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Justin Trudeau looked as pensive as Canadians have yet seen him, as he announced that a second hostage, Robert Hall, had been killed by his captors in the Philippines.

The prime minister and many of his staff were working on only a few hours of sleep and, in the words of one senior staffer, were “emotionally devastated” by the outcome.

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The fatigue was likely compounded by a sense of guilt. After all, Hall’s unimaginably grisly fate was sealed by the Canadian government’s refusal to pay a ransom to the terrorist group, Abu Sayyaf.

“We will not turn the maple leaf, worn with pride by over three million Canadians abroad, into targets,” Trudeau said .

It does not seem as if Hall and his friend John Ridsdel, and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and Filipino Teresita Flor, were targeted by Abu Sayyaf militants because of their nationality.

Reports said 11 armed men arrived on a motorboat and entered the Holiday Ocean View Samal Resort on Samal Island last September and first attempted to seize an American and his Japanese companion. It was only when the Canadians emerged from their yachts that they were taken.