And just who is going to pay for this police protection? In Toronto, for example, movie shoots or sports events that require police presence have the option to hire off duty officers on what is referred to as "paid duties". The going rate for such duties, when I was posted to the old CFB Toronto, was $140 an hour per officer hired. Using that as a start point....two officers (because they don't work alone) working 8 hours a day and we are looking at a cost of approx $2240 a day, but that doesn't count any extra costs such as their having a vehicle assigned to them as well. Multiply that by roughly 7 months and we have an anticipated cost of over $470,000 just for the national war memorial. Even allowing for a lower daily rate per officer for Ottawa that is still a heck of a lot of money more then DND, the National Capital Commission, Ottawa PD or even Directorate of History and Heritage has at their disposal for such security.
That just leaves CAF personnel however I can't justify in my own mind having CAF members, armed, on duty in Canada unless they are either performing designated law enforcement duties or are otherwise called out under some formal aid to civil power requirement. I believe our laws and regulations are actually structured to implement such restrictions for a purpose. In a civilized country such as Canada we just don't have armed troops among the population.
One of military events such as Freedom of the City parades and other such public events do normally have a police presence but those are normally one day events that cities support as part of their normal duties. Then again, that police presence may be paid for depending upon the event. I know that in most cities if an organization wants to hold a parade for example then there is a licensing fee that can be pretty hefty which goes to such increased security and cleaning costs because of the parade or event. Long standing details such as 7 months of police protection at a National (or even local) War Memorial are a whole other topic.
