While confusion reigns in relation to shootings in our nation’s capital, Wednesday morning (Oct. 22), it appears terrorism may well be rearing its ugly head in Canada.
While this space is generally dedicated to comment on strictly local issues, we feel gunfire and death in Ottawa at our National War Memorial and within the centre block of Parliament Hill requires comment.
While details from Ottawa were relatively sketchy at the time of this week’s publication, the death of a guardsman at the war memorial and the fact that shots were fired in the home of our government should be a concern for all Canadians.
Seriously, Wednesday’s events are the stuff of the U.S. movie industry – a sentry at the war memorial shot, the shooter also shot and killed, a firefight between a gunman and Parliament Hill and RCMP members? Members of Parliament fearing for their lives while representing Canadians?
How unCanadian is this? The whole incident smacks of the dark days of the FLQ (Front de liberation du Quebec), when martial law was instituted.
As this editorial was written, it was unknown exactly how many gunmen were being looked for in Ottawa.
The Ottawa shootings may not be related to terrorism, but, coming on the heels of a more certain terrorism-related incident a week earlier where a Quebecois man who had allegedly been “radicalized” in support of ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) ran down two Canadian soldiers with a car, it’s alarming. Martin Couture-Rouleau was also shot and killed north of Montreal by police after the incident. One of the soldiers died. A connection had allegedly been made between the Quebec man and ISIS through social media accounts.
In the case of Couture-Rouleau, though, the Prime Minister’s Office had reported the 25-year-old Quebec man was known to federal officials and known to have become radicalized.
These incidents, of course, are not the first in relation to North Americans becoming enamoured (coerced?) with radical terrorist messaging. For some time now, there have been reports of North Americans leaving the continent for the Middle East in support of terrorist elements.
Whether all this violence is in response to six Royal Canadian Air Force F-18 fighters from Cold Lake being sent to Iraq is unknown. The F-18s, according to the RCAF website, will be used in support of Operation Impact – the Canadian Armed Forces’ contribution to coalition assistance to security forces in the Republic of Iraq who are fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). They will be joined by a Polaris air tanker and a pair of Aurora surveillance aircraft.
While Canadians have long been used to our armed forces being at the heart of peacekeeping missions around the world, and in later years on a war footing in Afghanistan, the idea that violence may be coming to our own doorstep will be a shocking one.
As Canadians, we tend to view ourselves as peaceful, supportive, welcoming and accepting. Should incidents like those in Quebec and Ottawa continue or escalate, we may also have to view ourselves as many other countries do; in the midst of worldwide unrest.
