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Terrorist groups are really good at telling a story. This skill contributes to what we call narrative: a worldview that explains why a group does something, provides meaning and helps to draw others in. Islamist extremists in particular have crafted what we call the “Single Narrative”, a wide historical and current canvas in which the […]
It is obvious that a lot of people are worried about terrorism. The news is full of stories of attacks, both successful and thwarted, and sometimes really alarming accounts like the news out of France that the government suspects that there are 15,000 French residents radicalising. More than 70% of Americans think more terrorist attacks […]
It is pretty obvious that for some people immigration is an issue. There are those who think countries like Canada are taking in too many new immigrants (i.e. Syrians) and we have even seen a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party put out a letter calling for prospective immigrants to be vetted for […]
The more we study those who have radicalised to violence and joined terrorist groups the more we realise that there are no patterns to those people. There are no commonalities to ethnicity, religious knowledge, education background, profession, family status or psychological profile (that we know of). We also know that radicalisation does not occur in […]
If there is one spy agency in Canada that is poorly understood and about which much of little veracity has been published it has to be CSE – Communications Security Establishment. CSE has a number of roles but the one that gets the most public attention is signals intelligence or SIGINT. This method of intelligence […]
I have decided to reread the Sherlock Holmes collection of stories (you can randomly make those kinds of decisions once you have retired). Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s books and some of the series/movies based (sometimes loosely) on them have always appealed to me (NB I do prefer the Jeremy Brett interpretation over all others) and […]
Last week saw the emergence of a very interesting report by the Montreal-based Centre for the Prevention of Radicalisation Leading to Violence (known by its French acronym CPRMV) on the situation at the College de Maisonneuve, from where several young people had left to engage in jihad in Syria. The centre, which was stood up […]
As we still reel from the foiled terrorist attack last week in Strathroy, Ontario, we can still rest assured that attacks, successful or not, remain a rarity in Canada. In the period since 9/11 we have had no more than 8 such incidents: on average one every two years. When we compare our experiences […]
Another attack has hit France – this one is particularly heinous, the murder of an 85-year old priest – and the critics are out in full force, all of whom know what is wrong with France and what the French should do about it. I certainly would not want to be French President Hollande or […]
Like a lot of people I enjoy traveling. I had some amazing opportunities to see the world while I worked in intelligence and I have continued to voyage abroad in retirement. There is so much that our planet has to offer and it is indeed a privilege to see it close up. When I […]