On October 22 there was a dreadful shooting in Ottawa on Parliament Hill. A lone gunman gunned down a reserve soldier standing at ceremonial guard at the remembrance. The gunman then hopped a fence and entered the parliament buildings 150 m (165 yds) away. No one is sure as to what happened. A tremendous amount of terror and confusion occurred and the gunman was dead in moments.
The whole incident was a horror. A young reservist was dead and people in the parliament buildings were in complete shock.
The incident has not been fully described as it's difficult to piece together such a terrible chain of events.
Much has been said about this incident. The government has jumped all over this and turning itself inside out to come up with laws that will protect us as they say from terrorists. They speak far too soon.
First there is an alarming lack of coordinated security on Parliament Hill and what is there doesn't work. How in the world could a crazed gun man enter the Houses of Parliament? How could he kill somebody a 150 m away and still get into parliament with out somebody catching on? How could he walk down the street with a long gun and no one would raise any questions? People who had a duty and responsibility were not there. Three different police forces have responsibility for this small area...RCMP, Ottawa city police and a parliament security force. None of them can talk to each other as their radio systems do not operate on the same frequencies. How inept?
The government has been quick to jump on this and label the guy as a terrorist. He was a confused sick loser. They have to know what animal shot the place up before they make new laws for our protection. This guy was well known to police. He had drug problems, mental health issues and had committed a number of crimes. Somebody should have been keeping their eye on this guy and treatment for mental health should have occurred.
Only one thing needs to happen. The guys who are supposed to look after the place had better get their act together. This guy could have and should have been stopped long before he shot the soldier. Everybody was asleep at the switch. Now I know it's easy to criticize from this far away, but much has to asked about how security was doing their job.
I do not like the confusion that our government is showing on the handling of this incident. They are barking up the wrong tree and trying to make themselves look good more than anything else.
