Canadian ambassador tackles protestor, eh

As Canadians continued to mourn Thursday for a murdered reservist soldier, the focus was turned to Kevin Vickers, a man deemed a hero for stopping the callous terrorist attack on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill.

The 58-year-old House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms has been lauded by lawmakers for shooting dead suspected shooter Michael Joseph Hall, a 32-year-old recent Islam convert from Quebec known as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, inside Parliament’s Centre Block building Wednesday morning.

“MPs and Hill staff owe their safety, even lives, to Sergeant at Arms Kevin Vickers who shot attacker just outside the MPs’ caucus rooms,” New Democrat MP Craig Scott tweeted after the chaos.

“Kevin Vickers is such a fine man,” added Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. “His actions today are no surprise. Proud to call him a friend.”

The modest public servant has spent the past eight years in the largely ceremonial position at Parliament, where he dons green robes, white gloves and a tall imperial hat while carrying a gold scepter into the House of Commons each time before elected representatives meet.

But he’s also armed with a handgun and is ultimately responsible for the building’s security. As video shows law enforcement swarm Centre Block, Parliament’s main building, it was Vickers who stopped the attack on Canada’s federal complex.

“He’s a very intelligent and responsible person,” Vickers’ cousin, Keith, told CBC News. “He’s a people-person-type fellow, too, but you don’t want to mess with him. All the boys, the local guys, they’ll be quite proud to hear he did what he did.”

On Thursday, Vickers led the procession of elected officials into the hall, where he was met with a standing ovation and roars from the members of Parliament. He appeared to hold back tears during the emotional moment.

In a speech from the floor of the House of Commons, Prime Minister Stephen Harper heaped praise on Vickers before walking over and offering his hand and hug to the hero.

"Here were are in our seats, in our chamber in the very heart of our democracy, at worker," Harper said during a defiant and emotional speech. "We will not be intimidated.

Before he took the Parliament post, Vickers spent 29 years with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, earning accolades for his work 14 years helping settle a heated dispute in Burnt Church, New Brunswick over native’s fishing rights in the community.

“The inspector was a real community man,” Bobby Sylliboy, a longtime band constable with the Burnt Church First Nation, told the National Post. “People around here, let me tell you, they hold him in the highest regard. He was this 6-foot-3, non-native guy, coming to our reserve — and even coming to our Christmas vigils. He was hard to miss. He was a Down East guy, just a guy from the Miramichi. But to us, he was the chief.”

The understated Vickers again proved adept at diplomacy in his duties as sergeant at arms when he decided to allow Sikhs to bring in kirpans, a ceremonial dagger, to the House of Commons. The decision in 2011 came despite the fact the Quebec National Assembly had banned the kirpan and earned Vickers a tribute from the World Sikh Organization of Canada, The Globe and Mail reported.

Vickers told the group he had been raised to accept diversity and differences in culture as a boy in Miramichi, a coastal New Brunswick city of some 20,000 people.

"I see your wearing of the kirpan, especially in our Parliamentary buildings, as exactly that, respecting your dignity," he told WSO members at a 2011 fete in his honor. "But just as the kirpan issue came before us last winter, we are reminded how vigilant we must be to not only defend but promote the practices, cultures and religions of all peoples."

In the aftermath of Wednesday’s shooting, which shook up sleepy Ottawa and the rest of Canada, normally so secure against gun violence, Vickers was once again lauded by his countrymen for his decisive and sure actions.

“Mr. Vickers, the whole country is unanimous in all matters that count: bravery, duty, selfness – you are as good as they get,” CBC reporter Rex Murphy said during his “Point of View” show Wednesday evening. “The office of sergeant at arms can never have been better filled.”

sgoldstein@nydailynews.com