Charitable institutions are usually seen as good things in society. Ones we normally think of – the Red Cross, Amnesty International, the Canadian Cancer Society, etc. – play a very important role in raising money and spending it on the most needy: people suffering in war zones, prisoners of conscience, those suffering from serious disease. […]
Search: “CSIS”
We found 1,025 results for your search.
Shortly after I joined CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) in January 2001 I attended a presentation by a friend who was working at the Canadian embassy in Kenya in the late 1990s. He related that he was at home on August 7, 1998 when a massive blast took him and a colleague off their feet […]
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on July 30, 2018 In the wake of an attack, whether it be terrorist in nature or a mass shooting/stabbing/vehicle ramming incident, we often read comments and statements such as the following: no one saw this coming it was completely unpredictable (and by extension unpreventable) who would have […]
An edited version of this piece appeared in The Hill Times on July 23, 2018 Is Alex Neve, the secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada insane? Full disclosure: I have been a supporter of Amnesty International and its work for decades. I admire the positions they adopt and the advocacy they employ in the interests of […]
Whenever we experience a mass shooting event like the one on Danforth Ave in Toronto’s Greektown on Sunday evening we go through several emotions: fear, shock, anger…and a need to understand why. Why did a man shoot people enjoying a beautiful summer’s night in a part of Hogtown known for its restaurants and ambiance? Was […]
When I was quite young I came across a very old edition of Rudyard Kipling’s Just-so Stories, written in 1902. For those not familiar with this book – you really should be – it is a collection of fantastic accounts of how certain animals acquired their distinctive traits. Among the tales concocted by Mr. Kipling […]
One thing has always fascinated me, i.e. how stories that have no basis in fact defy all attempts to discredit or defeat them. Some such fantasies, even if they are held only by those on the peripheries of public opinion, include the belief that the moon landings were faked, the conviction that vaccinations cause autism, […]
If you were to ask most Canadians about our intelligence services the first response would very likely be “Wait! We have intelligence services??” I am being only slightly facetious. I imagine everyone knows about CSIS – the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (where I worked for 15 years) – and maybe a few recognise CSE – […]
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on June 11, 2018. All is takes is a cursory glance at the news on any given day to conclude – erroneously as I hope to show – that Islamist extremist terrorism is a daily event that threatens us all. We read of bombings in Afghanistan, beheadings in […]
This article was posted in The Hill Times on July 9, 2018. A week ago a relatively small crowd in Vancouver’s Stanley Park commemorated the single greatest terrorist attack in history (as determined by deaths) prior to 9/11. And Canada featured prominently in it. I refer of course to the downing of Air India flight 182 […]