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Canadian government does not get terrorism and taxpayers foot the bill

Everyone is presumed innocent until found guilty, even alleged terrorists or those caught up in a terrorist investigation, but do we have to pay for other nations’ mistakes?

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January 20, 1980 | Bombing in Basque territory

‘He who lives by the sword dies by the sword’: this applies to terrorists too (and civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time).

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‘The Clerkenwell Outrage’ – December 13, 1867

The Clerkenwell explosion, also known as the Clerkenwell Outrage, was a bombing in London on 13 December 1867. The Irish Republican Brotherhood exploded a bomb to try to free one of their members being held at Clerkenwell Prison.

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National Security Priorities for the Canadian Government, from ISIS Fighters to Guns

Many pundits remarked that we saw neither hide nor hair of anything related to national security or foreign policy in the platforms of any of the main parties during the election campaign.

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Today in Terrorism: November 23, 1986 – Turkish consulate bombing in Melbourne

Armenian terrorism may strike some as yesteryear’s scourge but the Turkish government’s refusal to acknowledge the 1915 genocide could spur more action.

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Today in terrorism: 12 October 1984, Margaret Thatcher bombing attempt

On this day in 1984, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombed the Grand Hotel in Brighton (England), where then UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s ruling Conservative Party was holding its annual conference. Five people died and many more were injured.

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Why it is very important for security services to monitor the threats out there

Espionage or sabotage, foreign influence… Why do we have security intelligence services like the CSIS? What do they do for us?

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9/11: looking back and looking forward

This piece is a bit of a cheat. Rather than an entirely new thought it is a cut and paste from the introduction to my fourth book An End to the War on Terrorism, published in 2018. Given that today marks the 18th anniversary of the single greatest terrorist attack in our planet’s history I […]

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Has CSIS been getting counter terrorism wrong all these years? Nope.

OK, OK, I am a little sensitive when it comes to articles on CSIS. I did work there for 15 years after all and was (and still am) very proud of what I and my colleagues did to help keep Canadians safe. No, we were not perfect but I think we did our best. So […]

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CVE in Canada needs better scrutiny

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on July 8, 2019 If there is one buzzword that has gained a lot of ground in Canada and elsewhere in the post 9/11 period it is CVE (which stands for Countering Violent Extremism; sometimes it is also called PCVE – Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism). This field […]