Service marks anniversary of War Memorial shooting
HAMILTON — Scores of people turned out under dark skies for a hilltop ceremony on Wednesday in honour of a soldier gunned down a year ago as he stood guard at the National War Memorial on Parliament Hill.
Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, 24, was shot fatally from behind by a lone gunman, who then raced into the House of Commons before he, too, was gunned down.
“It was cowardly, it was evil, and most of all, it was tragic,” Cirillo’s sister, Nicole, told the assembled crowd.
“When Nathan passed away, our family’s snowglobe was shaken and turned upside down, and now everything is falling in a new place. It is unrecognizable. There is sorrow and pain. All we want to do is go back to the world that we once knew.”
Cirillo, a member of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders regiment, left a young son, Marcus Cirillo, who goofed around before the ceremony, as well as his mother, step-father and siblings who were in attendance.
The evening ceremony, in near darkness, included a marching on of the colours by the regiment.
Cirillo and his partner, Cpl. Branden Stevenson, were on ceremonial sentry duty at the war memorial when Michael ZehafBibeau, 32, shot him in the back before storming into the Centre Block on Parliament Hill.
Coming just 48 hours after Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, 53, was murdered in a hit-and-run by an Islamic-extremist in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., the Ottawa assault sent shock waves through the country and prompted an outpouring of grief.
This morning at the War Memorial, Gov. Gen. David Johnston, outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau will be part of a commemoration, along with members of the Cirillo and Vincent families, soldiers, first responders and police.