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It turned out to be a “false line” and her group was told to start over, but gave up.

“I have never seen such a poor, chaotic display. Shame on you Ottawa. You actually ruined Canada Day for many thousands of people visiting Ottawa. If this is the way Canadian citizens now have to be treated at an event in our country then perhaps the terrorists are winning.”

Reply: “Canadian Heritage and all of its security partners have worked diligently …”

• A local woman titles her email “Shameful fiasco on many levels” and describes being stuck in a dense mass of people on Elgin Street near Albert Street, unable to see which way they should go.

“We were all extremely lucky that nothing sparked any panic, because we were corralled, with no place to go, no capacity to move (I kid you not), no view of anything and a (I presume) dysfunctional sound system. There was a huge television screen but no sound.” She said some “hot heads” tried to push through the crowd. “It was an explosive situation… Wasn’t there any brain at the top that could see how DANGEROUS this situation was?…

“I would like to hear a formal apology from your organization.”

She adds that the Hill is too small to hold all the people who tried to go there, which “should have rung warning bells.”

Once again, in reply, “Canadian Heritage and all of its security partners have worked diligently…”

• A comment left at the Capital Info Kiosk: “The organizers of Canada Day 2017 should be ashamed of themselves for the shoddy work that went into this year’s event. Thousands of people spent at least four hours in line this morning only to be told they were not in the ‘official’ line… The two policewomen at the corner of Bank and Sparks were desperately trying to calm frustrated people down and explained they wished they had a way to communicate to the crowd that continued to line up in the wrong line.”