National Post (National Edition)
PARLIAMENT IN CROSSHAIRS
CANADA’S 150TH BIRTHDAY BASH MAKES HILL A TERROR TARGET
Parliaments and other seats of government are also — as Ottawans know all too well — attractive targets for terrorists intent on a twisted symbolism of their own.
Last week, Khalid Masood drove a car over the Westminster Bridge in London, striking numerous people, then tried to enter the Palace of Westminster with a knife. By the time his rampage had ended, he had killed four people, including a police officer, injured more than three dozen others and been fatally shot by police.
In Canada, the attack seemed eerily familiar. In Ottawa nearly 21/2 years ago, another lone-wolf attacker, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, fatally shot Cpl. Nathan Cirillo as he guarded the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before hijacking a ministerial car to drive up to Centre Block, which he stormed with an old rifle before being fatally shot.
London’s fresh horror will “trigger heightened or elevated efforts” to assess threats on Parliament Hill, according to the Parliamentary Protective Service, formed in 2015 in the wake of the attack.
There’s no way to eliminate every threat, according to Jez Littlewood, who teaches courses on terrorism and international security at Carleton University, and serves as an associate director of the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society.
“No one can offer a guarantee that we will be able to stop every single attack, whatever any politician or expert says,” he said Friday.
That doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t measures to protect, defend and harden targets, plus potential lessons to be learned from London, even though it has not been characterized as a security failure.
“Once the U.K. gets through their procedures, I have every confidence and expectation that somebody will come and talk to their Canadian counterparts, and say, ‘This is what we learned, this is what we did OK, this is what we did wrong,’ ” said Littlewood, who also served in the British army.
While the “Five Eyes” alliance on intelligence between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the U.S. is famed, the myriad connections between the countries also include an international network of sergeant-at-arms that shares best practices among holders of the office.
Parliament Hill could be an even more tempting target this summer, with Canadians flocking to celebrate Canada Day amid sesquicentennial celebrations.
“From a security perspective, you would have to consider this is a potentially attractive target, just like the Olympics, just like the World Cup, just like any large-scale gathering,” Littlewood said, pointing to the Bastille Day attack in Nice, France, last summer as one example.
“This is a major celebration, this is a public celebration, people are going to come to the Hill, people are going to be wandering around Ottawa. How are you going to put in place the necessary protective and security measures that are not so intrusive that they prevent or dampen the fundamental objective, and the fundamental objective is allowing people to gather and celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday?”
Privately, Canadian counter-terrorism officials say the same thing, and RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson has publicly pointed to the challenge of the “zerofail environment.”
The Parliamentary Protective Service, which brought together fragmented Hill security forces in the wake of the 2014 attack and is led by an RCMP member, was before a committee earlier this month seeking another $6.1 million for 2017-18, which would bring its total to $68.2 million.
Speaker of the House Geoff Regan said the PPS’s mobile response team initiative will address many of the 161 recommendations made to boost security. But the extra cash is still needed to stabilize the service’s organizational structure and pay for ongoing security enhancements. Examples include securing the newly reopened Wellington Building and girding for the flood of visitors to Parliament Hill for 150th birthday celebrations, such as a with a baggage-screening facility.
Supt. Mike O’Beirne, PPS acting director, also spoke to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs about the balance between “ensuring an open and accessible Parliament, and combining that with a very real need for security.”
For example, the massive Crashed Ice downhill ice cross event, which unfolded recently without incident steps from Parliament Hill, gave the service, city police and RCMP a glimpse of what to expect as they work toward the “grand event” of Canada Day, he said.
Asked about the impact of the London events on Parliament Hill operations, Melissa Rusk, PPS executive officer and senior adviser to the director, said the service is always evaluating threats at home and abroad, and adjusting security to meet them.
“It’s something that is embedded in today’s reality, it’s a practice that we do on an ongoing basis,” Rusk said. “Events like what transpired in the U.K. certainly trigger heightened or elevated efforts to assess the environment, and (we) work closely with our various partners to determine any potential nexus on the Canadian environment.”
Members of the new service also include individuals who have ties to their counterparts in other capitals, and hands-on training and tabletop exercises are designed to respond realworld threats, she said.
“It’s a very unique environment — we can balance the democratic openness and accessibility of Parliament Hill with the needs of the threat environment,” Rusk said.
“My personal opinion is that as people become more aware of the realities, and it’s unfortunate that these are the realities we are facing — everything evolves — there is that willingness to go through those extra steps to ensure we can all celebrate freely and together and safely.
“I think that’s something Canadians pride themselves on.”
After Canada 150 celebrations, Centre Block will close for decade-long renovations — an issue highlighted as a security challenge by the PPS this month — and “a great deal could change,” historian and author Anne Dance said.
However, “unless Canadians were to move the legislature to a secret underground bunker, it is very hard to make Parliament 100-per-cent secure,” Dance said.
She pointed to the comment by former sergeantat-arms Kevin Vickers, later hailed a hero for helping stop Zehaf-Bibeau, that if Parliament is completely secure “and no one wants to come here, what have you accomplished?”
IT’S UNFORTUNATE THESE ARE THE REALITIES WE ARE FACING.