By Kris Sims

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has no plans to mark the second anniversary of the terrorist attack on Parliament Hill and the slaying of Corporal Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial.

"I am not aware of any plans to mark the anniversary this year," Zoltan Csepregi, Manager of Media Relations for Veterans Affairs Canada told CFRA in an emailed statement Thursday. "I spoke with my colleagues at DND (Department of National Defence) and they are not aware of any events this year following the plaque unveiling last year."

In 2015 the out-going Conservative Government initiated a large ceremony at the National War Memorial to mark the first anniversary of the attack. The 2015 event included a speech by Governor General David Johnston, a military march-past by Cirillo's Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Hamilton, a CF-18 fly-past in Missing Man formation to honour Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent and the unveiling of a permanent plaque commemorating Cirillo at the site.

Exiting Prime Minister Stephen Harper was pictured jointly laying a commemorative wreath with in-coming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the event.

On October 22, 2014 Corporal Cirillo was standing as an unarmed honour guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial. Michael Zehaf-Bibeau crept up behind him, shot him in the back and then shot him again as Cirillo tried to crawl for cover. Five civilians rushed to help and comfort the fallen soldier, but he later died from his severe wounds.

Zehaf-Bibeau then car-jacked a vehicle on Parliament Hill, drove to Centre Block and ran through the main doors under the Peace Tower into the Hall of Honour, running past the rooms where the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition were holding their caucus meetings. The attacker fired several rounds from his long-gun before eventually being shot dead by the RCMP at the doors of the Parliamentary Library.

Zehaf-Bibeau had made a video before murdering Cirillo, declaring that he was attacking the capital because of Canada's fight against jihadists in Afghanistan and Iraq. Thousands of people working on Parliament Hill and in downtown Ottawa were on lock-down for hours, trapped in their offices, as police searched buildings for any other attackers.

Two days earlier on October 20th, 2014, Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent was run-down by a car driven by a self-styled Islamic jihadist in Saint Jean sur Richelieu, Quebec. Vincent was in his Canadian Armed Forces uniform when he was struck and killed while one of his military colleagues survived the attack.

- Kris Sims formerly served as staff to then-Veterans Affairs Minister Erin O'Toole.

Edited to add:

“All of Canada remembers the tragic events on October 20th and 22nd of 2014, mourns the passing of Warrant officer Patrice Vincent and Corporal Nathan Cirillo and extends their sympathies to their families,” Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr said in a written statement to CFRA on Friday. “It is at events in Ottawa on November 11th, and others across Canada and the world, where we will join together as a nation and as a people to recognize and pay tribute to all those brave Canadian soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice, in wartime and in peace, at home and abroad, to safeguard our values and our way of life.”