Episode 355 – The PRC keeps trying to shut people up it does not like
‘Sanction’ is one of those words that has two opposite meanings. On the one hand it means to support something; on the other it means to condemn something (or someone). In the latter case, we are usually talking about actions taken by states. China is one of the most egregious actors in this regard, having sanctioned many Canadians for pointing out its illegal acts and violations of human rights. What does this imply? I talk to a friend who has been subject to this tool.
About my guest
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Science, Society & Policy at the University of Ottawa, an advisory board member at the China Strategic Risks Institute, the vice chair of the Human Rights Action Group, and an advisory board member of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project.
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About Phil Gurski
Phil worked as a senior strategic analyst at CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) from 2001-2015, specializing in violent Islamist-inspired homegrown terrorism and radicalisation. From 1983 to 2001 he was employed as a senior multilingual analyst at Communications Security Establishment (CSE – Canada’s signals intelligence agency), specialising in the Middle East. He also served as senior special advisor in the National Security Directorate at Public Safety Canada from 2013, focusing on community outreach and training on radicalisation to violence, until his retirement from the civil service in May 2015, and as consultant for the Ontario Provincial Police’s Anti-Terrorism Section (PATS) from May to October 2015. He also ran Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting from May 2015 to May 2025.
He was the Director of Security and Intelligence at the SecDev Group from June 2018 to July 2019 and the Director of the National Security Programme at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute from 2020-2022. He has also taught on national security issues at George Brown College, the University of Ottawa and Georgian College. Mr. Gurski has presented on violent Islamist-inspired and other forms of terrorism and radicalisation across Canada and around the world and is actively sought by Canadian and international media on national security and intelligence issues. He has written hundreds of op-eds on these matters for several Canadian media since 2016
He is the author of The Threat from Within: Recognizing Al Qaeda-inspired Radicalization and Terrorism in the West (Rowman and Littlefield 2015) Western Foreign Fighters: The Threat to Homeland and International Security (Rowman and Littlefield 2017), The Lesser Jihads: Taking the Islamist fight to the world (Rowman and Littlefield 2017), An end to the ‘War on Terrorism (Rowman and Littlefield 2018), When Religion Kills: How Extremist Justify Violence Through Faith (Lynne Rienner 2019), The Peaceable Kingdom? A history of terrorism in Canada from Confederation to the present (self-published: 2021, republished by Double Dagger in 2022), The Fenians: Brotherhood of fools or Canada’s first terrorist threat? (Double Dagger: 2025) and the 9/11 The Unfinished Battle: Why Jihadi Terrorism Is Stronger, Wider, and Far From Over (September 2026). He regularly blogs and podcasts, and posts on Bluesky (@borealissaves.bsky.social), X (https://x.com/borealissaves , and Mastodon (https://mastodon.social/@philgurski) on terrorism and intelligence matters.
