We are still broken by the Humboldt Broncos bus crash, which stole life’s potential from 16 young and strong players, coaches and team support staff.
Then, on Monday, we were faced with the heart-wrenching scenes of carnage along Toronto’s Yonge Street, as a man in a white van gobbled up lives while careering down the sidewalk.
People were out enjoying the sunshine on one of the first real days of spring in Toronto. Among the crowd were 10 innocent people, who couldn’t have imagined it would be their last day in the sun, and 14 others, who couldn’t have known that later that day, they’d be lying injured in hospital, some of them fighting for another chance to feel the sun’s warmth.
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In both instances, we are left asking, how did this happen? We are asking, why? But those answers take time.
Our collective Canadian heart has been rocked, tested and broken this month, but we understand how to fix it, how to recover and how to make it stronger than ever.
We’ll do this by coming together as a nation. We will raise money for the victims and their families, we’ll reach out person to person, community to community, organization to organization, church to church. We’ll put aside our petty differences over politics, and pipelines, and the myriad other things we sometimes think divide us.
WATCH: Global News coverage of the Toronto van attack
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Aerial video shows multiple scenes where van struck pedestrians in Toronto attack -
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Toronto van attack: Father visits memorial with son, says ‘it makes me want to hold my boy even closer’ -
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MPs hold moment of silence to honour Toronto van attack victims -
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Toronto van attack: Kathleen Wynne, John Tory call memorial ‘sobering, sombre’ -
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Toronto van attack: Woman tearfully describes her sadness while visiting van attack memorial -
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Toronto van attack: Resident tearfully calls incident ‘unthinkable’ -
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Toronto van attack: Witness describes graphic scene after victim left ‘twisted’ on sidewalk -
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Toronto van attack: Defence Minister confirms Alek Minassian was briefly member of Canadian Forces -
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Toronto van attack: Kathleen Wynne, John Tory visit memorial site
As a country, we’ll offer our deepest felt condolences to one of the great cities of the world, a Canadian city that is peaceful and tolerant, and despite an indication to the contrary, one of the safest cities in the world.
The social media doubters, conspiracists and troublemakers will, using their own made-up “truth” in attempts to make us afraid of each other, drive wedges, create confusion and spark turmoil. But Canadians don’t do rage. We don’t succumb to turmoil or false confusion.
And that, too, is what gives our hearts strength.
When things are bad we care for each other, support each other and have each other’s backs. And that will keep the collective Canadian heartbeat as steady and strong as ever.
And to the Toronto cop who didn’t shoot to kill the suspect when he had every reason to, great job, as that took the biggest heart of all.
Jon McComb is a host of the Jon McComb Show on CKNW.
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