NO REGRETS FOR GRABBING MAN, VICKERS SAYS
Envoy feared he may lose job after incident
Canada’s terrorist-slaying ambassador to Ireland feared he might be fired after manhandling a protester in Dublin last May, but privately told well-wishers he’d do the same again and would at least leave “with a bang.”
In the hours and days after the unusual episode at a politically charged event, Kevin Vickers declined to comment publicly, even as some criticized his actions.
But in emails released by the Global Affairs Department under access to information legislation recently, Vickers defended his grabbing of the demonstrator, saying it was only clear afterward that the man posed no danger.
He also jokingly suggested the Liberal government legalize marijuana quickly to help the media “chill out,” and said he’d long been inspired by a famous Rudyard Kipling poem.
“I would not be surprised if my great gig is up. And if so, it has been a hell of a ride and nothing like going out with a bang,” the former parliamentary sergeantat-arms said to a contact whose name is redacted. “Even with all the controversy, I know if the same thing happened tomorrow, I would react the same.”
Neither the ambassador nor Global Affairs officials could be reached for comment Friday. The government has never suggested, though, his appointment was in any jeopardy.
Vickers came to fame in October 2014 when he and other security officers fatally shot Michael Zehaf Bibeau. The lone-wolf terrorist killed a soldier guarding the National War Memorial in Ottawa, then stormed inside Parliament’s centre block before dying himself in a hail of bullets.
Lauded as a hero, Vickers was named Canada’s envoy to Ireland in January 2015.
It was a little over a year later, last May 26, when he attended an event to remember British soldiers killed in the 1916 Easter rising, a thwarted rebellion that preceded Irish independence from Britain.
When a Republican protester ran toward the ranks of dignitaries, including Ireland’s foreign affairs minister, Vickers leaped up and seized the man by the arms, handing him over to police moments later. The demonstrator was unarmed and eventually released.
Some critics suggested the former RCMP officer had acted inappropriately for a diplomat — especially at an event that raised touchy issues around Ireland’s relationship with the U.K. — while others praised his swift response.
“It all happened so fast, I think (it) was over before I had a chance to think,” Vickers wrote in one of the emails. “When I first caught him in the periferal (sic) of my eye he was striding towards the podium and my immediate sense was for the purposes of harm. Hence my reaction. As it turns out, he did not have a weapon and was there for peaceful protest.”
Vickers suggested public opinion was in his favour, that he had been thanked by Irish ministers, judges and senators, had received hundreds of well-wishing messages and taken calls from several other, supportive ambassadors.
“My sense is, however, given the history here there will be rough waters ahead,” he added, noting that Sinn Fein, the political party associated with the Irish Republican Army, was “regrettably” backing the protester.
In another email, he pointed to some inspiration for his actions. “Was raised on a poem called “IF” by Rudyard Kipling. It has served me well.”
The much-quoted verse was itself an ode to a British military hero and to Victorian stoicism. “If you can keep your head when all about you/ Are losing theirs and blaming it on you …” begins the verse.
With some news outlets quoting security and diplomatic experts critical of his actions and one newspaper rebuking him in an editorial, Vickers had humorous advice for a well-wisher who seemed to have government connections.
“Tell Justin to get that marijuana law passed, the media need to chill out.”
EVEN WITH ALL THE CONTROVERSY, I KNOW IF THE SAME THING HAPPENED TOMORROW, I WOULD REACT THE SAME.