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Founded in 1986 in Toronto, the Mackenzie Institute is an independent non-profit organization concerned with issues related to political instability and organized violence. This includes such matters as terrorism, political extremism, warfare and organized crime.
The aim of the Institute is to provide research and commentary on its subject matter, to promote informed public debate, and to hold to the proposition that our liberal democratic tradition must be safeguarded and fostered.
The Institute is also concerned with the social and political stability of Canada, and works to enhance it when it can.
The Institute is named for the voyageur Alexander Mackenzie, the first European (and likely the first man) to reach the Pacific Ocean from Upper Canada, and the first to trace the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean. Mackenzie had the courage to explore routes that everyone knew existed, but feared to try. In our own way, we try to emulate his courage and forthrightness.
Point of Information
In Robert’s Rules of Order a Point of Information is used to ask a question of a speaker during debate. It is, ideally, neutral in tone, but asks practical questions about the basis of an argument or the consequences if it is accepted.
Recent Newsletters
Last November, I was one of four guests invited aboard HMCS Halifax for several days to watch her and four other Canadian warships working out off Norfolk Virginia. Except for one long ago exercise staged off an antiquated unarmed naval reserve training vessel in Lake Ontario, I had never seen our navy up close and the invitation was eagerly accepted.
It is rare to be given the opportunity to go anywhere aboard a warship (barring a couple of rooms full of sensitive electronics), or permission to speak to anyone aboard her. The strongest impression was of the remarkable caliber of our sailors and the high qualities of leadership among the senior officers down to the junior NCOs, if Master Seamen can forgive being described thusly.
It seems to be a virtually unanimous opinion from professional counter-terror officers across the board in dozens of different nations that their political masters and the populations they defend will not take the threat of the Jihad movement seriously once more until we get badly gored by another major attack. That such an attack will occur someday is a statistical certainty and there have been some close calls already.
We've said it often before and will do so again: The problem in counter-terrorism is that we get spoiled when things are going well: Success = Complacency = Vulnerability. There are also the attributed remarks of the Red Army Faction founder Ulrike Meinhof to her police captors: "We have to be lucky only once in a while, you need to be lucky all the time."
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