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 […]
Mr. Big tactic should be allowed, especially in terrorism cases
OTTAWA—In a democracy that prides itself on the rule of law, no one in Canada is above the law, even—and especially—those charged with enforcing it, i.e. law enforcement agencies and their members. Nothing subverts the faith a society has in its legal institutions more than the belief that laws are not applied equally to all […]
Guantanamo: America’s ongoing colossal error
I think we can all agree—well except maybe some in the new Trump administration—that the US decision to use the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba to hold terrorist suspects extra-judicially was a particularly bad idea. Not only did the practice sully the U.S. image as the protector of democratic values, it also gave the very […]
Bowling alone in the White House
In a 1995 essay, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital, political scientist Robert Putnam lamented a decline in the social interaction that is so integral to civic engagement, democracy, and a country’s fundamental cultural fabric. In the U.S. he saw people disengaging from clubs, associations, voluntary organizations, even the Boy Scouts. In his view, the […]
‘We’ve got to have Plan B’: New Brunswick MPs weather the ice storm
Waking up to a world covered in ice, New Brunswick’s MPs spent the last days of their winter break scrambling to help constituents left in the cold by a storm that knocked out power lines across the province. Without a formal role in the disaster relief effort led by the province, the MPs toured warming […]
Problems easy to identify, solutions not so much
TORONTO—We don’t need many words to describe and condemn the perpetrator of the Quebec massacre; the person who did it is a cold-blooded assassin. Killers are killers, no matter the nationality, religion, or ethnic background. No excuses, especially the ones I’ve heard mumbling from some friends such as, “I regret the killings, but they should taste […]
Jumping the gun to label an act as ‘terrorism’ serves no useful purpose
I feel for politicians and public leaders—sometimes. True, they do come out with some stupid things on occasion, but I want to give them credit for assuming the role they do. It cannot be an easy job. When it comes to terrorism, and more specifically talking about whether a specific act is one of ‘terrorism’ […]
‘This shouldn’t happen here’: MP for Quebec riding where mosque attack took place
Joël Lightbound, the Liberal MP who represents the riding of Louis-Hébert, Que.—which is home to the mosque where Sunday night’s mass shooting took place—is calling on his colleagues and Canadians to be more conscious of the growing fear and division that is taking place across the country and North America. Late Sunday evening, the news broke that a gunman had entered […]
