XPost: can.politics, ott.general, ont.politics   
   XPost: bc.politics, ab.politics   
   From: "@nyet.ca   
      
   It has come to this.  Harper's senators have won themselves so much   
   enmity from the Canadian public that Harper thinks they need ARMED   
   protection.   
      
   Better he would have chosen senators that weren't there to line their   
   pockets with taxpayer money.   
      
   We don't want no steenkin' guns in our government institutions.  We want   
   the kinds of governments that don't need that kind of protection.   
   _____________________________________________   
   Ottawa Citizen - June 24, 2014   
      
      
   Packing heat on the Hill: Senate security guards to get guns   
      
      
   Senate security officers, responsible for the safety of the red chamber,   
   will soon be packing pistols, joining their counterparts from the House   
   of Commons who are already armed.   
      
   In a report made public this week, the Senate’s internal economy   
   committee said it had decided to “deploy armed, uniformed personnel … in   
   the coming months.â€� It’s expected that some – though not necessarily all   
   â€“ Senate security guards will tote semi-automatic, 9mm pistols, similar   
   to those normally carried by the RCMP.   
      
   Senate administration did not supply the cost, number of firearms or   
   training required.   
      
   Parliament Hill security staff have legally been able to carry weapons   
   as part of their job for more than 15 years, and House of Commons   
   security has done so.   
      
   The Senate considered arming its security staff even earlier than that,   
   but didn’t because a majority of senators didn’t feel it was needed,   
   said Sen. Colin Kenny, one of the longest-tenured member of the upper   
   chamber. The cost of the guns, the training needed to minimize any   
   damage in the historic hallways of Parliament, and the possibility of   
   staff or visitors being injured by a stray bullet were among the reasons   
   senators had opposed to the idea, he said.   
      
   â€œIt has been discussed for a long, long time and the thinking has slowly   
   evolved,â€� said Kenny, a former chairman of the internal economy committee.   
      
   Security incidents occasionally take place in the Senate. In a recent   
   minor example, during the 2011 throne speech, Senate page Brigette   
   DePape walked to the centre of the Senate chamber and unfurled a small   
   sign reading “Stop Harper.â€� She was escorted out by the   
   sergeant-at-arms. No one was endangered.   
      
   While the threat to senators may not be considered high, Kenny said   
   threats to Parliament Hill have been real, citing a bomb attempt in the   
   House of Commons in 1966. He also suggested MPs and senators have   
   received personal threats that required security to keep tabs on their   
   movements. Sometimes those threats were so secret that no one else in   
   the chamber was aware of them, he said.   
      
   Yet the Senate didn’t authorize its own security staff to carry guns   
   until now.   
      
   â€œWhat’s the threat spectrum for senators?â€� retired senator Hugh Segal   
   wryly said in a recent interview. “God forbid in the event of a terrible   
   attack, the cabinet, all the members of Parliament, the high command of   
   the Armed Forces, the guys who sell fries on the Sparks Street Mall —   
   they’d all have to be dead before you get to people as unimportant as   
   senators.â€�   
      
   The lack of Senate weaponry hasn’t gone unremarked. In a special report   
   two years ago, auditor general Michael Ferguson noted that Senate   
   security “does not have the same response capacity as security officers   
   of the House of Commons and the RCMP, who carry weapons.â€� (Senate   
   security carries expandable batons, Kenny said.)   
      
   In cases of emergency, the auditor general found, the Senate would have   
   to summon security forces from the House of Commons or the RCMP.   
      
   An invisible line prevents the Commons security force from keeping watch   
   in the Senate’s areas and vice versa — a historical relic. Each chamber   
   once thought it needed its own force because the Speaker of the House of   
   Commons couldn’t protect senators if the two chambers ever came to blows.   
      
   Senators and MPs agreed in principle to unifying the security forces in   
   2010, but four years later, discussions continue between the two sides.   
   Ferguson urged the Senate and Commons to follow through on that initial   
   agreement in his 2012 report.   
      
   The RCMP is responsible for policing the grounds of Parliament Hill, a   
   responsibility that ends at the front door of each building. Inside,   
   security is the purview of either the Commons or Senate security forces.   
   The streets around Parliament Hill are the jurisdiction of the Ottawa   
   Police.   
      
   The grounds of Parliament Hill are now monitored by security cameras,   
   uniformed and plainclothes police RCMP officers. Vehicles entering the   
   grounds pass through vehicular barricades, and a security checkpoint.   
      
   Pedestrian access to Parliament Hill is unfettered, but unaccredited   
   visitors must pass through body scanners and bags through X-ray machines   
   before entering any parliamentary building.   
   _______________________________________________   
      
   "When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people   
   fear the government there is tyranny."  ~  Thomas Jefferson   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)