Lawrence Solomon: To minimize the mass-casualty attacks that are coming, we need to get tougher on crime

We should return to the successful immigration policies of old that enabled easy deportation of miscreants and indigents

Expect mass-casualty terrorist attacks in the U.K., the U.S. and Canada, security officials have been telling us in the wake of the Paris attacks. It is our lot, then, to wait for the next attacks, which are “highly likely,” according to the head of the UK’s MI5. “We can’t prevent (such attacks) 100 percent,” warned the EU counter terrorist chief this week following meetings with security ministers from Europe, the U.S. and Canada in Paris.

Because the West has for decades been unable or unwilling to go on the offensive by clearing the Middle East of terrorists, Canada and other countries must now play tougher defence, which mostly means increasing surveillance by our intelligence agencies — and decreasing our privacy — in the hope of intercepting the terrorists’ plans to blow us up on subway trains or gun us down in coffee shops.

Inevitably, some attacks will succeed, particularly since “home grown” jihadists are increasing in number and in capability, swamping Canada’s ability to keep up...