Radio-Canada 22/10/2014 -  Le premier ministre Stephen Harper a promis à la Chambre des communes d'accélérer le processus déjà lancé par son gouvernement pour accroître le pouvoir de ses agences de renseignement et des services de sécurité. Les deux attentats terroristes commis cette semaine au pays sont survenus au moment même où le gouvernement s'apprêtait à déposer en Chambre un projet de loi modifiant la loi sur les services de renseignement. Ironiquement, ce sont ces attentats terroristes qui ont empêché le ministre de la Sécurité publique, Steven Blaney, de déposer le projet aux Communes. Le projet de loi ne sera cependant pas déposé aujourd'hui.

Lire plus

Harper vows to strengthen national security laws after Ottawa shooting

CIPS 22/10/2014 - We must not rush to propose new anti-terrorism laws, and new and expanded powers for our security agencies. It may be that, once the police work is done, it emerges that some legal constraint prevented greater scrutiny of the attackers beforehand. Given the significant post 9/11 powers already granted to police, border and intelligence agencies in Canada, I very much doubt that is the case. But I am sure that the immediate aftermath of a terrorist attack is the worst possible moment to hold an emergency debate on tightening security at the expense of freedom. [...] And then, not today, and  not tomorrow, but soon, step back and ask ourselves-how long will the "long war" against terror last? The threat of organized Islamist political violence is real, though its impact is felt much more abroad than here in Canada. Today's events in Ottawa are neither the beginning nor the end of anything. They are one, terrible, incident in a long series of confrontations between a politicized Islam and western states. To some of us, this began on 9/11; for some of them, its origins are much further back. We cannot disarm ourselves in the face of these threats. But neither has a decade of war, in ever more countries, and a massive increase in domestic security impacting all of our freedoms, and at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, brought us greater security. There must be another way.

Read more - Lire plus


Ottawa Citizen 22/10/2014 - One of the core functions of the state is to protect those within its borders. In Canada, every person should be able to live and go about their business each day assuming that they will be safe. While there is evidence that some people's lives are less secure than others, before Wednesday's shootings, many of us assumed we would wake up in the morning and go to bed at night without physical threat. The same is still true today. Wednesday's attack, whatever it was, whoever perpetrated it, changes very little about how we conceive of the security of the state and its inhabitants as it relates to political violence - whether or not we conceive of this violence as "terrorism." [...] There are things that must not change. This attack must not be made an excuse to justify further acts of violence: physical, social, political, cultural. It must not be treated as an opportunity to overhaul the security system of the country in an attempt to guard against any perceived foreign or domestic threat, to reshape our foreign policy, to mount cameras in every nook and cranny, to try to redefine what it means to live in a safe city, province, or country. It might not seem like it, but this is a time for nuance and careful evaluation - a time to check our gut feelings and practise restraint. It is not a time for overreaction.

Read more - Lire plus

Lysiane Gagnon: Notre tour est venu

Matthew Behrens: Reflections on a violent day in Ottawa

Wesley Wark: Reducing the risk of terrorism

Andrew Coyne: We can't stop every terror attack, so let's brace ourselves and adapt

Rex Brynen: Canada's innocence - Ottawa attack will likely lead to little change

John Ivison: In response to Quebec terror attack we must remember a healthy balance between security and freedom

Nora Loreto: Watching the dust settle in love and solidarity with one another

Brian Stewart: Ottawa Parliament shooting - We've known this day was coming

Haroon Siddiqui: Killings of two soldiers raise troubling questions

Thomas Walkom: Ottawa attack threatens to panic Canadians

Karl Nerenberg: Who are the victims of Wednesday's attacks at the War Memorial and on Parliament Hill?

Adam Chandler: Canada's difficult relationship with long guns

CBC News 23/10/2014 - Canadian Muslim groups have condemned the two deadly attacks this week, saying the incidents have no connection to Islam or its beliefs. Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, described as a recent Muslim convert, shot and killed a guard at the National War Memorial in Ottawa on Wednesday before launching an attack in the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings. This came two days after another recent convert, Martin Couture-Rouleau, struck and killed a Canadian Forces member with a vehicle. Ihsaan Gardee, the executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, denounced the attacks in a news conference on Thursday. He said an attack on one Canadian represented an attack on all Canadians. "We stand united with Canadians in categorically condemning these cowardly and heinous acts. Our message to anyone who believes in violent extremist ideologies is that you have nothing to do with Islam," Gardee said.

Read more - Lire plus

The Globe and Mail 22/10/2014 - In light of this week, Canada may have to change. But whatever changes we choose to make should be done carefully and calmly, with an understanding of the limited scale of the threat, and the nature of the tradeoffs between freedom and safety. Any changes made, from security at public buildings to a long-standing system of laws that criminalize action but not thought, should be done only for the benefit of millions of law-abiding Canadians - and not as a panicky reaction to a very small number of men who, unlike some dangers that Canada has faced before, pose no threat whatsoever to the survival of Canada. They are murderers, but their delusions are shared by few. They are not an existential threat to the Canada we cherish. They cannot destroy our society. Let us take the true measure of the danger and respond appropriately.

Read more - Lire plus

Ottawa Citizen: Ottawa, strong and free