We seem to be having a hard time figuring out what to call our struggle with terrorism. Leaving aside the belief, held by me and others, that framing counter terrorism in terms of war is a bad idea, it is clear that we keep changing our minds about what we are really involved in. […]
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.
One of the most oft-cited ‘push factors’ for why people become radicalised and join terrorist groups is the nebulous idea of ‘alienation’. Read any story or academic paper on the subject and you are bound to come across a phrase something like “the most vulnerable to radicalisation are alienated (NB or marginalised) youth”. Go ahead […]
I know that I need to stop carping about the proliferation of ‘alternative facts’, otherwise known as lies. I am obsessing about pointing them out all with the full knowledge that there are far too many and they are coming in too fast and furious to keep up. I suppose I want to provide an […]
We have developed a wonderful system in the West where everyone has the right to a fair trial and to see the evidence collected against them. Defence lawyers are in many cases tireless defenders of all. We – well at least most of us that is – have also set in place generous refugee acceptance […]
On rare occasions I pick up a copy of the National Enquirer or World Weekly News when I shop for groceries. It’s not that I am particularly a fan, but they are strategically located at the checkout counter with their flashy, outrageous headlines. Some are truly unbelievable – I think my all-time favourite was ‘Titanic […]
Edward Snowden is painted as a courageous whistleblower and maybe hr are. Yet there is little in life that is uniquely positive and this goes as well for the smashers of secrets.
In a democracy that prides itself on the rule of law, no one in Canada is above the law, even – and especially – those charged with enforcing it, i.e. law enforcement agencies and their members. Nothing subverts the faith a society has in its legal institutions more than the belief that laws are not […]
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Is Canada soft on terrorism? No!
If there is one myth in the ever increasing world of ‘alternative facts’ (i.e. lies) that has otherworldly strength and perseverance it is the whopper that some of the 9/11 hijackers came through Canada. This inaccurate account of recent history has been repeated by people who should have known better – e.g. former Democratic presidential […]
There have been many times in history where statements made publicly have turned out to be somewhat less than true. Remember the famous “Dewey defeats Truman” headline in the 1948 US Presidential election? What about then CIA Director George Tenet’s claim that intelligence pointing to weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was a “slam […]
In Lewis Carroll’s Alice through the looking glass Humpty-Dumpty delivers this famous line: “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” Alice replied: “he question is whether you can make words mean so many different things.” I think this notion that anyone can say anything they like […]