British comedian Russell Brand criticizes Harper’s reacton to Ottawa shooting

TORONTO—A British celebrity isn’t wowed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s handling of the aftermath of the shooting of an honour guard at the National War Memorial.

Harper’s address to Canadians after Wednesday’s deadly rampage that included a gunfight on Parliament Hill was the subject of “The Trews,” comedian Russell Brand’s YouTube series in which he dissects media coverage of current events.

“The incidents in Ottawa are being used to advance a narrative that will not only entitle them to further wars abroad, but will entitle them to inhibit our freedoms,” Brand says in the Oct. 23 episode.

He says Harper’s repeated emphasis on terrorism and Islam are a subtle way of advancing a Conservative political agenda focused on increased military deployment.

Brand, who has produced 174 episodes of “The Trews” since it debuted this past February, has only recently become widely known for his political engagement.

Brand went on to contrast the political reaction to Cpl. Nathan Cirillo’s slaying at the National War Memorial with the reaction after Justin Bourque’s shooting rampage in Moncton, N.B. earlier this year, in which three RCMP officers were gunned down.

Brand concluded the Moncton shooting didn’t receive the same degree of attention from Harper because it was perpetrated by a disaffected white Canadian rather than someone believed to have ties to a perceived foreign enemy.