Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale’s five-year, $35-million effort to detect, quarantine and eradicate the incubation of terrorism in Canada is slowly and tentatively rolling out in consultations, research initiatives and funded projects, and so far, so good.

It’s fairly uncharted territory. There is no example to follow in the United States. The Obama administration had funded a paltry $10 million for local efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism, but the Trump presidency killed it off. Preferring instead to rely solely on law enforcement agencies, the Department of Homeland Security ditched Obama’s project and eliminated support for private groups focusing on right-wing domestic extremists.

A cautionary tale from Britain, however, should cause Goodale to be wary of the scattered, multi-agency, public-private and cross-jurisdictional approach his Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence has been tasked to take.

The United Kingdom’s “Prevent” policy, begun in 2003 as part of prime minister Tony Blair’s post-911 counter-terrorism initiative, aims to root out the kinds of radicalization that lead to criminal violence and terror attacks. Under the government of Conservative prime minister David Cameron, “Prevent” was expanded to establish reporting of radical extremism as a legal duty throughout the public sector.

Source:

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/glavin-canadas-terrorism-prevention-strategy-is-good-in-principle-tricky-in-practice

 

Source:

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/gurski-linking-immigration-and-terrorism-is-wrong-in-canada-and-elsewhere

The case of Jack Letts, a young British-Canadian man dubbed “Jihadi Jack” by British media, has sparked a contentious debate about the Canadian government’s role and responsibilities when a citizen is accused of terrorism, according to counter-terrorism experts.

Letts is one of several Canadians being held by Kurdish authorities in Syria following the collapse of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2017. Letts, a Muslim convert, grew up in Oxford and went to Iraq and Syria in 2014.

Source:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-october-23-2018-1.4874318/canada-in-political-bind-over-whether-to-bring-alleged-isis-fighters-like-jihadi-jack-home-experts-say-1.4874330

There is one area where Canada could become the ‘essential country’ that foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland said it would be in her major 2017 foreign policy speech.

 

Justin Trudeau promised to restore Canadian leadership in the world. He pledged that the “proud tradition” that saw Canada help create the United Nations and champion the international treaty to ban land-mines would be revived on his watch.

The reality has been underwhelming.

Trudeau’s crusade to change the world has been more symbolic than substantive. Canada’s progressive trade agenda has been rebuffed by its trading partners; its peacekeeping mission to Mali — eight helicopters and 250 military members — has been welcomed by the United Nations but comes to an end next July.

 

Source:

https://nationalpost.com/news/john-ivison-trudeau-has-a-chance-to-play-statesman-by-bringing-the-u-s-and-china-together-on-trade

The program has grown gradually since 1998, but was expanded dramatically in 2015 under the former Harper government, to provide more tailored employment services.

 

Source:

https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/despite-having-its-budget-tripled-program-to-help-new-immigrants-adjust-to-canada-by-confusion-low-uptake

A refugee claims report for the first six months of this year, obtained by the National Post, offers clues as to why the Modi government is at odds with Trudeau.

 

https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/jeff-danzigers-editorial-cartoon-11

http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1367649859784/

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a press freedom event in Paris Sunday that one of the bulwarks protecting democratic governments from being undermined is also an institution under stress — a free-thinking, robust media.

“If a democracy is to function you need an educated populace, and you need to have an informed populace, ready to make judicious decisions about who to grant power to and when to take it away,” Trudeau said.

A wall of world leaders walked somberly through the centre of Paris today, turning the annual Nov. 11 ceremony in the French capital into a global reminder of the horrors of the First World War and the efforts to prevent it from happening again.

Holding black umbrellas, the leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wearing a poppy on his lapel, walked in a cold rain with sombre, stoic faces for a ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s effort to portray himself as just another average Canadian, possessed of an ordinary everyday outlook and bedrock Canadian values, was never very convincing. Great effort has been devoted to it by his handlers — the selfies, the photo bombs, the corny family photos — all carefully staged to look absolutely unstaged and typical.

My personal favourite remains the video released soon after he became Liberal leader, dressed in T-shirt and cargo shorts, outside a suburban home, thanking supporters for reaching a fundraising goal. See: the guy wants to be prime minister, but he spends his weekends just like the rest of us: bumming around in casual duds, mowing the lawn, firing up the barbie for a few burgers while cracking a beer or two.

Longtime MP Tony Clement has resigned from the Conservative shadow cabinet after he shared explicit sexual images and a video of himself electronically.

Clement says the images were sent in the last three weeks and he believed they were going to a “consenting female.”

However he now says the person was trying to extort him and he has asked the RCMP to investigate.

“I recognize now that I have gone down a wrong path and have exercised very poor judgment,” Clement said in a statement Tuesday.