Canada
PM vows crackdown after capital shocked by fatal attacks
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[October 23, 2014]
By David Ljunggren and Leah Schnurr
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper vowed to redouble the country's fight against "terrorist
organizations" abroad after a reported convert to Islam rampaged through
parliament, shocking the usually tranquil capital city.
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Shortly after a gunman shot dead a soldier at the National War
Memorial in central Ottawa on Wednesday morning, a man armed with a
shotgun burst into the Center Block of Parliament, pursued by
police. He died after dozens of shots rang out a few yards away from
where Harper was talking to his legislators.
Ottawa police said it was too early to say whether one person was
responsible for both attacks. The killing of the Canadian soldier
was the second this week with a possible link to Islamist militants.
Harper said it was too early to know whether the gunman had
accomplices but insisted Canada would never be intimidated.
"This will lead us to strengthen our resolve and redouble our
efforts and those of our national security agencies to take all
necessary steps to identify and counter threats," he said in a
televised address to the nation late on Wednesday.
A convert to Islam on Monday ran over two Canadian soldiers with his
car, killing one, near Montreal.
Both attacks took place after Canada announced this month it would
send six jets to take part in air strikes against Islamic State
fighters who have taken over parts of Iraq and Syria.
Harper said Canada would now "redouble our efforts to work with our
allies around the world and fight against the terrorist
organizations who brutalize those in other countries with the hope
of bringing their savagery to our shores".
Defence Minister Rob Nicholson said Canada's deployment to Iraq
would go on unimpeded.
BOOSTING POWERS
The two attacks in quick succession could push the Canadian
government to pause and rethink before introducing a planned bill to
change the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act, said Wesley
Wark, a professor at the University of Ottawa, who is an expert on
national security and intelligence issues.
The bill to boost the powers of Canada's main spy agency, CSIS, was
slated to be introduced in parliament this week.
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"What the government is now confronting is a choice with going
forward on whatever its original, probably small-scale changes might
have been, or sitting back and thinking about whether there is
something more that needs to be done," he said.
Canadian police were investigating a man named Michael Zehaf-Bibeau
as a suspect in Wednesday's attack, said a source familiar with the
matter.
Court documents show he previously faced a robbery charge in
Vancouver and multiple drug-related charges in Montreal.
U.S. officials said they had been advised the dead gunman in
Wednesday's shootings was also a Canadian convert to Islam.
Officials said Parliament would reopen at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT) on
Thursday.
Treasury Board Minister Tony Clement tweeted that he would convene a
regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday and added
"#terroristsbedamned".
Clement and hundreds of legislators had spent about 10 hours locked
up in the Parliament as police searched the building.
Ottawa police warned the public to expect an increased presence by
officers in coming days in the national capital.
(Additional reporting by Randall Palmer in Ottawa, Euan Rocha in
Toronto and Julie Gordon in Vancouver; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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