Introducing the Canadian Security Partners’ Forum
A unique model for enhancing national security capacity and resilience
G
rant Lecky and Bonnie Butlin are, respectively, National Chair and Executive
Director of the Canadian Security Partners’ Forum (CSPF), a new partnership body that has very quickly become a major player in Canada’s national security capacity. Dr. Alison Wakefield of the University of Portsmouth interviewed them about the Forum’s aims and functions.
The CSPF is a unique effort that has drawn together, in a very short time, diverse security- related associations across Canada to meet and work towards common goals, most importantly, building Canadian security capacity and resilience. It is an agile network made up of 20 forum structures all across Canada, most of which are then made up of
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security–related associations, educators and other professionals, who have come together to promote open communication and dialogue, and strengthened awareness across all security and related fields.
What professional backgrounds do you both come from?
We have quite different backgrounds in security, and that is partly why we complement each other so well. Grant, who was recently named by Security Magazine as one of their “Most Influential People in Security for 2012”, is the Departmental Coordinator for Business Continuity Planning and Emergency Management at the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). Bonnie has served as the Executive Director for the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies (CASIS), Project Officer with the Conference of Defence Associations Institute (CDA Institute), Intelligence Analyst with the
Federal Government, and with the Stabilisation and Reconstruction Task Force (START) at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). Bonnie was also the sole author of a commissioned study for the Federal Court of Canada on National Security and the Administration of Justice.
What led you to establish the Forum?
There was a clear need to accelerate the breaking down of silos within the Canadian security community by strengthening existing lines of communication and collaboration amongst the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, and establishing new ones. The Forum, as a neutral body, can bring the three together in a way none of them can individually.
The timing was also right, with fiscal restraint exacerbating longer-run trends, including government funding cuts to associations, and deep reductions to government travel
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