Questions About National Security in Canada

All That Jas Podcast with Calgary member of Parliament Jasraj Singh Hallan

“The threats come from all different directions.”

Phil Gurski should know. He spent three decades as a strategic intelligence analyst at both CSIS (the Canadian Security Intelligence Service) and the Canadian Security Establishment – Canada’s signals intelligence agency.

In this episode Jas and Phil discuss:
What is Canada’s role in foreign intelligence?
Are we actively listening around the World for anything might impact our national security? Are our efforts effective?
How do we monitor for any homegrown security threats?
Where are the domestic threats most likely to come from?
What does “National Security” mean for the average Canadian?
Is Canada safer now than it was ten years ago?

And what’s Phil’s take on the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa earlier this year? Was the Emergency Measures Act required?

Guest Phil Gurski
30 years + as a strategic intelligence analyst specializing in radicalization, and homegrown Islamist extremism. Phil worked as a senior strategic analyst at CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) from 2001-2015, specializing in violent Islamist-inspired homegrown terrorism and radicalization. From 1983 to 2001 he was employed as a senior multilingual analyst at Communications Security Establishment (CSE – Canada’s signals intelligence agency), specializing in the Middle East. He also served as senior special advisor in the National Security Directorate at Public Safety Canada from 2013, focusing on community outreach and training on radicalization to violence, until his retirement from the civil service in May 2015, and as consultant for the Ontario Provincial Police’s Anti-Terrorism Section (PATS) from May to October 2015.

He was the Director of Security and Intelligence at the SecDev Group from June 2018 to July 2019. Mr. Gurski has presented on violent Islamist-inspired and other forms of terrorism and radicalization across Canada and around the world.

Books by Phil
The Threat from Within: Recognizing Al Qaeda-inspired Radicalization and Terrorism in the West (Rowman and Littlefield 2015)
Western Foreign Fighters: The Threat to Homeland and International Security (Rowman and Littlefield 2017)
The Lesser Jihads: Taking the Islamist fight to the world (Rowman and Littlefield 2017)
An end to the ‘War on Terrorism , When Religion Kills: How Extremist Justify Violence Through Faith (Lynne Rienner 2019)
The Peaceable Kingdom? A history of terrorism in Canada from Confederation to the present (self-published: 2021)
He regularly blogs and podcasts (Canadian Intelligence Eh!), and tweets (@borealissaves) on terrorism and intelligence matters.

Website
Phil’s company Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting

Jasraj can be reached at:
Instagram/Facebook/Twitter - @jasrajshallan
Phone – 403-207-3030
Email – [e-mail]