Parliament Hill under attack

Cpl Nathan Cirillo had a young son.

The members of parliament, government employees and staffs were very lucky this morning, if the shooting went on or longer or if there were additional gunman the death and injury total could have been a lot higher than just the small number of current causalities.

I am glad everyone is safe now. 

Prime Minister speaks with NDP, Liberal leaders in display of cross-partisanship

http://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2014/10/22/prime-minister-speaks-with-n...

NorthReport wrote:

PM to address nation today.

At 7:45

I hope they interview the opposition leaders after -- and that they say things similar to what Elizabeth May said -- she got it right today.

I was at a pub this afternoon, and I tend to have a negative cast of mind, but I was astounded at how utterly cynical everybody else there was - including the barmaid. Every single person figured Harper would use this event to further his agenda. It's criminal how bastardized he's thrown poltical discourse into in our country.

NorthReport wrote:

What responsibility does the media have in this mess?

If you mean going forward -- I would say to report the thruth and laternate points of view.

If you mean with respect to causing this I would say they are not responsible -- the rhetoric they have reported was there and not created by the media.

Going forward as I say I would like to see a connection made that this rhetoric increases the risk of incidents like this.

I cannot say if this would have happened without the rhetoric we have had from the government and without Canada's decision to send forces to fight ISIS. But I think it is safe to say the risk would have been much lower. When the PM goes off like the leader of the world in fighting in far away places he risks Canadians here.

As I have said, I think today is the day the warplanes from Canada arrived in the Middle East.

'We live in dark and dangerous times'  - Stephen Harper

'Parliament Hill is one gigantic crime scene' - Evan Solomon

Canada's Harper Using 'Terror Attack' To Impose Anti-Democratic Measures  

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/10/22/cana-o22.html

"Canada's Conservative government and corporate media are seizing upon a purported terrorist attack to advance the ruling elite's agenda of war, reaction and attacks on democratic rights.

What is evident is that the government and big business media intend to exploit the tragedy to whip up support for Canada's participation in the new US-led war in the Middle East and to delegitimize opposition to further anti-democratic amendments to the country's anti-terrorism laws.

The St Jean incident came on the eve of yesterday's departure for Kuwait of the six fighter jets Canada is deploying to assist the US bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria.

The Harper government - which is determined that Canada's elite have, to use Harper's words, 'a seat at the table' in the imperialist reordering of the Middle East - has sought to convince a skeptical public to support Canada's participation in yet another US-led war by dressing it up as a humanitarian intervention.

This has been supplemented by lurid claims that if Canada does not fight ISIS in Iraq, it will have to fight it in Canada..."

Ottawa Shooting: Canadian Authorities 'Were Aware of Potential ISIS-Style Attacks For Weeks'

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ottawa-shooting-canada-authorities-were-aware-p...

"Within minutes of the gun attack at Ottawa's War Memorial, speculation that Islamic State militants were involved in the shooting was rife.

Long before the attack took place, Canadian intelligence experts were assessing the possibility of a terrorist assault.

Following the shooting, a Twitter user who identified himself as a supporter of IS wrote: 'Our soldiers are on the ground in every theater, will battle you everywhere.'

However, the validity of the message has not been verified..."

Sean in Ottawa wrote:

NorthReport wrote:

What responsibility does the media have in this mess?

If you mean with respect to causing this I would say they are not responsible

Depends on how deep you want to go. Remember, there hasn't always been a guard posted at the war memorial. They were only posted there following the media-fuelled firestorm over an isolated incident of public urination on Canada Day 2006. Had they treated it as simply one of the hundreds of foolish things that people do after a long day of drinking, rather than use it to whip up public outrage and sell newspapers, the corporal probably wouldn't have been a target this morning.

Kevin Vickers was carrying his own personal pistol. He is one of the few Canadian citizens who have an ATC (allowed to carry) permit.

North Report, from what I understand most of the security guards at the parliment are not armed.

Pondering, I'm not certain yet but if the shooter used the gun that's featured in his picture that's been released then it's based off of a gun that was designed in the 1800's. 

I liked Mulcair's tone and words generally-- would prefer less head-bob, squinting and eyebrow movement. There was enough that it was distracting at moment. But everything else was right.

Harper was very clear on how he was using this for his politics agenda.

Twitter response to Mulcair's address overwhelmingly positive.
Much scepticism concerning long delay by Trudeau and comments to effect that it is being rewritten because of Mulcair's message

Combat Aircraft Over Canada After Shootings

http://www.legitgov.org/Combat-aircraft-over-Canada-after-shootings

Thanks for that link, OLDA.

I was thinking about Azanar and the backlash he faced after the Atocha bombing. Mind you, Madrid and Barcelona had record breaking anti-Iraq invasion protest marches that Azanar chose to ignore in his support of Bush's war on Terriers.

nicky wrote:

Twitter response to Mulcair's address overwhelmingly positive. Much scepticism concerning long delay by Trudeau and comments to effect that it is being rewritten because of Mulcair's message

Do you always have to imply something negative about Trudeau?  Even at times like this?

Trudeau was in lockdown all day - including when he had to make his speech.  There was a delay because they had to connect a conference call phone into the area where Justin Trudeau was still in lockdown.

Trudeau gave a good speech too and Andrew Coyne, Justin Ling and others are saying on Twitter that all leaders conducted themselves well today under these difficult circumstances.

I came to comment positively on the speeches of all 3 leaders and their attempt to put partisianship aside and speak to Canadians.  I was responding to one poster who seemed to be trying to score political points by posting misleading comments above about Trudeau.

Trudeau was in lockdown for longer than any of the other leaders.  Mulcair was able to leave earlier and had more time to get to a studio.  Trudeau was not able to do so until after Mulcair.

Anyway, on a positive note, here is the CTV Link to Trudeau's speech:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=474614&playlistId=1.2065440&binId=1.8...