Hundreds of mourners lined the streets of industrial Hamilton, Ontario, on Tuesday to watch the military funeral procession of the soldier shot dead in last week’s attack on the nation’s seat of government.
Corporal Nathan Cirillo, 24, was one of two soldiers killed in a pair of attacks last week that police said were carried out independently by radical recent converts to Islam. The assaults took place as Canada’s military was stepping up its involvement in air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq.
Dressed in ceremonial kilts, white boots and garters, members of Cirillo’s Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders unit marched slowly alongside his casket, which was draped with a Canadian flag, his belt, bayonet and badge. Cirillo’s five-year-old son followed the procession on foot, waving a Canadian flag.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and hundreds of mourners are expected to pack into the 138-year-old gothic Christ’s Church Anglican Cathedral in Hamilton, Cirillo’s home town west of Toronto, for the funeral, which will be held under heavy security.
“It’s very sad, it really hit close to home to have this happen to someone from Hamilton,” said Kim Sass, a 49-year-old medical assistant, who had stopped to write a message on a Canadian flag hung in tribute on the side of a building near the cathedral.
The killings have shaken Canadians and prompted a debate on how the nation’s open culture, and particularly the low-key security in its capital city of Ottawa, may need to change. Security services have warned that citizens who adopt extremist views and take up arms against the state pose a “serious” threat.
Source-Reuters
