Today's letters: Canada 150 party was a disgrace of poor planning
Ottawa Citizen Editorial Board
Published on: July 3, 2017 | Last Updated: July 3, 2017 2:19 PM EDT
Citizen letter writers have strong views about the preparation and security during Canada Day celebrations downtown. You can write to us too, at letter@ottawacitizen.com Our guidelines are here.
Canada Day an exercise in poor planning
Our family with young children was excited to make the special trip from Toronto to Ottawa to experience Canada’s 150th birthday. As we got on the bus going downtown for Canada Day, you could feel the excitement.
However, once we got off the bus and made our way towards Parliament Hill, we were told the security line would take between three and five hours to get through. How could any family with children be expected to stand in a line without access to washrooms for up to five hours? So we decided to watch the ceremonies instead on the big screens downtown. There were likely thousands of us downtown who could not get into Parliament Hill, and yet there appeared to be only two big screens, one of which broke down in the opening minutes of the ceremony. The other big screen was hard to hear with an RCMP helicopter hovering overhead.
So we gave up on the big screens and walked to the ByWard Market. There was still great energy but no extra washrooms for the thousands of people, so we stood in incredibly long lines waiting access to a bathroom.
By this point, we decided to head home disappointed with the poor planning and poor experience. As our kids said as we squeezed into a packed bus to get home, “That wasn’t much of a celebration but it was a big disappointment.”
Michael Davidson, Toronto
No way to treat out-of-town guests
You wanted us to come to Ottawa. We came. We spent over-the-top exorbitant prices for hotel rooms. We got up early in the rain to line up for what we thought might be two hours to get on to Parliament Hill. We waited five-and-a-half hours. When we reached Kent Street, it was barricaded. We finally pushed our way through It was terrible.
Where were the volunteers that would direct lineups? Where were the barricades to stop people from jumping the lines? It was total disorganization and a huge disappointment for the thousand of tourists who spent a lot of money in your city. Even the setup for video monitors was disappointing.
We were lucky and persevered through the lineup, the torrential rain, the mud and slop on the Hill and enjoyed a spectacular performance. Maybe the city of Ottawa or Canadian Heritage should have looked to experiences such as those organizing your Blues Festival. I heard from locals how secure but accommodating it is to high volumes of people.
I am from Toronto. We manage large events and crowds all the time. Did the Ottawa organizers consider consulting? After all, you invited us to come.
Darlene Macartney, Toronto
Issue tickets for Parliament Hill in future
A half-million people were forecast to visit Ottawa this Canada Day. We are informed that the “capacity” of Parliament Square is 31,000. If free access to the Hill has to be limited for security reasons, a simple math calculation says that only about six per cent of those visitors can actually be accommodated. There was therefore no reason for the long lines of sad families to stand for hours waiting to be admitted, when there was zero chance that they would ever make it.
If this year’s security concerns are to be the new norm, I suggest that, in future, gratis tickets be made available on a first-come-first-served basis. Only ticket holders will be admitted to the Hill on Canada Day, and there will be no lines of frustrated hopefuls.
In future, if we want to welcome visitors to our city on Canada Day, we need to make sure that there are other suitable venues for them to go to if they cannot reach the Hill. Adequate provision needs to be made for them to see and hear the main events as they happen. Provision needs to be made to feed them, and to provide adequate sanitation facilities. The absent or not-working video screens, overflowing restaurants, uncollected garbage, total lack of street entertainers and transport chaos reflected very badly on our city this year.
I hope we learn a lesson from this fiasco and do much better in future.
Robert Farrell, Ottawa
Next time, add a gondola
That had to be the most miserable Canada Day in my 35-year experience. I’ve been to rainy days which were still OK, and I’ve been to sunny days, but Justin Trudeau couldn’t make this one good.
There should have been no security to the extent it created four-hour-plus waits. If security officers can’t differentiate a terrorist from happy families and groups, then they need to resign. And the cost of this event was certainly not worth it. Think of the heritage buildings that could have been built for this cost.
And there was nothing of outstanding excitement, (discounting a scruffy teepee and Charles and Camilla!). This city needs some pizzaz, and a gondola ride from the Hill to the Museum of History would be a good start. I will never visit the Hill again while this kind of security is in place.
Andrew Hartshorn, Kanata
Security verged on undemocratic
I fully understand the nature and challenge of public safety operations in an era of terrorist threats. However, I suggest local government, law enforcement and Parliament Hill security planners capitulated to the idea of a terrorist attack on Canada Day, spoiling the atmosphere and frustrating many Canadians who had travelled long and far. Security officials and planners fundamentally erred by not putting the desire of Canadians to party first, then designing security measures to suit that desire. Instead, they tried to control Canadians according to an intricate crowd-control operation that, in many ways, was somewhat undemocratic, if not just plain dumb. Public security measures around the parliamentary precinct did more to dampen the fun of celebration than the persistent rain.
Such tight control of access to Parliament Hill produced uncomfortable hints of a security-state mentality. Moreover, it is not apparent that any serious thought was given to the possibility of the need for a sudden or mass exit from Parliament Hill in the event of a severe thunderstorm or, in the worst case, a suicide bomber or sniper (not necessarily a terrorist act).
In future, on Canada Day, the entire parliamentary precinct should be closed off to all vehicles and turned into a giant pedestrian mall. Canadians should be allowed to wander at will, enjoy lunch or dinner al fresco on Sparks Street and watch the Parliament Hill show on large video screens placed elsewhere on Wellington and Sparks Street. Security forces can continue to occupy rooftop positions, but at street level, security forces, both overt and covert, should be among Canadians, not attempting to control them.
Canadians and government officials are fond of claiming we will not let the threat of a terrorist attack change the way we live our lives. We should not let security forces force change the way we wish to live our lives either. Security forces exist to protect citizens, no matter how difficult it might be. Above all, don’t capitulate to threats.
James S. Cox, Ph.D. , Brigadier-General (Ret’d), Ottawa
Put ordinary people on the planning committee
This was an absolute security fiasco. The trouble is, security, police and state dignitaries never have trouble with access. I’m suggesting maybe a “real” citizen on future security planning for any major public event where crowd control is better handled than on this Canada Day.
Jim Kowbel, Ottawa
Hats off to the police for keeping us safe
Before I came from India to study at McGill University in the early 1960s, the one unique national symbol I learned about was the RCMP officer. I was told that Canada is the unique country in the world that has a police force as a national symbol. When I settled in Montreal to work with Canadian Heritage on the integration of the refugee “boat people,” the leaders of the Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese communities could not believe the national respect we gave police, right up to the citizenship ceremonies.
No wonder then, that the RCMP was fully present in ceremonial style and in protective action right on Parliament Hill, on Canada Day. It is especially in the need for heavy protective actions at that ceremony that we must take our hats off to the RCMP and, as Ottawa citizens, pay thanks to Ottawa Police for all they clearly offered to ensure safety and full enjoyment. As an immigrant Canadian, I am proud of the professional service of our police services to ensure Canada Day was overall celebrated in peace. We should all wear the RCMP and Ottawa Police pins, as good historic reminders for 2017.
Roman Mukerjee, Ottawa
Stand on guard for Canada
Although not active participants in this year’s joyful revelry on Canada’s 150th birthday, our red and white maple leaf was again respectfully unfurled and displayed in the front yard. Several times during the day, I felt gratitude because of our good fortune to be Canadians.
The frustrating, ham-fisted security delays experienced by enthusiastic citizens wanting to partake in the Parliament Hill celebrations vividly demonstrates how a cadre of evil-minded pseudo-religious fanatics can create costly confusion in every corner of the world by occasionally wreaking deadly havoc in some unfortunate other corner. Our cherished freedoms and liberties cannot be taken for granted. The words, ‘O Canada, we stand on guard for thee,’ need far more than lip service.
Lloyd Atkins, Vernon, B.C.
A fiasco, plain and simple
Ottawa should be embarrassed by the total fiasco created for people trying to get on to the Hill on Canada Day. When you got off the buses downtown, there was absolutely no signage for any direction as to where any lineups started for security. We asked a police officer standing around, but he just walked away. We asked a security person standing there. Her answer was, “I have no idea.” There was what looked like a line with another line coming off it, so we joined it. Ten minutes later this line had grown down Queen Street about a block and a half. Twenty minutes later it had grown to three blocks long.
We moved along very slowly for the next three hours coming out at Bank and Wellington just in front of the security checkpoint but then the line took a turn down Wellington to the a barrier in front of the Supreme Court – then looped back to the security tents. All of this time, the line was about three or four people wide.
After four hours, we were in line about 100 yards from the tents when we came to a complete standstill and noticed the line beside us was almost gone. We discovered they were just crashing our line and cutting in. An officer completely ignored us again and a security person said “What can I do?” and walked away.
All year, all we have heard is come to Parliament Hill for Canada Day. They forgot to say that if you want to get on the Hill you are totally on your own. This has to be one of the most poorly organized events in this city .
Ken McCarvill, Nepean
The terrorists won after all
I have been attending Canada Day celebrations on the Hill for more than 30 years. This year I arrived extra early because I knew there would be ramped-up security. I knew “the terrorists” had said “boo” and our police and politicians would subsequently go ballistic. Boy did they ever – but so, so inefficiently!
Even at 8:30 a.m. I faced a huge and unprecedented security lineup (in the pouring rain) which literally inched along until I finally entered a tent where 20 tables were assembled to “check” attendees whose bodies and every possession had to be slowly scrutinized. Small wonder that when the noon-hour show began, the Hill was only half-full and that Major’s Hill Park was jammed with people who simply gave up on the lineup.
I know our schools tend to coddle under-achievers but, really, who did the math and figured clearing visitors so slowly would actually work? I have been on cruises where an equal number of staff have been used to clear only two or three thousand people, but this was our 150th anniversary and tens of thousands were expected. Dozens of police and security people languished at every corner virtually doing nothing while the lineup grew and grew and grew. And remember, it was a miserable morning so thousands who would otherwise have gone downtown chose not to.
So, yes, the terrorists won after all. They successfully killed Canada Day and the freedom of assembly, huge Parliament Hill crowds and joyful spirit which used to be its hallmark. What a shame and what a loss to all of us.
Colleen Patenaude, Ottawa
All this, just for some speeches
That was no celebration. Where was the band and the music so people could clap and sing? What about the music from different parts of Canada? What about something funny so we could laugh together? The poor audience went through a lot to be able to be there … to listen to speeches !
It is difficult to believe that this was someone’s idea of a party.
Gloria Young, Dunrobin
Television coverage was lacking, too
I don’t understand why CTV, CBC or Global did not carry the complete evening show for the people in Ottawa who are not able to go to Parliament Hill. Did it ever occur to anyone that the shut-ins, the seniors and anyone handicapped never got see anything from the Hill that night?
I’m 77 and I cannot drive at night, let alone take a bus, so I would have loved to see the show. I have American citizenship also, and I will greatly enjoy Tuesday, July 4. Every channel has events from all the cities. I will hear all the great American music, their anthem, and all the other songs from the U.S. and everyone is so proud to be there (except for Trump; maybe he will go away so then we will have a great show).
Annette Goldenberg, Nepean
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