OTTAWA: Canada’s sometimes-smug attitude that nothing could disturb its multicultural society took a hit this week as police alleged Muslim citizens wanted to bomb Parliament and other key institutions, and behead the prime minister.

It suddenly struck home that Canada appeared to be at risk of its own home-grown terrorism — not in the United States or England, not in Spain or Indonesia, but in downtown Toronto or Ottawa.

“Canadians were a bit complacent, because we’re so focused on identifying ourselves in contrast to Americans,” said Audrey Macklin, a University of Toronto law professor who specializes in citizenship and criminal law.

“Canadians imagine that the world perceives them as somehow nicer than the United States.”

It was largely in respectable suburbs of Toronto that 17 arrests were made on Friday and Saturday.

Police alleged they were a ring inspired by Al Qaeda and that they had taken steps to acquire three tonnes of explosive material.

Besides a possible attack on Parliament, it was alleged that they discussed bombing power plants and attacking economic, military and security targets.

Partly stemming from the country’s former status as colonies of both France and Britain, Canada has celebrated and even encouraged linguistic, cultural and religious differences — the multicultural mosaic approach.

This distinguished it from the US melting pot as well as from France, where the government banned overt religious symbols such as Muslim headscarves from schools — whereas in Canada Sikh students even bring traditional daggers to school.

But this week’s revelation has sparked a vigorous debate on whether the mosaic approach has worked.—Reuters