As we commemorate the life of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, gunned down on Oct. 22, 2014 at the National War Memorial, let us not be lulled into a false sense of security about our present situation.

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Most people are familiar with the “I remember where I was when … ” statement. We can recall our exact location and what we were doing when something really significant took place. For my older brother, it was John F. Kennedy’s assassination: I used to leaf through a scrapbook he kept of newspaper clips following the November 1963 killing.

For me, it is 9/11. I had been at Canada’s spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) for nine months, having moved over from the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) when the planes hit those buildings. I watched it live on TV and the next few weeks were a blur as I and my colleagues tried to determine what exactly this meant. We also had to determine whether any of the hijackers came from Canada. (None did, despite the convictions of some conspiracy theorists to this day).

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