Well, the knives are out already. As we learn more and more about the harrowing history of murders in Toronto’s LGBT community over a number of years, but before all the facts are in, many people are already convinced that the local police screwed up. There are even calls for a public inquiry or even […]
Categories
The violence behind the mask
I have a confession to make. I wear a mask sometimes. I think I have a good excuse though: I play goal in pick-up hockey games in Ottawa. My face may not be Tom Cruise-worthy, but I sure don’t want to look like Jacques Plante before he pioneered the wearing of face masks in the […]
There is an interesting debate in Canada over what are called ‘mandatory minimums’, i.e. a government/court-imposed set of rules on how crimes are to be treated. This is an attempt to establish minimum sentences for certain offences, supposedly tied to how society views certain criminal acts. In jurisdictions that have such strictures judges are bound […]
Quick, what is the first thing that comes to mind when I say the word ‘Buddhist”? The Dalaï Lama? Saffron robes? One hand clapping? I would wager though that the last thing that comes to you is violent extremism. Maybe it should. I cannot claim to know a lot about Buddhism (a gap I intend […]
We spend a lot of time worrying about terrorism in this country – disproportionately to the actual threat level in my honest opinion – and the flavour of terrorism that occupies most of our attention is Islamist extremism. This is of course for very good reasons since the vast, vast majority of plots, successful or […]
I am far from the only one to label the recent trip by our Prime Minister to India a disaster. Several media outlets have called it so and I will leave it to the reader to follow up on those. What I wish to pursue is the Jaspar Atwal affair. For those Canadians living in a parallel […]
Hands up anyone who uses Google. Or FaceBook. Or Twitter. Or LinkedIn. Or just about any other social media platform. Now, hands up anyone who has to pay for the use of those sites. Not too many I would imagine. Why do you think that these platforms give you access for free? Is is because […]
In the aftermath of what many are saying was a disastrous Prime Ministerial trip to India – official snubs, ridiculous wardrobe choices – the one issue that is still on the minds of Canadians is why our government – and our leader – elected to invite a convicted terrorist to dinner. Jaspal Atwan was convicted […]
There are a few things that hold a place of note in my memory whenever I think back to the start of my career in intelligence in 1983. As a wet-behind-the-ears multilingual analyst fresh out of university I had joined CSE – Canada’s SIGINT agency – with little to no clue as to what intelligence […]
I would like to announce the creation of a fund for Canadian pedophiles. Not those in prison or getting treatment but those languishing in squalid jails pending trial in southeast Asia after they were caught abusing young children, having traveled intentionally to that part of the world with the sole intention of having sex with […]