Three cheers for Saudi Arabia! The conservative Kingdom has ruled that women can now drive and no longer need to be accompanied by a mahram (essentially a male guardian) when they are in a car. Many are celebrating this decision although some conservative killjoys have accused the government of ‘bending the rules of Sharia’. Some […]
Category: Perspectives
In the wake of the recent storms that ravaged the eastern Caribbean and Florida a lot of Canadians were stranded in resorts and hotels and undoubtedly were suffering under horrible conditions, life-threatening ones even. Many savaged the Canadian government and Canadian airlines for not acting more quickly to get them home and out of harm’s […]
Well this is a strange move by the Trudeau government. It was announced yesterday that Canada’s police, intelligence and border agencies – i.e. the RCMP, CSIS and CBSA respectively – can use “torture-tainted information” in efforts to stop a terrorist act from occurring. The allowance was not unlimited however, as these organisations cannot “disclose information […]
This post is a little longer than normal. It is my contribution to a forthcoming paper to be written collectively and coordinated by a friend of mine in Singapore. With the apparent increasing popularity of deradicalisation programmes for convicted terrorists and (perhaps) those on the pathway to violent extremism in a number of countries what […]
They don’t call BC the ‘left coast’ of Canada for nothing I suppose. Our wonderfully beautiful Pacific side is known for its somewhat socialist views, greater tolerance of marijuana and progressive environmental positions, a lot of which is indeed admirable. It is also acquiring a reputation as the province that is ‘soft on terrorism’. A […]
The PRC has a problem with extremism. Part of their challenge lies in Tibet where Buddhist monks self-immolate in the streets. I will set aside why monks are choosing to burn themselves to death (which I think we all can agree is an extreme act) in this blog, mostly because they are not engaging in […]
There is no question that fear sells. The latest Stephen King film about an evil clown – It – grossed over $120 million in its first three days after all. We are odd in that we both fear fear and we are entertained by it – go figure. But fear is not always helpful, unless you […]
Remember the ‘refugee crisis’ of a few summers ago? We all were riveted by the pictures of hundreds of thousands of desperate Syrians, Iraqis and many others, risking their lives in overland journeys or even more perilous sea voyages, fleeing danger and violence in their homelands to start a new life in Europe. Some countries […]
Categories
Thank God for incompetent terrorists
Yes, there are some very nasty terrorists who are very good at what they do, but there are also many who are only slightly above incompetent.
We in Canada have longstanding ties to the UK. We were, after all, part of the British Empire for a over a century and by Confederation a sizeable part of our population had come from the British Isles. Even well after 1867 immigration was dominated by Irish, Welsh, Scots and English families seeking a new […]