Ottawa terror attack: 'Canada has lost its innocence forever', says Canadian tutor at University of Northampton
| Posted: October 24, 2014
Picture of parliament building in Ottawa taken by Tony Webster
Canada has 'lost its innocent ease forever'.
These are the words of a Canadian tutor at the University of Northampton, who fears the terror attack on Ottawa has left people 'looking over their shoulders'.
On Wednesday, terror arrived at the doors of the Canadian government, when at least one gunman mounted a murderous attack in the heart of Ottawa.
An attacker shot and killed a soldier guarding the National War Memorial. A gunman then raced into the parliament building where he was shot dead by the House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms, Kevin Vickers.
The dead shooter was later named by an official as 32-year-old Canadian national Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.
Just days after the attack, the realisation of what has happened is still sinking in for many Canadians all over the world, including Ted Sullivan, a senior lecturer in journalism and media studies at the University.
Giving an insight into life before the shootings, Mr Sullivan said: "When I was young, growing up in Toronto in the 1960s, it was common to refer to Canada as the ‘peaceable kingdom‘. Mass shootings, race riots, political assassinations all happened south of the border, in ‘the Excited States’ where everybody seemed paranoid about crime and obsessed with guns.
"Security was something you found outside nightclubs to keep people from coming with trainers or hiding rogue bottles of booze (or, god forbid, sneaking in recreational drugs).
"As a schoolboy I remember wandering into Queen’s Park, the grand Victorian provincial parliament building in the middle of Toronto without being stopped or questioned by anyone . A friend and I ambled around this imposing pile knocking on doors, making some vague, naive inquiry about water quality! (Sorry, I don’t remember why!) Every adult we met was friendly, if bemused, and no one questioned our right to be there: we left of our own accord when we realised we might get lost in Queen’s Park’s cavernous corridors.
"Later on, as a teenager, I won a scholarship trip to Ottawa and journeyed to Parliament Hill and the remarkable complex of buildings that house the Canadian federal government, including our own version of Big Ben, suitably enough called the Peace Tower. It’s a shining symbol of national unity in a sprawling, diverse country that spreads across more than 3 million square miles and six time zones, the second largest nation on earth.
"When we went to Parliament no one searched us or even asked who we were, not even the Mountie who stood outside chatting with visitors in his red dress uniform. After our tour of this grand political ediface, the then Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau (still Canada’s most well known politician 14 years after his death) strolled unannounced into the House of Commons, like some sort of exotic political priest. He spoke to our wide-eyed group briefly about the responsibilities of citizenship while we all sat behind MPs’ luxurious green leather desks. I don’t remember feeling privileged by this experience, nor regarding it as some sort of civic right owed to every Canadian citizen: somehow, it just created an awe-inspiring sense of belonging.
"Now, more than 45 years later, after one tragic day in Ottawa, that innocent ease has gone forever.
"On Wednesday 22nd October a homicidal gunman shot and killed an unarmed soldier at the Canadian National War Memorial and then, with little apparent hindrance, walked into the Parliament buildings, shooting off several rounds before being shot dead himself. For the first time, Ottawa police, the RCMP and armed forces locked down Parliament Hill and the centre of Ottawa.
"One Canadian MP, interviewed shortly after the shootings by Channel 4 News, said it was a ‘sad day for Canada and a sad day for democracy’.
"An essentially easygoing people will now have to get used to looking over their shoulders, and passing through strict security every time they visit their elected representatives. There has been political terrorism in Canada before (mostly from the revolutionary FLQ fighting for an independent Quebec in the 1960s) but military personnel have never been randomly targeted before. I have a close relative, a senior officer in the Canadian Armed Forces who lives in Ottawa. He will have no choice but to see himself and his family as potential targets.
"The current Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper says Canadians won’t be intimidated by terrorism, but who can help but be intimidated by the prospect of a homicidal psychopath (or quite possibly a gang of them) willing to martyr themselves for a cause? Zehaf-Bibeau may have acted alone but he’s not the only one out there. Unfortunately, one terrorist success is worth a hundred thwarted plots.
"Innocence is only lost once, whether you live in the peaceable kingdom, or the United Kingdom."
Comments
NOT TERRORISM BY ANY STRETCH (Canadian author here) These events in Ottawa may be violent acts resulting in the very sad and regrettable loss of human life, but this has NOTHING to do with 'terrorism' whatsoever. Military personnel and the politicians who send them off to battle ARE TACTICAL TARGETS who participate in acts of war on other nations. We can't possibly call it justice when Canada acts militarily overseas and then call it terrorism when others hit back at our military infrastructure. Here's why the gunman didn't commit a 'terrorist' act by attacking uniformed military personnel and attempting to assassinate their Commander in Chief: His act is either a 'crime' if he acted without any state backing, or it's an 'act of war' if he was state-sponsored. Military personnel and their leaders are tactical targets because defeating them creates an (albeit minuscule) comparative advantage for the attacker (i.e. it's not just about instilling fear in the civilian population). It's important to distinguish this terrible act from the act of say setting off a bomb in a crowded public market for example, which has no tactical purpose other than invoking fear amongst civilians as a means of coercion (i.e. terror). ...Which is where the word came from: Terror--ism. We're being fools if we start yelling 'terrorism terrorism!' every time we're scared. The Canadian civilian population was not attacked this week; it was our active combat military and its leadership that was attacked. In summary, let's certainly be mournful of these Canadian deaths, but let's NOT play with words and call it terrorism (because that's just silly). The military is not civilian by definition and therefore definitely does not qualify, even under the broadest of definitions, to be targets of terrorism. If attacking uniformed military personnel at a moment when they don't expect it was 'terrorism', then all wars would be rife with acts of terrorism. Let's agree that definition doesn't make sense.