Posted on 10/22/2014 12:57:45 PM PDT by naturalman1975
The man reported to have shot an assailant on Parliament Hill today is a former police officer with a background in providing security services for dignitaries, including members of the Royal Family.
Kevin Vickers, 58, a native of Miramichi, N.B., became the sergeant-at-arms in the House of Commons eight years ago after a varied career in security.
He spent 29 years with the RCMP and rose to the rank of chief superintendent, often serving as the face of the national police force in New Brunswick. Before his appointment as sergeant-of-arms, Vickers was director of security operations for the House of Commons.
The sergeant-at-arms is responsible for safeguarding the authority of the House of Commons, as well as the safety and security of the Parliament Buildings.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...
They do have modern duties in coordinating security as well in some places - luckily Canada is one of those, which is why they had a man with these skills in the role.
God Bless Mr. Vickers as well.
They certainly chose the right man for the job.
I heard on CNN, he was also once a mountie. And with his position, head of security for their parliament, it would be like a police chief running out of his office to down the gunman.
Which also begs the analogy of the CFO of that company in OK that grabbed his gun and shot the Islamist who beheaded one one and stabbed another.
On the Parliamentary Hill, some but not all security are armed. This has become another soft target like our Ft. Hood and Navy Shipyard.
OK - we have the hero. Who did the shooting(s) and why?
I’m glad he wasted that Terrorist, but I don’t know if it was smart for the website to publish the Good Guy’s name and location.
God Bless this brave man!! Will the media admit that what brought down a bad man with a gun, was a brave man with a gun
The right person at the right place at the right time.
Sadly, he will probably be moved to another post for harming poor innocent Islamonazi.
packing a lot of ammo belts
Heard a news report earlier that he isn’t armed at most times but was quickly able to get to his gun being in his office.
It was reported on CNN that there were two soldiers on guard at their tomb of the unknown soldier, which, I think is called “The Peace Tower. “ When the first soldier was shot, the other soldier ran for cover.
They carry guns, but they do not have bullets. They symbolically guard the tomb, which is right across the parliament where they were caucusing, all the senators and house of commons members, grouped in a room, where the gunman was neutralized by “top cop” Vickers, who happened to have his side arm.
God bless him.
Vickers is a public figure and plays a significant ceremonial role in Parliament, so it's not like he's some anonymous policeman that the CBC accidentally outed. (If anything, the article seems to be downplaying him, though I'm sure that's probably unintentional).
The Sergeant-at-arms is responsible for the security of Parliament, but it's obviously very rare for him to actually be in the line of fire. The only other time I know of where something like this has happened, was in 1984, when a disgruntled soldier got into the Quebec parliament and killed three people, before their Sergeant-at-arms stepped into harm's way and persuaded him to surrender several hours later.
What I think was also odd, was that Canada had put themselves on high alert since the homegrown jihadist had weaponized his car, as ISIS had instructed last month, and ran over the soldier.
Today, the soldier at guard at the tomb had an unloaded, (a symbolic measure) gun, and the shooter was able to walk/run the FIVE minutes to the parliament, without anyone stopping him along the way or at the door of the building.
How come no one gave the directive to truly guard with live ammo and add multiple guards to the targets of jihadist, namely soldiers and the institutions of Western government?
And according to the CNN crawl, it still says, there is no indication of a terrorist threat, yet.
The Peace Tower is the clock tower on the Centre Block building on Parliament Hill, which is where Parliament meets. There is a memorial room in the tower that includes a book listing all of Canada's war dead, but it's not the same as the tomb of the unknown soldier.
The National War Memorial is just down the street, and that's where the tomb of the unknown soldier is. After he shot the guard at the cenotaph, the gunman had to run probably about 100 meters to get inside the Parliament building.
This Sergeant-at-Arms seems like a damn fine old school, no-nonsense security man. Hell yeah!
Thank-you for the correction and amendment. I’m just re- reporting on what they say on CNN, (for those who are allergic), and I cannot vouch for their information, although, I find their round the clock reporting a fascinating way to spend an afternoon laying up with a twisted knee.
Unless terrorists wanted to kill a handful of pedestrians, the National War Memorial consists of a cenotaph, the tomb of the unknown soldier, some statues, and flowers. I don't think it has any strategic value as a terror target.
I sympathize with a desire to arm soldiers standing guard, but it probably never honestly occurred to anyone that the honour guard at the war memorial would ever have to shoot at anyone. The worst thing that's happened there before was a drunk teen who pissed on the cenotaph a few years ago on Canada Day.
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