A recent controversy over the CBC’s approach to describing terrorism and the September 11 attacks opened a debate over what we do and do not call terrorism, but it also exposed a preoccupation with terminology over substance when it comes to terrorism in Canada.
To be clear, terminology matters. How we describe acts of violence shapes how we grapple with the fear and horror they create as a society, as well as how perpetrators are investigated and prosecuted. Canadians have wrestled with the label following incidents ranging from the incel-inspired Toronto van attack in 2018 and the 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting to, now, the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, just weeks before their 25th anniversary.
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