But it's this story that really captures what makes Vickers such an interesting person. Here are some excerpts:
Vickers brought with him a reputation for soft-spoken diplomacy. He told the local Telegraph-Journal that he found it comforting to see fathers and sons tossing Frisbees on the lawn of Parliament Hill. He also spoke of how he didn’t want to see fences around Canada’s Parliament.
“In America, security trumps all,” he told the newspaper. “I don’t think that’s the Canadian way.”
He put his diplomatic reputation on display in the summer of 2000, when he was incident commander for the Mounties in Burnt Church, N.B. in a dispute over native fisheries and land claims.
His immediate response was to send in plainclothes aboriginal officers carrying doughnuts and coffee to talk with protestors, allowing them to vent.
There is something so eminently...Canadian... about that. He is someone who looked - throughout his career - to de-escalate tensions and try and find common ground. Despite being a law enforcement officer, he seems to be the sort of person who looks for the best in people.
Some of that may be the relative lack of fear that Canadians express compared to Americans. America lives in a media climate where..ISIS! EBOLA!!1! TERRAISTS!!!!
The coverage of yesterday's attack on CBC was sober, respectful and calm. Meanwhile CNN...Well, just click through the link and see the difference in the coverage.
Stephen Marche at Esquire thinks that this is the end of Canada as he knows it. That they will collapse into the paranoid security state of their southern neighbors.
But yesterday was the first day that Kevin Vickers fired his weapon in anger. A career in law enforcement and he never shot at someone before. Compare him to the Rambo wannabes in Ferguson and the picture could not be more clear.
Culture doesn't change overnight.
Here's hoping there will always be frisbee games on the lawn of the Canadian Parliament.
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