Episode 192 – At the cutting edge of journalism and terrorism.
Journalists and intelligence professionals have a lot in common. We both seek out information, develop sources, check out the accuracy of our data, and provide what we have learned to our clients (the public for journalists, senior government officials for spies). What is it like to work as a journalist on the terrorism front? A conversation with veteran Canadian reporter Stewart Bell.
About my guest
Stewart Bell is a Canadian journalist who specializes in national security and foreign affairs. In 2022, he won the RTDNA award for enterprise journalism for his reporting from Afghanistan. His coverage from Syria was a finalist for the Canadian Journalists Association award in 2019. In 2018, he won the Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Journalism. His magazine article about Sierra Leone’s child soldiers, “Guerrilla Girls,” was awarded the Amnesty International prize. He won the South Asian Journalists Association award for his coverage of the Sri Lankan civil war, and his Saturday Night article “The Terrorist Next Door” was a finalist for the National Magazine Award and was made into a television movie. He is the author of three non-fiction books, the national bestseller Cold Terror, The Martyr’s Oath and Bayou of Pigs, about a far-right coup in the Caribbean. He has a Master of Journalism degree from Carleton University and joined Global News in 2017.
CANADIAN INTELLIGENCE EH!
In a world of multiple voices and opinions it can be very hard to know where to turn. One choice is to look to those who actually worked in counter-terrorism in the national security world. In these half-hour podcasts, 30-year Canadian intelligence veteran Phil Gurski is joined by a fascinating array of individuals with something meaningful to say about these issues as they provide insight into what they mean and what we need to do about them.
About Phil Gurski
Phil Gurski is the President and CEO of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting Ltd. He worked as a senior strategic analyst at CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) from 2001-2015, specialising in violent Islamist-inspired homegrown terrorism and radicalisation. He is the author of six books on terrorism, including the most recent The Peaceable Kingdom: A history of terrorism in Canada from Confederation to the present.
