Bostonians watch Ottawa Shooting tribute and recognize their new unity in acknowledgment

October 25th, 2014
Dakota Antelman

There exists a bond between those who whiteness terror. It is not a happy bond; but it is a necessary, human one.

Late Wednesday morning in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, a man named Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed a Canadian soldier. The soldier, Nathan Cirillo, was serving as an honor guard at the National War Memorial and was shot multiple times without even seeing Bibeau.

Following the murder of Cirillo, Bibeau then raced to the Canadian Parliament Building. There he proceeded to fire tens of shots into the lobby and hallway of the building. He raced down the hall, shooting one man in the foot and sending representatives into a terrified lockdown. All this happened before Bibeau was shot dead by Sergeant at Arms, Kevin Vikers.

Nevertheless, much of Ottawa remained in tense lockdown for the next 10 hours as the city tried to cope with those sounds of gunshots ringing through their calm Canadian streets.

Such an event is an act of evil that is painful to recognize. We do not understand why or how people could possibly become so enraged and/or mentally ill that they rampage through a city shooting people. There is no way to understand. And so, as Canada recognized following Wednesday’s tragedy, acknowledging is something that comes much easier than understanding.

They did so in a touching tri-city ceremony that was broadcast across Canada and the United States Saturday night. In that ceremony, a wide array of Canadian armed forces and law enforcement members took to the ice in Ottawa as the Canadian national anthem was sung. After one verse, the voice of the appointed vocalist faded away and was replaced with the thundering sound of each of the 62,057 fans present in The Bell Centre, The Air Canada Centre and The Canadian Tire Centre singing at once.

Their voices reverberated off the walls of those three buildings and beyond. Their voices shook through the hearts of all Canadians and soared out through the airwaves that broadcast them to the entire world.

But then they came back, those sound waves, those voices settling back into the hearts of those who saw the attack, heard the gunshots or felt the pain of their nation being attacked; and anyone who lived in Boston exactly 557 days before the Ottawa ceremony.

For Bostonians, seeing Ottawa locked down, grieving and eventually standing as one to sing their hymn of patriotism was painfully reminiscent of when they themselves were locked down, grieving and eventually standing to sing their song as one.

It brought back those memories of the day that smoke, blood and crowd control barricades were tossed across the streets of Copley Square. Seeing the aftermath of the Ottawa attack reminded us of the days and weeks in which we learned the names and stories of the four young people killed in those dreadful Marathon Attacks and Watertown shootout. And lastly, seeing those Canadian hockey fans Saturday night showed us what we looked like when we stood to sing 557 days before.

Events like these, events that instill fear and uncertainty in the minds of those near, unify all who have ever been affected by like events.

And so it is clear how nobody is ever left unaffected by something as terrible as a human killing another. Humanity has been cursed with that weight for a long time now but as media blossoms around us, our connections with people around the world are solidified and we are shown the omnipresence of a few people enacting stories of humanity at its worst.

This globalization allowed the world to pause and feel some of Boston’s pain in 2013. It allowed Boston to do the same for Ottawa some time later.