Last week, the Ontario Court of Justice issued a decision holding that Iran engaged in a terrorism offence in downing Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 in January 2020, and therefore is civilly liable under Canada’s Justice for the Victims of Terrorism Act (JVTA) (and related provisions in the State Immunity Act). Craig invites Thomas Juneau, Leah West and Michael Nesbitt to discuss the background to this lawsuit and to the JVTA (and related State Immunity Act provisions). Leah and Michael then lay out their concerns and criticism of the Ontario court’s reasoning, also discussed in their recent blog post.
Read MoreStephanie and Craig are back with the latest discussion of key court decisions affecting national security law. Here, we take a quick look at how Charter section 7 “fundamental justice” has created expectations about the “substance” of government conduct in select national security cases. We discuss Operational Dismantle (and the application of the Charter to the Crown’s prerogative powers over defence and international relations), Suresh (and the prospect of removing someone to a place where they may be tortured) and O’Neill (dealing with the nonsense that is s 4 of the Security of Information Act).
Read MoreStephanie and Craig are back with the latest discussion of key court decisions affecting national security law. Here, we take a quick look at the thorny issue of disclosure of information by the government in criminal cases, governed by several key section 7 cases. We discuss Stinchcombe and O’Connor. And then segue into how national security confidentiality privileges under section 38 of the Canada Evdence Act feed into the discussion. Here, we chat about Ribic and Ahmad. Once again, Craig has prepared a “Charter Short” providing a video primer on section 7 and criminal law disclosure. You may want to view this first. For a deeper dive on the “intelligence to evidence” issues this system of disclosure raises, see this article by Leah West and this article by Craig Forcese.
Read MoreIn this episode of Intrepid Podcast, Leah and Stephanie sit down and speak with Shelly Bruce, Chief of the CSE about the organization she is responsible for in an era of changing legislation, threats, review and, of course, a worldwide pandemic. The trio also speak about a number of topics, including Shelly’s career, cyber attribution, cyber defence, the CSE’s 75th anniversary, and the importance of diversity in STEM and national security.
Read MoreThe Intrepid crew start a new series, discussing the leading court decisions in national security law. We keep dropping case names. So we figured we should do a walk through. We’ve organized this cases in progressions, mostly built around Charter rights. In this first episode Craig and Stephanie focus on section 7 of the Charter, and those cases decided under it implicating procedural fairness in national security matters. Before listening to the deep dive, please also consider reviewing another feature Craig has created: Charter “Shorts” (basic primers on different Charter rights). The 10 minute section 7 “short” is here. You may also want to go back to our earlier special series on the Charter with Carissma Mathen, our Muskoka Chair Charter Chats from the summer of 2020. Here’s the section 7 discussion.
In this podcast, we focus on four cases: Singh (1985); Charkaoui I (2007); Charkaoui II (2008); Harkat (2014).
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Read MoreDuring the pandemic we have heard a lot about state actors engaging in threat-related activity. But what are non-state actors up to? In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Alex Wilner and Casey Babb to discuss their forthcoming chapter on this very question. Wilner and Baab identify three major activities that non-state actors are engaging in online: delegitimation, recruitment and incitement. After describing these activities, the three discuss what might be done about this problem. At a time when Parliament is investigating the regulation of social media companies, are there options for both the government and private sector to curb the risk of violence?
Note - Wilner and Babb’s chapter will be appearing in Leah West, Thomas Juneau, and Amarnath Amarasingam, eds. Stress Tested: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Canadian National Security. Calgary: University of Calgary Press – open source and out this spring! Stay tuned to the podcast and Intrepidpodcast.com for more information.
Read MoreHer Majesty in Right of Pod returns to ask: How well has Parliament fared in the pandemic? Stephanie sits down with Phil Lagassé to discuss whether or not the fears expressed in last year’s Ep 122 over the challenges of running a legislature during COVID-19 came true. But there are other issues to discuss as well, especially Parliament’s weak performance in the area of national security. With legislation dying at prorogation, omnibus bills and a slow roll out of reform and change, why is Canada so bad at passing national security legislation? And what might be done about it? But first, Stephanie asks Phil about the state of the Governor General’s office, and what it means to have the Supreme Court Justice acting in a Vice Regent role. (Unfortunately, it turns out Phil is not interested in the role.)
Read MorePresident Biden came into office in January 2021 with promises of holding Saudi Arabia accountable for the death of Jamal Khashoggi, but also to turn the focus of US foreign policy away from the Middle East and towards the Asia-Pacific. Six weeks later, he released a damning intelligence report, but took few other steps to hold Prince Mohammed bin Salman responsible. Nor did he take steps that can be seen as really separating the US from its traditional alliance with the Kingdom. Are there implications of this for Canada? Stephanie sits down with Thomas Juneau to discuss Biden’s policy towards Saudi Arabia, the impact on MBS and the Kingdom (and its campaign against dissidents and other former Saudi officials in Canada). They also discuss the disastrous war in Yemen, Canada’s controversial arms deal and the future of Canada’s relations with the Kingdom.
Read MoreCanada has a 5G and Huawei dilemma – but what is it, exactly? Is it technical risk? A matter of economic national security? Geopolitics? In reality, it is all of the above, but conflating these issues is hindering Canada’s ability to respond. Stephanie sits down with Christopher Parsons, a Senior Research Associate at the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, to talk about these issues on the podcast. They walk through Chris’ report that unpacks Canada’s Huawei/5G dilemmas, and what this means for Canadian national security, foreign policy and critical infrastructure going forward.
You can (and should!) read Chris Parson’s report, “Huawei and 5G: Clarifying the Canadian Equities and Charting a Strategic Path Forward” here: https://citizenlab.ca/2020/12/huawei-5g-clarifying-the-canadian-equities-and-charting-a-strategic-path-forward/
Read MoreIn this episode, Stephanie and Leah sit down with Bill Robinson, Citizen Lab Fellow and one of Canada’s leading national security researchers, to discuss the first reports by two of Canada’s new intelligence review and oversight bodies, the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) and the Intelligence Commissioner (IC). The three make comparisons to prior reports produced by their predecessors (the Security and Intelligence Review Committee and the Office of the Commissioner of the Communications Security Establishment respectively). In some cases, they are left wanting for some of the detail of previous reports. While the trio sometimes dig into the weedy details in these reports, they do so in the context of an important question: Bill C-59 augmented the powers of the national security agencies on the understanding that this would be balanced by an enhanced review process – is that expectation being met here?
Read MoreThis episode of Intrepid Podcast examines some recent developments with regards to CSIS. First, Stephanie and Jessica discuss the public speech that the CSIS Director gave on Tuesday February 9 at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. Next, Stephanie sits down with Leah and the long-lost Craig Forcese to discuss to recent Federal Court Decisions about CSIS foreign intelligence authorities. Once again, the Court has reaffirmed a very strict interpretation of what it means to collect intelligence “within” Canada. But where does this leave the Service in terms of the expectations that it can monitor an increasingly complex array of threats? And is this a problem that can be fixed without creating a foreign intelligence service?
Read MoreShould Canada do more to counter hate online? This is a question currently before the House of Commons Heritage Committee. A new survey conducted in January 2021 on behalf of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation find that 93% are in favour of doing so. Stephanie sits down with Mohammed Hashim, the new Executive Director of the CRRF to discuss these results and what he thinks should be done. Importantly, before they dive in, they contextualize the discussion with some reflections of the four year anniversary of the violent extremist attack on a mosque in Quebec City, Islamophobia and the significance of a new National Day of Remembrance.
You can read the results of the survey here: https://www.crrf-fcrr.ca/images/CRRF_OnlineHate_Racism_Jan2021_FINAL.pdf
You can follow Mohammed Hashim on Twitter at: @mohashim
You can follow the CRRF on Twitter at: @CRRF
Read MoreIn this episode, Michael Nesbitt interviews Jessica Davis about her recent article in Lawfare, “Rethinking Global Counterterrorist Financing” where she identifies the challenges that new terrorist and extremist movements and groups pose for counter-terrorist financing, and argues that we need to stop thinking of the end goal of counterterrorism financing (CTF) as simply stopping the flow of money, and more of a source of intelligence that can be used to learn more about existing and evolving threats.
You can read Jess’ article here: https://www.lawfareblog.com/rethinking-global-counterterrorist-financing
Read MoreIn the wake of the riot (often described as an insurrection) at the Capitol Building in Washington DC on January 6, there have been calls for the government of Canada to do more to combat far right terrorism. This includes listing the Canadian-founded Proud Boys, a far-right, chauvinist and neo-fascist organization. It is alleged that members of the Proud Boys participated in acts of terrorist violence that day, as well as during several earlier high-profile incidents.
In this episode, Stephanie, Leah and Jess break down the listing process – how it is done and what the consequences are. They look at the issue of whether it is a political vs a politicized process, and some criticisms of the listings process – does adding more entities to the listings process simply strengthen a system that disproportionately impacts minorities in Canada, particularly Muslim groups? What might be done to improve this process?
Read MoreIn this episode, Jessica Davis interviews Michael Nesbitt about a recent case out of Halifax where an individual was found not guilty of breaching Canadian sanctions on Syria. The two discuss Canada’s sanction regime and the challenges in enforcement. Turns out while Canada may have many sanctions laws on the books, we do not have much in the way to enforce them. This episode was recorded on 16 December 2020.
For more on the case see: https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/local/halifax-businessman-found-not-guilty-of-breaching-economic-sanctions-on-syria-528928/
Read MoreIn this podcast, Stephanie converses with Navaid Aziz of the Islamic Information Society of Calgary. Navaid has been described as a “bridge builder” between the Muslim community, and the Canadian national security community. He is also actively engaged in community-based intervention and prevention.
In their conversation, the two discuss bias in Canadian national security, harmful language that is used, and what, if anything, might be done to improve community relations. In addition, they discuss a social media incident this past fall where Stephanie posted a picture of a cake depicting a drone strike that was condemned as insensitive and Islamophobic. Navaid asks Stephanie about the aftermath – what she has learned and the actions she has taken to begin repairing relations.
Read MoreIn this episode, Leah sits down with the co-chairs of the National Security Transparency Advisory Group, Dominic Rochon, Assistant Deputy Minister of National and Cybersecurity at Public Safety Canada and Thomas Juneau (Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa, and Intrepid Podcast editor) to discuss their first report, the group’s first year, and what we can expect from the NS-TAG in 2021.
Read MoreWe continue with a series theme we began in the summer: diversity and inclusion in the security and intelligence sector. In this episode, Jessica Davis speaks with Dr. Rachel Schmidt on her recent International Journal article “Investigating implicit biases around race and gender in Canadian counterterrorism”. As the two discuss, this is not about being politically correct: bias affects national security operations and policy outcomes. However, while Rachel’s research suggests this problem is largely recognized in the Canadian national security community itself, individuals are lost when it comes to trying to create change. But this is no excuse for not taking action: confronting implicit bias around gender, race and religion is important for doing national security better.
The article under discussion can be found here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020702020976615
Read MoreIn Part 2 of our look at the 2020 National Cyber Threat Assessment, Leah sits down with two of the people responsible for producing this year’s report, JP Racicot and Tyler from the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, to talk about what goes in to writing the NCTA, five key trends and what they mean for Canadians, and what they hope readers will take away from the report.
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