Search: “national security”

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 […]

Published in the Hill Times December 4, 2017 We in Canada do not have a lot of experience when it comes to terrorism.  That is, of course, a good thing as the opposite scenario would be tragic.  No, despite the fact that the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC) in Ottawa has pegged the threat level […]

This piece originally appeared in The Hill Times on November 27. There is no question that the relationship between the Toronto Police Services (TPS) and the citizenry of Hogtown have been rocky of late.  Whether it is the controversial carding programme or allegations of police brutality and unnecessary use of force, many Torontonians have a […]

This blog appeared in The Hill Times on November 20, 2017 (http://www.hilltimes.com/2017/11/20/can-canadians-trust-csis-help-keep-us-safe/125620) This piece was never going to be an easy one to write.  The organisation where I proudly worked for over 15 years – CSIS – is now the subject of a $35 million lawsuit by five employees alleging racism, Islamophobia and homophobia. Canadians […]

This piece appeared in the online edition of The Ottawa Citizen on November 27, 2017 (http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/gurksi-why-parliament-needs-a-dose-of-intelligence) At long last Canada is getting some serious oversight for its intelligence agencies.  Well behind most of our closest allies, including the US and the UK, the Trudeau government has created the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians […]

Don’t say I didn’t warn you, because I did (here is the blog post in case you did not see it first time). Yet another person is planning to sue the Canadian government for its ‘complicity’ in alleged abuse in connection with a counter terrorism investigation.  An Algerian citizen, Djamel Ameziane, says that Canadian security […]

Before I start, let me state this, and state it categorically: torture is unacceptable under any circumstance.  While we may disagree on what constitutes torture we can all accept that subjecting anyone to systematic and prolonged severe physical and/or psychological pain in order to extract information (or to fulfill some sadistic sickness) is wrong, immoral, […]

It has been a little more than a week and a half since Canada suffered its latest, and thankfully still rare, terrorist attack.  A 30-year old Somali refugee named Abdulahi Sharif hit and stabbed an Edmonton police officer before leading authorities on a race through the city’s streets where he struck four pedestrians before he […]

Years ago I attended an International Studies Association (ISA) conference in New Orleans and found myself in a small room at a hotel listening to a former CIA guy give a talk on something or other under the rubric of the ‘Intelligence Studies Group’ (or something to that effect).  I do not remember what his […]