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TORONTO — The Ontario legislature paid tribute to a former Canadian infantryman Thursday after the Syrian Kurdish armed group he had served as an international volunteer fighter confirmed his death and called him a “martyr.”

Randy Hillier, an MPP whose son also fought with Kurdish forces battling the Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant, asked parliamentarians to recognize John Gallagher and send condolences to his family.

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“He left the safety and security of Canada and volunteered to help defend women and children in Syria and Iraq from the tyranny of (ISIL),” Hillier said of the former Essex County resident, eliciting a standing ovation from MPPs.

A former member of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, Gallagher left for Iraq in April. After fighting with the local peshmerga, he joined the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish paramilitary in Syria.

The YPG confirmed on its website Thursday Gallagher had died. On Wednesday the group said a Canadian was killed in a suicide bombing in Hasakeh, where Kurdish and other U.S.-backed forces are fighting to repel ISIL extremists.