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Wednesday, October 22, 2014

A sad day for our country



This man is Corp. Nathan Frank Cirillo. He was killed while on duty in Ottawa, guarding our national War Memorial. He was unarmed.

The Hamilton native was only 24 and a father.

Rest in peace, sir

14 comments:

Peter said...

More heartbreaking news. No one expects soldiers to fall in their homeland. My sincerest condolences go out to the family and friends of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent and Cpl. Nathan Frank Cirillo. Rest in peace, sirs.

C.J. Smith said...

The part I struggle with is that he was unarmed. Heartbreaking.

Anonymous said...

If anyone reading this comment has ever thought they might like to attend Remembrance Day ceremonies at the national War Memorial in Ottawa (where Nathan was killed), this might be the year to do it and show your support for him and all our fallen soldiers. All are welcome.

Squiggles said...

I was shocked to hear that no one carried ammunition. So much could have been done and avoided in this situation.

That poor family. My heart goes out to them in their time of loss.

C.J. Smith said...

It appears the carrying of the rifle was/is ceremonial. I doubt any guard felt unsafe prior to yesterday morning.

We have a "free" parliament, accessible to the public. No fences. No snipers on the roof. This is what made Canada great. I suspect this is going to change although Harper says his government will not be intimidated.

A lady in line in front of me at Starbucks this morning scoffed at the front page of the Globe and Mail where the words "ATTACKED" were blazoned across a photo of a darkened center block.

It's the scoffing that makes us a target. These acts of violence, terrorism, are very real and should be taken very seriously.

Did anyone else noticed the increased security presence at Union Station this morning? I did.

Squiggles said...

I was actually referring to the RCMP that guarded the doors and such. They were without ammunition as well. It was Vickers, who got his own personal firearm, that took the gunman out. That shocked me.

In all, the attack could have been worse. I am glad it wasn't. And I am hoping it doesn't change us too much. Yes, the security/cops will now be carrying loaded firearms, but I am hoping we still keep the open Parliament policy.

As for Union Station, nope. But I go down a far set of stairs, grab my coffee at McD's, then head out those far sets of stairs. I do know that the TTC and Toronto Police are upping their presence in wake of the shooting.

C.J. Smith said...

That part I did not know but there are folks carrying weapons inside Parliament.

There's a global news video of the shootout inside Parliament.

It appears many of the security team were armed.

Have you seen it yet Squiggles?

Squiggles said...

Nope. Not yet. But I heard that even though people were armed, there was no ammunition. The guns were not loaded, especially with the guards at the entrance. I will try to confirm that.

Squiggles said...

Found the reference: But even recently, post 9/11, we Canadians have had free rein on the grounds of Parliament Hill, and many Hill guards are unarmed. Lucky for us sergeant-at-arms Kevin Vickers had a gun.


http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2014/10/20141022-193940.html

End of the article.

C.J. Smith said...

Thanks Squigs!

Bicky said...

The pictures of this soldier with his dog (and there have been a few different ones circulating the Internet) just makes me weep.

I didn't notice any increased security/police presence but it was early so maybe they weren't on duty yet.

Squiggles said...

No problem. As for the guards carrying weapons and no ammunition, I heard that from a different source last night. It was probably something that was reported once during a daytime news broadcast that would never be heard of again. I couldn't find reference to it online, and I really doubt I will. Especially now. It doesn't seem to be something that will be widely available. And will probably be changing fairly quickly.

Anonymous said...

Sadly these types of attacks are a part of life in Britain right now. We never had them growing up of course. You can't arm everyone everywhere all the time. You just have to be more dilligent in observing rogue folk and beef up security where it's practical.

If you read some of these 'dark age ahead' type articles and books you'll see that many learned folk are predicting that this sort of unrest will continue. So long as we have these underlying issues of income inequality combined with resource shortages and climate change, we will have unrest and violence (religion and revenge is just the excuse, the underlying causes are poverty they always are).

It's a brave new world we're making but not necessarily a better one :(

Anonymous said...

So very sad. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and wee son. And yes I did see the increased police at Union this morning and at college park and again at Union tonight at 6:10 pm. Strange though,, not one at Queens Park subway.