Why are bullet holes from the 2014 Parliament Hill attack a permanent feature of Centre Block?

Share this Story : Why are bullet holes from the 2014 Parliament Hill attack a permanent feature of Centre Block? Copy Link Email X Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Breadcrumb Trail Links Local News Why are bullet holes from the 2014 Parliament Hill attack a permanent feature of Centre Block? The government decided to repair some damage as part of the building's rehabilitation but will leave multiple bullet holes as part of Ottawa's historic scar tissue. Author of the article: Andrew Duffy Published Oct 22, 2024 • Last updated 6 minutes ago • 6 minute read Join the conversation You can save this article by registering for free here . Or sign-in if you have an account.

From 2014: A sculpture honouring nurses during the wars has a bullet hole in the base of the sculpture. Located in the Hall of Honour in the Centre Block of Parliament Hill Oct 23. Photo by Pat McGrath / POSTMEDIA Article content Ten years ago, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was peppered with gunfire after he stormed Parliament Hill with a lever-action Winchester rifle.



The self-described jihadist, a petty criminal and crack addict, had already shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo in the back as he stood sentry at the National War Memorial. Zehaf-Bibeau was shot 31 times, according to a post-mortem exam, and suffered two fatal wounds – one to the back of his neck, and another to his chest.

Advertisement 2 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles from Elizabeth Payne, David Pugliese, Andrew Duffy, Bruce Deachman and others.

Plus, food reviews and event listings in the weekly newsletter, Ottawa, Out of Office. Unlimited online access to Ottawa Citizen and 15 news sites with one account. Ottawa Citizen ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.

Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Exclusive articles from Elizabeth Payne, David Pugliese, Andrew Duffy, Bruce Deachman and others. Plus, food reviews and event listings in the weekly newsletter, Ottawa, Out of Office. Unlimited online access to Ottawa Citizen and 15 news sites with one account.

Ottawa Citizen ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism.

REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.

Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Sign In or Create an Account Email Address Continue or View more offers If you are a Home delivery print subscriber, unlimited online access is included in your subscription. Activate your Online Access Now Article content They were among 56 shots fired inside Centre Block on Oct.

22, 2014 by House of Commons security officers, RCMP officers, and House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers as they confronted and killed Zehaf-Bibeau, who fired his weapon three times inside Parliament. It was one of the most dramatic and chaotic days in Ottawa history, and represented the most serious security breach of Parliament Hill in half a century. The incident spawned six official reviews, which revealed a raft of security problems involving resources, planning, communications, training and intelligence.

One OPP report called the entire approach to security on the Hill “highly inadequate.” Not least among the security problems was the fact that Centre Block’s front doors were unlocked and lightly guarded. As a result, a new visitor’s welcome centre is being built in front of Centre Block to control access to the building, and the three security services that once policed the Hill have been united into a single unit, the Parliamentary Protective Service, under the leadership of the RCMP.

Evening Update The Ottawa Citizen’s best journalism, delivered directly to your inbox by 7 p.m. on weekdays.

There was an error, please provide a valid email address. Sign Up By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Thanks for signing up! A welcome email is on its way.

If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Evening Update will soon be in your inbox. We encountered an issue signing you up.

Please try again Article content Advertisement 3 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content More recently, the federal government confronted another legacy of that day’s terror attack: the bullet holes and ricochet marks that pockmark Centre Block. The government had to decide whether to repair damage from the gunfire as part of the ongoing rehabilitation of Centre Block, or to leave the impact sites as an acknowledgement of Parliament’s historic scar tissue.

From 2014: A piece of tape covers a bullet hole in the door of the Railway Committee Room. Several bullet holes marked the walls and doors of the Hall of Honour in the Centre Block of Parliament Hill on Oct 23. Damage done to wooden doors by bullets were repaired.

Photo by Pat McGrath / POSTMEDIA Michèle LaRose, a spokesperson for Public Services and Procurement Canada, said the department consulted with administrators of both the House of Commons and Senate. A decision has been made, she said, to repair the damage done by bullets to wooden doors and frames, but to leave untouched the impact sites in Confederation Hall (also known as the rotunda) and the Hall of Honour. There are impact sites high on the southeast wall of the rotunda, and low on the northwest wall.

In the Hall of Honour, which connects the rotunda to the Library of Parliament, there’s a ricochet site on a pillar, another on the east side of the hallway, and bullet impact sites on the west wall. “The approach that has been implemented,” LaRose said, “balances the need to preserve heritage fabric while leaving an imprint to pay homage to this important historical event.” Advertisement 4 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content University of Montreal professor emeritus Christina Cameron, an international expert in heritage conservation, applauded the government’s decision to retain the bullet damage in Centre Block’s walls and pillars. “There will be lots of people who will say, ‘Just get rid of that. We don’t want to see that.

It’s a reminder of something negative,’” Cameron said. “But history isn’t only about the positive.” Retaining the damage of the bullet holes, she said, also offers an opportunity to engage in discussion about current issues: political violence, the rule of law, and the threats posed to democracy.

From 2014: A sculpture honouring nurses during the wars has a bullet hole in the base of the sculpture. The damage to the statue will remain after the rehabilitation of Centre Block. Photo by Pat McGrath / POSTMEDIA The federal government’s $4.

5 billion rehabilitation of Centre Block is the largest heritage conservation project in Canadian history. As it unfolds, it must continually define what forms part of Parliament’s essential heritage fabric, and what can be changed to make the building safer, more accessible and sustainable. “Achieving the balance between conservation and renewal is one of the project’s greatest challenges,” a Public Services and Procurement Canada background document notes.

Advertisement 5 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content The question of what should be protected is a fiercely-debated topic within the field of heritage conservation. For years, the dominant school of thought held that heritage buildings should be restored to their original, “ideal” form, but most conservationists have come to embrace the “narrative” of a building – an idea that allows for its layers, built up over years of social change and historical events, to be preserved.

Patricia Kell, executive director of National Trust for Canada, a charity that helps to save and renew historic places, said Parliament’s bullet holes are part of the nation’s history. Removing them, she argued, would add an extra, unnecessary layer of intervention to Centre Block’s rehabilitation. “The bullet holes speak to important events that happened in that place,” she said.

“The bullet holes bear witness to that experience. By leaving the damage, you remember that event, and you remember what you learned from that.” A tourist took this photo of Michael Zehaf-Bibeau pointing his rifle at Cpl.

Nathan Cirillo, who moved from his post to seek cover. Zehaf-Bibeau shot Cirillo three times. POSTMEDIA But not everyone agrees.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May said discussions about the bullet holes should take a backseat to discussions about a public inquiry into the security failings of Oct. 22, 2014. Advertisement 6 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content “I am still shocked that we never had a public inquiry,” she said. “I can’t imagine any other country in the world that wouldn’t have had a public inquiry into such a horrific event in a modern democracy.” Among other things, May wants to understand how the RCMP, then responsible for security outside Parliament, allowed the gunman to run onto the Hill, hijack a minister’s car, and drive unchallenged to the Peace Tower.

It continues to anger her, she said, that the RCMP was later put in charge of all Parliament Hill security in violation of parliamentary tradition. “I find our erasure of history around this – but preserving bullet holes – to be paying attention to the wrong things,” she said. “I feel like it’s never too late to do the right thing: There should have been an inquiry and there still should be.

” Green Party Leader Elizabeth May speaks at a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS Preserving a place that commemorates a violent, painful or divisive chapter in a nation’s history is often a fraught process.

Christina Cameron co-authored a 2020 study for the UNESCO World Heritage Centre that warned the memorialization of such sites can create disharmony, even violence, if their history is manipulated by special interest groups or political parties. It recommended that a truth commission be established to hear from all stakeholders and build a shared understanding of the past before a site is memorialized. Advertisement 7 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content “The need to remember often competes with the equally strong pressure to forget,” notes the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience , a network of sites around the world, one of which commemorates Canada’s residential school system. Located on the site of a former residential school in Sault Ste. Marie, the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre at Algoma University provides guided tours, talks, and exhibitions to more than 20,000 visitors a year.

Many Indigenous communities in Canada are now discussing what to do with their own still-standing residential schools, and how to memorialize the at least 4,100 children who died in them. A survivor-led steering committee is also working toward the establishment of a Residential Schools National Monument on the west side of Parliament Hill. In Ottawa, the events of Oct.

22, 2014 are now marked by Centre Block’s bullet holes, and a memorial plaque in honour of Cpl. Cirillo, just east of the National War Memorial. Our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark our homepage and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed.

Recommended from Editorial Feds won't commit to cutting alleged Nazi collaborators' names from Victims of Communism memorial OC Transpo LRT to close for maintenance off and on over next two weeks Article content Share this article in your social network Share this Story : Why are bullet holes from the 2014 Parliament Hill attack a permanent feature of Centre Block? Copy Link Email X Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Comments You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments. Create an Account Sign in Join the Conversation Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful.

Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Trending This new Ottawa bike lane comes with a pole in the middle, but why is it there? Local News Senators may need to seek goaltending help with Mads Sogaard injured Ottawa Senators Arson unit charges Ottawa woman after a series of fires during the past month Local News DND didn’t apologize to sexually assaulted employee because Ottawa Citizen would write about it Defence Watch Trillium Line passes trial run with 99.5 per cent score, Amilcar announces 'with humility and great joy' Local News Read Next Latest National Stories Featured Local Savings.