Feds’ active shooter drill: ‘Run, Hide, Defend’
Employees to be designated as gunmen
On Wednesday morning, a couple of dozen “armed intruders” — mostly men — were briefed.
Their mission: to appear as “disgruntled and armed” employees and conduct visual searches of federal government offices.
The “armed intruders” won’t be toting guns but rather sticky notes to track breaches of protocol.
Documents obtained by the National Post show elaborate planning over the past five weeks for a drill at a major government building in Gatineau on April 18.
The drill will involve just over 1,000 people, about 850 of whom work at National Defence.
The protocol? Run, and how to do it. Hide, and how to do it. Defend, and how to do it.
Across Canada, Marie-Danielle Smith reports, nearly 260,000 federal public servants will soon begin annual “active shooter drills,” a response to the Oct. 22, 2014, Parliament Hill shooting in which a Canadian soldier was killed.
OTTAWA • For a new, annual “active shooter drill,” the Canadian government is asking some of its employees to pretend to be gunmen hunting down their colleagues at the office.
Documents obtained by the National Post show elaborate planning, over the past five weeks, for a drill at a major government building in Gatineau, Que., on April
18. The drill will involve just over 1,000 people, most of whom work for government departments. The majority, about 850, work at National Defence.
A few identified as “armed intruders” won’t be toting guns, but sticky notes, instead, to track breaches of protocol.
The ramp-up in emergency measures at federal offices comes in response to gaps identified after the Parliament Hill shooting Oct. 22, 2014, in which a Canadian soldier was killed, according to a Q&A for employees prepared by Global Affairs Canada.
“Active shooter incidents are becoming more common around the world and Canada is not immune. In response to recent events, Treasury Board is requiring that all departments develop an employee information program for an active shooter incident and conduct annual active shooter drills,” reads an email sent to managers in a government building in March.
With the policy apparently rolling out across the government, about 259,000 employees, across every province and territory, are going to start conducting annual “active shooter” drills.
A few weeks ahead of the drill, employees were offered training sessions on procedures to follow during a lockdown, which occurs when an incident such as a shooting, hostage-taking or occupation is happening inside the building.
A PowerPoint presentation called “Run, Hide, Defend” begins by saying ”there is no right or wrong decision when facing a crisis incident.” Running or hiding are preferred. Detailed instructions for running include making sure that palms are visible to law enforcement; for hiding, employees are urged to silence their cellphones, and turn off the vibrate function.
The presentation suggests, as absolute last resorts during a shooting, that public servants could “throw items or improvise weapons,” “act aggressively” and “keep fighting until the shooter is defeated.”
The Global Affairs Canada Q&A gets into even more detail. Don’t follow your instinct to pull a fire alarm, it says — the instinct to evacuate could put more people in danger. Don’t leave unless you see flames or smoke.
If you feel unsettled or anxious after watching a video your managers show you — called “RUN. HIDE. FIGHT.” — talk about your feelings, it reads.
The video, which dramatizes a shooting situation, was produced by the City of Houston in 2012 with funds from the United States Department of Homeland Security, according to the city’s website. One of the government presentations provided to employees notes that the video could be “disturbing for some,” and “its contents may not necessarily reflect the values and gender equality principles of the Government of Canada.”
Next week’s drill itself will only last 18 minutes. “Occupants will only practice HIDE option,” it says. It also notes that employees should not discuss the drill outside the office until the day of — it “should only be shared on a need-to-know basis.”
Once a final warning has sounded, “a disgruntled and armed employee” will appear in work areas, although the presentation stipulates “there will be no real or simulated weapons used.” A spreadsheet with information about the couple of dozen chosen for the role shows that most of the individuals, at least based on their first names, are men. They outnumber women about five-to-one.
According to a source with knowledge of a briefing to the “armed intruders” on Wednesday morning, their job will be to conduct a visual search of offices.
The “intruders,” part of “emergency” teams at their respective offices, according to one document, were told to focus on motion and noise rather than checking under every cubicle desk, because in a real-life situation, a shooter is likely to want to work fast and look for easy targets. They’ll be carrying a sticky note form to jot down “violations,” taking note if they get a hint — even if just a whisper — that somebody is in their vicinity.