One country that remains a mystery to many is Saudi Arabia. A relatively new state – it really only dates from 1930 – this desert land sprang from an odd mid 18th century agreement between a very conservative religious tradition, Wahhabism, and the rule of a single family, the Al Sauds. The Wahhabis care for […]
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July 1 is of course an important day for Canadians. We may not wear our patriotism on our sleeve as often as out southern neighbours in the US, but July 1 – Canada Day – is an exception. Average Canadians drape themselves in the national red and white flag, paint maple leaves on their cheeks […]
Yesterday’s Canada Day 150 was a bit of a wash, if you consider the weather. I don’t know what it was like outside of the nation’s capital but it rained most of the day here in Ottawa. That did not dampen the spirits of those that braved the elements from what I saw, however, when […]
One thing we have all gotten used to in the post 9/11 era is the question: at any given time how at risk are we from terrorism? In an effort to answer this query for a nation’s citizenry a number of methods have been proposed. One of the more famous ones was the US Department […]
I suppose it was inevitable. An armed attack on Republicans at a baseball practice in Virginia wounded the House majority whip and several others appears to have been carried out by a leftist terrorist. 66-year old James Thomas Hodgkinson, a former house inspector from Illinois, was apparently distraught at the election of Donald Trump as […]
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What to do about Afghanistan?
I have come to know the journalist Michael Petrou over the past few years. He would sometimes call me to seek my views on terrorism when he was with Macleans magazine and I relied heavily on his book ‘Renegades’ – the story of Canadians in the Spanish Civil War – for a section of my […]
It was the US artist Andy Warhol who once said “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”, a phrase that seems to have underscored a universal desire to get noticed. There is no question that it is much easier in a world of 24/7 news to have one’s story told: recall the […]
This is a big year for us in Canada. Sure, we are a youngish nation and celebrating 150 years may sound quaint to our older international cousins, but it is a cause for celebration nonetheless. I am looking forward to the commemoration as I was six when we marked our centennial in 1967 and don’t […]
In Lewis Carroll’s Alice through the looking glass Humpty-Dumpty delivers this famous line: “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” Alice replied: “he question is whether you can make words mean so many different things.” I think this notion that anyone can say anything they like […]
It has now been a few weeks since Alexandre Bissonnette walked into the Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City armed to the teeth and carried out his cowardly slaughter of six Muslims at isha prayers (yes, this attack, unlike a suicide one, was cowardly since Mr. Bissonnette’s victims had no way to defend themselves AND […]