Armed security unit to be deployed at Ontario Legislature

An "armed response unit" of the Legislative Security Service will be deployed at Queen's Park starting on March 21, following a security review in the wake of the Parliament Hill shootings a year-and-a-half ago.

Speaker Dave Levac announced the change in a memo on Thursday afternoon.

"The unit will consist of a number of current Officers of the Legislative Security Service who will be equipped with holstered handguns and stationed throughout the Parliamentary Precinct," Levac said in the memo.

The Legislative Security Service has also filmed an informational video for occupants of Queen's Park on what to do during an active shooting situation. A link to the video is expected to be made available soon.

The moves comeafter a "broad review of security arrangements" at the Ontario Legislature followingthe October 2014 shootings on Parliament Hill, according to the memo.

The security practices now in place, which include other changes that were made after the shooting, "are appropriate to the stature and nature of the Legislative Assembly, and are similar to what we have come to expect, and normally encounter, at public buildings and spaces wherever we go," Levac said.