OTTAWA: Two young Canadian men who launched deadly attacks in their own homeland were extremists tempted by war in Syria but police have found no evidence of a wider plot, officials said Thursday.
Canadian authorities are scrambling to probe the background of the young men, one of whom ran his car over a soldier, killing him, and another who on Wednesday shot a soldier and stormed parliament.
“These are difficult threats to detect,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Bob Paulson said. “There is no way of knowing where or when such an attack could take place.”
In the House of Commons, members applauded Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, who on Wednesday fired the shot that halted the attacker, identified as 32-year-old Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.
Vickers’ composed bravery has become an inspiration to Canadians struggling to comprehend how two of their countrymen could turn against their homeland with such reckless brutality.
“The objective of these attacks was to instill fear and panic in our country and to interrupt the business of government,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the chamber as business resumed.
“Well, members, as I said yesterday, Canadians will not be intimidated. We will be vigilant but we will not run scared.”
“We will be prudent but we will not panic and as for the business of government, well, here we are, in our seats, in our chamber in the very heart of our democracy and our work.”
Harper then crossed the floor to shake Vickers’ hand, and to hug opposition leaders.
On Wednesday, Zehaf-Bibeau, a petty criminal from Montreal, shot dead an unarmed soldier at the Ottawa war memorial before storming the corridors of parliament.
There, officers opened fire, including Vickers, a veteran of the Royal Canadian Mountain Police appointed to lead the parliamentary security team and wield the ceremonial mace.
The attack followed a similar one on Monday, when 25-year-old Martin Couture-Rouleau ran over two soldiers in a Quebec parking lot, killing one of them, before being shot dead by police.
Both assailants had sought to travel to Syria where they might join Islamist extremists waging war abroad, officials have said.
It remains unclear whether Zehaf-Bibeau “received any support in the planning of his attack,” Paulson said, however insisting that he ‘acted alone.’ — AFP