Does anyone else remember the CBC Radio show Basic Black? I loved that show, which used to run on Saturday mornings and did so from 1983 to 2002. The show’s host, Arthur Black, would interview a number of guests, some of them quite eccentric, who came from all walks of life. It was a truly […]
Author: Phil Gurski
Phil Gurski is the President and CEO of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting Ltd. Phil is a 32-year veteran of CSE and CSIS and the author of six books on terrorism.
The other night my wife and I went to see a play written by legendary British crime writer Agatha Christie called The Unexpected Guest at the Ottawa Little Theatre. This particular performance was quite good and the ending, much in keeping with the title, was unexpected (at least to us it was: perhaps “whodunit” was obvious to […]
As I -and many others – have mentioned before, Indonesia is by far the largest Muslim nation on Earth. This often comes to a surprise to many as the southeast Asian country is not located within the ‘normal’ region we associate with Islam (i.e. the Middle East) and is surrounded by nations that are most […]
Categories
How NOT to protect national security
That we live in a time obsessed with threats to national security and what to do about those threats is beyond question. Whether we are talking about terrorism, gun crime, migrant flows, climate change or other risks to the planet and its constituent nations the conversation and debates surrounding the best approaches to meet and […]
This piece was published in The Hill Times on July 2, 2018 Here is a fundamental question for Canadians: what do you want from your security intelligence service? What are your expectations of CSIS, an agency of several thousand civil servants which has been plying its trade for more than three decades in the […]
A lot of ink has been spilled of late (can we still talk of ‘ink spilled’ in the digital age?) about the gun violence wreaking havoc in Toronto. Other cities in Canada have similar, albeit smaller scale, problems although Toronto’s is getting much attention because of the death toll. So far in 2018 there have […]
Sorry to be repetitive but some things are just worth repeating. So I will once again cite that great philosopher/New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra when he famously said: “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Mr. Berra’s sage advice notwithstanding, many people foolishly think they can predict the future. Some do it […]
When we think of terrorism and terrorists our minds usually turn to men, and for good reason. It is an undeniable fact that most terrorists are men. Full stop. Whether this has anything to do with testosterone or men seeking to establish themselves in the world or whatever all remain interesting questions but irrespective of […]
We all know that we live in an era where facts are in grave danger. When the leader of the world’s most powerful nation regularly dismisses news as ‘fake’ whenever it goes against his bizarre view on, well on anything, you realise we are in trouble. No longer do people rely on certain sources of […]
Pity the poor ex head of state, whether that person is a prime minister, a president, a monarch or a dictator, who settles for retirement, although I’ d wager that many former dictators never get that far. At one time you are cock of the rock. Everyone listens to you. You get really cool perks […]