Cox: Canadians need to get smarter about intelligence-gathering

[GK .Dundas]

I don't really care what you might think of the Messenger...Can you honestly tell me he's actually wrong ?
He's raised a very important and real problem this Country has , it appears to be utterly indifferent to almost any threat.

 

[medicineman]

I don't really care what you might think of the Messenger...Can you honestly tell me he's actually wrong ?
He's raised a very important and real problem this Country has , it appears to be utterly indifferent to almost any threat.

Agreed - I honestly think Canadians (even some in the military) are not only indifferent, would go so far as to say apathetic when it comes to world view regarding internal and external security. They have this faerie tale view of "Who'd want to hurt us?" or "Who'd even care about our country?" when they forget that we have a lot of resources, land, water, a very spread out population with increasing numbers of very insular pockets of immigrants, a constitution that allows a lot in the way of rights to express and push positions, and minimal security to presence to look after all of the above. Frig, my wife was on ship out of Esquimalt for a bit and couldn't understand why she needed to be doing deck security with her C7 on port ingress/egress, despite the fact we were in the middle of a shooting war with bad people that wouldn't think twice about driving a boat IED at them.

How many people remember the FLQ? How many people remember the Air India bombing and the bombings of Canadian Pacific flights into Asia in the 80's? How many people remember the Direct Action freaks that bombed a power station on Vancouver Island and the Lytton factory in Toronto? I can guarantee not that many...and when you remind or tell people about them for the first time, they look at you like they saw a 4 headed alien. I think for a bit when Cpl Cirillo and WO Vincent were murdered people popped their heads out of the sand for a second or two, but dove back in after. The level of "humility" of our education system about teaching Canadian history and where we have and currently fit in with the world needs to be revisited IMO.

Lastly, sorry for the derail - the author triggers a lot of folks and because of that, is hard to take seriously sometimes.

 

[North Star]

Intelligence only works if you have a strategy. Then, you can set priorities, calculate gain/loss against risk, and decide what way you want to pursue collection. I suspect Canada's issue is not intelligence education, it's primarily deciding on a national strategy in line with national interests.

 

[OldSolduer]

Intelligence only works if you have a strategy. Then, you can set priorities, calculate gain/loss against risk, and decide what way you want to pursue collection. I suspect Canada's issue is not intelligence education, it's primarily deciding on a national strategy in line with national interests.

And not hurting anyone's "feelings".....

 

[The Bread Guy]

Intelligence only works if you have a strategy. Then, you can set priorities, calculate gain/loss against risk, and decide what way you want to pursue collection. I suspect Canada's issue is not intelligence education, it's primarily deciding on a national strategy in line with national interests.

Sort of like defence - gotta figure out what you want to do before figuring out what the machine to do it with looks like.

 

[FSTO]

In an alternate universe the Canadians of that timeline would have used the Igor Gouzenko affair as a wake up call regarding our vulnerabilities and decided to establish foreign intelligence service to ensure we are never caught flatfooted again. All political party leaders were read into the reasons why the service was established, its mission, and that the knowledge of its existence was to be kept as quiet as possible so to continue the facade of Canada as a "peaceable kingdom" disinterested in the "great game". The mission of the Foreign Intelligence Service Canada (FISC) is to watch and report to ensure Canada is not caught flat footed or used as tool by foreign actors to gain access to our principal allies. As the country progressed and the sources of immigration changed the FISC reached deeply into the dysphoria to recruit assets for the defence of Canada and the liberal world order.

Dreaming in technicolour I know.

 

[Retired AF Guy]

Agreed - I honestly think Canadians (even some in the military) are not only indifferent, would go so far as to say apathetic when it comes to world view regarding internal and external security. They have this faerie tale view of "Who'd want to hurt us?" or "Who'd even care about our country?" when they forget that we have a lot of resources, land, water, a very spread out population with increasing numbers of very insular pockets of immigrants, a constitution that allows a lot in the way of rights to express and push positions, and minimal security to presence to look after all of the above. Frig, my wife was on ship out of Esquimalt for a bit and couldn't understand why she needed to be doing deck security with her C7 on port ingress/egress, despite the fact we were in the middle of a shooting war with bad people that wouldn't think twice about driving a boat IED at them.

How many people remember the FLQ? How many people remember the Air India bombing and the bombings of Canadian Pacific flights into Asia in the 80's? How many people remember the Direct Action freaks that bombed a power station on Vancouver Island and the Lytton factory in Toronto? I can guarantee not that many...and when you remind or tell people about them for the first time, they look at you like they saw a 4 headed alien. I think for a bit when Cpl Cirillo and WO Vincent were murdered people popped their heads out of the sand for a second or two, but dove back in after. The level of "humility" of our education system about teaching Canadian history and where we have and currently fit in with the world needs to be revisited IMO.

Lastly, sorry for the derail - the author triggers a lot of folks and because of that, is hard to take seriously sometimes.

And don't forget the other reason foreign entities are operating in Canada is because we share a long (mostly undefended) border with the United States.

 

[quadrapiper]

And don't forget the other reason foreign entities are operating in Canada is because we share a long (mostly undefended) border with the United States.

And take your pick as to why they'd be here: to influence a US neighbour, to base out of for activities in the US, as a side-effect of what I imagine is the US's own, presumably world-leading, population of overt, covert, and in between entities of all kinds, to gain access to Canada for reasons unrelated to the US...

How much does physical presence count now for more-or-less "dark" efforts? Feels like, if you want to (say) blackmail or bribe a legislator, there would be means to do so without all the analog bother of sending one of your own people to do it.

 

[OldSolduer]

And let’s not forget the illegal agents who might live close to you or run the local convenience store

 

[CBH99]

Sort of like defence - gotta figure out what you want to do before figuring out what the machine to do it with looks like.

In theory, anyway...

 

[CBH99]

And take your pick as to why they'd be here: to influence a US neighbour, to base out of for activities in the US, as a side-effect of what I imagine is the US's own, presumably world-leading, population of overt, covert, and in between entities of all kinds, to gain access to Canada for reasons unrelated to the US...

How much does physical presence count now for more-or-less "dark" efforts? Feels like, if you want to (say) blackmail or bribe a legislator, there would be means to do so without all the analog bother of sending one of your own people to do it.

I'm sure there are many ways to blackmail or coerce a person of interest to influence their behavior in ways that she beneficial to one's own goals, without having to physically interact with the POI & hence mitigate risk

Heck, the remote upload of child pornography to a POI's personal computer - and the subsequent anonymous phone call to the police (not to mention the media attention, social circles instant rejection, career coming to instant full stop, etc) has been done for ages...

BUT sometimes I would think physically interacting with the POI, even via proxy, would provide an interested party with more confidence the goal is in view of being reached.


(I'd also make an awful criminal as my brain doesn't remotely entertain some the immensely creative ways criminals/hostile parties operate...)