Panel: Urban Terrorism, Violent Extremism and the Internet

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A video recording of the March 29, 2016 Canadian International Council (CIC) National Capital Branch event: Urban Terrorism, Violent Extremism and the Internet: Shaping Canada’s Response. 

Drawing on decades of international experience in confronting these challenges, our speakers helped shed light on how global trends and patterns are driving new forms of insecurity. While governments have had some successes they also face ongoing challenges that include balancing civil liberties, privacy, with public safety and community security.

Misha Glenny, a former BBC reporter and the author of McMafia, DarkMarket and Nemesis, has spent decades investigating the dark side of globalization and has seen firsthand the intersection between crime, extremism and the internet.

Dr. Robert Muggah, the Director of Research for the Igarape Institute in Brazil, and a former director of the small arms survey, is a renowned expert in armed violence reduction and has spent decades doing frontline research in some of the worlds toughest environments. He is also a expert in leveraging big data to address security issues. His recent projects include the Global Homicide Monitor, the  Arms Export Monitor.

Shawna Coxon is an inspector with the Toronto police service where she spearheaded this organization’s work on the Internet and violent extremism. She is currently seconded to the task force examining the future intelligence needs of Canada’s largest metropolitan police force.

The discussion was moderated by Rafal Rohozinski, senior fellow for Future Conflict and CyberSecurity at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. Rafal is also the CEO and Chief Innovation Officer at SecDev and co-founder of SecDev Foundation where among other things he led the work on Countering Violent Extremism online under the Government of Canada’s Kanishka programme.
 
This special panel was organized in cooperation with The Secdev Foundation and supported by the Kanishka Project Contribution Program, managed by Public Safety Canada which over the past five years has invested over $10 million in research on pressing questions for Canada on terrorism and counter-terrorism, such as preventing and countering violent extremism.
 
The panel also marked the launch of CIC NCB's new Intelligence Futures (IF) working group that will take a focused look at emerging challenges and opportunities for Canadian security through the lens of key disruptive drivers including: cyber security, robotics, artificial intelligence and big data, advances in bio genetics, and transnational crime and terrorism.