Nothing Solved, Nothing Gained!

Highway of Heroes - The Trews

Canada lost it's innocence this week. In fact I think the multitude of cemeteries and war memorials across the nation and the globe are proof that innocence was lost long ago.

On Wednesday, a soldier standing ceremonial guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa Ontario was shot point blank and killed. It wasn't random. It was intentional. The shooter went on to the nations house of democracy and started a gun battle there. Canada fought back and Canada won.

Backing up in time a bit, on Monday October 20 two soldiers walking through a parking lot were deliberately run over.  Both men were in uniform. Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent died of his injuries. The other sustained non life threatening injuries. The car fled the scene and police began to pursue him. There was a crash, a confrontation and gun shots that ended in the perpetrators death. 

It was a small town 20 km (25 miles southeast of Montreal) called Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. Less than 100,000 residents called it home but some very prominent families made it there home, including the Formula One racing family the Villeneuves' and NHL player and inventor of the slap-shot Boom Boom Geoffrion. The startling thing about the town for me was not prominence of certain citizens but the fact that the town is also home to 2 military colleges. There would have been soldiers in uniform wandering around town routinely. There was no reason to believe that these men were targets until the gunman was identified. 

I don't claim to be a member of the press or even understand how and why they decide what to report and what is not revealed. I'm sure that there are some standards. But having said that, what really bothered me about this case is that the public very quickly became familiar with the gunman. We started to hear the word radicalized and we knew what it meant. We knew he had facebook and had his passport taken away and that he was under the radar of the police. But it took 2 days before we heard the name of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent. He served nearly 30 years with the Canadian Military and was due to retire shortly. He died because he wore his uniform proudly. 

There was whisperings that this wasn't a random accident but a planned out terrorist attack on Canadian soil. Most of us were incredulous and held the belief that it was a "one of" crazy person. And then the gun shots rang out in Ottawa on Wednesday the 22nd.  

Corporal Nathan Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent
R.I.P.

Wednesday morning was crazy. I was sitting in the dentist chair watching the tv above me and trying to read the closed captioning without seeing those evil instruments :) Were it not for that, I wouldn't have known at all. But when I got back home I made it my business to turn on the TV and try to make some sense of the senseless. 

A gunman shot a ceremonial guard standing post at the Tomb for the Unknown Soldier. Sacred ground of its' own. He then went into the house of Parliament shooting his gun (and fortunately missing his targets) before he was gunned down himself. The city of Ottawa was effectively in lock-down as the police didn't know if they were dealing with one or more gunmen. There were reports of other incidents within the downtown core. It was chaos and panic reigned and it was scary to even watch. 

I've been in a lockdown situation a couple of times. None that lasted as long as this one but I do have some understanding of the fear. Five years ago, there was more anxiety because we didn't have phones to try and communicate. In one case it was a high school, a portable on the school grounds. Little more than a tinfoil box, we could hear people running around outside (we hoped police), we heard helicopters flying above, we heard noises we couldn't identify and we didn't know how serious it was or what it was. In the end it was a gun that was seen in the school. After hours of cowering in fear with high school students who were restive, even the staff was anxious we were finally permitted to leave. Scared, we were terrified and the SWAT team bursting in with guns drawn didn't calm us down any. It was within the first month of school and we sure got to know each other quickly being holed up like that.

Halifax editorial cartoonist - Bruce MacKinnon

Back to Ottawa, with the day coming to a close it was revealed that the young soldier had died of his injuries and that the murderer was dead at the hand of the Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers. The former RCMP officer was one of few who had access to a weapon for defence. As eager as I was for news on the safety of the injured and the safety of the people in the city of Ottawa, I could not bear to watch even one more time the footage of the gun battle that took place in the hallowed halls of the Centre Block of Canada's Parliament Buildings. It became sensationalized in my opinion. People were hurt, people were scared. Armed forces installations in the Maritimes began to send people home to safety. 

I felt vulnerable.  I also felt resentment and anger. I get that the Muslim religion is supposed to be a peaceful one and that these people are extremists. I don't understand how murdering innocent Canadians in their own country is going to further whatever twisted cause is on their agenda. But how do I tell the difference? How do I know I am safe? How do I protect my family and my country? It's one thing to stay away from areas in the world of conflict but I want to spend my days thanking the people in uniform that I pass daily on the street and not say RIP! 

When the name of the Ottawa's executioner became known. There was the usual digging into the background. His picture was posted and it was believed that he had become radicalized and was trying to secure a passport for passage to the middle east. Splashed all over social media was a picture of the man half-covered by a kerchief and holding a rifle - with the caption "Mother cries for victims of shooting and not her son." Well didn't that get some rousing sympathy for her! I get it, I can't imagine what I would feel as a mother knowing my child was capable of such heinous acts. But rather than feeling my typical empathy for her I was frustrated. I would hope that the family, if no one else would notice such a dramatic and troubling change in the behaviour of their child and try and deal with it so that others would not suffer needlessly. Even RCMP officer, Bob Paulson said that "people need to be on alert for changes in behaviour in people and significant changes in motivations of people." 

Someone was aware when these young men changed for typical Canadian boys to young men with radical ideas and desires to fight and kill. Radicalizing was defined as a form of brain-washing. If it can be done, it can be undone. But someone needs to know about it. One man fell under the radar of the police - the other slipped under it. Four deaths, none necessary. Nothing solved, nothing gained.

Military bases across the region here were put under restricted access. Provincial building had heightened security. And at 8:30 in the morning the first report came in of a man concealing a rifle under a blanket in downtown Halifax. The Citadel which proudly stands towering about the city was forced into lockdown - not to protect the citizens of the city but the personnel inside. A man was arrested without incident after leaving a sawed-off shotgun on a city bus. The only sense of relief came from seeing that the man arrested may be troubled but didn't appear radicalized and his weapon was not considered to be a terrorist preference. Good news? The best news is no injuries. 

Ottawa Shooting - Rex Murphy Point of View

So well said! And for the second time today I have heard the phrase "let's not mention his name" when referring to the gunman. For years I have been bothered by the fact that we forget the names of the victims but can't get the name of the perpetrators out of our heads. I will do my best to remember the good people. The ones who were slaughtered, not just this week in Canada - but throughout history. Sometimes it is hard to keep the numbers of many victims in our heads when the single name of demon is constantly repeated on the news and social media. But please on this occasion can we all please try to remember not just Nathan Cirillo but Patrice Vincent. They had different executioners but they both died before their time and they didn't deserve it. They died because of the clothes they wore and nothing more. 


A final thought, once, just once I want one of these gun-toting cowards to be brought before the public to be meted out a justice that goes on like torture day after day. I don't want them to die in a hail of gunfire, I don't want there to be a hero that cuts them down. Shoot them in the knee cap, in the balls, somewhere that won't kill them but they will suffer forever. Bring them before the people so they know how disliked they are, how they are loathed, how they are not martyrs. Let them see the justice from the court of public opinion. Let their croonies know what fate awaits them. Throw them in jail. I'm thinking of the old days when the notion of prison justice was something that you hoped would befall some of the scum we sent behind the stone walls. 

Or send them to a facility up north and chain-gang style tell them the driveway needs to be plowed. 

Halifax Editorial cartoonist - Bruce MacKinnon

credit
RCMP Bob Paulson
CBC news television
Rex Murphy on CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/content/analysis/rexmurphy/ottawa_shooting.html
Bruce MacKinnon - editorial cartoonist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_MacKinnon
Halifax Chronicle Herald
http://thechronicleherald.ca/