Jamie Couper was supposed to be on TV for only a brief segment of the Royal Wedding coverage on April 29, but he offered such insights that he ended up staying for the entire broadcast.
Couper, who runs GHC Safety and Security Solutions just outside of Arthur, was asked to comment on security functions at the Royal Wedding by CHCH-TV in Hamilton. He is also the president of the Ontario branch of the Canadian Security Association.
He said in an interview he was scheduled to do two 10-minute interviews and expected that would be the extent of his TV work. Instead, “They asked me to stay all the way through,” he said.
That meant he was on air from 4:30 to 9:30am, and had to be up and on his way two hours ahead of that to get to the studio on time.
“It was an honour and a privilege,” he said of his appearance, and added he was thrilled to see the News feeds coming in from overseas and how they were handled so professionally by the two News anchors. He was sitting with Brian Ward and Annette Hamm, along with someone who is part of the Canadian Monarchist League, throughout the show.
“I got to see the wedding from a place I never figured to see it,” he said.
As for his security comments, he said he was able to point out how uniformed police, who are used to handling large crowds and familiar with troublemakers, had a wary eye on potential trouble spots.
He said British police are well aware of who might cause trouble, and their presence alone allowed the wedding to go off without incident. He added that while the uniformed police had a wary eye on possible known troublemakers, undercover security was keeping an eye on people that police did not know.
Couper said he later received “a bunch of emails” from people across Canada who saw him on TV.
