Search: “RWE”

If there is one theatre of war tactic that remains controversial – aside from the inevitable divisions of futuristic killer robots I keep reading about – it is the use of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles as the military prefers to call them.  Relentless, tireless, brimming with state of the art gadgetry, these flying platforms […]

The CSIS Director and RCMP Commissioner both appeared at a House of Commons public safety committee recently and provided Canadians with some useful information on the nature of the terrorist threat we face (story here).  Both agencies understandably work in secret – that is the only way they can do their jobs – but the […]

One of the greatest challenges a society has to face with respect to the delicate balance between privacy and freedom of thought and national security has to do with when organs of the state are allowed to take an interest in the activities of its citizens when those activities are believed to constitute a threat […]

In the wake of the Paris attacks and continuing developments, we have been inundated with dire warnings that everything has changed. These attacks were the harbinger of a “new wave” of terrorism  now that Islamic State has left the confines of Syria-Iraq and decided to spread its carnage elsewhere (Egypt, Lebanon, France…).   So much […]

We make laws to reflect our values and to protect ourselves from those that would undermine them.  For instance, we say that murder is a crime because we value life.  We have laws against the theft of personal goods because we value our property.  In a more controversial vein, we have hate laws because we […]

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 […]