In the wake of the Omar Khadr $10.5 million payout furour another potential point of divisiveness among Canadians has hit the proverbial fan. There are reports coming out of Iraq, yet to be confirmed, that two Canadian women have been captured in the rubble that is now Mosul and that they had been part of […]
Search: “CSIS”
We found 946 results for your search.
As I have stated on many occasions, the threat to Canada from Islamist extremist groups represents by far the single greatest priority for our security services – CSIS, the RCMP and provincial and municipal police forces. We have seen around a dozen plots, both foiled and successful, since 9/11, the most recent one being the […]
We all know that hindsight is 20-20 – or at least we think it always is. There is no question that having the best information possible is better than not having it and that usually more information is better than less. If we knew then we what we know now we would certainly have made […]
I suppose I have to explain the title for this blog. I recall reading a book by English author H.E. Bates called Fair stood the wind for France back in high school about a British pilot that crash lands in Nazi-occupied France in WWII and ends up falling in love with the daughter of a […]
Well, the inevitable has happened. We all knew it was coming. Canada’s most famous ‘child soldier’, Omar Khadr , is about to receive an apology and a compensation package from the Canadian government – i.e. the Canadian tax payer – ” for abuses he suffered while detained in the U.S. military prison for captured and suspected […]
As I sit looking at a torrential downpour out my kitchen window on this Saturday morning July 1 I am nevertheless quietly happy to reflect on what it means to me to be a Canadian on my nation’s 150th anniversary. For many today the weather here in Ottawa is reflective of a sour mood. Many […]
Intelligence agencies are generally poorly understood in our societies. The agencies themselves are partly to blame since they shroud themselves in secrecy, albeit for good reasons. In addition, public perception is at fault, partly due to the assumption by many that spies are nefarious creatures at heart and partly due to the often highly inaccurate […]
If there is one issue that is quite controversial and sensitive when it comes to our discussion about terrorism it is the relationship between Islam and violent extremism. As with a lot of subjects there are views that are extremes on either end, ranging from ‘Islam is a terrorist faith’ to ‘Islam, as a religion […]
Categories
Seeking to stop the unstoppable
Some people have unrealistic views of security intelligence services. I cannot count how many times I have turned to my wife, while we were watching a movie featuring the NSA (the US signals intelligence agency) or the CIA, and guffawing ‘as if!’ when something truly outrageous is presented. Like when a small team can find, […]
When you work for CSIS or the RCMP in national security the one thing that keeps you up at night is the possibility that you might miss something (or, more probably, don’t have enough resources to run down all the leads you discover) and a terrorist act succeeds in Canada. The second thing that makes […]