Canada 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...
Mar 01, 2021•55 min
In 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 t...
Feb 20, 2021•59 min
This 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...
Feb 12, 2021•51 min
Should 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 ye...
Feb 02, 2021•30 min
In 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 thr...
Jan 26, 2021•23 min
In 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...
Jan 18, 2021•31 min
In 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-business...
Jan 13, 2021•32 min
In 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 discus...
Jan 04, 2021•39 min
In 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.
Dec 16, 2020•31 min
We 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 la...
Dec 10, 2020•33 min
In 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.
Dec 03, 2020•27 min
Leah sits down with Dr. Christopher Parsons of Citizen Lab to dig into the biggest cyber security threats facing Canada in Part 1 of our discussion of the Canadian Cyber Centre’s 2020 National Cyber Threat Assessment (NCTA). Leah and Chris cover threats to critical infrastructure, ransomware, encryption, hackback, online foreign influence and disinformation, and what the NCTA doesn’t say (but should).
Nov 24, 2020•32 min
Once again, Leah, Jess and Mike sit down for Part II of catching up on a busy summer of national security criminal cases. They look at: the ongoing case against Cameron Ortis; a guilty plea in a terrorism case out of Kingston (did we ever figure out what that RCMP plane was doing?); and an update in the Via Rail case where the conviction of one of the accused has been successfully appealed. Finally, the gang reflects on what the events of the summer indicate about ongoing violent extremism trend...
Oct 06, 2020•31 min
After the inevitable “beginning of the academic year” pause, Season 4 of INTREPID continues. In this episode, Leah West, Jess Davies and Mike Nesbitt begin to go through a busy summer’s worth of national security cases. They start with the Abu Huzayfah terrorism hoax charge, then two travel-related cases (resuscitated from 2014!) in Calgary and, briefly, the attempted ricin poisoning of Donald Trump by a Canadian/French citizen.
Sep 29, 2020•37 min
We’re back with Carissima Mathen and the last of our special summer series of “explainers” on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Today, Carissima walks us through two last issues: the equality rights in section 15 of the Charter; and the two remedies sections, section 52 of the Constitutional Act 1982 and section 24 of the Charter. The text of these provisions is reproduced below. As noted, this is our last Muskoka Chair chat. We hope people have enjoyed this deep dive into the Charter...
Aug 31, 2020•38 min
We’re back with chapter 5 of our Muskoka Chair Chats on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In this episode, Carissima Mathen from the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, guides us through the Charter “legal rights”, with a focus on sections 9 to 14 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These read as below. She also examines some of the controversies that have arisen from recent Supreme Court cases on these matters. 9. Everyone has the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned. 10. E...
Aug 27, 2020•31 min
Stephanie and Craig are back with the third part in the INTREPID special series on diversity and inclusion in Canada’s security and intelligence community. They are very pleased to welcome to the show Michelle Tessier, Deputy Director of Operations, at the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). We discuss Ms Tessier’s career, and her experience and views on the significance of diversity and inclusion for a largely HUMINT-oriented intelligence service like CSIS. As always with guests,...
Aug 24, 2020•34 min
This spring, Amnesty International issued an updated report on Chinese harassment of Chinese human rights critics in Canada . This report and accompanying issues were featured last week in the Globe and Mail . Joining Stephanie and Craig to discuss the report and the issue of Chinese-sponsored harassment are Alex Neve, Secretary-General of Amnesty Canada, and Chemi Lhamo, 2019 student president at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus. Chemi describes harassment and threats of violence ...
Aug 21, 2020•45 min
In just a few years the QAnon movement has gone from a fringe online conspiracy theory to a movement that is now present in up to 54 countries worldwide. Given its links to several attempted attacks, there is growing concern that QAnon may be inspiring some individuals to mobilize to violence. But is QAnon really a national security threat? If so, what should be done about it? To find out more, Jessica Davis sits down with Amarnath Amarsingam and Marc-André Argentino to discuss their recent CTC ...
Aug 18, 2020•37 min
We’re back with an episode focusing on a recent development: the Federal Court’s holding that the “safe third country” refugee agreement with the United States is unconstitutional. In fact, it violates section 7 of the Charter — the very right we explored on Chapter 4 of our Muskoka Chair Chats in Ep 129. (Listeners may want to listen to that explainer first). Here, Jamie Liew from the Faculty of Law, uOttawa takes us through how the refugee law system works at both the international and domesti...
Aug 13, 2020•48 min
We’re back with Carissima Mathen in our “Muskoka Chair Charts,” our summer series on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Today’s topic is section 7 of the Charter, a major right with huge implications in national security space and elsewhere. We walk through when section 7 is “triggered” — the concepts of life, liberty, or security of the person — and then the accompanying concept of “fundamental justice”. Section 7 reads: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and t...
Aug 10, 2020•35 min
We’re back with the next chapter in our summer series, Muskoka Chair Chats on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This week Carissima Mathen walks us through section 2 of the Charter, guaranteeing “fundamental freedoms”. Most of our conversation is on freedom of expression, and we discuss what limits exist in section 2 itself on speech before discussing how a constraint on speech in the Criminal Code’s key hate crimes provision survived constitutional challenge on section 1 grounds, in ...
Aug 03, 2020•33 min
We’re back with our second episode in our special “explainer” series on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In this episode, Carissima Mathen guides us those the application of the Charter; that is, where it applies, and more particularly, where it does not apply. And we also discuss the degree to which the Charter is an absolute guarantor of rights, by focusing on two sections on either end of the Charter: section 1 and section 33. We’re always pleased to hear from listeners who find o...
Jul 28, 2020•35 min
As promised, A Podcast Called INTREPID is pleased to launch our second “context-builder” special series. Fresh on the heels of Her Majesty in Right of Pod, we are pleased to start our primer series on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Scheduled for summertime listening, we are calling this one “Muskoka Chair Chats”. Our co-host for this series is Carissima Mathen, from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, and co-author, most recently, of a new book on the infamous Supreme Court ap...
Jul 20, 2020•30 min
On 16 July the Federal Court released a long rumoured decision on CSIS operations. While many of the legal issues raised in the case have been resolved as a result of Bill C-59, the decision noted a number of other issues that raise questions about relations between the Service, the Federal Court and the Department of Justice. The Intrepid Gang discuss what happened and why, why CSIS officers need some kind of immunity (and bemoan that it took so long to get it), the duty of candor and some of o...
Jul 17, 2020•30 min
Leah West and Craig Forcese are back with a second episode in the INTREPID special series on diversity and inclusion in Canada’s security and intelligence community. They are joined by two fantastic guests from the Communications Security Establishment: Artur Wilczynski, Associate Deputy Chief SIGINT, & Nabih Eldebs, Director General of Policy, Disclosure and Review. After discussing Artur and Nabih’s careers, we focus on the significance of diversity and inclusion for a foreign intelligence...
Jul 08, 2020•46 min
After an unceremonious early ending to Season 3, rudely interrupted by a worldwide pandemic, A Podcast Called INTREPID is back for Season 4. We’re focusing on doing some '“deep dives” through the summer, including a special series on diversity and inclusion in the Canadian security & intelligence community. We will also have a successor to our series Her Majesty in Right of Pod: Muskoka Chair Charter Chats with Carissima Mathen. In this episode we launch the first of our “Composing the Secur...
Jun 26, 2020•36 min
On this episode of Intrepid Podcast — Her Majesty in Right of Pod, Phil Lagassé returns to discuss the role of parliament in a pandemic. First, Craig provides an update from our last episode on Canada’s emergency powers and how they are being implemented. Next, the trio discuss the challenge Parliament currently faces: Westminster systems are, by designed to be the opposite of social distancing. So how to manage the practicalities of simply meeting, and the more urgent question of how to manage ...
Mar 26, 2020•40 min
Stephanie, Craig and Leah West assemble to walk through a range of actual and possible legal responses to COVID-19. We talk: Quarantine Act; Aeronautics Act; provincial public health law; provincial emergency law; federal emergency law; and the deployment of the Canadian Armed Forces. We’re try to guess ahead on what might be coming, as well as looking at what has happened, and talk about some of the (legal) pros and cons. The chapter we mention in the podcast is here: https://papers.ssrn.com/so...
Mar 19, 2020•49 min
If you came for Canadian national security discussions, hold your horses. We have a lot planned. But right now: this is a special podcast dedicated to our academic colleagues who need to convert all their courses to online on two days notice. In this podcast, Stephanie, Craig and our guests David Hornsby (Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning) at Carleton University) and Peter Sankoff (Professor of Law at University of Alberta) assemble their cumulative experience with online teaching ...
Mar 15, 2020•44 min
