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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 […]

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Why I am becoming more fearful of yet another useless Middle East war

Is it just me or is it starting to feel like ‘deja vu all over again’, to quote the great New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra? Did I tumble down a time wormhole only to find myself back in 2003? Are we on the cusp of going to war in the Middle East – again? […]

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We can’t fight what we fail to label correctly

If you have never heard the comedy routine ‘The 2,000 year old man” by Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, you are really missing something. The original dates back to 1961 but it is still very, very relevant and very, very funny. In one part, Mel Brooks, playing the 2,000 year-old man, says that WWII lasted […]

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When politics dictates who is a terrorist – and who is not (part two)

Has something happened to Rudy Giuliani? The iconic former mayor of New York – remember the important role he played in the aftermath of 9/11, rallying Americans? – seems, to me at least, to have ‘lost it’. And I am not referring to his obsequious ass-kissing of boy President Trump, for whom he acts as […]

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What we can learn from terrorism manifestos

Another terrorist attack, another manifesto. Actually these documents are quite rare in the history of terrorism. Some terrorists will leave social media clues to the reasons behind their actions (FaceBook posts, Tweets). Others like Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the Islamist extremist behind the 2014 attack on Parliament Hill, leave a short cellphone video outlining the rationale for […]

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Security certificate cases and Canada’s failure to use the intelligence it collects

This piece appeared in the Hill Times on February 25, 2019. If there is one legal tool that divides Canadians like few others it is the so-called ‘national security certificates’. These are administrative processes whereby the government can remove those who are not Canadian citizens and who are seen as ‘undesirable’. To cite Public Safety […]

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The People’s Party of Canada and national security

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on January 21, 2019 Third parties are an interesting bit of Canadian political history. I am not well-versed in the blood sport of politics and thus have no intention of pretending to be a pundit on these matters. What I do find intriguing, however, is how certain parties […]

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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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An alternative ending to the Nuttall/Korody saga

Tis the season, as they say, and at the Walsh-Gurski household Christmas movies are a tradition, no matter how many times they have been viewed. Me, I like A Christmas Carol, the 1951 British version with Alistair Sim as Scrooge: I have viewed it every Christmas Eve for I don’t know how long. My wife […]