Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says that, while Canada’s threat level remains unchanged following last week’s terror attacks in Paris, Canadians should remain alert.
Speaking at a press conference in Ottawa on Wednesday afternoon, Goodale said the government is being “extra vigilant” as they continue to monitor the situation in Paris and around the world.
"Based on what we know now, there is no rationale for changing Canada's current threat level,” said Goodale. “Along those same lines, I would urge Canadians themselves to be alert in the wake of these very troubling circumstances.”
Goodale was joined by RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Director Michel Coulombe and Canada Border Services Agency President Linda Lizotte-MacPherson.
According to Coulombe, Canada’s threat level remains unchanged from October, 2014, when it was raised from “low” to “medium” days before the Oct. 22 attack on the War Memorial and Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
The press conference held at Public Safety Canada’s headquarters on Wednesday, comes days after a series of gun and bomb attacks in Paris that left 129 dead and 350 injured.
Since the attacks, several places of worship and a Muslim woman have been targeted in Canada. Echoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Goodale said Canadians need to support their fellow citizens now more than ever.
“We also need to reject and condemn acts of perverted vigilante retribution; the hateful, abusive intolerance that has marred several Canadian communities over the past few days,” said Goodale.
“Terrorists will not change our values or the quality of Canadian life.”
In light of the Paris attacks, the Liberal government has faced calls to slow down its commitment to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year. But Goodale said the government is still working towards that goal, adding that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister John McCallum and Health Minister Jane Philpott will release those details at the earlier possible date.
Speaking to CTV’s Power Play, Wesley Wark, visiting professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, said he supports the Liberals’ commitment to go “full steam ahead” with the Syrian refugee plan. However, he questioned the government’s intentions to pull out of the combat mission against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, in light of the Paris attacks.
“I think this is just a very ill-timed announcement. They could have played it different kinds of ways, even if their ultimate intention was to withdraw. But it doesn’t show much solidarity with the French,” said Wark. “It just, I think, shows the wrong kind of message.”
Wark said he thinks the government should have kept quiet immediately after the Paris attacks and reflected more on the country’s contribution to the combat mission. Canada’s commitment to the fight against ISIS is scheduled to end in March 2016.
