‘If Kevin Vickers were here, he would not let this happen’: May

PARLIAMENT HILL—A government plan to put the RCMP in command of a unified Commons and Senate security service came under heightened scrutiny on Thursday, with Green Party Leader Elizabeth May saying the national police force should stay out of internal Parliamentary affairs, and that the Parliamentary Protective Services should even replace the Mounties providing security and policing grounds around the Parliamentary Buildings.

Ms. May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) became the second MP to publicly state that former Commons Sgt.-at-Arms Kevin Vickers would have opposed the plan, and Ms. May also questioned the timing of the government’s recent appointment of Mr. Vickers to the post of Canada’s ambassador to Ireland in the midst of the plan to radically alter the command chain for the three security forces on Parliament Hill following a rifle-wielding gunman’s attack on Parliament on Oct. 22, 2014.