SLAIN SOLDIER GETS HERO’S SEND-OFF
The soldier killed by a gunman who then stormed Canada’s seat of government was given a hero’s send-off Friday, with a motorcade along the highway where the country honors its war dead.
Bagpipes rang out from the crowd of around 1,000 people as two new ceremonial guards were reinstated to the post at Canada’s national war memorial for the first time since Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, 24, was gunned down earlier this week.
Spontaneous applause erupted from on-lookers as members of Cirillo’s regiment, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, marched in procession before the motorcade left Ottawa headed toward Cirillo’s hometown of Hamilton, Ontario.
The Highway of Heroes, which has frequently seen the repatriation of soldiers killed in Afghanistan, is the stretch of Ontario’s Highway 401 between Canadian Forces Base Trenton and Toronto.
— Associated Press
The gunman who shot and killed a soldier then stormed Canada’s Parliament once complained that a Vancouver mosque he attended was too liberal and inclusive, and was kicked out after he repeatedly spent the night there even though officials told him to stop, Muslim leaders said Friday.
Aasim Rashid, spokesman for the British Columbia Muslim Association, said Michael Zehaf-Bibeau visited the Masjid Al-Salaam mosque for three to four months toward the end of 2011, and possibly early 2012, before he was told not to come back.
Rashid said that before Zehaf-Bibeau got in trouble for using the mosque for accommodations, he had complained to leaders in the previous administration about the mosque’s openness and willingness to let non-Muslims visit.
“The mosque administration sat him down and explained to him that this is how they run the mosque and that they will keep the doors open to all Muslims and non-Muslims who want to visit,” he said at a news conference held at the mosque Friday.
Rashid said that Zehaf-Bibeau was told he should go pray at a different mosque if he disagreed. However, he stayed until he was ultimately asked to leave when officials learned he was still sleeping in the mosque while battling legal troubles.
After the second or third time, he was told to leave the premises and “not to come back,” Rashid said.
“This was the last interaction that the people of the mosque here have had with him,” he said.
Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, shot a soldier to death at Canada’s national war memorial Wednesday, and was eventually gunned down inside Parliament by the sergeant-at-arms.
His motive remains unknown, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper has called the shooting a terror attack, and the bloodshed raised fears that Canada is suffering reprisals for joining the U.S.-led air campaign against Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria
The attack in Ottawa came two days after a man described as an “ISIL-inspired terrorist” ran over two soldiers in a parking lot in Quebec, killing one and injuring the other before being shot to death by police. The man had been under surveillance by Canadian authorities, who feared he had jihadist ambitions and seized his passport when he tried to travel to Turkey.
Rashid said the Muslim association has been working on a preventive program that focuses on minimizing the effect of terrorist and criminal propaganda in Canada. He decried the recent violence.
“These are acts of criminal violence and show utter disregard for human life and the laws of the world as well as its religions,” he said. “We openly denounce the propaganda of the lawless groups trying to incite Canadians to hurt other Canadians.”
Unlike the attacker in the Quebec case, Zehaf-Bibeau was not being watched by authorities. But a top police official said Zehaf-Bibeau — whose father was from Libya — may have lashed out in frustration over delays in getting his passport.
Zehaf-Bibeau’s passport had not been revoked or his application rejected, but authorities were still investigating whether to grant him one, said Bob Paulson, commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The wait appeared to weigh heavily on Zehalf-Bibeau.
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