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Hundreds of mourners join family at funeral for soldier shot dead in Ottawa
Thousands join Cirillo family at funeral for soldier shot dead in Ottawa
(about 4 hours later)
Crowds gathered Tuesday morning outside a cathedral in industrial Hamilton, Ontario, where Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper and hundreds of mourners will attend the funeral of the soldier shot dead in last week’s attack on the nation’s seat of government.
A fall wind blew the leaves about the streets of Hamilton, Ontario, as a procession of 4,500 people, including members of the Canadian armed forces, firefighters and police, accompanied Corporal Nathan Cirillo’s flag-draped coffin through the streets.
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.
Cirillo, 24, when he was shot in last week’s assault on Canada’s parliament building in Ottawa, the second of two attacks last week that, according to police, were carried out by men who were recent converts to a radical interpretation of Islam.
“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 corporal grew up here in Hamilton, and the city was shut down in mourning. An air of quiet melancholy, as well as pride, filled the air, as the city turned out to watch one of its own come home for the final time.
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.
Thousands of onlookers, some wearing military insignia and others with Canadian flags or maple leaf badges, stood in near silence along the streets as the parade went past on its way to Christ’s Church Anglican cathedral. Still more wore poppies, and hundreds had laid flowers outside the city armory.
Cirillo was standing an unarmed, ceremonial watch at the nation’s war memorial on 22 October when he was shot dead by a man described as troubled and drug addicted. His attacker then charged into the Parliament building and exchanged fire with security officers not far from a room where Harper was meeting with fellow Conservative lawmakers.
Phalanxes of police on motorcycles accompanied the funeral procession.
Cirillo will have a full military funeral at the 138-year-old gothic Christ’s Church Anglican Cathedral in his hometown of Hamilton, west of Toronto. Members of his military unit, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, will participate, dressed in ceremonial kilts, white boots and garters.
Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, spoke at the service, saying that he had “now joined the ranks of so many brave Canadians who have gone before him, having given all in the service of their country”.
It will be the first of two funerals for soldiers slain on Canadian soil, to be followed by a service on Saturday in Longueuil, Quebec, for Patrice Vincent, a 53-year-old warrant officer who was killed on 20 October near Montreal, when a man ran over him and a fellow soldier with his car.
“Our hearts are broken at his loss, but our spirits are grateful for his memory.”
Nadia Grandoni, a 35-year-old administrative assistant and native of Hamilton, stood awaiting the funeral procession with a red poppy, the symbol of veterans’ remembrance, pinned to her vest.
Padre Christopher Ryan, a lieutenant colonel and senior chaplain of the fourth Canadian regiment, said that the word that sprung to mind for a service l was “awed”.
“I was born here and even though I didn’t know Nathan, I feel like he was my brother,” Grandoni said. “He has done us proud. We love him, as a community and as a country. Both him and Patrice Vincent. Canada loves them both.”
“Nathan’s cousin spoke to Nathan as a cousin, as a father, as a son, as a brother, and shared some stories from his youth,” he said. “Prime minister Harper spoke and situated Nathan as a son of Canada. His commanding officer spoke and situated Nathan as a soldier, and as a man.”
Public mourning for Cirillo began on Friday when thousands of Canadians lined roadways, including the “Highway of Heroes”, to view the motorcade that carried his body on the 500km journey from Ottawa along Lake Ontario to Hamilton.
Ryan was visibly moved by the crowds that had gathered throughout the day. “In a strange way, it’s comforting,” he said. “It was something that everyone inside and outside was experiencing together.”
The funeral procession will begin at 11am ET on Tuesday at the military unit’s base, with the funeral service to take place an hour later, officials said.
Dressed in ceremonial kilts, white boots and garters, members of Cirillo’s Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders unit took a prominent place in the ceremony, having marched alongside his flag-draped casket through the streets of Hamilton.
Harper is scheduled to speak, as are Cirillo’s cousin, Jenny Holland, and Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrence Hatfield, who had been his commanding officer.
A trust fund has been set up for Cirillo’s young son Marcus by his regiment, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. A crowd-funding campaign to support both Cirillo’s family and that of warrant officer Patrice Vincent, who was killed in a separate, hit-and-run attack the day before Cirillo was shot, has already raised $550,000 in Canadian dollars. The funeral for Vincent, a 53-year-old warrant officer killed near Montreal when a man drove over him and a fellow soldier, will be held on Saturday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Cirillo’s suspected killer, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, made a video of himself saying the attack was motivated by his opposition to Canadian foreign policy, and also had religious motives.
The killings rocked Canada and led to 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.
Officials have also described Vincent’s killer, 25-year-old Martin Rouleau, as a man motivated by radical beliefs.
“It’s a different world for Canada now, with what happened,” said Brian Munro, who had come from Toronto to pay his respects. He said that people would remember Cirillo’s name for “a long, long time”.
Both attackers were shot dead by security services.
Outside the infantry hall of the Hamilton armory, a young woman stood slightly in front of the crowd wiping tears from her eyes. “I want to watch him come home,” she said.
Following Cirillo’s funeral, Harper is to meet with US secretary of state John Kerry, who will travel to Ottawa to express his condolences over the attacks.
“The secretary will emphasize steadfast US support for our Canadian partners, continued close cooperation and a shared approach to countering violent extremism, and our commitment to stand beside our Canadian neighbors and friends,” Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the US State Department, told reporters on Monday.
Cirillo joined the Argylls in 2007, shortly after he graduated from high school. He is survived by his mother, stepfather, two sisters and young son. He was fond of dogs, and in the days after his slaying images of two of his dogs peering out from under a fence, apparently awaiting their master’s return, were widely circulated on social media.
