Borealis Threat & Risk ConsultingToday marks the 30th anniversary of the terrorist attack against Air India flight 182 which fell into the sea off the coast of Ireland, taking with it 329 lives, the vast majority of them Canadians. Many fail to recognise that the bombing was the largest single terrorist attack prior to 9/11. So as we remember […]
Sometimes you come across a quote that really strikes you as profound. Here’s one that remains relevant after all these years. It comes from a 2002 issue of Foreign Affairs and was penned by Paris-based researcher Grenville Buford: “Wars have typically been fought against proper nouns (Germany, say) for the good reason that proper nouns […]
Further to my previous blog on when to call something terrorism, there has been an ongoing debate on what to call the Islamic State (or as it is also known, ISIL or ISIS or DAESH or…). A recent op-ed in the English edition of Asharq Alawsat (see it here) calls on us to stop calling […]
In the wake of the horrific killings at an African American church in South Carolina, the old argument was again raised: was this an act of terrorism? Many criticised the media and government for hesitating to use the term and some concluded that terrorism only seemed to apply when the perpetrators were Muslim and not white. […]
In a recent video appearance before the Canadian national security and defence committee, charged with preparing a report on threats to national security, former Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali warned the Canadian government that “you should be looking out for the sprouting of mosques and Islamic centres. You should be looking out for the establishment of Islamic schools […]
Remember when we were all inspired by the grassroots efforts made across North Africa and the Middle East in the name of freedom and democracy? And how these movements were going to change the region and the world? Without wanting to denigrate the sacrifices made by millions, I think we can conclude that – for […]
While driving through Perth last week, I listened to an interview with a University of Windsor academic who had studied the effects of a program offered on Canadian university campuses aimed at reducing sexual assault . Her research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that the training resulted in a significant decrease in […]
This ain’t good. In an interview with Vice, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, while defending the government’s position that wearing a niqab (face veil) during citizenship ceremonies is not concomitant with Canadian values, uttered the following sequence: ” The overwhelming majority of Canadians want that rule to continue to apply. We’ve done a lot in the […]
You find provocative pieces related to terrorism just about anywhere these days. Remember the Rolling Stone cover piece on Dhzokhar Tsarnaev (one of the Boston Marathon bombers) that got all that attention last year? I recently read an essay on the “Hydra paradox” in the UK magazine New Scientist (full disclosure: I have been reading […]
As more and more Canadians are identified trying to leave the country to link up with terrorist groups such as ISIS, more and more programs are being put forward to deal with the underlying radicalization problem. Quebec is the latest jurisdiction to announce such an initiative (see link here). What are the elements to consider […]