Article content

Stephen Harper did “exactly” what he was supposed to do when bullets started flying outside the room where he was meeting with the Conservative caucus almost one year ago, Canada’s top Mountie said Wednesday.

Following gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau’s assault on Parliament Hill on Oct. 22, Harper was ridiculed by some on social media after it emerged that he hid in a closet-like space for about 15 minutes.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Stephen Harper ‘exactly’ followed protocol during Parliament Hill attack: RCMP chief Back to video

But RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson, in his first remarks about the prime minister’s actions that day, told the National Post that Harper followed the training he had received.

“He had a (standard operating procedure) to apply in those circumstances and he did,” Paulson said.

“He executed exactly what we’d trained him … how we informed him how he should respond in the event of an attack.”

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

Paulson said Harper and his family had received extensive training about how to respond to various scenarios, including “attacks on meetings abroad, attacks on meetings domestically, attacks on the vehicle, attacks on the convoy, all that kind of stuff.”