We Canadians have to acknowledge that we are one lucky nation. Not only are we a staggeringly gorgeous land but we live in a stable democracy, have a neighbour with whom we are on good terms (usually!), and are seen by most other countries in a very, very good light. It is surely not a coincidence that many people seek to emigrate to Canada (our nasty winters notwithstanding!).
At the same time it is not all unicorns and rainbows (no one state can make that claim). We do have our problems: poverty, crime, civil society disagreements (the Freedom Convoy of 2022 is a prime recent example, and others. No, we do not have the levels of violence that others unfortunately do, but we do suffer from it on occasion.
The ’T’ word
Which brings us to terrorism. Again, Canada has never been (and will most likely never be?) at the top of the list of places where terrorism occurs. There may be reasons for this both historical and political. And yet, terrorism has occurred on our soil and Canadians have been caught up in violent extremism abroad (both as victims AND perpetrators).
Hence the need for a book that looks at where we have been, where we are now and where we may be headed. The Peaceable Kingdom looks at terrorism in Canada over the past century and a half through the unique lens of those whose responsibility was to identify and investigate this particular form of ideological/political violence and, wherever possible, to prevent it from occurring.
No, not James Bond – something more real!
Through the author’s personal experiences over almost a quarter century and using the contributions and views of others in the counter terrorism sphere, this book looks at how terrorism has affected Canadian society and how the women and men in security intelligence and law enforcement tasked with battling it have fared. You will hear never before details on this crucial part of our security apparatus as spies and cops share what they did and why they did it.
Explain it to me like I’m a 2-year old!
No, this is not the script from 1993’s Philadelphia but rather an easy to follow account of the history of terrorism in our country written in an accessible (i.e. non-academic) format by someone who lived it professionally. There is nothing else like in in Canada right now – you’ll love this book!
This article was contributed by Double Dagger author Phil Gurski.
Double Dagger Books 