Search: “national security”

Humans like to have neat, obvious lines drawn around everything.  We do not do well with uncertainty or fuzziness.  Something is either black or it’s white.  We don’t like grey.  Once we have made a decision based on this dichotomy we stick to it and it takes a lot to change our minds. We also […]

Every year many Canadians flock to Trinidad and Tobago to escape the harsh winter climate.  In addition, there are some 70,000 Canadians of Trinidadian stock, including one of the hosts of CBC’s The National, Ian Hanomansing, and pop singer Amanda Marshall.  The ties between the two nations run deep. Alas, these ties also extend to […]

I have, thankfully, never been on trial.  My appearances in Canadian courts have been limited to a brief stint as a court interpreter many, many years ago and my role as an expert witness in several national security certificate cases. I have never been charged with an offence for which I would find myself before […]

If there is one thing I learned over three decades in the intelligence business it is that decisions on how to do intelligence are best left to intelligence professionals.  Agencies responsible for intelligence are of course subject to the democratic governments we elect and they cannot (and should not) ‘go rogue’, engaging in activity that […]

This article appeared in The Hill Times on January 29, 2018 http://www.hilltimes.com/2018/01/29/link-immigration-terrorism/132069 Canada is a nation of immigrants, of that there is no question.  Our historical openness to those around the world has made us the country we are, warts and all.  And while immigration waves have varied over the centuries – my own family was […]

Finding fault with security intelligence and law enforcement agencies and personnel is a bit of a sport, I find.  Second guessing and armchair quarterbacking seem to appeal to many who latch on to any mistake, real or perceived, to case aspersion on the efforts of those who are supposedly there to keep us safe.  “What […]

In January 1842 the British army suffered one of the most humiliating defeats in its history, a defeat memorialised in a painting entitled Remnants of an Army (shown above).  The British were massacred in retreating from Kabul in what is now known as the First Anglo-Afghan War, part of the ‘Great Game’ between Imperial Russia […]

When I was growing up in London (Ontario) there was a famous quasi-mythical family that lived near the town of Lucan, about a half-hour away, in the 19th  century.  The Donnellys, or the ‘Black Donnellys’ as we were taught about them, were Irish immigrants who were killed by a mob in 1880 in a feud […]

As it is wont to do, the federal Department of Public Safety has just issued its annual “Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada”.  This year’s edition contains statements such as: The main terrorist threat to Canada continues to stem from violent extremists inspired by terrorist groups, such as Daesh and al-Qaida Daesh, and […]

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 […]