Motswana caught in Canada Parley hostage crossfire

Pamela Dube | Thursday October 23, 2014 16:43

“A Canadian soldier confirmed to have been shot today at the Canadian War memorial and the suspect is said to have gone into the parliament hill building.

The situation is being reported to have gone extremely intense when the gunman ran into the parliament building center block where the caucus meetings were in sitting. Gunshots explosives have been shown on television videos inside the parliament center block building. Suspects are said to still be on the loose …

We are in suspense in terms of what the levels of threats are... the Prime Minister is trying to calm the nation without revealing any information right now... the Prime Minister will also be speaking to the nation today at an unspecified time... This is very unusual...

“I am not sure if there are any Botswana citizens caught in the crossfire down town core. We are talking this in generalisation right now as detailed information has not been officially availed. People suspect that this may be a radicalised event related to Canadian foreign fighters who are in war zones. There are also speculations that this could be Canada’s 911… MPs are relatively careful about what they are saying … but Minister Kenney has tweeted that Canada will not be terrorised or intimidated. No one is saying whether this is lined to Canada’s recent controversial steps to sent military soldiers to Iraq to fight against ISIS. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Leader of the Opposition Thomas Mulcair, and leader of the third opposition party  Justin Trudeau are taken into safe location. Canadian military officers in Ottawa told not to wear their uniform to avert danger in their own homeland.”

“My wife is at work right down town on Sussex Road close to the Prime Minister’s House and her building is in lock down.... I had to attend my class scheduled for the next hour but the University of Ottawa is in lockdown due to the crisis in the downtown core. Unfortunately, it is hard to say whether Batswana are caught in the crossfire or not because we only have an honorary consul here in Canada who is not a Motswana citizen but a retired French Canadian and does not seem to have the interests of Batswana citizens living in Canada at heart. It is very hard to reach him and when you do he refers you to Botswana Embassy in Washington DC. As we speak we do not have elections polling stations here in Canada despite our request that we should have polling station here since we have a Consul in Canada like other jurisdictions. “All embassies in the down town core Ottawa are closed.  The unfolding situation in Canada dynamic ...that’s the words they are using,

 

Investigations ongoing

Police are still chasing the shooter according to reports. Unmarked car parked outside at the hill.”