Soldier shot - Ottawa in lockdown

One of the soldiers guarding the War memorial in Ottawa is shot and Parliament and the surrounding area are under lockdown. Police reportedly hunting multiple gunmen.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/parliament-shooting/article21217602/#dashboard/follows/

 

Police now saying there are 3 separate shootings - Parliament, War memorial and the Rideau Centre mall which is close by.

 

Very scary stuff.

I was suppose to be there this morning, but my meeting got re-scheduled to tomorrow morning. Scary thought.

 

Harper was scheduled to confer honourary Canadian citizenship on Malala Yousafzai in Toronto today. It's been cancelled.

Also, the Leafs are in lockdown in their hotel so it's very possible tonight's game against the Senators will be cancelled.

 

Leafs - Sens game has been postponed.

 

Suspected shooter id'd:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/22/world/americas/canada-ottawa-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

 

This is scary stuff. For those not following the story, that's the second Canadian soldier killed by an extremist in Canada in two days and our military and police forces are urging off-duty personnel to not wear their uniforms as they may become targets. It's certainly not something we're used to.

I was going to school at Carleton, which is about a 10-minute drive away from Parliament, when 9/11 happened (I was in American history class when it happened, which is an eerie coincidence) and I can remember the panic we had about fear we might be attacked then. It must be greater now that something happened on our soil. At that time, you could drive right up on Parliament Hill and I remember a lot of extra security being put in place and the whole site being closed off for a period of time.

Most of the time, though, it is a pretty easy place to access. I can remember being on the Hill for a class assignment once and we didn't have our passes. We were able to roam fairly freely through centre block, which is the main building there, on our honour to get them. There is speculation the gunman went in through an unlocked door. Security will have to be tightened up naturally.

I'd imagine a lot of our American friends would be shocked at the way Ottawa is set up in some regards. For example, the Department of National Defence, one of their headquarters is actually attached to the Rideau Centre mall you may have read about and it is located very close to a one of the biggest transit stations in the city. If memory serves, that traffic was rerouted around the time of 9/11 too.

It'll be interesting in the days ahead. Harper clearly linked both attacks this week to ISIL and said we will not be intimidated in our support for the fight against extremism. I'd imagine this isn't the first time someone will try.

 

In typical NYT fashion they do not mention the faith of the assailant:

"The assailant has been identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, whose parents had changed his name from Michael Joseph Hall when he was a teenager. Originally from Quebec, Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau had lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, and its suburbs in recent years. He had several petty, mostly drug related, criminal convictions."

 

I can't believe this thread has only eight or nine posts in more than a day.

 

A few have been deleted

 

I'm sure Canadian readers are sick of hearing about this but in 1995, a mentally ill man broke into the Prime Minister's residence during the night in Ottawa. Then Premier Jean Chretien barricaded himself and his wife in their bedroom, and "brandished" an Inuit soapstone sculpture in case he tried to kick down the door.