Ever since Michelle Shephard of the Toronto Star broke the news of a $35 million lawsuit by 5 CSIS employees I have agonised over what to write and even whether to write about this issue. I turned down several requests for interviews from major Canadian TV networks and a few radio stations since I did […]
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CSIS and the courts at loggerheads?
These past couple of months have not been good for Canada’s spy service. First, the Federal Court ruled that CSIS has been negligent in informing it of a programme whereby it ‘illegally kept’ data (which it had collected legally under warrant) on Canadians. Then there is the criticism that the Service shared questions with the […]
I know for sure that this blog is going to raise some hackles, especially among my US friends and colleagues. Why? Because I am going to argue that the current US counter terrorism architecture is inadequate to deal with the threat and needs a serious overhaul. The solution I am proposing, however, will go against […]
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CSIS and disruption
CSIS Director Michel Coulombe appeared before the Senate National Security and Defence Committee today and stated that his organisation has used its new disruption powers over twenty times since 2015. This measure was controversial when introduced by the former Conservative government and is still seen by some as too strong for a service that […]
Episode 297 – Why calling terrorist groups ‘dead’ is rarely a good idea I cannot recall how many times I have heard a world leader, or a self-styled ‘terrorism expert’, expound that a given terrorist group has been ‘totally defeated’ (that is exactly what Donald Trump said about ISIS in Iraq and Syria in 2019 […]
Season 3 Episode 7 – Canadian gaps on national security are spooktacular In a special (post) Hallowe’en edition of ‘Spooks Like Us’, your favourite ex-spies weigh in why the Brits are frightfully good at prosecuting sabotage, why Canada is horror-ible at removing threats to national security, and whether anyone can trust US intelligence under the […]
Episode 296 – How does a country weigh national vs. economic security? To say that Canada-China relations have been rocky would be putting it mildly. From the heyday of the first Trudeau (Pierre) to the depths of the PRC’s kidnapping of two Canadians several years ago, it has not been an easy road. Furthermore, China […]
Episode 295 – Afghanistan is not known as the ‘graveyard of empires’ for nothing After 9/11, the US, Canada and many other nations sent troops to Afghanistan to find and punish Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden and bring ‘democracy’ to the country. Thousands of casualties – on both sides – later, the US pulled […]
Season 3 Episode 6 – Why tulips are better than one in intimate intelligence sharing This week your favourite Canadian ex-spies weigh in on why the Dutch are not paying for their dates with the US, yet again why Canada cannot decide on the paint colour for the walls of the Foreign Register and why […]
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Whither ISIS?
Episode 294 – What is the current state of ISIS and how worried should counter-terrorism agencies be? In 2019 then US President Trump stated that ISIS had been ‘totally defeated’. While it was true that the so-called ‘Caliphate’ had for all intents and purposes been destroyed, the group was anything but gone. It is still […]