OTTAWA—The violence Michael Zehaf Bibeau visited upon an unsuspecting Ottawa one year ago not only killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, but irrevocably altered the way Martin Magnan looks at his own life and the people around him.
Magnan, 47, is a dapper, soft-spoken, thoughtful man.
A year ago, he was a well-regarded media adviser at National Defence on his way to a meeting when Zehaf Bibeau popped out from behind the National War Memorial to gun down Cirillo before storming Parliament Hill.
Magnan was among six people who risked their own lives to aid the mortally wounded soldier. They were a mixture of civilian and military—a trauma nurse, a former battle group commander in Afghanistan, and the driver for the country’s chief of defence staff.
It was Magnan who held Cirillo’s hand as the young soldier died.
“You know, I have children,” he said Wednesday, Oct. 21, in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“I was really thinking at that point, as I grabbed his hand, that if anything like this ever happened to any of my children I'd really hope a stranger would hold their hand as they went through to the other side.”
Although, paramedics arrived and continued CPR, Magnan said it was evident to him and some of the other rescuers that Cirillo’s wounds were too severe and that he had passed away at the foot of the soaring granite monument.
