SASKATOON – Explosive blasts in Belgium on Tuesday at the Brussels airport and metro marked the country’s deadliest attack since the Second World War. The Islamic State Group hours later claimed responsibility for the deaths of at least 30 people during the attacks and injuring more than 230 others.
Two of three men captured on airport security cameras blew themselves up in the main check-in area according to Belgian police, and a man hunt continues for anyone else involved.
In Saskatoon, flags have been lowered to half staff to honour lives lost in the deadly terror attack and national leaders denounced the violence involved in the attacks.
READ MORE: Brussels attacks: Death toll climbs to 34 from bombings
“We strongly condemn these acts and we ask all the people around the world to condemn it as a despicable act of terrorism against humanity and not jump to the conclusion this has anything to do with the religion of Islam,” said Lal Khan Malik, national president of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jam`at Canada.
Nearly 100 Saskatoon Catholic School students scheduled to take part in an educational spring break trip overseas will still get the chance, said superintendent of education Scott Gay.
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None of the groups traveling internationally have scheduled stops in Belgium and after careful consideration the first group departed Tuesday for their whirlwind tour.
“Right now we’re not looking at a cancellation but we’re certainly monitoring the situation closely and if the situation changes which we know can happen in an instance we would still make that consideration,” said Gay.
Just last week, the sole surviving Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam, 24, was captured alive after a shoot-out in Belgium on March 18.
Good news or so authorities thought, says University of Saskatchewan terrorism expert Colleen Bell. She says by taking Abdeslam into custody it could have accelerated further terror attacks.
“Given that an important person involved in this network is in Europe, I think there is a desire on the part of the organization to be able to show that it can continue and has the capability to continue to act.”
No Canadians are believed to have been killed or injured as a result of the terror attacks according to the federal government and there is no new information to suggest our country’s threat levels should be elevated.
“There isn’t a clear and obvious reason for Canada to assume that because attacks happened in Belgium today that there will attacks in Canada tomorrow,” said Bell.
“The amount of resources that we put into counter terrorism is significant given the likelihood of attack is very minimal and it remains very minimal, it’s just so catastrophic it actually does tend to lead to overreaction.”
In a deliberate message not only to Belgium but to the world, Bell says now is the time for authorities to react appropriately by making decisions not driven by fear but the rational assessment of creditable threats.
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