{"id":74904,"date":"2016-04-26T10:49:17","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T14:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=74904"},"modified":"2016-04-26T10:49:17","modified_gmt":"2016-04-26T14:49:17","slug":"pm-trudeau-condemns-cold-blooded-murder-canadian-hostage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/04\/26\/pm-trudeau-condemns-cold-blooded-murder-canadian-hostage\/","title":{"rendered":"PM Trudeau condemns “cold blooded murder” of Canadian hostage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cCanada<\/a>
\u201cCanada condemns without reservation the brutality of the hostage takers and this unnecessary death,\u201d Trudeau said
(Photo: Justin Trudeau\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

KANANASKIS, Alta.\u2014Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned Monday the \u201ccold-blooded murder\u201d of a Canadian beheaded by terrorists in the Philippines after being held hostage for seven months.<\/p>\n

Trudeau confirmed the victim was 68-year-old John Ridsdel of Calgary.<\/p>\n

Ridsdel was one of four tourists \u2014 including fellow Canadian Robert Hall, a Norwegian man and a Filipino woman \u2014 who were kidnapped last Sept. 21 by Abu Sayyaf militants from a marina on southern Samal Island.<\/p>\n

The militants had threatened to kill one of the three male hostages if a large ransom was not paid by 3 p.m. Monday local time \u2014 3 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n

Philippines police said a plastic bag containing Ridsdel’s decapitated head was dumped in a street Monday night by two men on a motorcycle in Jolo, a town in Sulu province.<\/p>\n

Trudeau said he was \u201coutraged\u201d by the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada condemns without reservation the brutality of the hostage takers and this unnecessary death,\u201d Trudeau said in a hastily assembled appearance before the media in the midst of a cabinet retreat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an act of cold\u201dblooded murder and responsibility rests squarely with the terrorist group who took him hostage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trudeau said the Canadian government is committed to working with the Philippine government and international partners to \u201cpursue those responsible for this heinous act and bring them to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

On behalf of all Canadians, he also expressed his \u201cdeepest condolences\u201d to Ridsdel’s family and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have endured a terrible ordeal and this is a devastating moment for all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saying that the safety of Canadian citizens is the first priority of the government, Trudeau said the government will not comment or release any information that might \u201ccompromise ongoing efforts or endanger the safety of the remaining hostages.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did not answer any questions, including whether the government had paid a ransom for Ridsdel or Hall. However, an official said it is long\u201dstanding government policy to not pay ransom demands.<\/p>\n

Interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose called news of Ridsdel’s execution \u201cshocking and saddening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIncidents like this should remind all of us that the threat of terrorism remains very real,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must stand with our allies in solidarity against terrorism, which remains the greatest challenge that the world faces today.\u201d<\/p>\n

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair called on the Trudeau government to do everything possible to rescue the other hostages and declared that \u201cwe stand united in condemning this outrageous and despicable act.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTragic events like this must not lessen our diplomatic resolve to work towards peace across the world,\u201d Mulcair added in a statement.<\/p>\n

The hostages were believed to have been taken to Jolo Island in Sulu, where the militants are thought to be holding a number of captives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is such a barbaric act by these people and one would be tempted to think that they should also meet the same fate,\u201d the Associated Press reported Jolo Mayor Hussin Amin as saying by telephone.<\/p>\n

Philippine forces were moving to rescue the abductees, the military said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaximum efforts are being exerted … to effect the rescue,\u201d the military and police said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n

It said about 400 Abu Sayyaf militants were involved in the kidnappings, AP reported.<\/p>\n

The militants reportedly demanded 300 million pesos ($6.5 million US) for each of the foreigners.<\/p>\n

In militant videos posted online, Ridsdel and Hall, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and Filipino Marites Flor were shown sitting in a clearing with heavily armed militants standing behind them. In some of the videos, a militant positioned a long knife on Ridsdel’s neck. Two black flags hung in the backdrop of lush foliage.<\/p>\n

The abductions highlighted the long\u201drunning security problems hounding the southern Philippines, a resource\u201drich region that suffers from poverty, lawlessness and decades\u201dlong Muslim and communist insurgencies.<\/p>\n

Abu Sayyaf emerged in the early 1990s as an offshoot of a separatist rebellion by minority Muslims in the predominantl<\/p>\n

The group \u2014 which Canada and other western countries consider a terrorist organization \u2014 has relied on extortion and huge ransoms earned from kidnappings of mostly Western tourists and missionaries to survive for more than two decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KANANASKIS, Alta.\u2014Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned Monday the \u201ccold-blooded murder\u201d of a Canadian beheaded by terrorists in the Philippines after …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":73490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[254,10447,398,608,10179,2313,10446,581,343],"class_list":["post-74904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-abu-sayyaf","tag-beheaded","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-extremists","tag-hostage","tag-john-ridsdel","tag-mindanao","tag-philippines","mauthors-joan-bryden","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}