CALGARY — A spokesman for the security company that employed both the Florida nightclub gunman and a Canadian who killed three co-workers in Edmonton in 2012 says there's a key difference between its operations in Canada and the United States.
Communications director Katie McLeod of the Canadian arm of U.K.-based G4S says the company's Canadian guards are not armed while working.
An armed G4S guard killed three co-workers and wounded a fourth in 2012 in Edmonton while they were servicing a University of Alberta campus ATM machine. McLeod said G4S has since sold its armoured car division, which required staff to be armed.
The company employees 9,000 people in Canada.
Shares in the security company G4S fell on Monday after it emerged that Omar Mateen had worked for the firm. The company said Mateen was subject to a detailed screening and checks by U.S. law enforcement, which reported no findings to G4S.
Mateen has been identified as the man who killed 49 people and wounded more than 50 others in an attack early Sunday on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla.
The FBI has reported he was interviewed twice in 2013 after he made inflammatory comments to co-workers and, in 2014, he was found to have had ties to an American suicide bomber.
McLeod says that all G4S guards in Canada must obtain a provincial security licence before being considered for employment.
They must take an approved course and a police check is undertaken by the province. She said G4S also uses a third party to undertake a five-year history verification on all employees and contractors before hiring.
G4S, a global security company, is active in some 100 countries and has 610,000 employees.
It came under fire during the 2012 London Olympics after failing to provide the number of security guards promised to protect the games. The British military had to be called in to fill the gap.
CANADIAN OFFICIALS OFFER CONDEMNATION AND SYMPATHY AFTER FLORIDA MASS SHOOTING
After a mass shooting on Sunday that killed at least 50 people and injured dozens more at a gay nightclub in Florida, many Canadians were reflecting on what the violence means for the LGBTQ community.
A gunman wielding an assault-type rifle and a handgun opened fire inside a crowded gay nightclub in Orlando early Sunday morning. He was shot and killed by police.
Candlelight vigils to mourn the victims were planned in several Canadian cities Sunday night. Hundreds gathered for a vigil in Toronto in a predominantly gay neighbourhood.
Some carried flags — Canadian, American and Pride — while others held signs. Speakers called for love in the face of violence.
A handful of uniformed police officers patrolled outside the vigil, and others provided security within the crowd.
In Vancouver, hundreds joined a vigil at the art gallery, holding white candles in red plastic cups as speakers emphasized the importance and strength of the community.
City councillor Steve Thomson told the crowd he never imagined in his nearly four decades of fighting for equal rights that this kind of hatred could exist.
"We have to face that there are people who want to put us back in the closet, if not kill us as they did in Orlando. But that won't stop us. That won't stop any of us," he said.
The attack came during Pride month, both in the U.S. and Canada.
The executive director of Pride Toronto, a not-for-profit with the goal of bringing together the city's LGBTQ community, said the massacre was a grim reminder of the setbacks his community faces.
"It reminds us that hate and discrimination are still a big part of this society, and that because of this, some of our brothers and sisters this morning lost their lives," Mathieu Chantelois said on Sunday.
The organization also runs Toronto's pride month, and Chantelois said Pride Toronto was already working with city police and the RCMP but would see if there were any additional security steps that could be taken.
"The main objective of Pride is to create a safe space for our community to gather together and feel comfortable," he said.
Spencer Chandra Herbert, a member of the British Columbia legislature, was in Quesnel, B.C., celebrating the small town's second annual pride celebration with his husband when he heard the news. His immediate reaction was disbelief.
"To think that in this so-called accepting day and age that this hatred is still there and could strike at any time, it's unbelievable," Chandra Herbert said.
Hearing about the massacre was especially crushing in the wake of celebrating love with a small community.
"I've been hearing from people how much it means to them to see somebody there, a politician there with their husband, walking hand-in-hand down the main street," Chandra Herbert said. "It sends a pretty strong signal that we here believe in diversity and will stand up against hatred for love."
The violence shows there's still work to be done in educating people and spreading awareness and understanding of LGBTQ issues, said Chandra Herbert, who has repeatedly tried to get transgender rights legislation passed in B.C.
"(Education) is still vitally important because there are still people hiding in closets, afraid of coming out because of violence or fear of being disowned by family members or being beaten up at schools. It's still an issue," Chandra Herbert said.
In Montreal's gay village, many people reacted with shock and sadness Sunday afternoon while pointing out that many LGBTQ individuals still face violence, even in Canada.
Francis Cavanagh, a bartender at Bar Aigle Noir, said the incident proves homophobia is not a thing of the past.
"It's a reminder that we still need gay villages, we still need Pride parades, and we still need solidarity to show we are all together," he said. "These things don't just happen in Russia or in faraway places."
In Edmonton, people attending Mayor Don Iveson's annual pride brunch reflected on the Florida massacre.
Lorne Stelmach said he feels safer in Canada because gun-control laws are different here.
"There are pockets of bigotry here and there, and we try to deal with those as best we can," Stelmach said. "Hopefully, as we grow as a community, we will extinguish all that bigotry."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered Canada's condolences to the victims, calling the massacre a "domestic terror attack".
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who is openly gay, wrote on Twitter that her thoughts were with the LGBTQ community while B.C. Premier Christy Clark tweeted that she was "incredibly saddened by the evil brutality" of the Florida shooting.
ORLANDO SHOOTER NOT FIRST G4S EMPLOYEE TO GO ON DEADLY RAMPAGE
Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen was not the first employee of British security giant G4S to go on a rampage. Sunday morning's attack in Florida has raised questions over the quality of vetting procedures among the firm's recruits.
The Orlando killer was believed to be 29-year-old Omar Mateen, an Afghan-American G4S security guard. The killing spree, carried out with apparently legally acquired automatic rifles, claimed the lives of 49 partygoers and injured 53 according to the latest figures.
The gunman was shot dead after police stormed the club in a bid to rescue 30 hostages being held there.
The British firm is one of the world's biggest military and security providers. It employs more than half a million people -- many of them ex-military -- in 110 countries including conflict zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. It has been rocked by repeated controversy.
The firm's shares plunged to a seven year low in the wake of its admission that Mateen was an employee, losing over $285 million (£200) million.
Orlando may be the worst atrocity attributed to a G4S employee, but it was not the first.
In 2009 former paratrooper Danny Fitzsimons -- an employee of Armour Group, a division of G4S -- was convicted of killing two colleagues and sentenced to life in prison.
According to human rights NGO Reprieve, Fitzsimons was employed by the mercenary firm despite having been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in May 2008 -- the same month G4S took over Armour Group.
He was thought to have developed the condition after exposure to a number of brutal events as a combatant in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Some 36 hours after arriving in Baghdad as a mercenary in 2009, Fitzsimmons killed fellow security operators Paul McGuigan and Darren Hoare following what was reported to have been a drunken brawl.
It emerged in 2012 following a BBC investigation that emails had been sent to Armour Group by G4S warning them not to employ Fitzsimons.
RT asked G4S about current vetting process used by the firm in reference to both the Mateen and Fitzsimons cases.
A spokesman said given the radically different operating environments in Iraq and the mainland US it is important not to conflate the two cases.
However, he said all staff undergo thorough tests including criminal records, right to work, identity and the Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory test -- a well-regarded psychometric assessment process.
The spokesman also restated the G4S position that Mateen was "re-screened" in 2013, the first year in which he was reportedly questioned by the FBI.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Orlando attacks, though Mateen's connection with the terror group was not yet clear.
ORLANDO NIGHTCLUB GUNMAN DID PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO IS: POLICE CHIEF
The lone gunman who killed 49 and wounded 53 at a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, did pledge allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) and tried to negotiate with police during the attack, said Orlando Police Chief John Mina at a morning news briefing on Monday.
"He was cool and calm when he was making those phone calls to us," Mina said. "We had a team of crisis negotiators that did talk to the suspect just trying to get as much information as possible ... He really wasn't asking for a whole lot. We were doing most of the asking," Xinhua quoted Mina as saying.
At the briefing, an FBI agent clarified that the total number of nightclub victims was 49 instead of the previously reported 50, a number that counted the shooter himself as a victim.
"The shooter is not a victim," FBI Special Agent in Charge Paul Wysopal told reporters.
The shooter, identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen of Afghan descent but born in the United States, parked his car before 2 a.m. on Sunday outside the Pulse nightclub, walked into the crowded main room with an assault rifle and a handgun, and opened fire minutes later on the crowds. He then took several hostages and holed himself up.
More than three hours later, Mateen emerged through a hole that a police armoured vehicle had made in the building to rescue hostages, and was killed during the gun battle with SWAT forces, Mina said at the briefing.
"The suspect came out of that hole himself ... and engaged in a gun battle with officers, where he was ultimately killed," he said.
"Rumors of multiple shooters are unfounded. The one shooter, Omar Mateen, is dead," the police chief added.
A third weapon as well as some terrorism-related documents have been found in the shooter's car by the FBI, according to local media reports.
The ongoing investigation in the deadliest mass shooting in US history is still in the early stage, the reports quoted US Attorney Lee Bentley as saying.
Florida Governor Rick Scott has asked President Barack Obama to sign a disaster declaration for the state following the shooting, the reports added.
