Canada attends counter-terrorism summit as France reels from week of attacks

Watch: Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney talks about the message he’s bringing to the emergency counter-terrorism summit in Paris.

Canada’s public safety minister is in the heart of the fight against terrorism, where a country, its people and officials have been shrouded in attacks, standoffs and shootouts since last Wednesday.

Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney arrived in Paris on the weekend where he laid a wreath at the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, an office where editors of the satirical weekly were killed in an organized plot, launching three long days of bloodshed around the city.

Sunday, the minister took part in the unity rally and a march in the capital city, hoping to demonstrate Canada’s support for the French, alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.

READ MORE: Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney lays wreath at Charlie Hebdo HQ

Also on Sunday, Blaney took part in an international emergency counter-terrorism meeting. France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve organized the gathering and invited his North American and European counterparts.

Michel Robitaille, Quebec’s delegate-general in the French capital, will attend on behalf of the province.

“Minister Cazeneuve was one of the first to reach out to us when we faced the Oct. 22 attack,” Blaney said in an interview on The West Block with Tom Clark.. “We will share out practices on how to better tackle these evolving threats of terrorism and those individuals who are ready to commit violence to meet their target.”

Beyond the affront to democracy and freedom of speech, the string of ISIS-influenced hostage situations, shootings and killings across the globe has had a deep impact on Muslim communities.

WATCH: Why was Charlie Hebdo magazine targeted in the Paris shooting?

Shahina Siddiqui, executive director of the Islamic Social Services Association based in Winnipeg, said while the right to free speech is a certainty, it’s not necessarily an absolute.

“Definitely, we believe in the freedom of expression, freedom of opinion. But it should work both ways,” she said on The West Block with Tom Clark.

WATCH: Shahina Siddiqui says all groups need to look at the root causes of terrorist attacks and try to find new ways to reach out to vulnerable youth.

“If somebody feels that it is OK to hurt and offend a religious community, then that religious community also has a right to respond.”

The response should inspire a conversation, Siddiqui said.

The cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo were known to offend, printing images of Mohammed and images of Muslims many found offensive and inflammatory.

READ MORE: What we know about the suspects in the Charlie Hebdo Paris shooting

The radicalized attackers on Wednesday were thought to have acted as a means to avenge their faith. The Western world responded saying the attack was nothing less than an assault on one of the tenets of a democracy: freedom of the press.

The Muslim community worker said she isn’t certain whether freedom of speech is an absolute right.

“Do we already impose on ourselves restrictions when we choose to express ourselves? Do we choose our words carefully? Weigh the options of the greater good of the impact of our words or our cartoons.”

But violence, Siddiqui said, is not the right response to an offensive message, no matter the country in question, no matter the faith in question.

IN PHOTOS: Rallies around the world for Charlie Hebdo victims

“I think the response has to be that we speak up, that we say this has offended us and why it has offended us so that we can have a conversation,” Siddiqui said.

“The other option is we have to change the channel … We don’t have to see these cartoons … You can be silent and not respond and ignore it.”

While federal laws can help curb violence, she said, but it’s the conversation that will really make a difference.

“Policing can only go so far,” she said. “We want to respond at the prevention stage.”

In the wake of October’s shooting in Ottawa, the Conservative government introduced the Combating Terrorism Act and identified terrorism as the government’s top national security issue, Blaney said.

READ MORE: As feds plan new anti-terror laws, some ask why current ones not being used

“We can overcome those challenges by working all together, and this is what we are willing to do with our friends, French people and also our American partners and all of those around the world who are standing up for democracy,” he said.

WATCH: Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird says we all must work to protect those rights.

Blaney said there is an increasing number of people who are lured to extremist ideals and willing to travel, and who Canada has become adept at identifying.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird described the fight against terrorists as the “great struggle of our generation.”

“This is a real challenge for freedom-loving people everywhere.”