Bomb Threat at Veterans Affairs Office in Ottawa

[George Wallace]

Breaking news:  A bomb threat has been made to the Veterans Affairs office in Ottawa.

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Man in custody, taken to hospital after threat to blow up Veterans Affairs offices
BY MEGHAN HURLEY
THE OTTAWA CITIZEN
October 1, 2014

A 48-year-old man has been taken to the hospital after authorities received a 911 call that a man claiming to have C4 explosives has threatened to blow up the offices of Veteran Affairs Canada.

Police were called to the Billings Bridge-area high-rise office building at 11:50 a.m. after they were told that a man started to walk around the office on Riverside Drive with a duffle bag, threatening to blow up the office.

Police say they did not evacuate the officer tower that houses Veterans Affairs Canada.

A man was taken into custody at about 12:30 p.m.

mhurley@ottawacitizen.com

LINK

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Can't imagine what would drive him to want to that........hmmm

 

[GAP]

Well.....the Liberal headquarters could be mistaken for the VAC office......just say'n.....

 

[Rifleman62]

Boy, that's the fastest that VAC has ever moved.

 

[jpjohnsn]

Well.....the Liberal headquarters could be mistaken for the VAC office......just say'n.....

Wow, really?  That escalated quickly. :facepalm:

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Quite a few years ago we had a disgruntled employee doing a all sorts of stuff escalating into notes held by a knife in the wall and bomb threats all directed at the DFO compensation branch. I cannot think of a more deserving bunch. Generally when you get people doing this it means there is something very wrong in your process.

 

[Rifleman62]

Colin P:

I cannot think of a more deserving bunch.

Who, DFO or VAC?

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I have not had direct contact with VAC, so i can't say anything it that regard, I have had the misfortune to deal with DFO compensation branch and can clearly understand why someone would wish them ill.

 

[Journeyman]

I may be old-fashioned, but I just don't think "notes held by a knife in the wall and bomb threats" are acceptable within Canadian society.

 

[Edward Campbell]

I may be old-fashioned, but I just don't think "notes held by a knife in the wall and bomb threats" are acceptable within Canadian society.

:bravo:


All government agencies, and all private sector agencies too, are full to the brim with less than stellar people who frustrate, annoy and even do real damage to clients ...

... write a letter to your MP, or an angry e-mail to the Chairman of the Board, take out a full page ad in the newspaper; don't threaten, much less use violence. People need to be locked up* for that kind of nonsense.

_____
* It's  ff topic: but for these sorts of offenses, when mental health is not an issues, I believe in Singapore's solution:

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I may be old-fashioned, but I just don't think "notes held by a knife in the wall and bomb threats" are acceptable within Canadian society.

I am also old fashioned and think taking 3 months if at all to respond to an e-mail, taking money off a paycheque unannounced on Dec 15th to cover an overpayment. Taking off Quebec tax and BC tax for an employee working and living in BC and then getting mad at the person for pointing it out. Basically effing up all they touched and trying to lie to people when they wanted a revised T4 to deal with an overpayment made the previous year. Every decent employee left that office within 6 months as they could not bear the management style. No they they worked hard to earn that hatred. Management would not listen until then. 

 

[Rifleman62]

Sounds a lot like CF Pension Services, the Reserve Force Pension Plan. They fricked up my pension completely and it took nine months of constant emails and personal phone calls (I had direct phone numbers of at least six people) to correct their constant errors. Everything they sent was incorrect until June of this year. Had to get my MP involved and finally got an apology letter from the Minister of DND.

The major error was my monthly deductions for payback being reduced from to age 80, to age 68! Plus miscalculating my pension from day one, then correcting that error, then miscalculating several times again. Plus, plus loosing a lump sum payment of nearly $55,000 from Dec 2007 until I proved that they had cashed the cheque!!

So I had unreported income from 2007 to 2013 (which required refiling my income tax), and again I will have unreported income from 2007 to 2014 for this year,

How's that for incompetence?

 

[Edward Campbell]

Sounds a lot like CF Pension Services, the Reserve Force Pension Plan. They fricked up my pension completely and it took nine months of constant emails and personal phone calls (I had direct phone numbers of at least six people) to correct their constant errors. Everything they sent was incorrect until June of this year. Had to get my MP involved and finally got an apology letter from the Minister of DND.

The major error was my monthly deductions for payback being reduced from to age 80, to age 68! Plus miscalculating my pension from day one, then correcting that error, then miscalculating several times again. Plus, plus loosing a lump sum payment of nearly $55,000 from Dec 2007 until I proved that they had cashed the cheque!!

So I had unreported income from 2007 to 2013 (which required refiling my income tax), and again I will have unreported income from 2007 to 2014 for this year,

How's that for incompetence?

It's worse than normal and the apology was justified. One hopes that there was some personnel actions: like a firing or two, but I doubt it.

Sadly it's not above the standard of the private sector. I finally exploded at a major Telco, one in which I number the CEO as, at least, an acquaintance, and I got an apology, too, and some (properly owed) money, but I still changed services.

There's the problem: when I get bad service from stupid people in the private sector I can change service providers; but the government has a monopoly on its services.

 

[turretmonster]

Sorry to hear your road was so rough IRT the P Res Pension Rifleman.

I had quite the opposite of my dealing with the P Res pension folks. They calculated almost day for day what I had calculated and found some long lost class B days I had missed. From flash to bang, IE them telling me my total owed to it being completely sorted was less than 48 hrs. I had a stellar pers at the pension dept guide me through everything.

My only complaint with the whole process is the 35 year max contribution limit. I have 3-4 years of contribution where one calender year only included 17 trg days per year due to me being out of country on ED+T. Now with 35 yrs of contribution time behind me and 5 years of Reg F time ahead of me I find I cannot build my pension any more.

Now if I knew how to appeal that and have those 3 years removed from my 35 yr limit I'd be pumping the paperwork to Ottawa at light speed.

 

[George Wallace]

I had quite the opposite of my dealing with the P Res pension folks. They calculated almost day for day what I had calculated and found some long lost class B days I had missed. From flash to bang, IE them telling me my total owed to it being completely sorted was less than 48 hrs. I had a stellar pers at the pension dept guide me through everything.

My only complaint with the whole process is the 35 year max contribution limit. I have 3-4 years of contribution where one calender year only included 17 trg days per year due to me being out of country on ED+T. Now with 35 yrs of contribution time behind me and 5 years of Reg F time ahead of me I find I cannot build my pension any more.

Now if I knew how to appeal that and have those 3 years removed from my 35 yr limit I'd be pumping the paperwork to Ottawa at light speed.

???

The yellow highlighted part has me confused.  Your year with 17 actual Trg days should not count as a full year; only 1/4 time, not a full year.  Only Class B and Class C are counted as full time, where 365 days would give you the full year.  Your post is a little vague, so I am a bit confused....OR.....You may have some grounds for an appeal/reassessment/recalculation of what you bought back. 

In the end, you can reach Retirement earlier than many others, with that full pension.

 

[turretmonster]

You can contribute up to 35 calender years towards the pension. If you elected a previous calendar year with any service in it, it counts towards the 35. You didn't get the choice of just electing the years you worked class B for hundreds of days, you had to elect all your years with 17 days, 90 days or whatever you did during that year.

The P Pes pension counted each and every class A and B day ever worked to give a grant total of days which your pension is based on. I was just lamenting I just happened to have 4 years that contributed about 60 days to my cumulative days, but cost me four contribution years at the end of my career where I am now full time.

It worked out OK as I plan on staying to CRA 60, but its not a full pension.