Canadian lawmakers have decided to toughen the country’s legislation on terrorism after an opinion poll showed that locals lack confidence in the country’s security services’ ability to protect them from this kind of threats, Reuters reports. Justice Minister Peter MacKay promised the government to act quickly and go over the terms of the law already planned to strengthen the power of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
An opinion poll held by the Angus Reid Institute, the country’s best known and longest running public opinion company, over half of the Canadians are not confident that the police is able to protect them from attacks by local radicals. Over 65% of the respondents interviewed by the institute said that they would prefer the authorities to focus on securing the country’s borders and dealing with local radical groups’ threats to prioritizing foreign military intervention or aiding foreign countries.
The spirits of Canadians were stirred by two attacks in the last few days, both of them targeting local soldiers – one of them was killed in Quebec, the other one in Ottawa, the country’s capital. According to the investigators inspecting the cases there is no apparent link between the two attackers. According to the police, both gunmen were subject to radicalization (a term used by the local authorities for Canadians who become supporters of militant Islamic groups) and both of them were shot dead by security forces.
Canada recently announced its intention to join the US-led campaign of air strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq. After the attacks, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced that the country would not be deterred from taking part in the campaign. Although there are reports of “increased terrorist chatter” going on in Canada in the last few days – an alleged Islamic State fighter was said to call for attacks on Canada through Twitter – there is no evidence of the Islamic terrorist organization to be involved in any of the attacks.