Walking down from the House of Commons after Question Period this afternoon, I came upon a strange sight. A man — bearded and dishevelled, perhaps homeless — was standing in the middle of Parliament Hill’s eternal flame (left, as seen in more peaceful times) — and I mean, right on the crown of the monument in the middle of the flaming part — scooping up all the change he could and stuffing it in his pockets. It took him a good ten minutes to do this — with tourists snapping his picture as he triumphantly held up fistful after fistful of change.
Now, Parliament Hill is ringed with RCMP squad cars and uniformed RCMP officers. A Parliament Hill tour guide alerted one of these officers who, with his car, is stationed about 15 metres away. That officer, though, told the guide he was not allowed to leave his post guarding the front gate to Parliament and so he summoned backup. Backup arrived some minutes later but by then the Eternal Flame Thief was out of the water but still hanging around.
The arriving RCMP officer gave him a good talking-to, walked him back to the flame and ordered him to toss it all back in. He threw some of it back but eventually the officer was forced to search through all his pockets and relieve of the rest of the loonies and quarters he had scooped up.