Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined a crowd at the National War
Memorial in Ottawa to mark the death of Corporal Nathan Cirillo, who
was shot by a troubled and drug-addicted convert to Islam on
Wednesday while on ceremonial guard at the memorial in the center of
the country's capital.
Behind the somber scenes, Harper and his Conservative colleagues
scrambled to beef up anti-terrorism legislation that was already in
the works before the attacks. An opinion poll showed a majority of
Canadians lacked confidence in their security services' ability to
deter homegrown threats.
Investigators said there was no apparent link between the two
attackers - one killed a soldier in Quebec and the other killed
Cirillo in Ottawa, before they themselves were shot dead - but
Canadians worried about the parallels between them.
Police said both were Canadian citizens who had been radicalized, a
term the government uses to refer to Canadians who become supporters
of militant groups such as Islamic State.
Justice Minister Peter MacKay said the government would act swiftly
to toughen security laws and would go beyond the terms of a bill to
strengthen the powers of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
spy agency that was already being drafted before this week's
incidents.
"We're looking ... to see if there is a way in fact to improve or
build on those elements of the Criminal Code that allow for
pre-emptive action, specifically in the area of terrorism," MacKay
told reporters in Brampton, Ontario.
A government source said legislation to be introduced next week on
the spy agency would be largely unchanged from the bill that was
being prepared before Wednesday's Ottawa attack. The government will
put forward more measures later, the source said, and they will
include wider powers to address security threats in the wake of the
attacks.
JOURNEY HOME
Cirillo's body returned to his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, on
Friday, in a last ride along the nation's "Highway of Heroes."
Thousands lined portions of the 500-km (300-mile) route and flocked
to overpasses, hanging flags as a sign of respect.
"I'm here because my son was in the reserves as well and that makes
it really hit close to home," said Gail Tomaselli, a 60-year-old
resident of nearby Simcoe, Ontario, who works in health care.
"Canada is a very forgiving country and I hope we haven't lost
that."
About a dozen members of Cirillo's regiment, dressed in the
ceremonial kilts and boots of his unit, carried his flag-draped
coffin into a Hamilton funeral home late Friday, followed by a large
group of the soldier's family.
Police believe that the Ottawa gunman, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, acted
alone and independently of Martin Rouleau, 25, who on Monday drove
over two soldiers in Quebec, killing one of them, Patrice Vincent, a
53-year-old warrant officer.
The back-to-back attacks on uniformed soldiers on Canadian soil have
sparked a national debate over the power to counter threats while
holding on to some civil liberties.
"I don't believe that when it comes to enforcement that we should
just turn a blank checkbook over to our security services," said
Norman Boxall, an Ottawa lawyer, who predicted the new CSIS measures
would be challenged in court.
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In Istanbul, packets of an unidentified yellow powder were sent to
five western consulates on Friday, including the United States,
Canada, France, Germany and Belgium, officials said. It was not
immediately clear what the powder was and results of tests on them
were due on Monday. Sixteen people were hospitalized as a
precaution. FRAGILE SITUATION
An opinion poll by the Angus Reid Institute found that some 55
percent of Canadians were not confident in the ability of police to
thwart attacks by homegrown radicals.
Some 66 percent of the 1,491 people polled online Oct. 21-23 said
they would prefer authorities to focus on securing the nation's
borders and dealing with homegrown threats, rather than prioritizing
foreign military intervention or foreign aid.
The poll had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.
Fears of a backlash against Muslims also grew as a mosque in Cold
Lake, Alberta, was vandalized. Windows were smashed and someone
wrote "go home" and "Canada" on the building in red paint. The town
is home to the military base from which Canada sent six fighter jets
to take part in air strikes against Islamic State militants.
"This shows how fragile the situation can be if it is not properly
managed," Imam Syed Soharwardy, founder of Muslims Against Violence,
said of the Cold Lake vandalism.
Soharwardy led a memorial service for the dead soldiers in a packed
makeshift prayer hall in Calgary, where he urged the Muslim
community to report any harassment to police.
"We cannot take abuse because of one or two people who committed
these crimes. We condemn them more than anybody."
Canada's left-leaning opposition New Democrats have already begun to
raise concerns about the loss of civil liberties that may come
hand-in-hand with tougher police powers.
Muslim groups in particular urged against too much power being given
to security and intelligence forces.
"I think those amendments have to be balanced," said Aasim Rashid,
director of religion for the B.C. Muslim Association. "We should not
go overboard on this, to the point where we're just targeting and
apprehending individuals that we don't need to."
(Additional reporting by Nia Williams in Calgary, David Ljunggren
and Leah Schnurr in Ottawa and Euan Rocha in Brampton, Ontario;
Writing by Andrea Hopkins; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Howard Goller,
Peter Galloway and Lisa Shumaker)
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