Wednesday and Thursday in Ottawa

Yesterday our main goal was to go to the Supreme Court of Canada and to sit in on one of the hearings.  We arrived around 10:30 am and had just missed a major ruling on the Harkat National Security Certificate.  One of the security guards told us that was alright as there were lots of media there because they new the ruling was coming down and there was also a demonstration going on at the time.  We sat in on a hearing about what the National Art Gallery had to pay an artist when they showed their works in the gallery.  The Judges questioned the lawyer who was presenting the case and he talked forever about this.

We couldn't take pictures in the hearing but this is a picture of the Supreme Court Judges.

From here we took the Tulip Shuttle back to Dow's lake to roam around again and look at the tulips.  The other day when we were there it had started to rain so we only saw half of them.  

There were fireworks at night so we went back for a third time.  For 15 minutes we were thoroughly entertained by a fantastic display of fireworks.

This was the grand finale.

Today we went back to the Parliament Buildings and walked around the outside of the grounds where there are statues of some of the former Prime Ministers of Canada.  There is also collection of statues of women who fought to be called "persons" and be appointed to the Senate.

After lunch we went into the Parliament buildings again and went to Question Period to see Parliament at work.  It is something that I had seen in the news but had never experienced it live.  Everyone should do that at least once in their life time.

Peggy.