Canadian Intelligence Eh
Episodes
340 episodes
Episode 329 - Where do 'new' terrorist groups come from?
You would think the world already has enough terrorist groups. While jihadi ones like Al Qaeda and Islamic State - and their affiliates, provinces and wannabes - predominate, there are others out there as well. And in what is an interesti...
Spies Like Us Season 3 Episode 23 - Don't break the China!
After a short hiatus the Al-less boys - does this make us a duet? - are back and it's all about China. Neil and Phil talk with Canada's top Sinologist (that means China watcher for you non-China watchers) Charles Burton about why exactly ...
Episode 328 - Overseas conflicts often lead to threats here
Well, the world is in a state these days, isn't it? War in Iran. War in Gaza. War in Lebanon. Closure of the Straits of Hormuz. An ongoing civil war in Yemen. And that is just the Middle East! When it comes to terrorism in the West, acts ...
Quick Hits Episode 275 - Where are all the dead terrorists?
Terrorist groups come and go, like just about everything else. And yet, some seem to last a long time, pronouncements of their deaths notwithstanding (I want to channel my inner Mark Twain here but...). Boko Haram in Nigeria is a good exa...
Episode 327 - Old terrorist groups never die, or do they?
For decades, the one Western nation that seemed most beset by terrorism was Ireland, as the IRA (Irish Republican Army) was bent on using violence to coerce the six counties of the north to join the Republic. The Troubles, as they were kn...
Episode 274 - Canadian law sucks when it comes to terrorism
Prisons serve several purposes, or so it seems to me (I am not a incarceration specialist). First and foremost it is a system that can help keep the public safe from truly dangerous people. Second, it is part of a series of institutions t...
Episode 326 - What is it like to brief the POTUS on intelligence?
Imagine you are the one on the hotseat who has to tell the President of the US what is happening in the world - on a daily basis. What do you tell him? Where do you get the information from? How does personality enter into the equation? H...
Episode 325 - Is the world ignoring the peril of Afghanistan?
For two decades NATO members, including Canada, were at war in Afghanistan. More than 3,000 allied soldiers died (among whom were 158 Canadians) and when the last US troops left in 2021 Afghanistan went back to the status quo ante: i.e. t...
Quick Hits Episode 273 - Is Jewish terrorism real?
In a world dominated by jihadi terrorism we cannot discount the minor players who are also bent on violence. We have Hindu terrorists in India, Christian terrorists in the US and, wait for it, Jewish terrorists in Israel. Violence in the ...
Episode 324 - The pressure of investigating a shooting in wartime
If you watch enough crime dramas on Netflix (or the streaming platform of your choice: my wife and I are watching the quirky Annika on PBS now), you are led to believe that solving crimes is a matter of time. Alas, that time can be as sho...
Episode 323 - Should Canada know more about its spies?
If there is one profession that is badly misunderstood - or not understood at all - it is espionage. Oh sure, there are spy novels and James Bond films and all that, but these are fictional and do not portray the world of intelligence gat...
Episode 322 - Is Canada putting money ahead of human rights?
Thanks to US President Trump Canada is forced to diversify its trade relationships. One of those partners, not new but enhanced, is China, and the government of Prime Minister Carney is busy signing deals with the PRC. One of those agreem...
Spies Like Us - Season 3 Episode 22: Say it ain't so Ma!
Yes, another week with the lads in the virtual bar as they delve into the details of yet another counter terrorism unit in Canada, why a wanker Liberal MP is questioning Chinese use of forced Uyghur labour, and why can the Canadian govern...
Quick Hits Episode 272 - Does Toronto Police need its own counter-terrorism unit?
In a surprise announcement on March 24, the Chief of Toronto Police, Myron Demkiw, stated that his force would create a "standalone" counter-terrorism unit. Recent attacks against the US Consulate in Toronto and several Jewish institution...
Episode 321 - Will Yemen's Houthis jump into the US-Israel war on Iran?
Most people think little of Yemen, a desperately poor state at the heel of the Arabian Peninsula. Wracked by civil war and a poor economy, it has nevertheless punched well above its weight, forestalling a Saudi-UAE effort to unseat its go...
Episode 320 - Why is the Canadian government ignoring national security in the Arctic?
Canada proudly proclaims that it is the 'Great White North', a reference to our long border with the Arctic (and sometimes interminable winters - like this one!). But does it really treat the region as a national security priority (it did...
Spies Like Us Season 3 Episode 20 - IRGC'ing you!
What happens when three ex-spies talk about national security? You get in-depth, insider views of what's happening including why two morons shoot up an empty diplomatic presence at o-dark-hundred, why Canada is level-headed when it comes ...
Episode 319 - Does the Canadian government really 'get' national security?
To say that voters do not care about national security is stating the obvious. When they cast their ballot they are more concerned about the economy, jobs, health care, education and other issues, not on what Canada's security services ar...
Spies Like Us Season 3 Episode 19 - Trump: I-ran from Venezuela to the Persian Gulf
In this week's bar chat (ok, the bar is virtual but the beer is real and Al is enjoying a "Juicy Ass" - please don't pursue why!) the lads look at various aspects of the war ("Don't mention the war" - classic John Cleese in Fawlty Towers!...
Episode 318 - What is next for Iran?
Wow, what a couple of days! Israeli and US airstrikes are continuing in Iran and the country's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khamene'i, is dead. Iran is engaged in counterstrikes in the region and many are worried about where this will all ...
Episode 317 - Jihadism in the Sahel keeps getting worse
Not many people, I wager, follow events in Africa, let alone the Sahel, the band that spreads from Mauritania in the west to Sudan in the east. And yet this region is rapidly becoming terrorism central globally as groups aligned with both...
Episode 316 - Is Sikh terrorism a thing of the past and are Canadian Sikhs now subject to Indian state violence?
At one point in the not too distant past Sikh Canadians were tarred with the terrorism brush. After all, the bombing of an Air India flight in 1985 in which 329 people - mostly Canadians - were killed was the single largest act of aviatio...
Spies Like Us Season 3 Episode 18 - Repression and loathing in Canada
This week the boys weigh in on a new report on transnational repression (TNR) in Canada, co-authored by one of us (hint: not Neil and not Al), why it is so hard to use intelligence in court cases, and ask whether the Hells Angels owned a ...
Episode 315 - What do bucks and bangs have in common?
When most people think of national security they think of things like terrorism, espionage, sabotage and transnational repression. I doubt that economics comes to mind. But what if any is the link between a nation's economy and national s...
Spies like us Season 3 Episode 17 - Blowing your final exams: what is it with Western students?
In yet another chat in a virtual bar, the boys look into why a couple of Western University students were arrested on possible national security charges, why Canadians make great targets for Cuban spies, and why hiding behind a snow...