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Ottawa shooting: Thousands of mourners gather at funeral of Corporal Nathan Cirillo Ottawa shooting: Thousands of mourners gather at funeral of Corporal Nathan Cirillo
(35 minutes later)
Thousands of mourners packed a church and lined the streets outside it in industrial Hamilton, Ontario, on Tuesday for the funeral of the soldier shot dead in last week's attack on the nation's seat of government. Thousands of mourners lined the streets of Hamilton, Ontario today to pay their respects outside the funeral of the soldier who was shot dead in the Canadian capital of Ottawa last week.
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. Corporal Nathan Cirillo, 24, was gunned down as he stood as a ceremonial guard at Ottawa's National War Memorial.
Dressed in ceremonial kilts, white boots and garters, members of Cirillo's Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders unit carried his flag-draped casket into the 138-year-old gothic Christ's Church Anglican Cathedral in Hamilton, Cirillo's home town west of Toronto, for the funeral. His coffin, draped in the Canadian flag, was carried into Christ’s Church Anglican Cathedral in his home town by fellow members of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders unit, who were dressed in ceremonial kilts, white boots and garters.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other political leaders joined Cirillo's family and friends in the church, as Major the Reverend Canon Rob Fead opened the ceremony. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper led tributes to the father-of-one, and told those gathered in church that Cirillo had united Canada.
“Nathan, your death was not in vain. Because of you this day, this great country of Canada stands more unified and more determined than ever to be all that we are called to be. A place of freedom, a place of hope, a place of peace,” he said.“Nathan, your death was not in vain. Because of you this day, this great country of Canada stands more unified and more determined than ever to be all that we are called to be. A place of freedom, a place of hope, a place of peace,” he said.
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. “May time ease the searing pain of today. And may his son, young Marcus Daniel Cirillo, some day find comfort in the fact that our entire country looks up to his dad with pride, with gratitude with deep abiding respect,” Harper said before pausing to collect his emotions.
Cirillo was standing an unarmed, ceremonial watch at the nation's war memorial in Ottawa on Oct. 22 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. “Corporal Nathan Cirillo knew the most precious values are those that can cost us our lives so may God bless Cpl. Nathan,” added the Conservative leader. “We are better for his life and we are diminished by his loss.”
Cirillo's is 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 Oct. 20 near Montreal, when a man ran over him and a fellow soldier with his car. Mirroring the Prime Minister's words in a homily, Reverend Rob Fead called Cirillo “Canada's son” and said the tragedy of his death helped bring the country together.
Nadia Grandoni, a 35-year-old administrative assistant and native of Hamilton, stood outside the church with a red poppy, the symbol of veterans' remembrance, pinned to her vest. “We gather this day in faith and in hope,” Fead told mourners. “His bravery, his sacrifice, is not in vain.”
“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.” Cirillo is to be buried in an area that honors military personnel at a Hamilton cemetery on Tuesday.
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 500-kilometer (310-mile) journey from Ottawa along Lake Ontario to Hamilton. During the attack on 22 October, Cirillo had stood unarmed on ceremonial watch at the nation's war memorial in the capital of Ottawa when he was allegedly shot dead by 32-year-old Michael Zehaf-Bibeau - a man described as troubled and addicted to drugs.
Harper is scheduled to speak, as are Cirillo's cousin, Jenny Holland, and Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrence Hatfield, who had been his commanding officer. 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 politicians.
Reuters Additional reporting by AP and Reuters