Categories
Podcast Quick Hits

Left hand/right hand when it comes to foreign interference in Canada?

Quick Hits Episode 276 – Is the Alberta referendum on separation open to influence from outside powers or not? Canada is sorrily used to talk of separation. We went through two referendums (referenda? neverendums?) on Quebec independence in the 1980s and 1990s and are now faced with a possible vote to split in Alberta. That […]

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

Where do ‘new’ terrorist groups come from?

Episode 329 – How easy is it to create a terrorist group? You would think the world already has enough terrorist groups. While jihadi ones like Al Qaeda and Islamic State – and their affiliates, provinces and wannabes – predominate, there are others out there as well. And in what is an interesting development, new […]

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

Overseas conflicts often lead to threats here

Episode 328 – Violence abroad rarely stays abroad Well, the world is in a state these days, isn’t it? War in Iran. War in Gaza. War in Lebanon. Closure of the Straits of Hormuz. An ongoing civil war in Yemen. And that is just the Middle East! When it comes to terrorism in the West, […]

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

Old terrorist groups never die, or do they?

Episode 327 – Will Ireland see the resurgence of nationalist violence? For decades, the one Western nation that seemed most beset by terrorism was Ireland, as the IRA (Irish Republican Army) was bent on using violence to coerce the six counties of the north to join the Republic. The Troubles, as they were known, stretched […]

Categories
Podcast Quick Hits

Canadian law sucks when it comes to terrorism

Episode 274 – Why in heaven’s name is a convicted unapologetic jihadi being released from prison? Prisons serve several purposes, or so it seems to me (I am not a incarceration specialist). First and foremost it is a system that can help keep the public safe from truly dangerous people. Second, it is part of […]

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

What is it like to brief the POTUS on intelligence?

Episode 326 – What kind of intelligence does the US President consume and does it make a difference? Imagine you are the one on the hotseat who has to tell the President of the US what is happening in the world – on a daily basis. What do you tell him? Where do you get […]

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

Is the world ignoring the peril of Afghanistan?

Episode 325 – Could Afghanistan pose the same terrorist threat it did a quarter century ago? For two decades NATO members, including Canada, were at war in Afghanistan. More than 3,000 allied soldiers died (among whom were 158 Canadians) and when the last US troops left in 2021 Afghanistan went back to the status quo […]

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

The pressure of investigating a shooting in wartime

Episode 324 – Even when the public wants immediate answers, police need time to do their jobs If you watch enough crime dramas on Netflix (or the streaming platform of your choice: my wife and I are watching the quirky Annika on PBS now), you are led to believe that solving crimes is a matter […]

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

Should Canada know more about its spies?

Episode 323 – I can tell you and not have to kill you! If there is one profession that is badly misunderstood – or not understood at all – it is espionage. Oh sure, there are spy novels and James Bond films and all that, but these are fictional and do not portray the world […]

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

Is Canada putting money ahead of human rights?

Episode 322 – What ever happened to Canada’s values? Thanks to US President Trump Canada is forced to diversify its trade relationships. One of those partners, not new but enhanced, is China, and the government of Prime Minister Carney is busy signing deals with the PRC. One of those agreements is to bring in Chinese […]