Category: Perspectives

If there is one thing that people consistently get wrong it is the certain belief that violent crime is on the increase.  We are convinced that the situation is getting worse, not better, and the depth of this certainty is probably due, in no small part, to the constant media feed over acts of violence.  […]

The debate over the links, if any, between mental illness and terrorism never seems to get resolved.  Many people default to the position that anyone who dons a suicide vest or who can wantonly kill innocent men, women and children must suffer from some kind of psychological sickness.  These folks belong to the school that […]

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on March 9, 2018   In the 1997 movie Rocket Man (starring Canadian actor Harland Williams), a comedy about the first manned mission to Mars, there is a scene where a senior NASA manager, played by Jeffery DeMunn, is trying to justify why he did not predict and […]

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on February 26, 2018   I still remember my first day at CSE. I had moved to Ottawa from London (Ontario) where I had been interviewed by CSE representatives and later offered a job.  I knew little of what I was being asked to do since the poster […]

Is it any surprise that citizens distrust governments in the West?  Whether it is the assumption that those in power are only after their own interests or that regimes are really bad at what they do with taxpayers’ money, it is hard to find examples where a country’s population is satisfied with the level of […]

Well, the knives are out already.  As we learn more and more about the harrowing history of murders in Toronto’s LGBT community over a number of years, but before all the facts are in, many people are already convinced that the local police screwed up.  There are even calls for a public inquiry or even […]

I have a confession to make.  I wear a mask sometimes.  I think I have a good excuse though: I play goal in pick-up hockey games in Ottawa.  My face may not be Tom Cruise-worthy, but I sure don’t want to look like Jacques Plante before he pioneered the wearing of face masks in the […]

There is an interesting debate in Canada over what are called ‘mandatory minimums’, i.e. a government/court-imposed set of rules on how crimes are to be treated.  This is an attempt to establish minimum sentences for certain offences, supposedly tied to how society views certain criminal acts.  In jurisdictions that have such strictures judges are bound […]

Quick, what is the first thing that comes to mind when I say the word ‘Buddhist”?  The Dalaï Lama?  Saffron robes?  One hand clapping?  I would wager though that the last thing that comes to you is violent extremism.  Maybe it should. I cannot claim to know a lot about Buddhism (a gap I intend […]

We spend a lot of time worrying about terrorism in this country – disproportionately to the actual threat level in my honest opinion – and the flavour of terrorism that occupies most of our attention is Islamist extremism. This is of course for very good reasons since the vast, vast majority of plots, successful or […]