Soldier goes gunning for PM, Canadians yawn
Sifting Saturday’s news, I’m struck by the negligible popular response to the arrest of an Armed Forces member on Thursday in Ottawa. Corey Hurren used a pickup truck to crash the gate of Rideau Hall, the residence of the Governor-General; Justin Trudeau and his family have been living in a house on the grounds while the PM’s residence is renovated.
Neither the Governor-General nor the Trudeaus were home. Nobody got shot, although Hurren was armed to the teeth. He’s now facing 22 criminal charges.
EmilyG 14:32 on 2020-07-04 Permalink
Much of the response I’ve seen to this is people reacting to the fact that a lot of mainstream media are describing the guy in the way they usually do with white criminals – that he seemed like a nice guy and people didn’t see this coming – whereas non-white people committing lesser crimes are often portrayed as flawed, or druggies, or undesirable people in some way.
Blork 14:34 on 2020-07-04 Permalink
I suspect the negligible response is because no one was hurt. In these high tension times, with so much shit going on and all these various murders and other killings happening, this barely registers on the “end times radar” of most people.
It’s also notable that they’re being very quiet about the weapons involved. I don’t know why that is so. Most stories just mention “firearms” and “long rifle,” both of which are to vague to stir the imagination very much. I don’t know why they’re being so mum on this. As a member of the Rangers (reserve) he would have had access to their standard rifle, the awkwardly named “C-19”, which is basically a bolt-action hunting rifle not an automatic assault rifle. (Unless they are deployed overseas, the Rangers work in the mountains and other remote areas, so their weapons are for protection against bears and for hunting food on long missions; they’re not combat weapons.) Maybe a handgun too, but these days that’s as common as dirt in crime scenes. So why the hush?
thomas 15:13 on 2020-07-04 Permalink
The report I saw explicitly mentioned that his Rangers-issued rifle was not used in the attack.
Perhaps, this event is purposely underreported to prevent copy cat attacks given some of the over the top rhetoric, i.e. “Trudeau is corrupt. Join our fight to take back Canada”, in certain political circles.
Uatu 15:19 on 2020-07-04 Permalink
I was expecting more in depth coverage as this is the 2nd incident of potential domestic terrorism from a CAF reservist. Also surprised that Rideau Hall has no bollards to stop ramming of the gates. Hell, I noticed even McGill has rectratable bollards on their campus the last time I was there
walkerp 16:04 on 2020-07-04 Permalink
I would also like to see a stronger reaction against all the idiots and assholes constantly posting a stream of anti-Justin Trudeau propaganda and conspiracy theories. All of them contribute to an environment where a guy like this gets radicalized.
I’m not a huge fan of Justin and believe that critique of politicians is important. However, the personal attacks against him are almost entirely out of the far right/Russia/Chinese-driven propaganda and further bolstered by the Conservative party and all these losers in Alberta who get caught up in the manipulation. You’ll notice that they almost never attack the Liberal party, it is always Justin, Justin, Justin. And then a guy with military training decides to drive from Manitoba right to his residence with a weapon.
There is culpability here and it should be called out.
qatzelok 21:25 on 2020-07-04 Permalink
Almost all of our “terrorists” were members of our armed forces before deciding to give other Canadians a taste of the skills they learned abroad.
This is the most important lesson for Canadians (and Americans) to learn from this.
And most of the criticism of “Trudeau fils” is that he’s mainly a cute teleprompter reader, reading other people’s lines. That’s why he went blank when asked to reply as to what he thought of Trump. For Justin, it’s especially important to stick to the teleprompter with “in your opinion” type of questions. : )
Kate 22:28 on 2020-07-04 Permalink
qatzelok, that’s bullshit. Trudeau’s silence at that question was a statement in itself. He was telegraphing that he knows he can’t go on record saying what he really thinks of Trump – Canada can’t afford the blowback – so he left a little space there where we could all ponder that fact, then he resumed.
The Ottawa Citizen made a list of the attacks on political leaders in recent years. Except for Corey Hurren, the perpetrators were not from the armed forces: Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, Richard Bain, and André Dallaire – who got into 24 Sussex when Jean Chrétien was PM – were not army guys. Denis Lortie, who killed three people and injured several more at the National Assembly in 1984, was an army supply clerk, which is as close as it gets to armed forces personnel before Thursday.
qatzelok 08:38 on 2020-07-05 Permalink
Kate, I was talking about what our media have called “terror attacks” in recent times. Alexandre Bissonnette was in the army, and Michael Zehaf-Bibeau had contacts in the various terror groups that Canada is at war with (or for).
Likewise, Trudeau “went blank” because some white hats shut off his telepromter feed for a period. This was “spun” as thoughfulness, but if you look at the clip, he is obviously flustered by the lack of lines to act out.
Kate, the Western world is waking up to the fact that it is run by organized crime, but this blog seems to be missing this scoop, just like the Gazette will always miss it.
JoeNotCharles 10:44 on 2020-07-05 Permalink
Can you just ban qatzelok already? Allowing conspiracy theories to post unchecked is how they spread, and nobody has the time to carefully debunk everything.
Kate 10:55 on 2020-07-05 Permalink
qatzelok, Bissonnette was not in the army. He was a Laval University student and worked for Héma-Québec. He was an army cadet as a little kid, as shown in a photo on this CBC page, but he was never in the army as an adult, as far as I can discern from reports.
JoeNotCharles, you have a point.
JaneyB 12:37 on 2020-07-05 Permalink
Trudeau went blank without a teleprompter??! The guy is Mr. Congeniality and could have a charming conversation with a shoe. He does not need a teleprompter. His silence was a smart move; loose lips sink ships especially when the primary trading partner is run by a capricious madman. Let the analysts parse a silence; it won’t get much traction in the news media.
qatzelok 12:41 on 2020-07-05 Permalink
“loose lips sink ships ”
The eternal war state needs to ban opposing opinions so that it can commit atrocities with impunity. Thanks for helping them, JaneyB.
David.005 12:56 on 2020-07-05 Permalink
And that expression also explains why “the truth” is never exposed during a war, which demands secrecy and sneakiness. And we are always at war now.
What are the side effects of these perma-wars?
JaneyB 13:13 on 2020-07-05 Permalink
And….clicking David.005 reveals that he is in fact qatzelok. Begging to be banned, methinks.
Kate 13:28 on 2020-07-05 Permalink
Yes. qatzelok, you’re charged with pretending to be a different pain-in-the-ass commenter, and banned till I’m less annoyed with you.
dwgs 13:49 on 2020-07-05 Permalink
“The eternal war state needs to ban opposing opinions so that it can commit atrocities with impunity. ” Do you not choke on the irony when you type this phrase telling someone that their opinion is wrong?
GC 15:23 on 2020-07-05 Permalink
Trudeau had to be know there was a high chance he’d get a question along those lines that day. I don’t believe that silence was anything but measured. I find it likely he already had his response worked out ahead of time.
david1828 18:56 on 2020-07-05 Permalink
Uatu – those retractable bollards are related to the closing of the lower campus and nothing at all to do with terrorism.
Uatu 23:50 on 2020-07-05 Permalink
Oh I know. I’m saying if McGill can install them to redirect traffic then Rideau Hall can do it for security. At the very least there should be some kind of traffic slowing path formed by concrete barriers/planters etc.
davdi1823 02:47 on 2020-07-07 Permalink
I agree – it should be a lot more common city-wide, including on streets like Mont-Royal, Sainte-Cath, all of Old Montreal, around Jean-Talon (or pretty much all the markets), etc. But it’s not cheap, and does require either (1) a lot of community buy-in that we’ve pretty much never been successful at shepherding, or (2) someone to impose it and be ready to suffer the blowback, something that more conservative leaders have no problem with, but that our craven so-called progressive leaders essentially never do.
Sad!