Attack Drags Canada Into Terror Era as Nation Reels
Terror invaded Canada this week when a “radicalized” convert to Islam on Monday ran down and killed a Canadian soldier with a car and a gunman yesterday invaded the nation’s capital. He murdered a soldier at a war memorial before entering Ottawa’s lightly-guarded parliament building with a rifle before being shot to death by a guard.
Canada had until now dodged a terror attack even as Prime Minister Stephen Harper and others had warned that the nation, whether from Islamist extremists or lone wolfs looking to settle some real or imaginary grudge, was vulnerable.
“It’s hard to see how this won’t change things,” said Andrew MacDougall, a former director of communications for Harper who’s now a consultant in London at MSLGroup. “To see my former place of work lit up in a blaze of gunfire is shocking, disheartening and worrying.”
Ottawa had reveled in its reputation as an orderly, quiet government town of about one million people where violent crime -- never mind gunplay -- is rare. Security here, as in much of Canada, is minimal at many public buildings. Until recently, most security guards at parliament were unarmed.
In Toronto’s financial district, home to the headquarters of Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal, and the local offices of dozens of foreign financial institutions, most office buildings have no barriers preventing passers-by from riding elevators to any floor they please.
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http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-10-22/attack-yanks-canada-into-terror-era-as-nation-reels
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