OTTAWA, Ontario — The standing ovation began even before Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers entered the Parliament chamber in his black robe, carrying the golden ceremonial mace on his right shoulder.
For more than two minutes, the lawmakers applauded and pounded their desks Thursday for the white-haired former Mountie, hailed as a hero for shooting the gunman who had stormed Canada’s seat of power just a day earlier.
At first expressionless and motionless, the 58-year-old Vickers eventually responded to the ovation with a few slight nods of his head, his lips quivering with emotion.
Later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper lauded Vickers, whose job — a mix of the ceremonial and the practical — encompasses the maintenance of safety and security in the Parliament complex.
“I would be very remiss if I did not conclude in acknowledging specifically the work of the security forces here on Parliament and the great work of our sergeant-at-arms,” Harper said to more cheers and applause from the members.
Harper then walked over to shake Vickers’ hand and clap him on the shoulder.
Video broadcast Thursday showed Vickers moments after the gunfire, walking down a corridor in the Parliament building with a handgun in his right hand.
“I am very touched by the attention directed at me following yesterday’s events,” Vickers said.
“However, I have the support of a remarkable security team,” he added. “Yesterday, during extraordinary circumstances, security personnel demonstrated professionalism and courage. I am grateful and proud to be part of this team.”
He said he would have no further immediate comment on the incident while an investigation unfolded.
The reported gunman seemed lost, “did not fit in,” had drug problems, and went more than five years without seeing his mother. In recent weeks, he had been living at a homeless shelter and had talked about wanting to go to Libya — or Syria — but became agitated when he couldn’t get a passport.
A day after Michael Zehaf-Bibeau launched a deadly attack on Canada’s seat of government, a portrait of the 32-year-old Canadian began to emerge, along with a possible explanation for what triggered the shooting rampage.
Bob Paulson, commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said that Zehaf-Bibeau — a recent Muslim convert whose father was from Libya — may have lashed out in frustration over delays in obtaining a passport.
“I think the passport figured prominently in his motives. I’m not inside his head, but I think it was central to what was driving him,” Paulson said.
In what the prime minister called a terrorist attack, Bibeau shot a soldier to death at Canada’s national war memorial Wednesday, then stormed the Parliament building, where he was gunned down by the sergeant-at-arms. Bibeau was armed with what police said was a lever-action Winchester rifle, an old-fashioned, relatively slow-firing weapon.
The attack was the second deadly assault on Canadian soldiers in three days and forced the country to confront the danger of radicalized citizens in its midst.
It also exposed weak spots in security:
During the attack, Prime Minister Stephen Harper hid in a closet-like space within a Parliament caucus room. The Mounties who are assigned to protect him were on the other side of the doors to the room. From now on, Paulson said, the Mounties will guard the prime minister around the clock, wherever he goes.
In the wake of the tragedy, all members of the Canadian military have been ordered to avoid wearing their uniforms in public while doing such things as shopping or eating at restaurants.
Earlier this week, the Mounties said that there are about 90 people in the country who are suspected of planning to join up with extremist fighters abroad or who have returned from such activity. But Paulson said Thursday that Zehaf-Bibeau was not on that list and was not under surveillance, in part because it was not until after the shooting rampage that they learned from his mother that he wanted to go Syria, where a host of militant groups such as Islamic State are fighting.
Authorities are investigating how the gunman obtained the rifle, when he should been prohibited from possessing one because of his criminal record.
In an email to the AP expressing horror and sadness at what happened, Zehaf-Bibeau’s mother, Susan Bibeau, said that her son seemed lost and “did not fit in,” and that she hadn’t seen him for more than five years until having lunch with him last week.
In a brief and tear-filled interview, Bibeau said that she is crying for the victims of the shooting rampage, not her son.
“Can you ever explain something like this?” said Bibeau, who has homes in Montreal and Ottawa. “We are sorry.”
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