Categories
Perspectives

What does the foiled Australian terrorist plot tell us?

Last Saturday’s arrest in Sydney, Australia of four men in an alleged terrorism plot was the latest in a series of interdictions by Australian authorities.  In this supposed plot, four men are being held under special anti-terrorism powers for planning to place a bomb on an aircraft, hidden in a ‘meat mincer’.  Other reports noted […]

Categories
Perspectives

Canadian exports: softwood lumber, minerals…and terrorism?

July 1 is of course an important day for Canadians.  We may not wear our patriotism on our sleeve as often as out southern neighbours in the US, but July 1 – Canada Day – is an exception.  Average Canadians drape themselves in the national red and white flag, paint maple leaves on their cheeks […]

Categories
Perspectives

Terrorism and mental illness make poor bedfellows

Most people have a hard time wrapping their heads around the sanity behind terrorism.  Surely those who knowingly and willingly kill themselves by detonating a bomb strapped to their waist or driving a booby-trapped car into a crowd of people cannot be psychologically normal, can they?  It is probable that we also have a hard […]

Categories
Perspectives

Should Canada repatriate our citizens who joined IS? Nope

In the wake of the Omar Khadr $10.5 million payout furour another potential point of divisiveness among Canadians has hit the proverbial fan.  There are reports coming out of Iraq, yet to be confirmed, that two Canadian women have been captured in the rubble that is now Mosul and that they had been part of […]

Categories
Perspectives

One man’s terrorist is another man’s child soldier?

Oh no, you are probably saying!  Please, dear God, not another column on Omar Khadr!  Make it stop! Sorry, dear readers, but I feel compelled to address an issue that seems to have been overlooked in the polarising saga of the son of one of Canada’s most infamous terrorists.  That issue is not whether he […]

Categories
Perspectives

What should be our response to all the far-right hate groups in Canada?

As I have stated on many occasions, the threat to Canada from Islamist extremist groups represents by far the single greatest priority for our security services – CSIS, the RCMP and provincial and municipal police forces.  We have seen around a dozen plots, both foiled and successful, since 9/11, the most recent one being the […]

Categories
Perspectives

Fair stood the wind for jihad – part two

I suppose I have to explain the title for this blog.  I recall reading a book by English author H.E. Bates called Fair stood the wind for France back in high school about a British pilot that crash lands in Nazi-occupied France in WWII and ends up falling in love with the daughter of a […]

Categories
Perspectives

Should Canada compensate citizens in ‘terrorism cases’? No

Well, the inevitable has happened.  We all knew it was coming.  Canada’s most famous ‘child soldier’, Omar Khadr , is about to receive an apology and a compensation package from the Canadian government – i.e. the Canadian tax payer – ” for abuses he suffered while detained in the U.S. military prison for captured and suspected […]

Categories
Perspectives

How is the terrorist threat level determined?

One thing we have all gotten used to in the post 9/11 era is the question: at any given time how at risk are we from terrorism?  In an effort to answer this query for a nation’s citizenry a number of methods have been proposed. One of the more famous ones was the US Department […]

Categories
Perspectives

Are Muslims really standing on the sidelines when it comes to terrorism?

If there is one issue that is quite controversial and sensitive when it comes to our discussion about terrorism it is the relationship between Islam and violent extremism.  As with a lot of subjects there are views that are extremes on either end, ranging from ‘Islam is a terrorist faith’ to ‘Islam, as a religion […]