Kevin Sorenson, MP Crowfoot and Minister of State (Finance).
As all of Canada watched with horror as the events unfolded in the capital last Wednesday, Crowfoot MP Kevin Sorenson spent 10 harrowing hours surrounded by his caucus colleagues waiting.
Sorenson arrived at Parliament at 7 a.m. that fateful day for caucus meetings at 9:30 a.m. Just 20 minutes into the meeting, they heard shooting.
That morning a gunman shot and killed a reservist guarding the Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial and then made his way to the Parliament Building, where he was stopped for good by Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers. What few realize is just how close many members of the government and opposition were to what transpired. Sorenson recounted the incident.
“We were right there, he (the gunman) ran right past outside the room,” he said. “He ran down the main hall and the NDP is on one side and we are on the other side of the hall, and he ran by our door.”
He said if Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s security was not at the door where the caucus was meeting, the gunman could have run right in.
He explains when he heard the first shot ring out, he thought it was construction noises because there was a project nearby where they were blasting.
“But when all the gunfire opened up I knew this was an attack, and in those big marble halls, they echoed and it was unbelievable - the noise of the automatic weapons. We just all scrambled and headed to the doors, but quickly realized we couldn’t leave, so we threw chairs up against the doors and everyone moved away from the entrances.
“With the amount of gunfire we expected them to come through the doors, there are four doors into the room.”
He said after the initial shot, there was a barrage of about 40 shots. The gunman had passed right by the caucus meeting room and was killed near the library.
While the incident lasted just a few minutes, Sorenson and his colleagues were locked in for 10 hours, while police and security assessed the threat and security of the capital block.
As the day went on members of the opposition as well as people working at the building were thrown together as the site was secured. Towards the end they were able to sit and have a bite to eat.
“It was good, we weren’t concentrating on the things that divide us, we were realizing that we had been through this together, we had something in common,” he said.
While the Prime Minister and MPs were literally feet away from a man with a gun who was intent on doing damage, Sorenson cautions that we don’t let it change how Canadians live.
"I think we have to be cautious and don’t overreact. We don’t want to live in a police state, we don’t want to live being reminded of the dangers of this world,” he said. “However at this point in time, they are reviewing this and investigating, and security might be tightened up, you can’t have someone come that far into the parliament building with a weapon shooting at people.”
“I was pleased that the Prime Minister and others said ‘this is “House of Commons, and the common person can come here and see what is going on.’”
