The Embassy of Canada in Washington, which sits mere blocks from the U.S. Capitol, has canceled its plans to set off a series of mock IED-style explosions at its campus on Pennsylvania Ave. Photo by Mr. T in DCThe Embassy of Canada in Washington has canceled its plans to stage a series of Hollywood-style pyrotechnic explosions on the grounds of its compound on Pennsylvania Ave. next week.
Word of the planned military spectacle first trickled out via the Toronto newspaper The Globe and Mail several weeks ago, and since then DCist has had several conversations with embassy officials, D.C. Fire Marshal Bruce Faust, and Kit Lavell, the Executive Vice-President of Strategic Operations, the company that was to have been responsible for staging the pyrotechnic display, regarding this story. Four or five mock IED-style explosions were originally planned over the course of a two-day Afghanistan conference at the embassy on Sept. 23-24. All of those we spoke to stressed that the mock explosions would produce no fire nor smoke, and would be a relatively small part of the demonstration, which was designed to showcase how so-called “hyper-realistic” military training exercises help to prepare soldiers mentally for the realities of their mission in Afghanistan.
But the IED portion of the event has since been canceled, embassy spokesperson Jennie Chen confirmed. Chen declined on Friday to go into details of why the decision was made, promising a more complete media advisory on Monday.
“We are currently reviewing all aspects of the program,” Chen said.
