Search: “lone wolf”

There is an old saying ‘the law is an ass’. It refers to those times when the application of the law is asinine, obstinate and counter to common sense (the phrase dates back, apparently, to the mid-17th century).  I submit that some of Canada’ laws, the ones that pertain to terrorism, are not just an […]

Years ago when I was still with CSIS I was part of the debriefing of a source we were running on our counter terrorism investigations.  During our chat he said something that struck me as really profound.   We were talking about the radicalisation process and he noted, based on what he had observed, that the […]

A few months ago an Austrian town put out a ‘help wanted’ sign – for a hermit.  I am not making this up.  The town has apparently had a hermit since the 17th century and the last one ‘retired’ in the fall of 2016 (how do you retire from being a hermit?  I wonder how […]

I know that in a world of 24/7 news and intense competition to be first with a breaking story that time is of the essence.  Individuals and news outlets feel that they do not have the luxury to wait to publish for fear that another individual or outlet will scoop them.  In their haste, there […]

Muslims in the West have a legitimate beef when it comes to how their societies see terrorism.  Whenever a violent attack takes place and the perpetrator is, or merely appears, Muslim everyone yells “terrorism!” whereas if the attacker is not Muslim everyone yells “mentally ill” or “lone wolf nutjob!”  Consistency this is not. Combined with that […]

Today (July 22) marks the fifth anniversary of one of the darkest days in Norway’s history.  Anders Behring Breivik set off bombs outside a government complex in Oslo, killing 8, then traveled to an island called Utoya where a young person’s political function was occurring and massacred 69 people. Today also marks the fifth anniversary […]

Twice in the last week I have read articles about the prevalence of right-wing extremism in Canada.  A study by two Simon Fraser University students claimed that there are 100 such groups “active” in this country (see a story on that report here) while a column in The Hill Times on February 15 says that […]

Whenever an act of terrorism occurs in the West there is an immediate flurry of questions and panic.  How did this happen?  Who was the perpetrator?  Why did he (or, more infrequently, she) do it?  Where did they get radicalised?  Is this another self-radicalised lone wolf (perhaps the most inaccurate label out there)?  What do […]

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 […]