Responding to the terror attack in Paris, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says taking advantage of Canada’s “freedoms and openness as a society” is the best way to defeat “a movement of hatred and intolerance.”
Harper made the comments during a stop in Delta, B.C., Thursday to make an announcement about the federal government’s apprenticeship program.
Questions from the media, however, focused on the shooting rampage at a satirical newspaper on Wednesday that left 12 people dead and 11 others injured.
He encouraged Canadians to “go about their lives, and to exercise our rights and freedoms and our openness as a society as loudly and as clearly as we can because that is the best way of defeating what is ultimately a movement of hatred and intolerance.”
However, Harper also said the threat of terror attacks “are real,” and urged Canadians to be vigilant, and to co-operate with security agencies.
Canada has not raised its terror threat level in the wake of the Paris attacks, Harper confirmed, noting that such a decision is made by the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in consultation with the government’s integrated national security team.
Canada’s threat was raised to medium shortly before last fall’s attacks in Quebec and Ottawa.
However, Harper warned Canadians that “the reality of the world” is that “the international jihadist movement has declared war” on anyone that does not share its views, and Canada has little choice but to face the threat “head on.”
“They have declared war on anybody who does not think and act exactly as they wish they would think and act, they have declared war and already are executing it on a massive scale on a whole range of countries with which they are in contact, and they have declared war on any country, like ourselves, that values freedom, openness and tolerance.”
He added that Canada and other nations have little choice but to “confront” the threat.
While the three suspected gunmen in the Paris attack reportedly declared allegiance to al Qaeda in Yemen, French law enforcement has not confirmed the connection. Officials have only said that one suspect, 32-year-old Cherif Kouachi, was convicted of terrorism in 2008 for his ties to a network that sends radical fighters to Iraq.
Harper noted that, despite last fall’s deadly attacks in Ottawa and St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., Canada’s security agencies have detected and intercepted planned terror attacks against such targets as the British Columbia legislature and VIA Rail passenger routes.
Meanwhile, the federal government will unveil “additional legislative proposals” early in Parliament’s next session to help security agencies detect potential terror threats and make arrests and “other actions where necessary,” he said.
With files from The Associated Press
