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“The fact that they arrested a third person that was linked to the two brothers could mean their investigation isn’t over and they could want to arrest more people,” said Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former senior intelligence officer at the spy agency Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

But former RCMP superintendent Garry Clement says the public ought to understand what the men are accused of doing.

“The one thing I find with the RCMP is, I don’t think they do a good job of handling media and they never have,” he said, adding that the national capital division tends to be “a lot more conservative” than other divisions, such as the one covering Toronto.

2. The secret Oct. 22 Zehaf-Bibeau video

On Oct. 27, RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson told the Senate’s national security committee that a video apparently taken by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau indicates his “ideological motives” and “will certainly be released some day.” But Paulson backtracked last month, saying a transcript was more likely, and of only part of that video.

In contrast, two days after a gunman killed four people in a Parisian kosher supermarket last week, a video surfaced of him pledging allegiance to the Islamic State terror group. Police said they’d investigate the source of the video, but they made no effort to suppress its broadcast.

Liberal public safety critic Wayne Easter says only the Oct. 22 video can corroborate the government’s argument that a terror attack took place with Zehaf-Bibeau and that security agencies need more powers. Opposition leader Tom Mulcair has said the NDP is waiting until the public sees such evidence to decide whether the event was indeed a terrorist attack.