November 10, 2014: A day that strengthened our understanding of what it means to be Canadian

By Michael Regenstreif

It was a sad, scary and strange day here in Ottawa.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014 was so very sad, of course, because Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a Canadian Forces reservist standing ceremonial guard at our National War Memorial, was murdered, shot cowardly in the back by a terrorist, leaving behind a five-year-old son he was, by all accounts, devoted to.

It was a scary day. As quickly as the news broke of the attack at the War Memorial, we heard that Parliament itself – the very seat of our Canadian democracy – was under attack. The Hill and much of downtown Ottawa was locked down as reports of gunfire in Centre Block quickly spread through the city.

It was, we learned, the same gunman who shot Cirillo at the War Memorial that launched the attack on Parliament. And it all happened so fast, apparently less than two minutes from the time of the Cirillo murder until he entered Centre Block. Samearn Son, a brave security guard on duty at the door, saw the gun and tried to wrestle it away. Son was shot in the foot (he was treated at the Ottawa Hospital and released), but his actions alerted security staff to the danger.

House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, a veteran former RCMP officer, quickly went to his office, retrieved his firearm and, with other security officers and RCMP officers, engaged the attacker in a gunfight killing him.

All this took place while the parties were holding their weekly Wednesday morning caucus meetings. The Conservative Party – including the prime minister and cabinet ministers – and New Democratic Party meetings, in fact, were taking place behind closed doors in the very corridor, the Hall of Honour, where the shoot-out took place.

Although the terrorist was killed just moments after his spree began at the War Memorial before 10 am, Ottawa remained a scary place for many more hours through the rest of the morning, the afternoon and well into the evening.

Although it turned out he was a lone wolf, there were initial reports of two, possibly three terrorists on the loose in downtown Ottawa or in the wooded areas behind the Parliament buildings.

There was an early report of shots fired near the Château Laurier Hotel, literally just steps from both the National War Memorial and Parliament Hill, which turned out not to be true. Then there were reports of shots fired in the nearby Rideau Centre shopping mall. Later, those reports changed to shots fired somewhere outside the Rideau Centre. These reports also turned out to be false.

Meanwhile, cell phone networks all over Ottawa were overloaded and jammed for hours. MPs, Hill staffers and people working in offices blocks away remained under lockdown as rumours swirled through the city. And, when the Ottawa Police and RCMP held a news conference at 2:15 pm, they did not seem to yet know how many suspects were involved. The situation, they said, was “ongoing.”

Not just sad and scary, it was an altogether strange day in Ottawa. The normal rhythms of our city were thrown off as we tried to understand and cope with the brutal murder of the soldier at the War Memorial, the attack on Parliament, and of just not knowing what was going on.

The prime minister, we were told, had been taken to an undisclosed safe location. It would be 10 hours before we heard from him.

And it was on Twitter at 12:40 pm from Employment and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney that we learned the soldier shot at the War Memorial had died. Why were we hearing this in a tweet from the employment minister and not from an announcement by the defence minister or the minister of public safety?

It was also a day that brought us together. We came together in grief over the heartbreaking loss of Nathan Cirillo, in admiration for the valiant efforts of those on the scene who tried to save him, and in awe of the bravery of Kevin Vickers and the police and security officials who protected Parliament and the city.

It was a sad, scary and strange day. A day we will not soon forget. But it was a day that strengthened our understanding of what it means to be Canadian.

March 22, 2010: The Passover message remains important in our own time

By Michael Regenstreif

Welcome to what we refer to as “the Passover edition” of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin. Not because it’s the issue that comes out during Passover – that will be the next issue, which we’ll send to the printer before the first seder night – but because it’s the last issue that comes out before Passover. As it’s the Passover edition, we’ve included a number of feature articles that deal with the holiday – or, at least, holiday food. For some reason, the JTA Passover features this year were mostly food-oriented. As well, several of our columnists have focussed on Passover themes.

Passover has always been my favourite of all the Jewish holidays. It’s not the food – although I do actually like matzo – or even the enduring seder rituals that make this my favourite Jewish holiday; it’s because I find the Passover message of freedom from slavery and oppression to be so inspirational.

During Passover, we remember the slavery endured by the ancient Israelites in Egypt and celebrate their struggle for freedom and the exodus from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. The Passover Haggadah reminds us that we, like everyone in every generation in the thousands of years since the exodus, must view ourselves as personally moving to freedom from the bondage of slavery.

The remarkable thing about the message of every generation having this personal vision of the exodus from Egypt is that the tradition almost seems to be telling us explicitly to apply the Passover message to our own time.

Jews are not the only people to be inspired and galvanized by the Passover message. When African American slaves in the United States were struggling for their freedom from slavery, just 150 years ago, they took inspiration from the biblical story of the Jewish escape from slavery. The code name of Harriet Tubman, the leader of the Underground Railroad that helped slaves escape from slavery in the American South to freedom in Canada, was “Moses.” The code name for Canada was “the promised land.”

Today, thousands of years after Moses led the Jews out of Egypt, oppression and slavery still exist in our world. As Jews, we remember the six million murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, but we also remember that the Nazis turned millions of Jews, including so many who were murdered, into slave labourers. That was in the 20th century, just decades ago.

It’s estimated that there are 27 million slaves in today’s world. Clearly, the journey from slavery, begun by Moses, continues in our own time.

IAW resolution fails in Parliament

Last issue, I commented on the rare show of unanimity in the Ontario Legislature when MPPs passed a resolution condemning Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). That same unanimity was not to be found, March 11, when two resolutions in the House of Commons were defeated for lack of unanimous consent. Conservative MP Tim Uppal proposed a motion in the House that condemned IAW for seeking to delegitimize the State of Israel with the “apartheid” label and voiced ongoing support for a two-state solution; and Bloc Québécois MP Claude DeBellefeuille proposed a motion that denounced both the “apartheid” label for Israel and the labelling of critics of Israel as “antisemitic,” and that also expressed support for the right of both Israel and the Palestinians to their own states.

Because the resolutions needed unanimous voice votes in order to pass, Hansard doesn’t tell us how many MPs voted against either of these motions, only that they did not pass. However, I was forwarded an email that NDP MP Libby Davies sent to IAW supporters saying she voted against both resolutions.

Happy Passover

On behalf of the staff, advisory committee and contributing columnists and reporters at the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, I extend our best wishes to all for a joyous and happy Passover. Chag Sameach.