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Wesley Wark
Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
Canada's leading centre for analysis and debate of international affairs.
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The (Vanishing?) Conspiracy Theory Part 1: Daniel Jean on the PM’s India Trip
- Analysis
- April 21, 2018
The National Security and Intelligence Adviser to the Prime Minister, Daniel Jean, made a rare appearance before a Parliamentary committee on April 16. Such visits are usually sparked by scandal and controversy, and Jean’s appearance was no different. On the …
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The (Vanishing?) Conspiracy Theory Part 2: Media Reports on the PM’s India Trip
- Analysis
- April 21, 2018
Here is a sample of what the media reported after Daniel Jean’s background brief:
Globe and Mail, February 22, 2018: “…after initially pointing the finger at Mr. Sarai, the Canadian government later spread the blame to ‘factions in India’ …
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The West Gets Tough on Russia. What’s Next?
- Analysis
- March 29, 2018
Canada has now joined an international effort to punish the Russians for their role in the use of a nerve agent to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England.
Global Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland …
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What Canada Should Do about Russia’s New Aggression
- Analysis
- March 16, 2018
The crisis between Russia and the West over the poisoning of former Russia spy Sergei Skripal, daughter, Yulia, and a British police sergeant, Nick Bailey, has now moved to the global stage of the United Nations Security Council. The crisis, …
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From Spy Story to Global Crisis
- Analysis
- March 16, 2018
The biggest crisis in relations between Russia and the West since Russian aggression in Crimea and Ukraine is now in full force. The enormity of the action that led to this crisis — the poisoning of a former Russian spy …
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Old-Style Poisoning Sets the Scene for New Cold War
- Analysis
- March 14, 2018
An aging Russian general and former spy is found murdered in a London park, the victim of an assassin’s gun. That’s a story straight out of a John le Carré novel. An aging Russian colonel and former spy is discovered, …
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Before We Sell Aecon to China, Canada’s National Security Must Come First
- Analysis
- February 8, 2018
“The Chinese are coming” may sound like a melodramatic note from a bygone Cold War, but it has been updated for a new reality of Chinese global economic expansion. Developing and developed economies alike have felt its impact. Now, one …
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“Returned Extremist Travellers”: The Small Numbers Problem for Canada, Part 1
- Analysis
- January 18, 2018
On 21 December, the Public Safety department released the government’s “Terrorist Threat to Canada” report for 2017 to no fanfare and little media attention. If you want something to get no attention, send it out just before the Christmas holidays. …
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“Returned Extremist Travellers”: The Small Numbers Problem for Canada, Part 2
- Analysis
- January 18, 2018
The key to a successful response to RETs is knowing who they are and when they will reach your shores. Impossible though this seems, real opportunities for identifying the IS fighter cadre …
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Trump’s Security Strategy is more about his Personal Grievances
- Analysis
- December 20, 2017
US President Donald Trump released his administration’s national security strategy, presented in a speech to a subdued military audience on the afternoon of December 18th. The strategy document was previewed by Trump’s national security adviser, General H.R. McMaster, …
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Just Don’t Share, Except With Care
- Analysis
- September 26, 2017
The federal government’s Public Safety Department has just released a bombshell ministerial directive dealing with the sensitive issue of intelligence sharing in cases that might involve torture. This issue has long and delicate roots, reaching back to the terrible case …
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Liberals’ Bold Bill C-59 Would Redraw the National Security Landscape
- Analysis
- June 21, 2017
The Liberal government has finally introduced long-awaited reforms to national security legislation, fulfilling a promise to roll back the Harper government’s anti-terrorism measures and put its own stamp on security policy. These reforms are part of a last-minute surge of …
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Theresa May’s use of “critical” threat level is a double-edged sword
- Analysis
- June 14, 2017
In the wake of the vicious suicide bombing in Manchester, the British government under Prime Minister Theresa May has temporarily suspended an election campaign and done two extraordinary things. It has raised the terrorism threat level to “critical” — something …
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Trump should try on the velvet glove in dealing with Moscow
- Analysis
- April 15, 2017
Every country in the world, Canada included, is scrambling to catch up to some breathtaking changes in the fundamental approach of the United States to global politics. These changes were prompted by the Trump administration’s reactions to the use of …
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Trump and Syria: After Cruise Missiles, What?
- Analysis
- April 7, 2017
The United States has moved swiftly and dramatically to punish the Syrian regime for its use of chemical weapons against civilians in a recent attack on a rebel-held town in Northern Syria. On Thursday evening, US warships off the coast …
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Wiretrap: Trump’s Tweet War with US Intelligence
- Analysis
- March 21, 2017
Early one Saturday morning, March 4, President Trump took to his favourite bully pulpit to issue his most infamous tweet — that President Obama had wiretapped his Trump Towers residence during the 2016 election — using various trigger words, including …
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Trump’s victory means major security shocks for Canada
- Analysis
- November 16, 2016
The shock effect of Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential campaign will reach and shake the bedrock of Canadian national security policy. Maybe not right away, maybe not always visibly, but a Trump presidency has enormous implications for Canada’s …
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At one year in power, the Liberals have yet to face a major national security test
- Analysis
- October 18, 2016
The Liberal government, in its first year in power, has enjoyed the benefit of a highly advantageous environment for national security policy making: a majority in Parliament; ineffective political opposition; no terrorist attacks; a public whose attention is largely elsewhere. …
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Obama’s “ghost camp” haunts him still
- Analysis
- February 29, 2016
The infamous Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, built by the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks to house captured terrorists, is fast becoming a ghost camp. Over the years, some 800 detainees have been held at Guantanamo; the number …
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Where’s the government’s longer-range vision on ISIL?
- Analysis
- February 9, 2016
Prime Minister Trudeau wants to put a new Liberal stamp on the Canadian mission to Iraq and the region. His press conference on Monday marked an expected shift away from a direct Canadian contribution to air attacks against Islamic State …
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Canada’s spy watchdogs: Good, but not good enough
- Analysis
- February 5, 2016
The tabling in Parliament this past week of the annual reports of Canada’s two spy watchdog agencies conveys a hidden message. The message is that the existing system to hold intrusive intelligence gathering agencies to account is working; in fact, …
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Canada increasing its intelligence efforts against terrorism a good idea
- Analysis
- January 25, 2016
There was nothing said on the campaign trail, nothing promised in the election platform, nothing laid down in the ministers’ mandate letters made public after the Trudeau government came into office.
But as the Liberals struggle to define a revamped …
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National Security: The Election Issue that Wasn’t
It has been a long and tumultuous federal election campaign in Canada, now coming to an end with a bang not a whimper. Whatever the result on October 19, one promised election ground was largely, and strangely, vacated by all …
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When we should, and shouldn’t, revoke citizenship
The long federal election campaign has been knocked off course at various stages by the unexpected: revelations from the Duffy trial; the accelerating Syrian refugee crisis; the niqab issue in citizenship ceremonies; and now, courtesy of Monday night’s Munk debate …
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Terror No-Go Zones an Election-Friendly Scrap
- Analysis
- August 16, 2015
Published in the Ottawa Citizen, August 14, 2015
The campaign trail declaration by the Stephen Harper Conservatives to set up a regime of designated no-go terrorist activity zones is a left-over from the omnibus anti-terrorism legislation that the government …
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The Summer of Cyber Attacks
- Analysis
- July 6, 2015
Published in the Ottawa Sun, July 3, 2015
Two things can be said about Ottawa’s summer, so far. One is that it has been wet; the other is that it’s been raining cyber attacks on federal government websites.
The …
READ MOREInformation Gap About Zehaf-Bibeau Threatens Security
Published in the Ottawa Citizen, June 4, 2015
The release of several reports into the attack by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau on Parliament Hill last October reveal some missed opportunities to apprehend the shooter before he entered Parliament. The major lessons …
READ MORECounterterrorism: Is it Working?
Published in the Globe and Mail, May 25, 2015
The Islamic State terrorist group now commands the greatest army of foreign mercenaries in modern history. Current estimates of its size range from 20,000 foreign fighters to a Central Intelligence …
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Getting the Balance Right on C-51
Published in the Ottawa Citizen, March 30, 2015
The Liberal party announced its desired amendments to Bill C-51, the anti-terrorism legislation, last Thursday morning. The Liberals seized at least a temporary, first out of the gate, advantage in what …
READ MOREC-51 Has Sparked A Much-Needed Conversation About Security and Rights
Published in the Globe and Mail, March 25, 2015
The best thing that might come out of Bill C-51, the government’s proposed new anti-terrorism legislation, will not be the bill itself, certainly not if it passes through the House …
READ MOREThe Anti-Terrorism Legislation Has Likely Been Oversold
Published in the Ottawa Citizen, January 28, 2015
The Canadian government has been beating the drum about the need for new counter-terrorism powers since the October, 2014 terror attacks in Quebec and Ottawa. A legislative package is finally scheduled …
READ MOREFrench Intelligence to Blame?
All terrorist outrages are inevitably followed by soul-searching and blame-seeking. Last week’s terrible events in France have followed the inevitable trajectory. While the French Republic’s security manhunt for the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo and Jewish supermarket killings involved an …
READ MOREThe Rise and Fall of Arthur Porter
Published in the National Post, September 29, 2014
Arthur Porter led a seemingly charmed life, which took him from the impoverished country of his birth, Sierra Leone, to elite Cambridge University, where he earned a medical degree. The young …
READ MORECan Al Qaeda Compete With ISIL?
By Archana Sundarachari and Wesley Wark
The world’s attention has been riveted for weeks on the military exploits and brutal excesses of a relatively new jihadist entity, the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS or IS). …
READ MOREWhere’s the Megaphone on the Threat to Canada?
Published in the Ottawa Citizen on September 6, 2014
The Conservative government has a strange way with public pronouncements on security issues. When it comes to the gravest of international crises, the government is prone to bold, headline-grabbing statements, whether …
READ MORESpy Agency Watchdog Strikes a New Pose
Published in the Ottawa Citizen, August 23, 2014
The old adage in the spy business, when it came to publicity, was “no news is good news.” That ceased to pass democratic muster in Canada only in the mid-1980s and …
READ MORESecurity Certificates Are Flawed Tools
Published in the Ottawa Citizen, May 14, 2014
It was not a jailhouse door that slammed in Mohamed Harkat’s face this week, but something ultimately more definitive: a Supreme Court ruling. Harkat has lost a long legal battle that …
READ MOREReforming the Spy Game
When it comes to secret intelligence, the United States sometimes behaves like a true democracy. It reminds me of the Leonard Cohen line, “democracy is coming…to the U.S.A.”
President Barack Obama’s speech on January 17 marked an important occasion in …
READ MORESix Ways for Harper to Reclaim the National Security Agenda
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he is “very concerned” about revelations of Canadian spy activity targeting Brazil. So he should be. The operation by the Communications Security Establishment Canada, our electronic spy agency, looks to have been ill-advised and a …
READ MORECanadians Shouldn’t Be Surprised About Alleged Terror Plot
Published on CNN.com, April 23, 2013
When it comes to terrorism, North America is a shared space. That has always been the conviction of Canadian officials and is written into our official counter-terrorism strategy. It is also a belief …
READ MOREThoughts on the Future of Intelligence Accountability in Canada
The decision of the Harper government to close the Office of the Inspector General of CSIS and end its 28-year history opens a new and challenging chapter for the process of keeping watch over the Canadian security and intelligence community. …
READ MOREWhat to Do With Khadr
Published in the Ottawa Citizen, April 19, 2012. Reprinted in full with permission.
The Conservative government has now run out of wiggle room in the case of Omar Khadr, the son of the notorious Canadian al-Qaeda loyalist, Ahmed Said …
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