Michael Ungar & Amarnath Amarasignam
Michael Ungar & Amarnath Amarasignam
As many scholars and policy analysts have made clear, the nature of contemporary terrorism and political violence is evolving. While terrorist violence has indeed been rare in Canada, we are nevertheless not immune from it. Cases like the Air India bombing of 1985, the Toronto 18 plot of 2006, as well as instances of Canadian youth travelling overseas to fight on behalf of foreign groups like Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Al-Shabaab in Somalia are all cause for concern. Canada’s counter-terrorism strategy, entitled Building Resilience Against Terrorism, calls on law enforcement to not only “prevent, detect, deny, and respond” to terrorist activity in Canada, but also to build community resilience against the spread of extremist ideas and to prevent radicalization to violence.