Borealis Threat & Risk ConsultingRemember the good old days when terrorism was a rare thing? Yes, sometimes people got hurt or even killed, but the more frequent incident was an airplane hijacking or a nuisance bomb. And then the inevitable claim of responsibility would come from the PLO or the ALF or the FLQ in the form of a […]
It is not uncommon for inaccurate information to be held as accepted wisdom where no amount of data will convince people otherwise. Examples of this would include the conviction that crime rates are soaring (they have actually been plummeting for years) or that e-cigarettes are ok (there is no data yet suggesting that they are […]
The multiple attacks today (June 26) have led to a burst of condemnation and outrage – as they should. The vast majority of people – Muslim and non-Muslim – have rightly protested against this barbarity. And we will surely see more demonstrations in the days to come as more and more people are inspired to […]
This has been a very, very disturbing day. An attack – including a decapitation – in France. Tourists slaughtered in Tunisia. Shia Muslims killed by a suicide bomber at their mosque. After prayers. This evokes the senselessness of the massacre last week in Charleston, South Carolina. I’ve always advocated keeping things in perspective and […]
Intelligence agencies can get quite creative when developing ways to collect information. But sometimes they get too creative that lead to more problems. Not to mention endangering thousands of lives – innocent lives. Take the case of Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani doctor in jail for his involvement in the terrorist group Laskhar-e-Islam. What is far […]
Watch Satyamoorthy Kabilan and Phil Gurski discuss the anniversary of the Air India bombing and lessons learned to help fight terrorism in Canada.
On one level, it amazes me how open people are with their hateful ideology. Part of me thinks that supporters or fans of extremism would be a little more careful in displaying their beliefs given society’s opprobrium and the fact that, at least in today’s Canada, their activities could cross the criminal threshold. Take the […]
Today 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 […]