VICTORIAVILLE, QUE.—On the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks Conservative Leader Stephen Harper met longstanding calls to renew funding for counter-terrorism and counter-radicalization measures with a campaign promise of $10 million over five years to start in 2017.

And for the second day in a row, Harper hinted at other measures to come.

At a campaign event in Quebec Harper defended his own national security record. Asked about repeated calls for effective co-ordinated oversight of all of federal agencies who play a role in national security, Harper said the government will be “doing some more things.”

He provided no further details.

The Conservatives have enhanced the resources of the civilian-led watchdog agency over the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) but have rejected calls for more parliamentary review of agencies like the CSE or Communications Security Establishment, the secretive electronic eavesdropping agency, or the military or Canada Border Services Agency.

“We’ve acted on a number of the (Air India inquiry) recommendations. We continue to act on others in terms of oversight and surveillance, in fact we have done some things there and we are looking at doing some more things,” Harper said at a campaign event in Quebec.

“But let me just be clear — the threat to this country today is not CSIS. It is ISIS.”

“And that’s something we understand that the other guys don’t seem to understand,” Harper said.

Harper marked the 9/11 anniversary by citing the Oct. 20, and Oct. 22 ISIS-inspired attacks in 2014 that left two Canadian military personnel dead in separate attacks in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., and Ottawa, saying Canada had to remain vigilant.

Asked why there had been no public lessons-learned exercise, or inquiry, into those two attacks, Harper addressed only the Oct. 22 attack in the nation’s capital, saying it was under “full review” by the various police and security agencies that were involved and “obviously we will act on those matters when we receive all of that information.”

He said “this government” did move quickly to deal with security issues in the parliamentary precinct by reconfiguring the entire security arrangement there through integration of the separate House of Commons and Senate security forces, and integrating those “more widely” with the RCMP. “So these are very important steps that we’ve brought forward.”

It was a revealing declaration. The decision to immediately put the RCMP — an agency that answers to the executive branch of government — in charge of the legislative branches’ independent security forces was cast at the time as a decision of the speakers and the administration of the Commons and the Senate. It met objections by the NDP. But more integrated security had been long recommended by past reviews of security breaches on the Hill, including an Ontario Provincial Police review of the Oct. 22 attack.

Combined, Harper’s statements suggest the Conservative party is moving to address certain aspects of its security policy that are most easily improved.

Harper was campaigning in Quebec Friday, as he stressed his party’s “tough on terror” approach — tempering that message with the announcement to further research into the study root causes or terrorism.

He used the chance to slam his rivals, saying the NDP voted against every national security measure his government proposed because of its “leftist ideology.”

“Thomas Mulcair and Justin Trudeau are so obsessed by a bizarre idea of political correctness that they don’t want to call jihadist terrorism by its name,” he said.

He deflected questions about why, if the fight against ISIS is so important, he doesn’t commit ground troops to Syria. Harper said he agreed with U.S. President Barack Obama and other Western partners that “we’ve seen this before; we cannot do this simply by Western ground power.”

“There has to be indigenous forces, people on the ground, who are willing to carry the bulk of that fight and secure their own territory on an ongoing basis.”

He pointed to Canada’s efforts in Afghanistan, saying that’s why so much of it was directed at building up that country’s own police and security forces and capacity. Earlier, Harper had admitted that Afghanistan is still a “work in progress” but said due to military efforts, it was no longer a base from which terrorist attacks against the West were being launched.

He said that’s why Canada is training Kurdish forces in northern Iraq. “The fact that there remains a lack of that capacity is obviously a significant challenge but in the meantime it is important that we continue the air campaign against ISIS and make sure that they are put under pressure and not able to spend all of their time planning attacks against us in Canada and the rest of the West.”

Harper condemned the build-up of Russian ground forces in Syria, saying Russia’s moves in security situations like the Middle East and Ukraine are “dangerous and unhelpful” interventions. “There has got to be some kind of political settlement in Syria that involves moderate elements of both sides, but simply sending military support into (President Bashar) Assad is not in my judgment helpful.”

The Harper government’s funding for the Kanishka research project — launched in 2011 in response to the Air India inquiry’s recommendations — was set to run out at the end of this fiscal year.

Academics and civil libertarians argued hard this past year for the money to be renewed at a crucial time when Canada like other Western countries struggled to cope with a new wave of Canadian youth drawn to fundamentalist Islamist causes. In many cases, research is discovering how states can better use “soft security” measures to fight radicalism.

The money, $10 million to cover another five years of academic research and other projects aimed at counter-terrorism and counter-radicalization, will start flowing in April 2017, and will fill a gap that was expected when the current funding was to run out. Yet at about $2 million a year, it may be only a pittance in the face of what Harper himself says is a growing menace to Canada’s security.

The Kanishka project is named after the Air India aircraft that was brought down off the coast of Ireland in 1985 by a bomb, killing 329 people, mostly Canadians.

Craig Forcese, a University of Ottawa law professor and co-author with Kent Roach of the new book False Security on Canadian anti-terrorism, said the money is needed, but so is a broader approach to outstanding concerns about Canada’s approach.

“Certainly, more understanding — especially on the difficult issue of counter-violent extremism — is vital, and not to be discounted. But I have seen no evidence that any party is so far prepared to grapple with the serious structural deficiencies that are making us a laggard among democracies in effective anti-terrorism — deficiencies that are exacerbated by (Bill) C-51, but would not be cured outright by its repeal. Real security will require a serious rethink.”

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When a reporter asked Harper to respond to his critics who say he is exploiting the terrorism threat to pass tough and controversial laws, Harper said Friday his government is taking all necessary steps “to protect Canadians.”

“It’s the opposition parties, for ideological and irresponsible reasons, who oppose actions that are necessary and absolutely strongly supported by the public.”

Harper addressed a small crowd in a hotel meeting room saying almost everyone remembers where they were on 9/11.

“The murder of 24 Canadians at the World Trade Centre during 9/11, the Air India bombing in 1985, and the callous attacks on two Canadians right here last year all serve to remind us that Canada is not immune to terror threats,” Harper said in a news release accompanying the announcement.

Harper has come under fire in the past week for his hardline approach to the Syrian refugee crisis, insisting any increased intake of refugees must be met with strict screening, and emphasizing security concerns amid demands he accelerate the entry of 10,000 more refugees that his party promised to admit.

Harper has pushed back at his opponents’ calls for swifter measures, saying the issue can’t be resolved through refugee policy alone, but must include humanitarian aid to organizations dealing with millions of refugees in the region and military engagement against ISIL.

But Harper also switched tack Thursday saying he will soon announce new steps to expedite processes that critics say are mired in red tape.

Meanwhile, in Edmonton, NDP Leader Mulcair said all governments must above all else ensure their security of their citizens, but that does not mean supporting the U.S.-led coalition mission against the Islamic State in the Middle East is the only way to do that.

“All governments must protect their citizens. There is no priority that is more important on the list of things for governments to accomplish and in our day that also means protecting our citizens from terrorist attacks,” Mulcair told reporters Friday.

Mulcair has promised to immediately withdraw the Canadian military from the mission against the militant group calling itself the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) in Iraq and Syria if the NDP forms the government in the Oct. 19 federal election, months before the current parliamentary mandate ends next March.

But he said that does not mean Canada cannot do its part to combat terrorism.

“Canada has a role to play in combating terrorism and in combating ISIS,” said Mulcair.

“We can combat and work to stop the flow of arms, we can stop the flow of money and we can stop the flow of foreign fighters. On the flow of arms, of course Canada is the only NATO country not to have signed the Arms Trade Agreement and that’s something that could easily be corrected. On the flow of money, we can be going after assets and help with our allies to do just that.

“And with regard to the flow of foreign fighters, all countries including Canada should be fighting to stop radicalization here at home and that’s something that Mr. Harper has simply failed to do.”

Mulcair said that is what he would tell U.S. President Barack Obama and other allies when it comes to pulling out of the mission.

With files from Joanna Smith in Edmonton

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