If these ceremonial guards truly need protecting, how should Canada best guarantee their safety?
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau
“When I told people to please follow lockdown procedures, I don’t know if it’s just because they didn’t take me seriously because I was technically a student, but none of them even seemed to know what exactly that meant,” he said.
Feeling threatened can bring out the worst in people. When Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was able to shoot and kill Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial and infiltrate Parliament on Oct. 22, two places many University of Ottawa students have been to without fear, it reminded us of our vulnerability.
In a week when national security and terrorism were already at the top of the national political agenda, Parliament Hill itself today was besieged by a gunman who shot and killed a soldier at the National War Memorial before bursting into the Centre Block, apparently bent on a rampage, before being shot and killed himself in a shootout with Hill security officials.
