Liberals supporting the RCMP with new funding
Re: “Canada’s law enforcement and security services are in crisis,” (The Hill Times, Oct. 30, p. 13). I’m writing to correct the inaccurate statements NDP MP Wayne Stetski made in The Hill Times with respect to the changes underway at the RCMP. It is a time of change at the force. Our government is working […]
We live in a world where we jump to terrorism conclusions too fast
OTTAWA—There is no question that the world has terrorism on the brain. So much has changed since 9/11 that we are both more attuned to and frightened by the spectre of terrorism that it has affected our ability to accurately measure what is happening and, perhaps more importantly, what we are doing about it. This, […]
Why the phrase ‘war on terrorism’ is ill thought
It is rare that one can look back on something composed years ago and see it as relevant today as it was thought to be back then. So much changes as new variables enter into play and our own understanding and appreciation for phenomena matures to reflect these new additions. That is indeed a good […]
Takeaways so far from the terrorist attack in Edmonton
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 was […]
Why do we have anti-terrorism laws if we are not going to use them?
OTTAWA—I don’t get it. We make a big deal of terrorism these days, too big in my opinion, but we have collectively decided that terrorism is a serious threat (which it is) and that we need to deal with it. Part of our response is making sure organizations like CSIS and the RCMP have enough […]
Why we will never ‘eradicate’ terrorism
OTTAWA—Scientists have made great progress in eradicating diseases that once maimed or killed millions of people. Think of smallpox. Or polio, which a few years ago was on the verge of disappearance though state instability and war allowed it to cling to life. The reason why these scourges were defeated (apparently there is a difference […]
Public Safety Canada, CSE set to start cyber-threat sharing pact with private sector
With threats like cyber-espionage and ransomware targeting businesses and governments across the world, cyber-security has never been a more stark reality for Canadian businesses. Examples like the ransomware attacks that devastated the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) earlier this year, or the more recent attack on container shipping giant Maersk, which cost it nearly […]
Omar Khadr and values in a time of ‘war’
Societal values, especially “Canadian” ones, have had recent public airings. In the 2015 election and the subsequent leadership campaign for the Conservative Party there were a variety of comments offered on the values that should be associated with Canadian society. Those debates offered little since they were largely abstractions, far removed from the preoccupations of […]
Terrorism isn’t as big as you think
LONDON, U.K.—London in March: five dead. Stockholm in April: another five dead. Manchester in May: 22 dead. London again in June, this time on London Bridge: eight dead. Barcelona in August: 14 dead. Five mass-casualty terrorist attacks in Europe in six months, and all but one (Manchester) carried out using rental trucks. Is it safe to […]
Terrorism is a public safety issue, not national security threat
The other day I had lunch with an old friend who, like me, used to work in the Canadian intelligence community. We had a wide-ranging chat over a number of issues—Donald Trump, what each of us was up to these days, etc. But as inevitably happens when two people with our backgrounds get together, the conversation […]
