Author: Phil Gurski

For some it might seem a bit odd that a person who spent three decades in intelligence, and half of that  in counter terrorism especially, might think that there is a solution other than investigation and incarceration for terrorists.  After all, terrorism is a real threat and we cannot be naive about it.  How can […]

If there is one thing I have noticed in my post-intelligence life it is the quality of reporting on terrorism and violent radicalisation.  When I worked for CSIS I had access to far more information, not available to the public of course, on these two issues and was thus very well schooled in the who, […]

No, you are not watching the US Republican Party propose measures to stop terrorism that each time are more and more draconian and more and more dismissive of basic human rights.  This is the Conservative Party of Canada talking, the holders – until recently – of government in this country.  And yet if you didn’t […]

It is obvious that a lot of people are worried about terrorism.  The news is full of stories of attacks, both successful and thwarted, and sometimes really alarming accounts like the news out of France that the government suspects that there are 15,000 French residents radicalising.  More than 70% of Americans think more terrorist attacks […]

The new Trudeau government is clearly in a consulting mood.  It seems that they want to get Canadians’ views on a whole bunch of things, ranging from climate change to pipelines to refugee policy.   And now they are asking what Canadians think on national security. Last week Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale made […]

A very odd thing happened yesterday in Canada.  A poll appeared to show that a majority of my fellow citizens support the screening of potential immigrants by giving them some sort of “values test“, in keeping with a suggestion by a wannabe Conservative leadership candidate, Kellie Leitch.  Canada thus appears to be following in the […]

Bill Murray is one of my favourite actors.  And one of my favourite Bill Murray films is “The Man who Knew too Little”, a spoof on a Hitchcock film where mistaken identity and the world of spycraft head off in a dangerous direction, except of course that when Bill Murray is involved comedy replaces danger. […]

I like Tariq Ramadan, I really do. I have had the privilege of hearing him talk several times in Ottawa and I find him to be a very well spoken and intelligent man. And I don’t buy the accusation that as the grandson of Hassan al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, he is […]

It is pretty obvious that for some people immigration is an issue.  There are those who think countries like Canada are taking in too many new immigrants (i.e. Syrians) and we have even seen a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party put out a letter calling for prospective immigrants to be vetted for […]

I have been thinking a lot about peace bonds in the wake of the Aaron Driver case. For those who forget, or who reside in a parallel universe, Aaron Driver  was the young man from Strathroy, Ontario who radicalised, praised Islamic State, posted a martyrdom video and was gunned down after getting into a cab […]