Ottawa , Canada ( CNN ) -- It was a surprise , even for a journalist , to be driving down Wellington Street , the city 's ceremonial thoroughfare , and to find myself swept into the chaotic aftermath of a disaster . I was rushing to a television studio at mid-morning and passing by the National War Memorial , just minutes after the shooting . A solider was down . Police were closing streets , stopping traffic , barking orders , brandishing machine guns , fingers on triggers . They soon imposed a lockdown , lasting until mid-afternoon . It is from that confinement that I began writing this . This is not supposed to happen in Canada -- much less Ottawa , its sleepy , self-absorbed capital . Sentries do not die on duty at the National War Memorial in this , our season of remembrance . Politicians do not cower in the committee rooms of Parliament , as its Gothic hallways ring with gunfire . Sharpshooters do not take up position on oxidized copper rooftops nearby , looking for men with long rifles . This is Canada , once known as `` the Peaceable Kingdom . '' Now we have learned , like so many other countries , that terrible , unsentimental reality of the 21st century : It can happen here . When a gunman killed that lone soldier in front of the memorial today , when he -- and possibly his accomplices ( at this moment we do not know whether , who or how many ) -- then swept through the front doors of the Parliament of Canada and began firing , something changed here . When hundreds of parliamentarians , gathering in their weekly party caucuses , pushed leather chairs and tables against the doors and barricaded themselves inside their rooms and offices , something changed here . And when the city center was locked down and a perimeter thrown up around the parliamentary precinct and beyond , confining thousands to their offices and shops , something changed here . It is too much a cliché to say -- as many surely will -- that Canada has lost its innocence today . Canada is surely not innocent ; a nation that marched into the maw of two world wars and left 100,000 of its sons in Europe understands a few things . That 's particularly true at this time of year , when Canadians wear red poppies in their lapels until November 11 , Remembrance Day . What we might say , though , is that Canada has lost its ignorance today -- and , perhaps , a good part of its complacency , too . This country is now chillingly aware that bad things can happen here , even in the seat of its democracy . Many of us blithely thought it could not , or would not , happen . In 147 years as a democracy , we have never had a revolution , a civil war or a foreign invasion . Abroad , we have not fought wars of conquest , we never had colonies , and we never fought alone . For years , we were the world 's leading peacekeepers , projecting the sense of compromise abroad that we practice at home . Ours is an open , diverse society that has one of the highest levels of immigration in the world . It may be we thought ourselves impervious to pathologies and prejudices from home or abroad . Not here . Not us . Then again , why should Canada be immune ? Canadians fought in Afghanistan . We are a member of NATO and an historic ally of the United States . Earlier this month our Parliament voted to join the air campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq . This week or next , our warplanes will go into action there . We should not be surprised . There have been ominous signs . A plot was foiled a few years ago to bomb Parliament and behead the Prime Minister . More recently , there have been increasing reports of `` radicalized '' Canadian Muslims joining jihadists in the Middle East . If what happened here is , in fact , an organized terror attack -- and even if it is something less , based simply on religious or ideological fervor -- it is another reminder of the dangers that have always come with a successful if complex society that aspires to a place in the world . Unlike the United States , Canada has little violent crime . It is among the safest of industrialized countries . Murders , even mass slayings , can and do happen in Toronto , Montreal and Vancouver , its three largest cities . But they 're unusual . Ottawa , Canada 's fourth-largest city , is a government town . It is Canberra in Australia or Sacramento , California . It is not London , Paris or Rome . It 's a parochial place whose mayor thinks that replacing a crumbling public library or building light rail -- years after other cities in Canada have done both -- is a bold idea . So , it is jarring , alarming and sad that this has happened here , of all places . But it was naïve to think that a country of 35 million people , on the way to war in Iraq , would not face this kind of violence one day . Now we have . Our long , sweet season of ignorance is over .
Andrew Cohen was swept into chaotic aftermath of Ottawa soldier shot , was in lockdown . This is n't supposed to happen in Canada , known for peace , low crime , immigration , he says . He says Canada lost ignorance , complacency ; and why not ? It 's ally to U.S. , player in the world . Comment: Naïve to think that country on way to war would not face violence one day .