The day it all changed

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This article was published 23/10/2014 (4060 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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OTTAWA — “This changes everything.”

Liberal MP John McKay said this speaking to reporters a few hours after the unthinkable happened in Canada’s Parliament buildings.

It may sound like hyperbole, but yesterday, the game changed in Canada.

The overriding sense among MPs, senators, staff and the media, for whom Parliament is part of daily life, is that nothing will ever be the same.

It started out as a normal day. The sun was actually shining for the first time in days.

Shortly before 10 a.m. MPs were arriving in their various conference rooms in Centre Block for their Wednesday morning caucus meetings. Tourists were milling about in front of the building. The perpetual anti-abortion protester was in his usual spot near the Centennial Flame.

I was looking for a parking spot. Then a single RCMP cruiser with sirens on and lights flashing pulled up in front of me, blocking the entrance on the west side of Parliament Hill. Another came screaming around the corner. They shot up the Hill towards Centre Block. Then another. And another. And another.

In front of the Hill, on Wellington Street, an RCMP cruiser came screeching to a halt so quickly it left the smell of burnt rubber in the air. An officer jumped out and began running towards Centre Block with his hand on his gun.

A few minutes earlier, about a block away, a gunman with a double-barrelled shotgun had opened fire on an unarmed soldier, providing the honorary military guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider on the National War Memorial. The gunman then ran toward Parliament Hill.

As those police cars flooded the Hill, the shooter had found his way inside Centre Block, in the Hall of Honour, just outside the conference rooms where the Conservative and NDP MPs had gathered. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was probably just about to deliver his weekly address to his MPs. A chilling Globe and Mail video showed the scene as shots were fired.

As one reporter said, the Parliament Hill security guards are generally affable folk, checking your security passes and waving you through with a smile. Yesterday, they were the ones running toward the sound of gunfire while everyone else took cover.

Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers — usually known for the ceremonial role of carrying the Mace into the House of Commons — is hailed as a hero for shooting and killing the suspect, just outside the Library of Parliament.

Outside on the streets, police swarmed into downtown. For hours, armoured vehicles and tactical units and sniffer dogs combed the streets. Cops with rifles at the ready, were running around, yelling at the public and reporters to get back. At one point, two blocks south of Parliament Hill, police yelled at the media to “run now,” fearing there was a gunman down the street.

Police pushed the media and the public back across the street from the Hill, then one block, then another. Buildings downtown, including my own about two blocks from the Hill, were placed in lockdown. We were told to stay away from the windows and off the roof. Across the street I could see police with rifles drawn, searching around. Over the loud speaker, management in my building told us to stay in our offices. Police were seen downstairs flooding the building.

On Parliament Hill, MPs were locked down in their caucus rooms. Staffers were hiding beneath their desks, terrified. Security on the Hill sent ominous sounding messages to lock their doors, barricade them if necessary and not open office doors under any circumstance. Police were going office by office searching. Doors they couldn’t open were knocked down.

A picture was tweeted of a police officer, rifle up, inside an empty House of Commons.

Manitoba Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux said he heard about 20 shots fired when he was in the basement of Centre Block, just outside his caucus meeting room. Security guards were frantic, trying to usher people to safety. Nobody knew where to go. They were taken out a back door to the area behind Centre Block, then that wasn’t deemed safe, and they were ushered through the construction site at West Block and off towards the office buildings on the west side of Parliament Hill.

Manitoba Senator Don Plett was travelling at the time, but was in touch with his staff who were terrified, he said. His office, in East Block, had a direct view of the suspect’s Toyota Corolla, parked on the street in front.

Plett said he always knew something like this would eventually happen in Canada.

“It’s still frightening when it actually does,” he said.

And, he said, Parliament Hill will never fully recover.

One of the best things about Canada’s Parliament has been the ease of access. Although new electronic barriers were installed in recent years to keep cars out, and security is stronger than it used to be, there is still an openness on the Hill that is unusual in most nations’ capitals. In the summer months, people can sunbathe on the lawn, toss Frisbees around and picnic.

In the winter, people crowd around the Centennial Flame for warmth. Public tours of the building are free. The public can take an elevator to the top of the bell tower for an impeccable view of the city and the Gatineau Hills in Quebec to the north.

On Canada Day, thousands of people crowd the lawn for concerts.

Staff and media can access the buildings with a security pass, no frisking or metal detectors or X-ray machines required.

But few in Ottawa now think this will be the case for long.

A gunman, on Parliament Hill, just a few feet from where the prime minister was supposed to be.

So when John McKay speaks of how everything is going to change, it’s not just hyperbole. Things are going to change.

“I don’t even want to think about it,” McKay said.

But we’re going to have to.

 

Mia Rabson is the Free Press parliamentary

bureau chief.

 

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca