MOSCOW, October 27 (RIA Novosti) — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has bowed out of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit in Beijing to attend the Remembrance Day in Ottawa, following a deadly shooting, Harper’s office said Monday.
According to the statement, on November 11 the prime minister will stay in Parliament Hill for Remembrance Day ceremonies. Remembrance Day is a public memorial day commemorating fallen troops, which has been observed in Canada since World War One.
This year the commemoration ceremony will take on added significance in the wake of the killings of two Canadian soldiers in separate attacks in Ottawa and in Quebec.
On Wednesday, a 32-year old Canadian citizen shot a soldier guarding the National War Memorial in Ottawa and then proceeded to Parliament Hill’s Center Block where he was killed in a shootout with a policeman.
Just two days earlier, Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent was murdered in a hit-and-run attack in a city near Montreal, in Quebec, which also injured another soldier.
The APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting will take place in the Chinese capital of Beijing on November 10-11.
