Categories
Perspectives

How to prevent vehicular terrorist attacks – maybe

One thing that is confounding police and intelligence agencies the world over is what to do about car rammings/vehicular terrorist attacks.  We read of them often – last week’s incident in London near the Parliament buildings in just the latest.  Over the past five years or so there have been at least 20 such events, […]

Categories
Perspectives

Oh great, another vehicular attack. Make that two. Or not.

Well, you have to give terrorists some credit.  They certainly have settled on a winning approach to carrying out acts of violence and causing mayhem.  And that approach is remarkably simple and easily accessed.  I am talking of course of vehicle attacks.  We have seen a lot of these lately, in Barcelona, in Stockholm, in […]

Categories
Perspectives

The challenge of ‘rehabilitating’ the women and children of IS

We need to take a realistic approach to all this. No, not all returning women and children pose a danger to our societies and not all are inhuman monsters.

Categories
Perspectives

What just-so stories and terrorist plots often have in common

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 […]

Categories
Perspectives

The UK and Canada: polar opposites when it comes to the terrorist threat

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 […]

Categories
Perspectives

Not all vehicular ramming attacks are terrorist incidents

Does anyone else remember the CBC Radio show Basic Black?  I loved that show, which used to run on Saturday mornings and did so from 1983 to 2002.  The show’s host, Arthur Black, would interview a number of guests, some of them quite eccentric, who came from all walks of life.  It was a truly […]

Categories
Perspectives

Finally some data about the mental health-terrorism link

If there is one thing that frustrates me most it is the tendency of a lot of people, well-intentioned or otherwise, to make sweeping statements about terrorism – what it is, what causes it, etc.- without doing the minimum amount of real research to back up their claims.  I am sure you have read much […]

Categories
Perspectives

Why it is hard to lay terrorism charges in Canada

When you try to think of London and terrorism, what comes to mind?  I’d wager the 7/7 attacks in 2005 and any number of similar incidents.  Or that fact that the UK Security Service has identified 23,000 radicalised Britons they worry about.  What I would be surprised at would be if your immediate thoughts turned […]

Categories
Perspectives

Why it is important to reserve judgment on the Toronto ‘attack’

It is a little past 7 PM on Monday, April 23 as I pen this op-ed in Ottawa.  A little more than 5 hours ago a rented van appeared to jump a curb and run down pedestrians near the corner of Finch and Yonge streets in North Toronto.  A man is in custody following an […]

Categories
Perspectives

The cutting edge of unstoppable terrorism

This piece appeared in the April 23 edition of The Hill Times In a very funny Monty Python skit John Cleese plays a drill sergeant who is trying to teach a bunch of skinny recruits to defend themselves against foes wielding fresh fruit (oranges, apples, grapefruit, pomegranates….)  with typical hilarious results.  Cleese gets the underwear-clad […]