“Today, on the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism, we pay tribute to those who were murdered or maimed in terror attacks and their loved ones whose lives were destroyed by this senseless evil. This is also a day on which we reiterate our commitment to vigilance against these assaults on our values.
“Canadians are not immune to these acts of hatred. June 23 was chosen to commemorate the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182, which took the lives of 329 innocents, including 280 Canadians. While this horrific act of evil remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Canadian history, extremists have continued to inflict violence upon Canadians at home and abroad, from Ottawa and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, to New York City and Tel Aviv.
“While we mourn the victims of senseless violence and grieve along with their loved ones, we also honour our law enforcement and military personnel who defend our values of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law.
“The calculated, far-reaching violence inflicted on free peoples and the threat of it to achieve political ends is pure evil and we cannot ignore it, we cannot tolerate it, we cannot excuse it, and we cannot allow it to continue. While the scars and wounds are borne by victims and their families, they are also an assault on Albertans’ core ideals and undermine the democratic principles we uphold.”