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News  Oct 22, 2014 – 4:22 pm EDT

Ottawa Inuit, northerners say they’re safe in wake of shooting incidents

“Those halls that always felt so safe and hallowed will never feel the same again.”

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

(Updated 3:45 p.m., Oct. 22)

Inuit and northern people who work in and around Parliament Hill all say they’re safe, amidst a series of shooting incidents Oct. 22 at the National War Memorial and the Centre Block at Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

“I express my sincere condolences on behalf of Nunavut to those who have been affected, to their families and loved ones as well as to those citizens in Ottawa,” Nunavut premier Peter Taptuna said in a statement.

“We are concerned for the safety of individuals and we support the efforts presently taken by police and security officers in this very tense situation as events unfold,” Taptuna said.

As of 1 p.m., Oct. 22, Parliament Hill was locked down and a nearby section of downtown Ottawa was blockaded.

A member of the Canadian Armed Forces doing sentry duty at the War Memorial is dead and one gunman was killed, the Ottawa Police Service said in a news release issued at 1:45 p.m.

Police said anyone in Ottawa should stay away from the downtown area and that various federal government and RCMP office buildings are closed, as well as Ottawa City Hall and all Ottawa police stations.

An email sent at around 11 a.m. from Nunavut Sivuniksavut, whose building is located on Rideau St. about half a mile from Parliament Hill, said all NS students are safe.

“Half of the students are away from the downtown area entirely, touring Carleton University today. The other half are here in class and will remain within the building until the situation is settled. NS is located about a half-mile from Parliament Hill and we are outside of the official lock-down area,” the email said.

Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq tweeted that she is safely off Parliament Hill, as did Prime Minister Steven Harper.

A Tweet from Ted Laking, Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq’s director of communications, also said Aglukkaq is safe.

Another tweet from Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, whose office is located on Albert St., said staff there are safe and the ITK office is now closed.

Robbie Watt, the son of Sen. Charlie Watt, said on Facebook in the morning that his father’s office building is on lockdown but that he is safe.

Justin Ford, an Iqaluit resident currently in Ottawa on business, told Nunatsiaq News Oct. 22 that he heard sirens and some commotion from his hotel, a few blocks away from Parliament Hill.

“I was in my hotel room, just packing, getting ready to leave the hotel today, and then started getting text messages and Facebook messages from people asking me if I was OK. That’s how I found out,” he said.

Ford said he saw crowds of pedestrians walking away from the downtown area, but appeared calm — not panicked.

Although his hotel was not on lockdown, Ford said he could see “the chaos of police cars driving around” from his 18th floor hotel room.

Nancy Karetak-Lindell, the former MP for Nunavut, said on her Facebook page that this incident is “very hard to accept.”

“There is shooting going on in my old workplace and some of my old colleagues still work there and I know they are okay but very hard to accept this has happened in the beautiful building we worked in. Now those halls that always felt so safe and hallowed will never feel the same again. They have been violated,” she said.

Because of the incident, security has been tightened at government buildings across Canada, including the Nunavut legislature.

A reporter for the Globe and Mail, Josh Wingrove, captured an image of a body outside Parliament Hill’s library earlier this morning.

Wingrove also captured video footage inside the halls of Parliament Hill as shots rang out.

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