JERUSALEM — The House of Commons’ sergeant-at-arms is getting celebrity treatment at an international security conference in Israel.
Kevin Vickers met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as other officials at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.
Vickers is credited with firing the final shot which ultimately stopped a gunman’s rampage on Parliament Hill last month.
Netanyahu praised Vickers for his bravery and quick response.
In a statement he said the attack on Ottawa proves that Islamic radical terrorism respects no borders and Israel and Canada stand together in the international effort to eliminate it.
Vickers toured the Knesset and said the people there reminded him of the good team he has around him in Ottawa.
He says while he was honoured by the attention from the Israelis, he wanted them to know it was a group effort on the day of the shooting.
Vickers says a lesson he took away from the incident is that safety is community based.
“This is not an issue just for security, this is everybody’s issue and how we deal with this is by everybody, all the citizens, working together with their local police, their national police to ensure we have a safe society,” he said in a video circulated by the Knesset public relations office.
“I think that is accomplished by respecting the dignity of people.”
Vickers was at the conference with other parliamentary and Canadian security personnel; the trip had been arranged prior to the Oct. 22 attack in Ottawa.