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 our early big picture take-aways. This is a topic to which we will certainly return to in the future.

Please note, on the same day it was announced that in response to the decision, the Justice and Public Safety Ministers asked NSIRA to conduct a review of both Justice Canada and CSIS Canada to be conducted by former Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps and Professor Craig Forcese. Although a founding member of Intrepid, Craig Forcese has entirely recused himself from any commentary, discussion, or observations in relation to this issue at this time and was in no way involved in the production of this podcast. (Blame all mistakes on Stephanie)

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Ben Makuch’s reporting on national and international security issues has taken him from Eastern Europe to talking to Canadian foreign fighters to challenging the Canadian government in the Supreme Court over protections for journalists. Over the magic of the internet, Stephanie sits down with Ben and they talk about his latest reporting on far right extremism and white nationalist movements in Canada, the United States, Ukraine and the growing links between these movements. Is law enforcement paying enough attention and are they prepared to take on this threat? This podcast was recorded on 26 February 2020.

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There has been a lot of discussion in the media about 5G, but not a lot of information on what 5G actually is and how it is different from what has come before. Stephanie sits down with Ericsson’s VP, Chief Technology Officer, David Everingham who breaks it all down – even though Stephanie keeps trying to switch the analogies all back to cake. A useful episode for those looking for a bit of tech-support in trying to think through the challenging policy issues.

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The fact that crimes committed by individuals appearing to be motivated by some ideologies (such as far right extremism) are considered as “hate crimes” and not “terrorist offences” has been a frequent theme of Intrepid Podcast. In this week’s episode, recorded on the second anniversary of the Quebec Mosque Shooting, Stephanie sits down (over the internet) with Michael Nesbitt who has done some work to actually put some numbers to this phenomenon. Why is it that 53/54 terrorism offenses were charged by people who subscribe to a particular ideology (Al Qaida-Islamic State inspired extremism)? And what does that mean for the way we prosecute these offenses in the future?

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With news that the Sussexes may be leaving the UK for Canada, Stephanie is FINALLY interested in Crown issues but Craig is not (we call it Craigxit). Nevertheless, Phil walks through Prince Harry’s status/non-status in Canada and, using recent reports about former Governor Generals in the news, describes what his powers would be.

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Jessica Davis and Michael Nesbitt sit down with Stephanie to discuss sanctions in light of a new case in Nova Scotia. Nader Kalai is the first person to be charged with violating Canadian and European Union sanctions on Syria.

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This episode the Intrepid Gang takes on four important national security trials that have been in the news and have important implications for national security law.

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Recent weeks have seen dramatic changes in the Middle East – Trump’s withdrawal from Syria, the killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the return of mass popular protests in the region. Oh, and Iran just announced it will restart 1000 centrifuges in the latest blow to the nuclear agreement. To make sense of it all, Stephanie sat down (using the magic of the internet) to speak with Intrepid Podcast Editors Amarnath Amarasingam and Thomas Juneau about these developments and what we might expect in the coming months.

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