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Canada’s Harper Government’s ‘Maginot’ Security Plan

CHRIS WOOD: NATURAL SECURITY June, 2015 Canada’s heavy-handed ‘security’ strategy is a sham. That statement may be true in a number of readings, ranging from motive to likely outcome (more inflamed zealots with an excuse for violence on Canadian soil). But the sense in which I mean it is this: Canada’s strategy is not securing the foundation of the nation’s wealth or prosperity or the freedoms those assets support. To the contrary. Behind its constant drumbeat of threat and necessary repression, the Conservative Party of Canada-led government has all but given up defending the most fundamental security its citizens enjoy: their

New Facts and Opinions that matter

New on F&O this week: Flight Out of Ethiopia, by international affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe (paywall) This week’s riots by thousands of Ethiopian Jews in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv mark the latest episode in a drama that stretches back well over 3,000 years, and 24 years  after Operation Solomon, one of the most extraordinarily successful rescue missions in modern history. The Ethiopians were protesting what they see as systemic racism by Israeli society against their community of about 130,000 people. The spark for the violent protests was a video posted on social media of two policemen beating a young Israeli-Ethiopian soldier, Demas

Omar Khadr’s next life

“Abused child.” “Child soldier.” “Brainwashed boy.” “Terrorist.” “Killer.” “Guantánamo prisoner.” “Victim of torture.” “War criminal.” “The only child soldier put on trial in modern history.” On Thursday Omar Khadr, 28, launched the next of his many lives: “Free man  — with conditions.” Born in Canada, Khadr was taken as a child to Afghanistan by his father, to fight with al-Qaeda. In 2002, aged 15, he was captured by American soldiers in a firefight in which he was injured. He was accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier, Sgt. Christopher Speer. Khadr was shipped to Guantánamo Bay, and convicted in 2010

UK Election primer

By Louise Thompson, University of SurreyMay 7, 2015 What is Britain voting for on May 7? Britain is voting for a new parliament, and, by extension, a new government. The election will decide the composition of the House of Commons, and ultimately, who will be prime minister. At the same time, there will be elections for local tiers of government in certain parts of the country. Who could be prime minister afterwards? Although there are a large number of parties competing in this election, only the leaders of the Conservative Party and the Labour Party have any real chance of becoming

Rachel Notley was born to lead Alberta NDP

Alberta is once again the New Jerusalem, writes historian, author and F&O columnist Brian Brennan. An excerpt of his dispatch: Alberta, the home province of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has been viewed for 80 years – ever since the right-wing Social Credit Party was elected in 1935 – as Canada’s bastion of rock-ribbed conservatism. Or, as Alberta author Aritha van Herk put it, Alberta has been stereotyped as a province defined by such terms as “redneck, intolerant, racist, conservative, neo-Christian, suspicious of anything new, home of white supremacists, gun lovers, and not a few book-banning school boards.” Until now, after

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