It stands to reason that senior officials, be they civilian leaders or military officers, want to provide the public with good news. Whether it is to gain votes or to instill pride in a country’s armed forces, these individuals see the benefit of telling the (voting) population that success is at hand or that whatever […]
When I was growing up in London (Ontario) there was a famous quasi-mythical family that lived near the town of Lucan, about a half-hour away, in the 19th century. The Donnellys, or the ‘Black Donnellys’ as we were taught about them, were Irish immigrants who were killed by a mob in 1880 in a feud […]
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on December 21, 2017 http://www.hilltimes.com/2017/12/20/australia-belgium-lead-example-returning-foreign-fighters-canada/129572 Canadians are nice people, or so we think of ourselves that way. There is not much doubt that many see Canadians as ‘nice’ and even harmless: I recently read a Doonesbury comic in which one of the characters comments that there are few things […]
I read the other day that the widely-held belief that we lose 70% of our body’s heat through our head on a cold day is a myth. I am probably not the only one who was long assured that this maxim was true and hence wore a toque (that is Canadian for a knitted hat […]
I must confess that I despair at times about the average person’s knowledge about and reaction to terrorism. On occasions some people panic and build the threat out of all proportion, cancelling their travel plans, calling for bans on immigration and ranting about the presence of ‘undesirables’ (i.e. Muslims) in our societies whom they view […]
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A better way to react to terrorism
On December 12 I went to see Come From Away on Broadway with my wife and friends. For those not familiar with this award-winning musical it is based on what happened in the small Newfoundland city of Gander on 9/11 when almost 40 transAtlantic flights were diverted to the local airport, once a major refuelling […]
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War with an ‘ism’ is a bad idea
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on December 18 http://www.hilltimes.com/2017/12/18/war-ism-bad-idea/128951 Last week I was invited to a conference in the UK hosted by the Henry Jackson Society, a US-UK think tank that looks at a variety of issues. At this particular conference, entitled ‘A wake-up call for all: creating a trans-Atlantic network to battle radical […]
As it is wont to do, the federal Department of Public Safety has just issued its annual “Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada”. This year’s edition contains statements such as: The main terrorist threat to Canada continues to stem from violent extremists inspired by terrorist groups, such as Daesh and al-Qaida Daesh, and […]
Canadians seem to have a love-hate relationship with their security and law enforcement agencies. They rightfully demand to be kept safe and want their spies and cops to stop terrorism and serious crime before it happens. At the same time they sometimes express horror at the methods used to guarantee that safety. I am fully […]
We have had a couple of very good successes in terrorism trials in Canada. The Toronto 18 back in 2006. Operation Samossa in Ottawa in 2010. The VIA train plot in 2013. The Victoria legislature Canada Day plot also in 2013 (before a judge erroneously – in my opinion – dismissed the jury verdict on […]