Wednesday’s terror attack on a Paris weekly newspaper is France’s 9/11, says an Ottawa woman who moved from that country 15 years ago.
Florence Saint-Claire, 54, was one of about a dozen people who braved the bitter cold on Wednesday to attend a vigil outside the French Embassy to honour the victims killed in the attack. Saint-Claire said it’s important to stand up for freedom of speech.
“By what they’ve done, it’s not only they’ve killed people, which is an act of terrorism, but they’ve also abolished and killed in blood what is the main value of France,” said Saint-Claire, who hails from Brittany. “If they started to kill this kind of freedom of speech, you just don’t know what kind of society we are going to be.”
The president of the Outaouais chapter of Quebec’s professional federation of journalists, Mylène Crête, came to the vigil to show her support for the journalists killed in Paris.
People hold signs and show their support at a vigil at the French Embassy in Ottawa, for the slain journalists of the Paris satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo who were murdered this morning at their offices in Paris.
Crête said reporters should be able to do their jobs freely and without the fear of losing their life for freedom of expression.
“This is an attack on freedom of expression, also on democratic values,” she said.
Alexandre Vulic was getting his children ready for school early Wednesday when he checked the news sites he monitors as deputy head of mission at Ottawa’s French Embassy.
That’s how Vulic learned of the horrific attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, which occurred about 6 a.m. Ottawa time. Vulic was shocked but, he said in an interview, it wasn’t a complete surprise.
“France has unfortunately been targeted and has been dealing with terrorism for decades now,” he said. “There’s a sense for a long time that we’re all threatened and anything can happen at any time.”
People hold signs and show their support at a vigil at the French Embassy in Ottawa, for the slain journalists of the Paris satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo who were murdered this morning at their offices in Paris.
With Ambassador Phillipe Zeller en route back to Ottawa from Paris on Wednesday, Vulic was the senior official at the Ottawa embassy, which lowered its flags to half-mast after the attack. Very quickly, information began flooding in from many sources, including instructions from the foreign ministry in Paris.
“Like Canada, we can be targeted at home, we can be targeted abroad,” Vulic said. “We are in a state of constant preparedness for such acts.” The instructions from Paris were “just a continuation of this.”
Following the Oct. 22 assault on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, security was tightened around the French embassy, as it was at all foreign missions in the city. It has remained at a heightened level, so there was no need to take further precautions Wednesday.
The embassy, which doubles as Zeller’s residence, is next door to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s residence at 24 Sussex, “so it’s a very secure neighbourhood,” noted press attaché Stéphane Schorderet.
People hold signs and show their support at a vigil at the French Embassy in Ottawa, for the slain journalists of the Paris satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo who were murdered this morning at their offices in Paris.
There were RCMP vehicles parked in front of the embassy Wednesday, but Schorderet said that was “a normal and common thing.”
Vulic said he and his colleagues feel safe here. “We have full confidence in the Canadian authorities. I think Canada is taking, more than ever, the terrorist threat very seriously.”
At the same time, he added, “given the evolving reality of the terrorist threat, you never say what we have is good enough. It’s never good enough. When attacks happen, you realize that there’s still room for improvement, and this is a lesson to all of us.”
The attack on Charlie Hebdo was “a very clear and direct act against freedom of expression,” Vulic said. The magazine is well known and widely read in France, he said. “Everybody looks at it.”
When it comes to the magazine’s “biting humour,” Vulic said, there are no sacred cows. “They regularly make fun of anybody.” That makes the magazine a real symbol of freedom of expression, he said.
People hold signs and show their support at a vigil at the French Embassy in Ottawa, for the slain journalists of the Paris satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo who were murdered this morning at their offices in Paris.
Though the attack was clearly an attempt to silence free expression, “this is exactly the thing we should resist,” Vulic said. “Freedom of expression should be defended seriously by us all. Everybody should resist fear and stand united.”
In France, that appears to be happening. Following Wednesday’s attack, there were massive public gatherings in a dozen cities in support of free expression, Vulic said.
He said he was grateful for the many expressions of support and solidarity the embassy has received from government officials and ordinary Canadians.
Canada and France have been co-operating in the fight against terrorism “in a very thorough and serious way,” he said. The Paris attack “only shows you this has to continue.”
Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs spokesman John Babcock said the department was monitoring events closely and “taking appropriate security measures” at Canada’s embassies and consulates abroad.
“We take the safety of our personnel and our missions overseas very seriously,” Babcock said in a written statement, adding that the department does not comment publicly on security precaution specifics at its missions.
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