RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson says he doesnât know why four Mounties who helped corner and kill the Parliament Hill gunman one year ago were not invited to Thursdayâs official commemoration.
âWe have a troop of 32 people (who are) going to march in here, so I donât know the answer to that question,â Paulson told CTVâs Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife ahead of a sombre ceremony at the National War Memorial, where Cpl. Nathan Cirillo was killed.
Paulson has faced criticism after Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers was honoured for his part in subduing the gunman, while four heroic officers â including a man who delivered a shot killing Michael Zehaf-Bibeau â did not even receive a handshake or a thank you note from their boss.
Sources say the four officers had hoped that Paulson would invite them to Thursdayâs ceremony.
Former RCMP Deputy Commissioner P.Y. Bourduas called the failure to include the men in the ceremony âa regrettable oversight.â
Paulson said, however, that he has publicly thanked his officers, and that a ceremony is being planned where the four Mounties will get commendations and bravery awards.
âToday is not the day to be talking about that,â he added. âToday is the day to be remembering what happened.â
Since the shooting, one of the officers was briefly assigned to RCMP car wash duty, sources say.
Âéśš´ŤĂ˝ revealed earlier this month that an un-redacted copy of an OPP investigation showed that Const. Curtis Barrett, Const. Martin Fraser, Sgt. Rick Rozon and Corp. Dany Daigle helped corner Zehaf-Bibeau in the Centre Block on Oct, 22, 2014.
Barrett âcould feel the percussion of (Zehaf-Bibeauâs) gunshot as he moved forward and then saw the barrel of the gunmanâs rifle,â but continued âwalking towards the gunman while firing,â according to the report. He fired 15 shots and remembers one shot âgoing into the gunmanâs head.â
The OPP report said two bullets â including one in the brain -- were ârapidly fatal independently.â
Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers received a standing ovation in the House of Commons and an ambassadorship to Ireland after the world quickly learned he had likely fired one of the fatal bullets.
Sources told Fife the four officers were told two days after the shooting that âthe Kevin Vickers train has left the station but you guys will get internal recognition,â including a commissionerâs commendation and recommendation for a Governor Generalâs Award â honours that never came.
In interviews on CTVâs Power Play Thursday, former Veterans Affairs Minister Erin OâToole and outgoing NDP MP Megan Leslie recounted their experiences on the day of the attack. Both said they didnât believe anyone was intentionally left out of the honours since there was so much chaos and confusion on Parliament Hill that day.
With a report from CTVâs Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife