Photo provided by Conservative MP Nina Grewal. Members of Parliament barricade themselves in a meeting room on Parliament Hill,Ottawa, Canada,Wednesday, October 22, 2014, after shots were fired in the building.
A week ago, a disturbed, lost, self-radicalized young Muslim man, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, shot and killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo, an unarmed guard, in front of the Canadian National War Memorial, hijacked a parliamentary vehicle, and drove up to the
Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, Ontario. He ran inside carrying a rifle, intent on shooting more people. He never got the chance to kill again. He was killed by a hail of bullets from RCMP and the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons, Kevin Vickers.
In the meantime, 150 Conservative Members of Parliament were having a meeting in the caucus room with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, when suddenly shots rang out in the hallway, just beyond the door. There was no other exit to the room except that double door to the hallway where shots were being fired, so what did Harper's aides do?
They shoved him in a closet! Yup..you heard me. Harper spent 15 minutes cowering in a closet. In the dark.
I mean, I get that, since his security guards( yes, he does have them) were on the other side of the caucus room door, his aides were duty bound to find a way to protect him. And it was quick thinking on their part. They didn't bother to tell anyone else he was in there.
But while Harper was..umm.. closeted , the rest of the resourceful MPs barricaded the door with tables and chairs, piled high, and set about making makeshift spears out of flagpoles, determined to defend themselves from the villains just outside the door.
And where was their intrepid leader? Was he showing his true leadership qualities? Was he bravely determining and marshalling their defences? Was he encouraging and endorsing them to be brave?
No. He was hiding in a small closet.
I dunno..if it was me, I'd be in the thick of it, trying my damnedest to help defend all of us. That Harper stayed in that closet until the doors opened and his security whisked him away says a lot about his true mettle.