OTTAWA — Canada's ambassador to Ireland, best known for his role in shooting dead an armed assailant inside the Parliament buildings in 2014, has once again stepped into an apparent security breach.
Kevin Vickers, the former House of Commons sergeant-at-arms, tackled a protester Thursday in Dublin during a ceremony to remember British soldiers killed in the 1916 Easter Rising.
The Global Affairs Department confirmed the incident, stating that Vickers "intercepted a protester who ran up to the podium" during the commemoration.
Security officers arrested the protester moments later.
A Global Affairs spokesman says Vickers was not injured in the incident.
Vickers, a former RCMP officer, was among those who responded to the October 2014 assault on Parliament Hill by rifle-wielding Michael Zehaf Bibeau, who died in a hail of bullets — including those fired by the sergeant-at-arms from his revolver at close range.
Vickers was appointed to the ambassadorial post in January 2015.
He was representing Canada at the Easter Rising ceremony as a guest of Charles Flanagan, Ireland's foreign affairs minister.
