Search: “al qaeda”

A lot of ink has been spilled of late (can we still talk of ‘ink spilled’ in the digital age?) about the gun violence wreaking havoc in Toronto. Other cities in Canada have similar, albeit smaller scale, problems although Toronto’s is getting much attention because of the death toll.  So far in 2018 there have […]

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on June 18, 2018 Well, the G7 in La Malbaie, Quebec, is over and some would say ‘Thank God!’  It would be hard to imagine a weirder summit than the one Canada just hosted.  The group of seven powerful economic and political nations usually gathers to talk shop, […]

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on May 21, 2018 It would be hard to forget the G8/G20 riots in Toronto in 2010. Or similar mass violence at the WTO meetings in Seattle in 1999.  Commercial properties smashed and vandalised.  Police cars destroyed.  The arrests of hundreds.  People kept in cages by the authorities.  […]

US authorities are still searching for a motive behind Stephen Paddock’s rampage in Las Vegas last week.  A number of ‘theories’ have been put forward, none of which are very helpful.  For instance, the fact that Mr.Paddock’s father was a bank robber and once on the FBI’s most wanted list has turned out to be […]

One criticism that has been leveled a lot in the post 9/11 period is that governments, through their security intelligence and law enforcement agencies, has run roughshod over civil rights and what should be seen as legitimate political activity, and criminalised some behaviours all in an effort to prevent terrorism from occurring.  The timeline on […]

We’ve all heard the phrase “flying while Muslim”,  a reality that underscores the sorry state of affairs in Western societies in the post 9/11 period.  Muslims are disproportionately singled out for special attention at airports and elsewhere.  The genuine concern over terrorism, which is real and not some state-driven campaign to garner support, has given […]