Trying to get back into my hotel room, I found several streets blocked off by police cars. I asked for and was given permission to go through to the parking lot of my hotel, no problem. But when Alyssa and I went out for lunch, we had to walk right past the road block, so I asked the policemen what was going on. “Oh”, he said, “police funeral”. I was so shocked I actually took a step backwards. “Don’t worry, we should be done soon.” He seemed remarkably … if not cheerful, at least unconcerned, about it.
I can’t find anything in the on-line Ottawa Citizen about it, so hopefully it was a death from natural causes. Cops dying in the line of duty has always been a pretty damn rare thing in Canada, and I hope like hell it’s not getting more common.