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 […]
Search: “CSIS”
We found 1,022 results for your search.
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 […]
Quick! Name the top ten causes of death in Canada! Can you? Here is one list I found in the wondrous playground and source of all wisdom we call the Internet (the data is from 2012: the rightmost column is percentage of yearly deaths: 1. Malignant neoplasms (cancer) 30.2 2 Diseases of heart (heart […]
Categories
How NOT to protect national security
That we live in a time obsessed with threats to national security and what to do about those threats is beyond question. Whether we are talking about terrorism, gun crime, migrant flows, climate change or other risks to the planet and its constituent nations the conversation and debates surrounding the best approaches to meet and […]
When we think of terrorism and terrorists our minds usually turn to men, and for good reason. It is an undeniable fact that most terrorists are men. Full stop. Whether this has anything to do with testosterone or men seeking to establish themselves in the world or whatever all remain interesting questions but irrespective of […]