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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 […]
As I write this blog events in Turkey are still unfolding. Whether we call this a successful coup or an attempted coup is not relevant to what I hope to convey here. Suffice to say that a tactic the Turkish military used all too frequently in the 20th century appears to have resurfaced. I have […]
If I have said it once, I have said it many times: it is best to wait for information to come in before issuing “definitive”analyses of what has just happened. The tragic attack in Nice may be over but it is far too soon to give in to speculation about who was responsible and why […]
The last few years have seen an incredible spike in the creation and deployment of Countering Violent Extremism (or CVE) programmes around the world. Although the meaning of the term is still developing, CVE generally is used to cover any effort that aims at stopping violent extremism (or radicalisation) from beginning or undo it once […]