It has been a few years since we have lined up on the
highway here in Quinte West, along the route that has been dubbed the Highway
of Heroes. Yesterday I found myself standing on a ridge overlooking the highway
along with my neighbor and her husband. They had taken the Canadian flag from
their house and hung it off a fence along the highway. We were there to pay our
respects to Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, who was shot and killed in Ottawa on Wednesday October 22,
at 9:52 am.
Mickey Harrington and her husband Dennis took their Canadian Flag off their house to honour Cpl. Nathan Cirillo on Friday October 24. |
The attack was the second in three days on Canadian Forces
personnel. Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent was killed after being hit
by a car in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.
I have attended a number of
repatriation ceremonies in Trenton, both as a member of the media and as a
private citizen. I have photographed flag draped caskets as they were
ceremoniously unloaded from the plane and placed in hearses before being driven
to Toronto; I have photographed my fellow Trentonians as they lined the
streets and the highway, many holding flags in their attempt to pay tribute to
the returning soldier who made the ultimate sacrifice.
This time it feels different, sadder.
Cpl. Cirillo was not killed fighting a war in a foreign land. He was shot while
standing at attention with an unloaded weapon. Taking part in a ceremony to
honour Canada’s war dead much like many who came out to hold a flag as the
hearse rolled down highway 401 yesterday.
The funeral procession for Cpl. Nathan Cirillo makes it's way through Quinte West along the Highway of Heroes on Friday. |
While on the treadmill jogging on
Thursday morning at the Quinte West YMCA, the news showed Sergeant at Arms Kevin
Vickers enter the House of Commons for the first time since Wednesday’s
shooting. Vickers, a 29-year veteran of the RCMP and still in his ceremonial
garb, engaged the shooter and played a role in his killing.
Members of Parliament from across the
nation and the political spectrum gave Vickers a lengthy standing ovation that
seemed to move the 58 year-old to tears. As I watched this trying to keep pace
with the moving rubber sidewalk below my feet, I felt the hairs rise on the
back of my neck and my eyes begin to well. I have never considered myself
particularly patriotic; I do own a team Canada Hockey sweater, but I have a lot
of hockey sweaters. My response to the moment being televised nationally on our
public broadcaster felt out of step with my own time and place. I looked around
me to see if others on stationary bikes and treadmills were experiencing the
same moment. What I found was lines of televisions tuned into daytime talk
shows and the Food Network.
While it may have not been evident at
the YMCA, Canadians are feeling the emotions I felt, as well as
the physiological responses, from Coast to Coast to Coast as we say. It is at
times like these when it is most important to take a step back and try to
reflect on all we know, all we have as individuals, as a people and as a country.
The deaths of two members of the
Canadian Military are a great tragedy and having the attacks take place on
Canadian soil makes us all feel a little less safe. My wife and I have
experienced this feeling before here in Trenton. When the former Colonel
Russell Williams was arrested in the Quinte region a few years back, our bubble
of safeness and small town identity came crashing down. Before that, it would
have been rare to find the doors locked while we were home; not any more.
I wonder if people in Moncton experienced
similar feelings in June when a young man targeted and killed three members of
the RCMP. Did that act of senseless violence make them feel terrorized in their
homes, unsafe to step outside their doors?
Security services and the media will
analyze the recent attacks in the weeks and months ahead. Of course security on
Parliament Hill will be upgraded. The Prime Minister has already referenced the
Islamic State in response to these attacks. We do not have a lot of facts, yet we do know that Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was a very troubled person. We
have seen reports that he attempted to rob a MacDonald’s in Vancouver with a
pointed stick, hoping a lengthy incarceration would help him kick his drug
habit. Other reports have him telling friends the devil is after him.
Recently we have begun to have serious
public discussions about mental health, from Clara’s Big Ride to Clint
Malarchuk’s recent personal memoir The Crazy
Game. We can’t ignore the Jihadist narrative being spelled out by our Prime
Minister and Canada’s security agency; let’s not ignore the role played by
mental health in this country’s recent tragedies either.
The hearse carrying the body of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a reservist of The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada carries him home to Hamilton on Friday. |