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Calgary MP Michelle Rempel took to Facebook Thursday with an impassioned plea for Canadians to resist the urge to “explain away” the threat of Islamic extremism in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

“Today – watching the coverage in Paris – an instant sickness grew in my gut,” Ms. Rempel wrote, comparing the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris to her own experience on Parliament Hill during the Oct. 22 shootings in Ottawa. On that day, a gunman shot dead Cpl. Nathan Cirillo as he stood sentry on the National War Memorial. The shooter then briefly hijacked Ms. Rempel’s empty ministerial car on his way to his way to Centre Block.

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“Frankly, I don’t understand why I’m alive and [Cpl. Cirillo is] not,” the Conservative MP wrote.

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Even before the Ottawa attack, Ms. Rempel was an outspoken opponent of jihadists online — mocking ISIS threats on Canadians with a Twitter photo of herself “feeling pretty secure” in her bedroom in September.