Before I start, let me state this, and state it categorically: torture is unacceptable under any circumstance. While we may disagree on what constitutes torture we can all accept that subjecting anyone to systematic and prolonged severe physical and/or psychological pain in order to extract information (or to fulfill some sadistic sickness) is wrong, immoral, […]
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First of all kudos to the Trudeau government for its commitment to the Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence (CCCEPE – that name is way too long however) $35 million over five years is an excellent start and, although details are wanting, the government sees the new office as a leadership post […]
US authorities are still searching for a motive behind Stephen Paddock’s rampage in Las Vegas last week. A number of ‘theories’ have been put forward, none of which are very helpful. For instance, the fact that Mr.Paddock’s father was a bank robber and once on the FBI’s most wanted list has turned out to be […]
It has been a little more than a week and a half since Canada suffered its latest, and thankfully still rare, terrorist attack. A 30-year old Somali refugee named Abdulahi Sharif hit and stabbed an Edmonton police officer before leading authorities on a race through the city’s streets where he struck four pedestrians before he […]
Years ago I attended an International Studies Association (ISA) conference in New Orleans and found myself in a small room at a hotel listening to a former CIA guy give a talk on something or other under the rubric of the ‘Intelligence Studies Group’ (or something to that effect). I do not remember what his […]
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A week of terrorism in Canada
If you were to ask most people around the world about my country I am pretty sure that few would respond “Canada? Oh it is a hotbed of terrorism!” This is not to say that there have not been any terrorist acts over the years – in fact many forget that the single largest act […]
Well this is a strange move by the Trudeau government. It was announced yesterday that Canada’s police, intelligence and border agencies – i.e. the RCMP, CSIS and CBSA respectively – can use “torture-tainted information” in efforts to stop a terrorist act from occurring. The allowance was not unlimited however, as these organisations cannot “disclose information […]
Remember the ‘refugee crisis’ of a few summers ago? We all were riveted by the pictures of hundreds of thousands of desperate Syrians, Iraqis and many others, risking their lives in overland journeys or even more perilous sea voyages, fleeing danger and violence in their homelands to start a new life in Europe. Some countries […]
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Thank God for incompetent terrorists
Yes, there are some very nasty terrorists who are very good at what they do, but there are also many who are only slightly above incompetent.
We in Canada have longstanding ties to the UK. We were, after all, part of the British Empire for a over a century and by Confederation a sizeable part of our population had come from the British Isles. Even well after 1867 immigration was dominated by Irish, Welsh, Scots and English families seeking a new […]