Borealis Threat & Risk Consulting
Episode 321 – Can Iran rely on another Arab ally? Most people think little of Yemen, a desperately poor state at the heel of the Arabian Peninsula. Wracked by civil war and a poor economy, it has nevertheless punched well above its weight, forestalling a Saudi-UAE effort to unseat its government, and launching missiles at […]
Episode 320 – Will Canada’s true north finally be strong…and free? Canada proudly proclaims that it is the ‘Great White North’, a reference to our long border with the Arctic (and sometimes interminable winters – like this one!). But does it really treat the region as a national security priority (it did during the Cold […]
Season 3 Episode 20 – It’s Canada and we have the ‘Eh’ team of terrorism! What happens when three ex-spies talk about national security? You get in-depth, insider views of what’s happening including why two morons shoot up an empty diplomatic presence at o-dark-hundred, why Canada is level-headed when it comes to threat and an […]
Episode 319 – Why does Canada have a two-decade old national security policy? To say that voters do not care about national security is stating the obvious. When they cast their ballot they are more concerned about the economy, jobs, health care, education and other issues, not on what Canada’s security services are up to. […]
Season 3 Episode 19 – Peace, what is it good for? In this week’s bar chat (ok, the bar is virtual but the beer is real and Al is enjoying a “Juicy Ass” – please don’t pursue why!) the lads look at various aspects of the war (“Don’t mention the war” – classic John Cleese […]
Episode 318 – What do Iranian Canadians think about the current situation in their homeland? Wow, what a couple of days! Israeli and US airstrikes are continuing in Iran and the country’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khamene’i, is dead. Iran is engaged in counterstrikes in the region and many are worried about where this will all […]
Episode 317 – Why is the Sahel region of Africa so vulnerable to terrorism? Not many people, I wager, follow events in Africa, let alone the Sahel, the band that spreads from Mauritania in the west to Sudan in the east. And yet this region is rapidly becoming terrorism central globally as groups aligned with […]
Episode 316 – Is Sikh terrorism a thing of the past and are Canadian Sikhs now subject to Indian state violence? At one point in the not too distant past Sikh Canadians were tarred with the terrorism brush. After all, the bombing of an Air India flight in 1985 in which 329 people – mostly […]
Season 3 Episode 18 – Help, I’m being repressed! This week the boys weigh in on a new report on transnational repression (TNR) in Canada, co-authored by one of us (hint: not Neil and not Al), why it is so hard to use intelligence in court cases, and ask whether the Hells Angels owned a […]
Episode 315 – What do bucks and bangs have in common? When most people think of national security they think of things like terrorism, espionage, sabotage and transnational repression. I doubt that economics comes to mind. But what if any is the link between a nation’s economy and national security? I talk to a specialist […]