On October 22, 2014 a terrorist attack in Ottawa gained the attention of the entire country, and even the world. Was this attack due to Canada joining the international community in the fight against ISIS? The answer is not clear. Terrorist attacks are carried out by many different radical organizations around the globe and there has not been any link to ISIS identified yet, but that does not rule out the possibility. While Canadian military forces have not put any boots on the ground there has been some involvement in the global fight against terrorism. One soldier was killed in the Ottawa terror attack yesterday, a 24 year old reservist named Nathan Cirillo, who was standing guard when he was shot and killed while watching over the National War Memorial.
Whether the latest terrorist attack in Ottawa was connected to ISIS or not the fact is that both Canada and the United States have seen the threat of terrorism and related acts increase. Unfortunately both countries have home grown radicals on their soil, and it can be very difficult predicting which individuals will try to carry out attacks like the one on Parliament Hill. The only thing that stopped the attack yesterday was a hero who shot and killed the gunman. Right now it is suspected that the attack was the work of a single individual but the investigation is not completed yet. According to Julian Fantino, the Veterans Affairs Minister “All the details are not in, but the sergeant-at-arms, a former Mountie, is the one that engaged the gunman, or one of them at least, and stopped this. He did a great job and, from what I know, shot the gunman and he is now deceased.”