Two Canadian soldiers dead on Canadian soil in one week and a shootout in Parliament. It's certainly not what our good-natured citizens are used to seeing in the news.
There's no denying the drama of events that saw a gunfight erupt inside the halls that symbolically stand for the democracy we value. But rather than treat this as an all-out assault on the foundations of our society, we'd like to take a slightly more narrow view.
The question to ask isn't how are we to live in this new Canada.
Our institutions and our values are sound. And the more we learn about what happened Wednesday the clearer that becomes.
The questions to ask are what led to this and what can we learn to prevent it from happening again?
The gunman in this case lived on the
fringes of society, with meagre means and few attachments. There's no indication he was following orders from a larger terror cell.
If he was a self-radicalized Islamist, it's less likely a cause of his actions than a symptom of what was wrong with him to begin with.
We must examine what happened and consider reasonable measures to prevent its reoccurrence.
But there are no absolute guarantees of safety, particularly against irrational and unforeseeable acts.
Broad policies based on a narrow risk threaten overkill.
We must refuse to fundamentally change the open nature of our democracy. We must keep our wits about us.That would be the Canadian thing to do.
