(Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)
I recently visited Ottawa for a few days, although not as a tourist. The rainy weather, combined with recent events and the relative absence of people on the streets, created a eerie mood that I have never experienced before in our nation’s capital.
Less than two weeks before my visit, an unarmed reservist was brutally murdered at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa. The attacker then went to the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings and began shooting before he was finally brought down in a hail of bullets. This was only a couple of days after a similar attack in Quebec resulted in the death of another Canadian soldier.
After such brazen attacks, it is not surprising that there was a conspicuous police presence near Parliament Hill. On the evening I visited, I counted about 15 RCMP vehicles in the large driveway that circles in front of the Centre Block. Despite this, the public was not prevented from approaching the Parliament Buildings. I’m sure that our group was being closely monitored but the monitoring was done as discreetly as possible. I was able to take many pictures here, although the rain and clouds made it a real challenge.
It would have been easy to shut the gates and prevent any access by the public, particularly since it was about 9:00 p.m. at night and there wasn’t any practical need for the public to be on Parliament Hill. However, I think that the gates were purposely left open to indicate that the country will not be brought to its knees by what appeared to be terrorist acts.
As most of the group members were lawyers, it was only natural that we would also visit the Supreme Court of Canada (see photo at the top of this post). At night, it looked smaller than I remembered. There also was a visible RCMP presence here, something I don’t recall seeing the last time I visited the Supreme Court.
Finally, we walked back to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Here, too, there was a security presence but we were able to walk right up to the Tomb. One of the group members was familiar with what had happened and pointed out the very place where the reservist was killed. It was unsettling to be there, to say the least, knowing what had happened there just a few days before.
The emotional charge of this evening understandably overshadowed the rest of my visit to Ottawa. As it doesn’t feel right to include any of the other aspects of my Ottawa visit in this post, I’ll hold on to those details until a later date. Nonetheless, I think it is an important time to visit Ottawa, both to appreciate our nation’s capital and to demonstrate our resilience as Canadians.