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Perspectives

Was the Iranian revolution really the catalyst for modern religious extremism? Nope.

In case you didn’t notice – or don’t care – today marks the 40th anniversary of the Iranian revolution. It was this day in 1979 that the Ayatollah Khomeini-led revolt against the Shah of Iran consolidated victory in what became known as the Dah-e-fajr (the ‘ten days of dawn’ in Farsi, the period between Khomeini’s […]

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Perspectives

Why – yet again – Canada should not rush to repatriate foreign fighters

Is it just me or is this issue never going to go away? I am referring of course to what to do with those Canadians – and by extension Westerners and others – who made the conscious, deliberate, enthusiastic, but stupid, decision to leave our (their) country to join terrorist groups like Islamic State (IS) […]

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Perspectives

Finally some clarity on Canada’s foreign fighter problem

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on January 28, 2019. If there is one thing in the world of terrorism that touches Canada the most, at least in the minds of average Canadians, it is the issue of those among us who elected to leave to join violent extremist groups abroad. Some of these […]

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Perspectives

An unintelligent way to view intelligence

There is an old saying “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”. It means that if you want to exert influence and win people over it is better to use nice rather than nasty means. US President Trump has clearly never read this saying (from what I hear he doesn’t read, period, and […]

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Perspectives

Does jihad mean never having to say you’re sorry?

(with apologies to Erich Segal) Some of you may have heard of a horrific accident last April in rural Saskatchewan when a bus carrying members of the Junior A Humboldt Broncos hockey team collided with a tractor-trailer whose driver had run a stop sign. 16 young men and their coach died and others were injured, […]

Canadian Intelligence Eh

Canadien Intelligence Eh Everywhere you look these days terrorism and violent extremism dominate the headlines.  Whether you follow what is happening in Afghanistan or Iraq, or in the West writ large, we are inundated with news of attacks by groups and individuals fighting for a ’cause’. In a world of multiple voices and opinions it […]

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Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

Whatever happened to Sikh extremism?

Episode 2 – Here are supplementary notes for podcast #2

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Perspectives

Why are Canadians used as terrorist group spokespeople?

We Canadians may be shy folk (at least when put next to our southern neighbours) but we also tend to point out, nauseatingly perhaps, when one of ours makes it big on the international scene. Think Saturday Night Live, created by Canadian Lorne Michaels and featuring many, many Canucks over the years: Martin Short, Mike […]

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Perspectives

Last year’s Danforth Street attack in Toronto just got a whole lot stranger – and murkier

Last July 22 I was in Toronto on the waterfront giving a presentation to an audience on extremism. I don’t quite recall who they were but it might have been a group that does Ontario Legislature security. My talk was well received and I even got to sell a few of my books – so […]

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Perspectives

Al Shabaab shows – again – that it is still a terrorist force to be reckoned with

The attack still unfolding as I type in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi has been claimed by the Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab terrorist group. At around 3 PM local time an explosion, apparently caused by a suicide bomber, went off outside an office/hotel complex followed by the incursion of armed men into the building. Casualty […]