Three people have told me in as many weeks that

they are glad they will not be around 50 years from now. One made that 25 years. They foresee a complex and chaotic society that will have no common values except the pursuit of wealth and self-indulgence, a Hobbesian situation of continual warfare between rival economic and ideological gangs, not to mention many angry and bigoted individuals. That would mean the end of the peace, order and good government that has been Canada's ideal.

If one thinks it legitimate to behead or maim those who do not share one's convictions or who do not reverence one's icons, the ground on which we walk will be bloody, except where strong walls can been built between us. The historian Arnold Toynbee noted that civilisations last only as long as they value the moral foundations upon which they were built. How many Canadians can recite the Ten Commandments or the eight 'beatitudes' of the Sermon on the Mount?

That is where I understand both mainstream, Muslim and other kinds of anxiety. As liberal thinkers loosen our traditionally accepted values in order to accommodate every aberrant point of view, the current Zeitgeist, in turn, threatens not only the family and tribal values of New Canadians. It threatens those of long-time citizens as well. Oswald Spengler wrote long ago about "The Decline of the West". That included the loss of the ethical consensus that once gave us social cohesion. Liberal thinkers are allowed to publicly mock our religious traditions (not that our institutions do not need ongoing reform) and to imply that all but they are fools and knaves. That is a liberal attitude? The entertainment industry spews soft pornography, inanity and violence onto our home screens. Parents are condoned for leaving their children without philosophical education either at home or in school. They themselves exemplify the lack of it. Is ours not an aimless society that challenges all our inherited ideals?

As a member of the Christian Commonwealth who lives on the border of its Roman and Anglican provinces (with valued Presbyterian connections) I support the freedom of all faith communities within the civil state. Our freedom and dignity is safeguarded but not conferred by the government. My regret is that Euro-Canadians like me (like I?) have such a bad record of recognising the dignity of the indigenous people who were here before us and of the many 'ethnics' who have arrived here, equally as immigrants, after us. It is significant that no one of African or Asian descent, none of Jewish or Arab heritage, no aboriginal, has ever become a provincial premier or the Prime Minister of Canada. Our multicultural society has yet to mature. Except in Anglican and Roman rite parishes and in the mosques of metropolitania, people of the many races do not often meet. Euro-Canadians tend to keep 'the others' at arm's length. We, as much as they, are responsible for the cultural ghettoes.

I wish that this newspaper could become a local forum for assessing the discrimination and prejudice that is experienced by members of 'visible minorities' who are coming to live with us in Dufferin County. The facts could be cited anonymously. Let's get it all into the open.

That said, this space has two reservations. One is the matter of dual citizenship. The other is about treasonous activity within this nation. First, about divided loyalties. Since 1977 the Citizenship Act has allowed Canadians to hold foreign nationality and passports in tandem with Canadian citizenship. Dual citizenship can make Canadians subject to military service in a foreign country, taxation there and even imprisonment if one returns there, as an 'Iranian Canadian' photographer found to her cost. It is beyond my comprehension, and that of most Italo-Canadians I know, why anyone living here would wish to vote in elections in the old country. I value my Scottish heritage but Scotland's problems are not mine. I propose the abolition of divided national loyalties just as I oppose the transfer of 'charitable' funds, except as legislated foreign aid, to Israel or anywhere else.

The other concern is about the crime of disloyalty and sedition in other words, treason. The Canadian Criminal Code distinguishes between treason and high treason. High treason is the charge against anyone who attempts bodily harm to Her Majesty and, presumably, to her vice-regal representative in Canada. Surely our elected representatives should be included. The lesser charge includes one who plots war against Canada or does anything preparatory to that. It also includes those who assist any nation that is at war with Canada, whether or not a formal declaration of war has been made.

Free speech must be defended but not incitement to violence or sedition. Let advocates like Barbara Jackman, Denis Edney, Nate Whitling and James Silver whose specialties are 'springing' those like the recent 17 smugglers of guns for the training of Islamic militants be as closely watched by public opinion as are their clients.

Immigration Security Certificates that permit indefinite detainment of foreign suspects, too many here under false passports and pleas of torture if they return home, must be upheld before the Supreme Court, especially when we are in a de facto state of war. They are, actually, part of our immigration laws rather than having been introduced by the Anti-terrorism Act.

If we "stand on guard" for Canada legal manoeuvering must not be allowed to trump national security. And immigrant communities, especially those whose members (however juvenile) utter treasonous words (however irresponsibly) must know that such persons will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And the same must apply to Muslim clerics who, unlike Jewish rabbis or Christian priests, may have little theological or pastoral training and who are subject to no higher supervision or discipline.

Although moderate Christians to whom I speak agree with moderate Muslims that Western and other cultures are in a state of fundamental reformation that is now in its early stage, those who advocate violence and treason must be restrained, if not by their own communities, then by the full force of the law.