Now not time to divert resources to guard against alt-right terrorism
OTTAWA—A lot of people are worried about the rise of the far right these days in light of what happened in Charlottesville, Va., recently. At least that seems to be the case, based on the number of articles and op-ed pieces that I have come across in my news scanning, as well as the number […]
Afghanistan has become the endless war
LONDON, U.K.—In 2010, Barack Obama’s vice-president, Joe Biden, vowed that the United States would be “totally out” of Afghanistan “come hell or high water, by 2014.” In 2014, Obama said that he would leave about 8,000 U.S. troops there after all, and made an agreement with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that extended their stay “until […]
Barcelona and Charlottesville: similar crimes, very different Trump responses
OTTAWA—In a scene from the 1980 classic comedy movie The Blues Brothers, the title characters are stuck in a traffic jam. The cause of the delay is a group of Nazis blocking a bridge while police restrain a heckling mob of anti-Nazi protesters. When informed by a policeman that the protesters had won a court decision authorizing […]
Barcelona-style vehicle attacks almost impossible to defend against
The carnage last week in Barcelona is getting to be depressingly familiar. An individual drives a vehicle (car, van, 18-wheeler) into an unsuspecting crowd of people, strewing them like bowling pins. Innocent people are injured, some horribly, and some die (maybe mercifully quickly or agonisingly slowly). Even before ISIS claimed responsibility, its fan boys, in the […]
How did skill save cabby from Aaron Driver?
Re: “What have we learned from the Aaron Driver case one year later?” (The Hill Times, Aug. 14, p. 13). I agree that skill and luck are needed to thwart terrorists, but I still wonder how skill played into the near death of the cabbie who by all accounts waited several minutes for Driver to […]
Politics This Morning: Goodale, Hussen in Lacolle to talk about asylum seekers
Good Monday morning, As controversy continues to swirl over surging numbers of asylum seekers from the United States crossing illegally into Canada, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen are appearing in the Quebec border town of Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle to field questions from the media. The ministers and local Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan […]
Feds should match wildfire donations
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited parts of British Columbia this week where wildfires have burned down homes and businesses and have displaced thousands of people. The federal government has done a lot of good things in responding to this crisis. It acted quickly to set up an ad-hoc cabinet committee chaired by Minister for Sports […]
Feds must move fast to set up emergency alert system for cellphones
PARLIAMENT HILL—Emergencies come in all shapes and sizes. In Ontario, unpredictable weather is a fact of life that can have devastating effects on people and property. Then there are the man-made ones such as gas leaks, chemical spills, terror attacks, and child abductions. You’re either prepared for emergencies or you’re not. Simply put, we are […]
New security package positive, but storm clouds on horizon between House and Senate
OTTAWA—The great thing about the first two years of a new government is that people are willing to cut the team a lot of slack. The challenging thing about the last two years of the same mandate is that patience has worn thin and people wants results. The months leading up to the midpoint are […]
New counter-radicalization approach makes more sense than bombs and condolences
TORONTO—Terrorism is like the Hydra of Lerna, the mythological monster capable of regenerating two heads whenever Hercules chopped one off. I don’t know how or if Hercules eventually killed the Hydra, just as I am not sure how to defeat terrorism. However, I do know two things that are useless: one is sending condolences to […]
