On October 20, 2014, Martin Couture-Rouleau deliberately ran into two Canadian Armed Forces soldiers with his car in a shopping center parking lot in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, killing one soldier and injuring another. Couture-Rouleau was killed by police after he rolled his car while trying to escape.

Two days later, on October 22, 2014, a series of shootings took place in Ottawa, Canada. Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a 32 year old Canadian, shot and killed a soldier on ceremonial guard duty, and shot at and missed two other guards. Zehaf-Bibeau then went to the Canadian parliament building, where he shot a guard in the foot during a struggle. He was shot and killed by Kevin Vickers, the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons.

The Canadian government was quick to call both events acts of terrorism. Prime Minister Stephen Harper referred to the October 20 incident as an ISIL-inspired terrorist attack in his address to the Canadian people following the October 22 shootings. Interestingly enough, in a poll conducted after the Ottawa shootings, more Canadians considered the shootings an act of mental illness than considered it an act of terrorism. But, we digress… Continue reading →