Sure you do! He’s the fellow that ended the attack on Canada’s parliament, he backrolled behind a pillar and came up firing and then was all humility when we were wowed.
He was made ambassador to Ireland, and they were delighted to have him.
Well today at a cremonial event a man in the crowd began screaming and appeared to be dangerous, so Mr Vickers once again, acted without regard to his own safety. Bear hugged the startled fellow till the coppers could grab him.
Which leaves me thinking if the ambassador has a security detail it might be a waste of money!
I was reading about the Irish incident earlier today, and I thought to myself, “Gee, Canadians are a bunch of badasses. Remember that other guy …” It wasn’t until I opened this thread that I realized both badasses were the same person. So I take it back. There’s only one Canadian badass but he gets around a lot.
Brave? In the first instance, absolutely.
In this most recent instance, no, not in my opinion.
He manhandled a weedy unarmed protester before the actual authorities had time to step in and do something. He had no authority to do so. He had no knowledge of the circumstances, nor of the local laws pertaining to protests. He let his hind brain take over from his cognitive brain.
I’m glad it all worked out well, but he could have created a worse situation out of a bad one.
In the heart of the Republic of Ireland’s Dublin, Vickers was attending a commemoration of British soldiers killed in the Easter Rising/Rebellion that was the turning point in the rise of Sinn Féin, the creation of the Republic of Ireland, and the partition of Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin itself contended that “as Irish republicans it would not be appropriate to attend a tribute to British soldiers who shot and killed Republicans in 1916″.
There were and are many who want Northern Ireland to be a republic and to unite with the Republic of Ireland. Several decades of guerrilla war known as The Troubles are in recent memory. The Provisional Irish Republican Army did not end it’s armed campaign until the Good Friday agreement of 2005. Other terrorist groups have continued on through to the present, including the Ulster Defence Association / Ulster Freedom Fighters, which did not disarm until 2009. That did not end it, for the Real IRA and it’s successor the New IRA have continued to make terrorist attacks in their attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland in fulfillment of the 1916 Easter Proclomation.
On 11 May MI5 raised the threat level to Great Britain from Northern Ireland from “moderate” to “substantial”.
So there’s Vickers, aware of the substantial terrorist threat level and ongoing terrorist/guerrilla attacks, sitting at a ceremony that is tremendously offensive to many republicans, including those who are still at arms concerning the 1916 Easter Rising/Rebellion. He saw a person who in his very highly qualified opinion was a threat – perhaps only a screamer, but perhaps a gunman or a bomber, and he had the choice of dealing with it or suffering the consequences of inaction. He took the only rational course of action by neutralizing the threat. To sit and wait to be shot or blown up would be asinine.
Since it required an ambassador to stop the threat that got past the security, there must not be any blame put upon the ambassador for mitigating the failing of the security and protecting himself and his fellow dignitaries. The question needs to be asked: “Why did security not prevent or at least neutralize the threat.”
I was a afraid this was gonna be a ‘Remember this hero? He’s into child porn\running dope and guns\beating his wife\cheating on his taxes…’
I am REALLY glad it isn’t. Thanks!
Not particularly. Most Canadians would have just given the protestor a look of disapproval. If he had turned out to be a violent terrorist, well then sir! Imagine an entire country’s worth of tut-tuts!
Kevin Vickers was making the rest of us uncomfortable which is why he’s on his little world tour.
A point was made in the booksthe Ryan’s heritage was Irish, even if he wasn’t.