So there I was, driving back from Asda, and the news came on that there had been a shooting in Ottawa.
My first thought was that it was another one of those awful shootings that usually happen in America where gun controls barely exist and innocents are regularly killed, but as I watch BBC’s rolling news programme, fears are growing that this is another 9/11, another 7/7, another Madrid, another heinous act of terrorism by islamic fascists.
How do I know this? Have I jumped to conclusions? Well, if I have, I’m not alone having just heard a lengthy interview with a member of Muslims against terrorism, a Canadian organisation based in Calgary. The spokesman was quite clear that this was inevitably terrorism and he did not doubt where it had come from, despite the BBC interviewer saying there appeared to be no evidence to link the incident with islamism. But following hot on the heels of the murder of a soldier in Montreal just a few days ago, Canada has now experienced what other parts of the world have been experiencing for many years.
At the time of writing, confusion reigns. No one knows how many ‘shooters’ are at large, nor even if there are any still at large, although they do know that one is dead. The city is in near lockdown whilst the authorities carry out their searches.
No planes or trains were involved in this attack but it’s still right up there in the list of atrocities, with the home of Canadian democracy echoing to the sound of gunfire.
It is surely not a coincidence that the attack on its parliament has come soon after they became involved in the latest ‘war on terror’, this time against the ISIS terrorists in Iraq and you can bet that other countries in the international coalition are next on the list. I’m afraid we are in for a gruesome time.
Ottawa, the sleepy Canadian capital, from where almost no news reaches the attention of the world’s media is now at its centre.
Oh, and Malala Yousafza happens to be in Ottawa tonight, where she was supposed to be meeting Prime Minister Harper. That meeting has been cancelled now and the timing of this attack is a coincidence, right?
