Long before the chilling audiotape attributed to Osama bin Laden, it was clear that Canadians could fall victim to international terrorism. We already have. History's deadliest act of aviation terrorism -- the 1985 bombing of an Air-India flight off the coast of Ireland -- claimed the lives of 329 people, most of them Canadian citizens.

Since Sept. 11, the threat has grown. We are the next-door neighbour of the United States, the terrorists' primary target. We took an active role in the fight in Afghanistan, where our troops attacked al-Qaeda and the Taliban. We are a haven to several underground terrorist groups. And, of course, we are part of the West, which Osama bin Laden and his cohorts see as their oppressor.

So it should come as no surprise that Canada is named along with Italy, Germany, Australia, Britain and France in the bin Laden tape. Even if Canadians had not played such an active role in Afghanistan, our closeness to the U.S., as well as our openness as a society, would have made us an obvious target.

But Afghanistan put us more directly in the line of fire. As Ward Elcock, the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said last week: "Our close friendship and support of the United States, including our participation in Afghanistan, could see Canada or Canadians targeted for attack."

What is surprising is that so few Canadians have been victimized to date. The Bali bombing, which killed more than 80 Australians, showed it is not only the big powers that are at risk. Like Canada, Australia sent special forces to Afghanistan. This, as well as its intervention in East Timor in 1999, helped make Australians a target. But the fact that Australia is part of the Western family may have been just as important. Bali's nightclubs, full of Western tourists, were a tempting target. As Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in a visit to Ottawa: "These terrorist operations are directed, not just against the United States, but what we might broadly describe, particularly Canada and Australia, as our civilization."

Australia now understands what this struggle is all about. Does Canada?

When the latest bin Laden tape emerged, Ottawa waited 24 hours to respond, then sent Deputy Prime Minister John Manley to the microphones. Canada, he said, faced no imminent threat, and the tape's ominous warnings would "merely strengthen our resolve" to fight terrorism.

Yet our resolve has been questionable. It's true we sent troops to fight in Afghanistan -- a commitment for which we paid heavily. It's also true that Ottawa reorganized the government to cope with the new threat and joined the Washington-led coalition against terrorism.

And yet, listening to most government leaders, you can't avoid the sense they think this is someone else's fight. Our role, by and large, has been to act as helpful helpmate to the Americans -- up to a point, and not on Iraq. No Canadian leader has made it clear to the public why this is our fight, too.

In fact, Jean Chrétien told an interviewer that Western arrogance helped to bring on the terrorist attacks. If only we stopped abusing the poor, he suggested, such attacks might abate. Contrast that position to Tony Blair's; the British Prime Minister made it plain from the start that his country would be in the front lines against terror -- not just because of its friendship with the United States, but because Britons themselves were at risk.

Only this week, Mr. Blair warned that al-Qaeda had regrouped and might attack British targets at any time. Victory in the war on terrorism, he said, "will not be without pain or come without a price. . . . As with all wars, it will test not just our ability to fight, but our character, our resilience and our belief in our own way of life." Try to imagine Mr. Chrétien saying something like that.

The war against terrorism is everybody's war. Britain gets it. So does Australia. When will Canada?

My mistake: In a column on gun violence, I said gunshot wounds are the second leading cause of death among Americans. What I should have said was that gunshot wounds are the second leading cause of death among Americans aged 15 to 24. (The leading causes of death in general are heart disease and cancer.)
mgee@globeandmail.ca