13 out of 15 flagpoles were converted into spears, huh?
Fox News will want to know: WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER 2 FLAGPOLES?
It’s a conspiracy, I think.
-jeff
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Damn right.
As it stood a week ago, you could walk into Parliament Hill without passing through a metal detector. You could do yoga with the leader of the official opposition on the lawn of Parliament Hill in the morning, it is a public place freely open to all.
You don’t need to go through metal detectors or surrender personal belonging or identification to enter tall buildings in Canada. Or City Halls. No one wands you as you enter a public library.
There are plenty of problems in Canada, but “security state” issues are minimal, compared to our neighbour. We’d like to keep it that way & watching out for/challenging the people who will definitely use this & other isolated, statistically insignificant anomalies to try and make us into a police state. They also use international intervention as a cover for changing things at home, a dual wedge tool “People in XX want to attack us & are doing bad things to others, we have to attack them,… oh, and raise security here, in case.”
Fuck them.
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As a flagpole is just a pike with a banner on it. I definitely give them credit for the bravery, but not the ‘‘weaponization’’ of what was always a weapon. Plows turn back into swords pretty easily.
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Even unmodified plows are decent bludgeoning weapons.
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While that is funny, it’s slightly warmer in Ottawa right now, but not unseasonably so. It’s Ottawa, we don’t live in igloos, and I’ve never seen a polar bear. We’ll get snow about mid-November.
Whoosh. It’s just a question, PF. In answer to your question, of course these MPs chose weapons, of course they would do anything to defend themselves, anybody would do this.
Cory’s observation does remain within sight of Golding’s commentary, and my comment is made in that context. Was the Lord of the Flies image mis-chosen? You know it wasn’t. It was meant to provoke thought on the matter.
I am curious how the leadership of our country performed, government or opposition, as the construct of high civilization was swept away by chaos and immanent extinction in that isolated room…the island. Is grabbing a spear a measure of leadership? My gut wants to know how these people meet crisis in general, and unfortunate as it was, this was a kind of test of Canadian leadership…it’s very hard to get a clear idea of this, being cross-modulated through media as all this has been.
I’m picturing Piggy choked in a Shawinigan handshake.
Plan A probably was the lockdown. I’m not familiar with the full layout of the building (despite living in the city for a quarter-century), but some oldish plans tend to suggest that most rooms really have only one exit, right out into some very open hallways: either the northern corridor, southern corridor or the Hall of Honour itself (which connects the two corridors in the middle). Moving out into the halls would not have been a good idea. Even bailing out the windows would not have been too bright in a situation that fluid. They stayed put, stayed out of the way, and we got probably the best outcome we could have hoped for in that situation.
I’m far from displeased about how the various forces handled this. Reaction was extremely fast from when Cpl. Cirillo went down. We don’t need anything more than this level of professionalism.
That is quite the image. Poor Piggy.
Well, that is one thing I’m pretty sure of: whatever other faults he had (and he had his share), I don’t think anyone would have been able to get Ti-gars into a closet if this sort of shit had happened on his shift.
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There’s a reason why the UK Parliament government and opposition benches are kept two sword lengths apart 
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This is true. Chretien would have broken off a table leg and stood at the entrance. Kim Campbell would have hidden behind a robe. Mulroney would have weaponized his chin.
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Flagpoles as spears makes good sense to me. Training videos shown to new employees of the good ole US of A espouse the same techniques: if you can’t safely exit the building, then lock and barricade the available entrance to the room and be prepared to defend yourself with whatever means are available.
While it came a bit late in the news cycle (or my hearing of it), I’m happy that the surveillance-state detractors are being heard in the all-too-common rush of politicians to call for easier arrests and more/deeper monitoring of the populace.
As an american I would be glad somebody has figured out that to keep terrorists from winning you can’t act terrified.
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Hey we’re not completely batshit insane down here:
Georgia law allows guns in some schools, bars, churches - CNN.com
Some critics have said it was hypocritical to allow guns in so many places but not the state Capitol.
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I love how you skipped Paul Martin - things like this are best not mentioned. IMO Chretien wouldn’t have needed the table leg, he just would’ve choked him with his bare hands.
Lots Lots Lots of people up here know it, but the pendulum is swinging right & more & more fear-mongers stand to be elected.
It is a damn shame too. The current government is sort of a minority false majority government x2. First because of numbers, secondly because the party banner under which they were elected actually has hordes of sensible people who just won’t take that extra step to rid themselves of the inter-party faction called Reformers who happen to be the ravenously vocal minority within the CPC. They’re like the GamerGate legion of Canadian politics.
Paul Martin would have offered to pay everyone else in the room to take any bullets coming his way.
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