Jan 21, 2019

We have to stop seeing our intelligence agencies as evil actors

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on January 14, 2019 I realize that CSIS is not well understood by most Canadians and this is of course partly by design. It is, after all, an intelligence service and it has secrets it does not want to disclose. What intelligence agency flings its doors open for […]

Jan 20, 2019

When terrorist warnings are not helpful

All the jokes about civil servants aside, governments around the world do have some useful functions. Governments have the bodies and funds to look into important matters and provide advice to their citizenry on a whole host of things. Whether we are talking about food safety (the recent romaine lettuce scare in North America is […]

Jan 19, 2019

Why are Canadians used as terrorist group spokespeople?

We Canadians may be shy folk (at least when put next to our southern neighbours) but we also tend to point out, nauseatingly perhaps, when one of ours makes it big on the international scene. Think Saturday Night Live, created by Canadian Lorne Michaels and featuring many, many Canucks over the years: Martin Short, Mike […]

Jan 18, 2019

A Canadian may have had a role in this week’s Al Shabaab terrorist attack in Nairobi – no surprise there

According to breaking news a Canadian, Guleid Abdihakim, has been arrested by Kenyan police in connection with the attack on a hotel/office complex in Nairobi that killed at least 21 people and was claimed by the Somali terrorist group Al Shabaab. It is vitally important to stress that Mr. Abdihakim has been arrested and is […]