Senate security officers taking up arms
Legal for 15 years, senators didn’t believe it necessary until recently
Senate security officers, responsible for the safety of the red chamber, will soon be packing pistols, joining their counterparts from the House of Commons who are already armed.
In a report made public this week, the Senate’s internal economy committee said it had decided to “deploy armed, uniformed personnel … in the coming months.” It’s expected that some — though not necessarily all — Senate security guards will tote semi-automatic, 9mm pistols, similar to those normally carried by the RCMP.
Senate administration did not supply the cost, number of firearms or training required.
Parliament Hill security staff have legally been able to carry weapons as part of their job for more than 15 years, and House of Commons security has done so.
The Senate considered arming its security staff even earlier than that, but didn’t because a majority of senators didn’t feel it was needed, said Sen. Colin Kenny, one of the longest-tenured members of the upper chamber. The cost of the guns, the training needed to minimize any damage in the historic hallways of Parliament, and the possibility of staff or visitors being injured by a stray bullet were among the reasons senators had opposed the idea, he said.
“It has been discussed for a long, long time and the thinking has slowly evolved,” said Kenny, a former chairman of the internal economy committee.
Security incidents occasionally take place in the Senate. In a recent minor example, during the 2011 throne speech, Senate page Brigette DePape walked to the centre of the Senate chamber and unfurled a small sign reading “Stop Harper.” She was escorted out by the sergeant-at-arms.
While the threat to senators may not be considered high, Kenny said threats to Parliament Hill have been real, citing a bomb attempt in the House of Commons in 1966. He also suggested MPs and senators have received personal threats that required security to keep tabs on their movements. Sometimes those threats were so secret that no one else in the chamber was aware of them, he said.
Yet the Senate didn’t authorize its own security staff to carry guns until now.
“What’s the threat spectrum for senators?” retired senator Hugh Segal wryly said in a recent interview. “God forbid in the event of a terrible attack, the cabinet, all the members of Parliament, the high command of the Armed Forces, the guys who sell fries on the Sparks Street Mall — they’d all have to be dead before you get to people as unimportant as senators.”
The lack of Senate weaponry hasn’t gone unremarked. In a special report two years ago, auditor general Michael Ferguson noted that Senate security “does not have the same response capacity as security officers of the House of Com- mons and the RCMP, who carry weapons.” (Senate security carries expandable batons, Kenny said.)
In cases of emergency, the auditor general found, the Senate would have to summon security forces from the House of Commons or the RCMP.
An invisible line prevents the Commons security force from keeping watch in the Senate’s areas and vice versa — a historical relic. Each chamber once thought it needed its own force because the Speaker of the House of Commons couldn’t protect senators if the two chambers ever came to blows.
Senators and MPs agreed in principle to unifying the security forces in 2010, but four years later, discussions continue between the two sides. Ferguson urged the Senate and Commons to follow through on that initial agreement in his 2012 report.
The RCMP is responsible for policing the grounds of Parliament Hill, a responsibility that ends at the front door of each building. Inside, security is the purview of either the Commons or Senate security forces. The streets around Parliament Hill are the jurisdiction of Ottawa Police.
The grounds of Parliament Hill are now monitored by security cameras, uniformed and plainclothes police RCMP officers. Vehicles entering the grounds pass through vehicular barricades, and a security checkpoint.
Pedestrian access to Parliament Hill is unfettered, but unaccredited visitors must pass through body scanners and bags through X-ray machines before entering any parliamentary building.