systems this would basically shut down the coutry there would be no communications,all machines would come to a stand still no gas for your vehicles and the reactors could very well go into melt down if this happens it would cost thousands of people there lives
CN Tower
Yes, the CN Tower is definitely the most likely target in Canada. I would say that the Pickering nuclear power plant is the second most likely. In the case of the CN Tower, the al-Qaeda will likely try to use a small nuclear weapon that they built within the country, detonated in a vehicle near the base of the tower. The Toronto Police should create two special units to give the CN Tower and the Pickering plant more effective counter-terrorist security.
West Edmonton Mall, CN Tower, Oil sands in Alberta, Pickering, Buses, Canada day celebrations everywhere, Major power plants. Canada has many major targets and some that would harm a very large number of people. Our problem is that there is minimal to no security at any of these places, and most people in the general public seems to take this stuff seriously. I’m from Edmonton and I can tell you right now that West Edmonton Mall would be not only a huge and devastating target, but an easy one. Security is not only untrained and uneducated on the subject, but also unprepared for an attack. Shoplifting is about as prepared as that mall gets.
That is true, what you say about WEM. The first time I went to the waterpark there, all the lifeguards cared about was how close I got to the wave generators. I’m from Calgary though, so we have potential for a September 11th-type attack. I can see (or rather imagine) an attack on The Bow once it’s finished in 2010. Canada is whipping the Taliban, and The Bow is, or will be, the ultimate symbol of Canada’s oil power, which would make it a particularly delicious target. The Petro-Canada Centre and Bankers Hall are of similar value. Canada in general has way too many immigrants from India, so it would be fairly easy for, for example, Indian al-Qaeda to hijack an Air Canada flight going from Edmonton to Calgary, overfly the airport, and crash into a skyscraper in Calgary. The completion of The Bow will only exacerbate this risk.
There are many likely targets in Canada. Too bring a country to its knees could be executed in a few easy steps,
A) disable Hydro at pin ponit locations that will disable major parts of the country.
B) Disable comunications at main comunication hubs.
C) contaiminate the water and food supply.
D) execute the leader of the country and the top heads of the government.
E) appoint your self as leader…. and wait for the next joe blow too knock you off your pedastool.
It is I, T Fonseca again. I can’t believe how long ago I made that comment on here; 12 November, 2008!
Since making that comment, there has been little al-Qaeda activity in Canada.
However, our boys have been giving it to them good in Afghanistan!
Since making this comment, The Bow has gone from being a construction project on the streets of Calgary to being amongst Calgary’s skyline.
You can see a webcam of Calgary’s skyline here:
http://start.shaw.ca/Start/enCA/Local+content/Alberta/cgy/
I am thankful that, unlike the Toronto area, the Calgary Region has no nuclear power plants that would be tempting targets for terrorists.
However, it is important to remember that the object of the al-Qaeda is not killing plain and simple – it is to bring Islam to the world.
These goals of theirs are already evident; Islamic organisations are growing like weeds in Canada. We Christians need to do what we can to bring Christ back to this country, because if we don’t, Islam could soon replace Christianity as having the most devout followers nation-wide.
DOMINVS CHRISTVS
http://www.youtube.com/user/TonoFonseca
Years later, and I still remember this page.
We have news today about some suspected bombs in Toronto:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2011/01/11/toronto-street-suspicious-package241.html
They have hit a New York City icon (the Twin Towers), they have hit a London icon (the Tube)… is it only a matter of time until a Canadian icon, lest it be the CN Tower?
if they hit the oilsands maybe we’ll meet our kyoto targets. lose-win?
This page is still archived eh? Well, The Bow is pretty much complete, so that’s one more target they could hit in Calgary.
Maybe they’d hit the Sun News Network studios? Doing the bidding of the CBC, haha.
I am here once again!
I now know what the most dangerous targets for the terrorists would be.
Universities.
Universities feature regularly-scheduled large groups of people in confined spaces. Universities have large numbers of professors, and even larger number of students. The professors are the brains of society, and the students are the future of society. That means that a terrorist attack on a university – be it an airliner suicide attack, a chemical attack, or a pathogen release – would be most beneficial for the goals of the terrorists.
I am somewhat nervous about this because I not only live in at a university, but I live in the residence of a Christian college on the campus.
Well, it’s been like four years since I first made a comment on this page, and we still haven’t had a terrorist attack on Canadian soil yet. Let’s see if we can go another four years…