As I ponder the events of Oct. 22, when a gunman launched an attack on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, I’m wondering about some of the pronouncements that this event has changed Canada forever.
Is that true, or this is more the view of an Ottawa-centric media, who (not unlike Toronto media) think the country of Canada somehow revolves around them?
I think there is an element of both, possibly. Unlike Toronto, Canada politically revolves to an extent around Ottawa, along with the provincial capitals, but to an extent the media who work on Parliament Hill may have made this a huge deal.
In some ways too, this was big, because it involved a guy with a 30-30 rifle running into the very corridors of power, with two major political parties holding caucus meetings inside where there was the horrific shootout, ending with the gunman’s death.
That is truly horrifying, that this could ever happen.
So, to answer the first question, has this changed Canada? Well, unfortunately it will make security issues more prominent as the spectre of terrorism rises. It’s a threat that we don’t know a lot about, other than it usually happens overseas in the Middle East.
Terrorism is a threat that could be embodied by anyone, in any location, of any age or gender. This is a new reality, and we all have to deal with it in our lives.
The question has been asked, however, if this gunman was a terrorist or just a criminal? While he had a criminal record in Vancouver, where he was known to the police for drug use, this does not necessarily discount him as a terrorist.
He was inspired to an extent by the ISIS group in Iraq, but how much we’ll never know — but consider what a terrorist is. This is a person who uses the basis of ideology to strike terror into their “enemies” by whatever means, and that is what this gunman did.
I don’t think it’s really over-stating things to say this was a terrorist event.
So now Parliament is considering expanding police powers to meet the threat of terrorism, and a group of retired judges have come and said this is over-reaction, that police already enough powers to deal with the threats.
Considering that a terrorist could take inspiration from this incident, and from the one where two soldiers were run down by a car two days before, I’m not so sure it is an over-reaction.
I also think that as the halls of Parliament Hill and of our Legislatures are where our law-makers gather to deal with the business of running the country, they need to know that they are safe as they carry out their duties, and that the citizens are safe as they live their lives.
