Thousands of mourners packed a cathedral to hear Canada's Prime Minister call Corporal Nathan Cirillo, the soldier shot dead outside the parliament in Ottowa, an inspiration.
The 24-year-old soldier's coffin, draped in the country's Maple Leaf flag and accompanied by members of his Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada regiment in kilts, was taken to his funeral yesterday in a procession through his home city of Hamilton, Ontario.
Stephen Harper told mourners at Christ's Church Cathedral that his actions in confronting the gunman who killed him had inspired and united his countrymen and women.
Addressing Corporal Cirillo's five year-old son in the congregation, Mr Harper choked back tears. He said: "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. We are better for his life and we are diminished by his loss."
Major the Reverend Canon Rob Fead called Corporal Cirillo "Canada's son", and said the tragedy had helped bring the country together.
He said: "We gather this day in faith and in hope. His bravery, his sacrifice, is not in vain."
Corporal 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 killings took place as the country's military stepped up its involvement in airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq.
It has shocked Canada and prompted a debate on how its open culture, and particularly the low-key security in the capital 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.
Corporal Cirillo was on ceremonial watch at the nation's war memorial in Ottawa on October 22 when he was shot dead by Muslim convert Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. The gunman then stormed the parliament building where Mr Harper was addressing a caucus of Conservatives. Zehaf-Bibeau, a drug addict, was shot dead by sergeant-at-arms Kevin Vickers, 56.
Corporal Cirillo's was the first of the soldiers' funerals. The other victim, Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, 53, died when he was run over by an Islamist extremist who was later fatally shot. WO Vincent is to be laid to rest in Quebec on Saturday.
Wearing a red poppy at yesterday's funeral, office worker Nadia Grandoni, 35, said: "I was born here and even though I didn't know Nathan, I feel like he was my brother. He has done us proud. We love him, as a community and as a country. Both him and Patrice Vincent. Canada loves them both."
Corporal Cirillo was buried in a military cemetery in the city.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article