04/24/2018
I am very proud of my fellow Torontonians for their behaviour in the wake of this terrible event. The police did not freak out. The media did not freak out. Everyone did their jobs – taking out the perp and attending to the injured and dead in the former case, and in the latter reporting only the FACTS all day. Not even the politicians freaked out. The only "terror" alarms I read were on Twitter, and most of them came from beyond our borders. I think most Canadians were, like me, hoping that it was a mental-health issue rather than a racially or religiously-inspired issue. I am proud to live in the most diverse city in the world, and so are most of my fellow Torontonians. It now appears that this was a mental health issue. We need to do much more to reach out to people who are in pain before they reach this kind of tipping point. To my mind, it was only a matter of time until something like this happened in a world-class city of this size. Now it has. It won't be the last time. Every time I ride the subway I am aware that I and my fellow commuters are a potentially devastating target. But we don't check bags for bombs, and I hope we never do. I love the crowds. Yesterday, I was downtown when the news started and I stayed downtown and attended a concert in the evening. Hundreds of thousands of others got on the subway and went down to watch the hockey game. On the street, people's eyes met in understanding of what we were all learning, and what we have lost. The city moved forward. Together.
