WATCH: ISIS released an audio recording warning countries taking part in the U.S.-led coalition and part of the message was directed at Canada. Eric Sorensen has details of the chilling threat.
TORONTO – It appears to be the most direct threat yet against Canada by Islamic State militants.
ISIS released several online propaganda videos over the weekend calling for attacks on citizens of Western countries.
According to ABC News, the video says: “If you can kill a disbelieving American or European, especially the spiteful and filthy French, or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever, then rely upon Allah and kill him in any manner or way however it may be.”
WATCH: Islamic State released an audio recording that urges attacks against all coalitions forces including Canadians.
In a statement to Global News Monday, the Canadian government said it is “firmly committed to fighting the Islamic State.”
“We will not be deterred by threats from this barbaric terrorist group,” said Jason Tamming, press secretary for Steven Blaney, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. “That is why we made it a criminal offence to go overseas to engage in terrorism and why we took action to strip the citizenship of those convicted of terrorist offences.
We will always stand up for the Canadian values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law against these abhorrent terrorists.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper responded by saying Canada is looking at what else it can to do monitor and take action against organizations and individuals who pose a threat to Canadians.
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Canada is sending 69 special forces personnel to serve as advisers to Iraqi forces battling ISIS militants, and Harper says the government is also talking with its allies on the ground there to identify other ways Canada can assist.
Harper says security agencies have long been aware of threats to Canada and while the government has changed existing laws to deal with them, they are now looking to see what else can be done.
WATCH: Prime Minister Stephen Harper responds to the direct threat from ISIS
France’s interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve is also responding to the video, saying he is confident in his country’s security.
Cazeneuve said Monday “this threat to kill civilians, added to the execution of hostages and to the massacres, is yet another demonstration of the barbarism of these terrorists, justifying our fight without truce or pause.”
READ MORE: France charges 5 people suspected of recruiting women, girls to fight for Islamic State
He added that “France is not afraid because it is prepared to respond to their threats.”
Meanwhile, the wife of a British aid worker is calling on his ISIS captors to release her husband.
READ MORE: Wife of British hostage pleads with ISIS for his release
Alan Henning was kidnapped in December, shortly after crossing into Syria from Turkey as he drove an ambulance loaded with food and water.
In one of its latest videos, the Islamic State group threatened to make the 47-year-old its next victim.
The al-Qaida breakaway group, which wants to establish an Islamic state, or caliphate, rules by its harsh version of Islamic law in territory it captured straddling the Syria-Iraq border. Both France and the U.S. have conducted airstrikes in Iraq against the militants.
WATCH: John Kerry explains why he personally fears the threat of ISIS so much
With files from The Canadian Press
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