Search: “islamic state”

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on December 21, 2017 http://www.hilltimes.com/2017/12/20/australia-belgium-lead-example-returning-foreign-fighters-canada/129572 Canadians are nice people, or so we think of ourselves that way.  There is not much doubt that many see Canadians as ‘nice’ and even harmless: I recently read a Doonesbury comic in which one of the characters comments that there are few things […]

I read the other day that the widely-held belief that we lose 70% of our body’s heat through our head on a cold day is a myth.  I am probably not the only one who was long assured that this maxim was true and hence wore a toque (that is Canadian for a knitted hat […]

I must confess that I despair at times about the average person’s knowledge about and reaction to terrorism.  On occasions some people panic and build the threat out of all proportion, cancelling their travel plans, calling for bans on immigration and ranting about the presence of ‘undesirables’ (i.e. Muslims) in our societies whom they view […]

Canadians seem to have a love-hate relationship with their security and law enforcement agencies.  They rightfully demand to be kept safe and want their spies and cops to stop terrorism and serious crime before it happens.  At the same time they sometimes express horror at the methods used to guarantee that safety.  I am fully […]

We have had a couple of very good successes in terrorism trials in Canada.  The Toronto 18 back in 2006.  Operation Samossa in Ottawa in 2010.  The VIA train plot in 2013.  The Victoria legislature Canada Day plot also in 2013 (before a judge erroneously – in my opinion – dismissed the jury verdict on […]

This piece originally appeared in The Hill Times on December 11 (http://www.hilltimes.com/2017/12/11/death-terrorists-necessary-not-necessarily-death/127716) All is fair in love and war, or so the saying goes.  Except that nothing is usually fair in either, especially when it comes to war.  We ought to have learned over the several millennia that we have been killing each other on […]

New York and New Yorkers have a reputation of being tough.  Whether it stems from dealing with horrendous traffic jams or the constant crush of people everywhere I am not sure, but they do seem a rather resilient lot. This came out clearly today in the wake of yet another terrorist attack.  I was staying […]

When I was in first year of high (secondary) school – grade nine as we call it (why is it that I cannot get a BareNaked Ladies song out of my head?) – I did something really stupid.  I was about to bus home from a Friday night dance when I decided that it would […]

The word ‘terror’ is a very powerful one that tries to describe, insofar as language can, a very powerful emotion.  Terror is ultimate fear, a heightened sense of threat to oneself that can freeze one’s ability to react and cloud one’s ability to use reason to get out of a highly dangerous situation.  It is […]