Borealis Threat & Risk ConsultingI have to confess that I am a fan of the CBC. Not out of any sense of Canadian nationalism necessarily, although there is probably some of that too. No, I like the CBC because I like the variety of its programming, especially the radio offerings. I try not to miss episodes of The Debaters, […]
When you work in intelligence there is nothing more important than accuracy. Whatever your source – human, intercept, imagery – you need to determine how true it is before you use it in assessments that get passed on to decision makers. The usual way to do this is through corroboration: getting the same facts from […]
There is so much that has gone awry in the so-called war on terrorism that a complete list is probably uncompilable – and certainly too much for a blog piece. I have already made many arguments as to why this is not a good way to view or frame our efforts at preventing or thwarting […]
There is no question that there is a lot of terrorism about. Even a cursory glance at the news on a daily basis will uncover stories like an attack on a school by the Taliban in Afghanistan, an Al Shabaab strike on a Mogadishu hotel, yet another Boko Haram use of young girls as suicide […]
It has been a busy – and rough – time for agencies engaged in counter terrorism of late. We have been focused on Islamist extremism for so long now – and for reasons that have been 100% justified as I have written on many, many occasions – that those agencies have been accused of not […]
This post appeared in The Hill Times on August 5, 2019. When you agree to work for an organisation that deals with classified information you are required to sign off on documents that say you will never disclose certain data to those who do not have the requisite security clearance and a ‘need to know’. […]
We have witnessed in recent weeks a depressingly long list of mass shootings in the US. El Paso, Texas. Dayton, Ohio. Gilroy, California (at a garlic festival). Events of this nature are occurring, or so it seems, with alarming frequency. It is best not to extrapolate from single or even multiple events to posit a […]
What is the duty of a citizen? How far should a taxpayer go in the interests of public safety? Are we obliged to cooperate with security intelligence and law enforcement agencies when we come across information that may relate to threats or crimes? Or is it ok to ignore what we see or hear, preferring […]
We all want to be right. It sure beats being wrong. When we are wrong we make bad decisions that could cost us dearly. So unless you are some kind of masochist I wager that you would prefer to get things correct more often than not. Of course none of us is right 100% of […]
Here we go again. Another day another article on how Canada’s spy agency, CSIS, is intimidating, cowing and harassing university students while on ‘fishing expeditions’ on the nation’s post-secondary campuses. This practice has some concerned that Muslims in particular are ‘under the microscope’ and can lead to embarrassing situations that can effect their lives down […]