OTTAWA, Ontario — Canadians returned to the reopened grounds of Parliament Hill on Saturday just three days after a gunman shot and killed a soldier at the national war memorial and then stormed Parliament before he was gunned down.

House Speaker Andrew Scheer said tours of Parliament will resume Monday, but visitors can expect to see a heightened Royal Canadian Mounted Police presence. Counseling sessions will be provided for Commons staff, he said.

The reopening comes at a time when Canadians are debating how to balance homeland safety and freedoms in a country that treasures its image as an orderly, open society, a place where the seat of government welcomes public yoga sessions on its lawn beneath a monument called the Peace Tower.

Brett Connors was among the visitors who came to the reopened grounds of Parliament Hill, accompanying his 11-year-old daughter’s youth hockey team as players took photos in front of a flame commemorating the nation’s 1967 centennial. He said reopening Parliament Hill, and soon the building, to the public sends the right signal.

“It represents democracy. So by closing it, it’s like closing the country down,” said Connors, of Scarborough, near Toronto. “One single incident can’t be bigger than our whole democracy.”

The attack in Ottawa came two days after a man described as an “ISIL-inspired terrorist” ran over two soldiers in Quebec, killing one and injuring the other before being shot to death by police.

The Ottawa gunman was identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. His motive remains unknown, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper has called the shooting a terror attack.

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