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On the link between immigration and terrorism

This article appeared in The Hill Times on January 29, 2018 http://www.hilltimes.com/2018/01/29/link-immigration-terrorism/132069 Canada is a nation of immigrants, of that there is no question.  Our historical openness to those around the world has made us the country we are, warts and all.  And while immigration waves have varied over the centuries – my own family was […]

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The challenges of watching terrorists

Finding fault with security intelligence and law enforcement agencies and personnel is a bit of a sport, I find.  Second guessing and armchair quarterbacking seem to appeal to many who latch on to any mistake, real or perceived, to case aspersion on the efforts of those who are supposedly there to keep us safe.  “What […]

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They don’t call Afghanistan the graveyard of empires for nothing

In January 1842 the British army suffered one of the most humiliating defeats in its history, a defeat memorialised in a painting entitled Remnants of an Army (shown above).  The British were massacred in retreating from Kabul in what is now known as the First Anglo-Afghan War, part of the ‘Great Game’ between Imperial Russia […]

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When city hall becomes a terrorist target

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on January 15, 2018 There are many reasons why citizens dislike City Hall.  You might have a beef over the taxes you pay. Perhaps you are not happy with snow removal or garbage collection.  You may even have a bone to pick with a parking ticket you received.  […]

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The Joshua Boyle saga – an alternative view

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on January 22, 2018 If there is one thing we have learned about Joshua Boyle it is that he is an odd duck.  He apparently made over 62,000 edits and contributions to Wikipedia over a 13-year span (if my math is correct that makes 15  a day) on […]

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The neverending Harkat saga and the future of security certificates

One would think that a state has fundamental rights and obligations in the same way that people do.  Any state must, for instance, have a monopoly on the use of force since in the absence of such we would live in anarchy.  I agree that the state exists only – or rather should exist only […]

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What does the Turkish offensive in Syria mean for counter terrorism?

You gotta feel for the Kurds, history’s version of ‘always a bridesmaid, never a bride’.  Oft described as the world’s largest ethnic group without a country to call their own, the Kurds have come ever so close on several occasions.  They were kinda promised autonomy following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire in the post […]

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Just how widespread is extremism in Canadian schools?

If you want to know what CSIS does and why it does it, a good place to start is the CSIS Act which dates back to the creation of that organisation out of the former RCMP Security Service back in 1984.  The Act has stood up fairly well over its first three decades despite several […]

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The pluses and minuses of using ‘formers’ in counter radicalisation programmes

Years ago when I was still with CSIS I was part of the debriefing of a source we were running on our counter terrorism investigations.  During our chat he said something that struck me as really profound.   We were talking about the radicalisation process and he noted, based on what he had observed, that the […]

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The true cost of terrorism might be death – for the terrorists

On my first trip to Singapore many years ago I was struck by signs placed throughout the airport that warned of severe penalties for drug trafficking.  If my memory isn’t failing me, I seem to recall that those signs didn’t mince words.  They made it quite clear that the penalty for peddling in illegal drugs […]