While driving through Perth last week, I listened to an interview with a University of Windsor academic who had studied the effects of a program offered on Canadian university campuses aimed at reducing sexual assault . Her research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that the training resulted in a significant decrease in […]
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Lifting the veil
This ain’t good. In an interview with Vice, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, while defending the government’s position that wearing a niqab (face veil) during citizenship ceremonies is not concomitant with Canadian values, uttered the following sequence: ” The overwhelming majority of Canadians want that rule to continue to apply. We’ve done a lot in the […]
On-line arrests off-side?
The RCMP in Winnipeg detained a 23-year old Manitoban and seized a number of hard drives they said he used to express support for the Islamic State (see story here). The youth arrested is a convert to Islam and the son of a member of the Canadian Armed Forces. He as apparently been on CSIS’ watchlist […]
Not a Sunni proposition
I have already talked a bit about the Sunni-Shia split in an earlier piece (Brothers at Arms). Today’s thoughts are along a different pathway. When I worked in the intelligence world and looked at violent radicalization, the focus was entirely on Sunnis, not Shia. Of course, there were other kinds of violence to worry about […]
Harper’s Hyper Bowl
Our prime minister is quoted as saying that “jihadi terrorism is one of the most dangerous enemies our world has ever faced” (see article here). Really? Bigger than the threat of MAD during the Cold War? Bigger than the Nazi onslaught of the 1930s and 1940s? More dangerous than climate change or run-of-the-mill violence? (homework […]
Brothers at arms
According to Al Jazeera, the Islamic State recently claimed in an online statement that it carried out a deadly suicide bomb attack at a mosque in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province of Qatif (see story here). The eastern part of Saudi Arabia is largely Shia and tensions between the Sunni monarchy and its Shia residents have been […]
risky business
One of the more futile pursuits in the field of terrorism studies is that of trying to determine why some people radicalize to violence and others don’t. There have been many cases where some individuals in a given group (social, family, religious, etc.) go down the path to violence while others stay away. We are […]
I know, I know. Not another op-ed piece on Omar Khadr, Canada’s most famous child soldier or terrorist scion (take your pick). There are probably few Canadians more controversial or more polarizing than the son of a former (i.e. deceased) Al Qaeda lieutenant. What more can be said? His family pedigree is well known (the […]
Rusty spring
Reality has a nagging habit of interfering with theory and the last few years have shown quite clearly that early jubilation has yielded to despair as civil wars and insurgencies have arisen in Libya, Yemen, Syria and there is an unquestionable lack of freedom in many other countries.
Heads I win…
Deaths merely provide opportunities for others to demonstrate their commitment and skillsets. Unchallenged ideology will inspire others to act.