Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen leaving the Canada War Memorial after paying their respects to Corporal Nathan Cirillo in Ottawa yesterday. Cpl Cirillo was killed during a shooting incident at the memorial on Wednesday. The gunman then ran into Parliament, shooting, before he was killed by police. Photo: Chris Wattie/Reuters

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged to boost security forces’ surveillance and detention powers yesterday, a day after a gunman killed a soldier and raced through Parliament before being shot dead.

Addressing the House of Commons just metres from the spot where the gunman, a reported convert to Islam, was shot dead on Wednesday, Harper said lawmakers would expedite new powers to counter the threat of radicals.

“The objective of these attacks was to instill fear and panic in our country,” Harper said. “Canadians will not be intimidated. We will be vigilant, but we will not run scared. We will be prudent but we will not panic.”

Harper pledged to speed up a plan already under way to bolster Canadian laws and police powers in the areas of “surveillance, detention and arrest”.

Harper said the attack, which followed an incident on Monday when a convert to Islam ran over two Canadian soldiers with his car, killing one, would strengthen Canada’s response to “terrorist organisations”.

Gunman who was shot dead reported to have been a convert to Islam

The attacks in Ottawa and Quebec took place as the Canadian government prepared to boost the powers of its spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Public Safety Minister Stephen Blaney said last week the new legislation would let the agency track and investigate potential terrorists when they travel abroad and ultimately prosecute them.

Police said yesterday they were satisfied that only one person was involved in the attack. A source familiar with the matter said police were investigating a man named Michael Zehaf-Bibeau as the possible suspect. US officials said they had been advised he was a convert to Islam.