Peter Mansbridge, the voice who guided a horrified nation through the tragic events in Ottawa on Wednesday, joined Sportsnet 590 The Fan Thursday morning to discuss the murder of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo.
“Think about what happened here. We had an attack on the soul of our remembrance. It’s right at the National War Memorial where that young corporal was gunned down, standing, remembering and in honour of Canada’s war dead,” Mansbridge told Brady & Walker. “It’s staggering when you consider what happened and where it happened.
“We wake up today a different country than we woke up yesterday.”
LISTEN: CBC’s Peter Mansbridge discusses the attack in Ottawa
Mansbridge, the chief correspondent for CBC News, stressed the importance of remaining true to the facts on a day like Wednesday, when the news is fluid and information from trusted, official sources can even prove to be inaccurate.
“Nobody really remembers who was first on these things, but everybody remembers who was wrong,” he said. “There were all kinds of rumours coming out on this story during the major hours of the event.”
Mansbridge, 66, likened the sense the country had Wednesday to that of the October Crisis in 1970, when government officials were kidnapped by the Quebec separatist group, FLQ.
“We all try to remain as calm as possible at a time like that, and walk people through the story as we see it,” Mansbridge said.
Mansbridge believes it’s natural for Canadians to be concerned about what happens next.
“The issue of homegrown terror, which we had been following closely at the CBC for years, seems to have gone through a transformation in this last little while, where some of these young radicalized young men, whose goal, whose aim, was to get overseas to conduct their activities, now has been switching to — they don’t have to go overseas. They can do it here, and that’s a very ominous turn,” Mansbridge said.
“We’re in the middle of this now, and how it unfolds is very much anybody’s guess.”
