Search: “CSIS”

The other day I was reading a fascinating article in Discover science magazine on Robert Hare, a Canadian psychologist who revolutionalised our understanding of psychopathy through years of studying inmates in Canadian correctional institutions.  Some of his more famous subjects, familiar to all Canadians, include Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.  His diagnsotic tool, the Psychopathy […]

We expect a lot of those agencies tasked with keeping us safe.  We demand that they identify those who mean us harm, investigate the nature of the threat they pose and take appropriate action to disrupt their criminal acts.  When they fail to do so many are critical and want to know why they were […]

In 1996 then First Lady Hillary Clinton published a book It Takes a Village which was essentially a tome on how to raise children.  The main argument centred on the responsibilities that everyone has to contribute to the shaping of productive, well-adjusted citizens and was a bit of a call to an earlier age where this […]

Although most countries cannot agree on what constitutes terrorism, if we judge by the number of definitions that are out there, they do seem to do a better job at determining what a terrorist group is.  There are so-called terrorist listings in the US, the UN, the EU, and the UK among other jurisdictions.  We […]

The general public has little insight into how intelligence agencies operate.  That is good on one level since these organisations’ success depends in large part on their ability to work in the shadows.  On another level, however, the information vacuum invariably opens the door wide open for anyone – and I do mean anyone, qualified […]

There is a very important distinction in most Western courts of law between actus reus and mens rea, Latin for respectively, guilty act and guilty mind (more or less).   We  have decided that in order for a crime to have been committed, the alleged guilty party had to have the intent to commit that […]

We are getting all too used to this.  A man (usually, but very occasionally a woman) walks into a theatre/school/office/restaurant with a weapon that has no place other than a war zone and kills dozens.  Sandy Hook. Aurora.  Columbine High School.  San Bernardino. Now Orlando.  More mass shootings in the US than there were days […]

It sometimes seems that we have a love-hate relationship with our law enforcement agencies.  We want to feel safe and we expect our men and women in uniform to protect us from serious crime, save women and children from domestic abuse and be human enough to engage with the homeless and destitute on on streets […]

Over the past few years we have been informed that a significant number of Canadians – probably close to a 100 according to the latest data (i.e. the CSIS Director) – have decided to travel to Syria/Iraq and join terrorist groups such as Islamic State and, to a lesser extent, the Al Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al […]

Canada is a pretty good place to live.  We constantly rank high on every conceivable list (quality of life, happiness, opportunity, openness…) and it is no secret that millions who live elsewhere would give anything to move here.  Sure, we are not perfect and we have a few skeletons in our closet (first and foremost […]