The Changing of the Guard

There is much to be said for Tradition. This is not my country but I was moved watching this special ceremony taking place this morning at 10a on Parliament Hill.  

First the bag pipers enter followed by the drummers and then the guard. 

Here they are about to get inspected.

Walter noticed there were not using parade rifles but the real thing! 

Then the whole group, soldiers and band marched off the field. The streets were blocked off for nearly one hour for the coming and going of this procession. They marched up from their drill house several blocks away.

There was a soldier paramedic in case anyone fainted on the field. He is holding a stretcher. 

We had tickets (free) for the 10:50a tour of Parliament so we didn't have to wait long before we were called in and put through something similar to airport security..... it was a large group so this took a while.  A family with a baby stroller were taken up by elevator to the beautiful foyer on the second floor.  What you see on the ceiling and curved arches is carved stone.

A stain glass window above the West door into Parliament represents a recent event.  It commemorates the Indian Residential schools where much abuse took place. These schools have finally all been closed.  For over 100 years 150,000 Indian children were removed from their families and communities because the government wanted to assimilate them into the dominant culture.  Recently the Government of Canada has apologized for this awful situation! Some of the very Indian children, now adults, helped to make this window.  It is a window of the past and a promise of the future that this will never happen again.  Sad how both of our countries mistreated the first Canadians and the first Americans.

This is the wood door into the House of Commons.  Something was going on in there today so no one could see that room. There are other ways into this area as this door known as the Canada door is only opened for the ceremony of the Speaker's Parade when he comes with staff members or a Speech from the throne or a Royal Assent...meaning when royalty comes to visit.

One of the many LONG hallways and a close up of the stone craving. 

Here is a meeting room for both parties. The fireplace at the end of the room is real and is often used though there are radiators. 

Senate Chamber was not being used today so we got to see it.  At the end of the room were three large chairs set at different levels and two little chairs, one on each side of the three larger ones. It is hard to see that these are really chairs in the photo as the back drop curtain is the same color of the chair fabric. The higher one is the Queen's when she visits, the second highest for her husband the Duke and the lowest chair is for the head of the Senate. Funny, but the Prime minister sits in one of those little chairs on each side!

Remember the unusual Library of Parliament pictured yesterday? Today no one was allowed to take inside photos of it. The excuse was given that the staff didn't want to see their pictures on Facebook.  We don't really know but we think there were other reasons.  During that fire of 1916 the library was the only building that did not burn because someone thought to close the big iron doors! They know now that the fire was started by a cigar that was not put out all the way.

Tomorrow we leave this beautiful city and head on up the Rideau Canal through more locks. This Canal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site... meaning it is of sufficient importance (like the Acropolis in Athens, Greece or the Versaille in France) to be the responsibility of the international community.