Do immigrants and asylum-seekers pose a terrorist threat?
The news coming out of Stockholm is all too familiar these days. A man stole a beer truck and drove it down a popular pedestrian mall in the centre of town, mowing down people before crashing into a storefront. The use of a vehicle to cause terror has become a trend of late and attacks […]
Trains, plane and automobiles, and terrorism
OTTAWA—Terrorism is sure getting complicated. The good old days, if I may call them that, were easy by comparison. Terrorists were easy to spot because they tended to chuck bombs or fire weapons at people, the larger the crowd the better. Then we got to the airline hijacking phase in which most incidents ended relatively […]
‘Couch jihadis’ aren’t always terrorists in waiting
Some potentially disturbing news on the terrorism front came out the other day in Canada. According to reports, employees at Pierre Elliot Trudeau airport in Montreal (it used to be called Dorval) had their security clearances revoked over concerns that they had become “radicalized”. The men had access to restricted areas, one had talked about […]
Give the RCMP the resources it needs
PARLIAMENT HILL—Last year, Public Safety Minister Goodale signed off on an annual bonus package for top RCMP brass totalling more than $1.7-million. The bonuses were doled out among 96 senior officers and included $295,514 for six deputy commissioners—a nine per cent increase over their 2015 bonuses. The six deputies have difficult jobs and between them […]
Leitch’s campaign says mass email to supporters while pictured firing a handgun intended to communicate directly to gun owners, ‘very important’ community
OTTAWA—Conservative Party leadership candidate Kellie Leitch’s email to supporters about her proposed firearm policies, which included a photo of her firing a 1972 Walther P1 handgun at a shooting range while discussing the “tradition of using firearms for hunting and for recreational purposes,” was intended to communicate to lawful gun owners who are important to the party, […]
Unfathomable jihadist forces Britain to confront ever-changing terror threat
LONDON, U.K.—When terrorists struck in London in the summer of 2005, the United Kingdom was plunged into shock of the kind that reverberated across the United States after 9/11. Tony Blair, who as prime minister was hosting world leaders at the annual G8 summit at Gleneagles golf resort in Scotland, hastily abandoned the conference to […]
British, Canadian attacks show terrorists come in all forms
OTTAWA—Last Wednesday’s deadly attack in London was a shocking act of violence resulting in five deaths and around 40 innocent bystanders being injured along the famous Westminster Bridge and on the grounds of the British parliament buildings. It was also immediately deemed an act of terrorism and the Western world sent messages of solidarity to […]
Jumping the gun on terrorism, again
OTTAWA—I know that in a world of 24/7 news and intense competition to be first with a breaking story that time is of the essence. Individuals and news outlets feel that they do not have the luxury to wait to publish, for fear that another individual or outlet will scoop them. In their haste, there is seldom […]
Canadian officials complicit in U.S. border troubles
OTTAWA—It has now been more than 15 years since that fateful day on Sept. 11, 2001 when the centres of American society and government were attacked. And like July 28, 1914 and Sept. 1, 1939, the world changed. The government and people of the United States, in a fit more of anger than sound policy, embarked […]
Preliminary thoughts on the London attacks
OTTAWA—Residents of London have undergone yet another terrorist attack. The nation that survived countless IRA attacks and threats in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and which saw the carnage of July 2005 and the attempted beheading of a military member in Woolwich in 2013, is reeling from last Wednesday’s events when a man ran over […]
