Book Description

"This study examines the criminalization of dissent that is occurring through official anti-terrorism discourse (and associated policies) in Canada. While there is vast scholarly work on the war on terrorism and attendant anti-terrorism campaigns, research on the discourse of terrorism and anti-terrorism is urgently needed, not least because discourse is a key medium of power and social control. To date, very little research exists on Canadian anti-terrorism laws and the criminalization of dissent. By examining the Canadian context and focusing largely on policies, this dissertation adds two important dimensions to the critical study of the war on terrorism. Employing Critical Discourse Analysis, a methodology designed to expose the ideological effects of discourse, the study reveals the hidden power at work behind anti-terrorism discourse in Canada, and the processes by which it hides and reinforces itself. Through a multi-text, critical discourse analysis of official anti-terrorism documents (parliamentary speeches, anti-terrorism laws, and public police documents on terrorism), the research demonstrates how these documents, purportedly aimed at combating terrorism, discursively serve to criminalize particular types of dissent and opposition by conflating it with terrorism and/or terrorist violence. By deconstructing various discursive practices (i.e., Canadian anti-terrorism texts), the study's critical analysis uncovered the larger socio-historical practices, contexts, and interests that inform and guide these practices. The study employs leading CDA scholar Norman Fairclough's three-part analytic method (description, interpretation, analysis) to build a descriptive analytic base, which is then used to build and inform the other two levels of analysis. The novel analytic framework developed -- that of threat and threatened -- unifies the different texts as well as Fairclough's different stages of analysis. By critically examining who/what the texts construct as a threat and as threatened (i.e., as villain or victim), and how each category is constructed, the study sheds light on the power and interests behind Canadian anti-terrorism discourse. Analytically, the duality of threat and threatened constitutes a powerful motif that can be used descriptively, interpretively, and for larger explanation and social analysis. By uncovering who and what the anti-terrorism texts target, the research reveals who and what it actually serves to protect. Overall, the dissertation demonstrates that Canadian anti-terrorism discourse and associated policies ultimately protect the power and relations of global capitalism, by specifically targeting and criminalizing opposition and/or resistance to it. This has serious implications for civil liberties and political participation in Canada.In addition, the study is related to and informs the field of Educational Studies insofar as it expands the notion of "education" to include the ideological functions of public policy. The anti-terrorism laws and associated discourses illustrate the manner in which the Canadian State is engaged in a broader educational project aimed at shaping individuals' hearts and minds over how to interpret and understand what constitutes terrorism. One intention of anti-terrorism discourse and policy appears to be to "normalize" a particular way of thinking about both terrorism and dissent (in a manner that conflates the two), and thus promote public support for the war on terror abroad and war on dissent at home. " --