Yesterday was a beautful day to be out and about in Toronto.
Concerned citizens of all backgrounds, the bulk of them young people, joined together in Ramsden Park with a true Canadian hero, General Romeo Dallaire, to call the governments of the world to action over the genocide in Darfur.
On Church St., marchers picked up on the spirit of last August’s conference and kept the focus on the efforts to fight HIV with the city’s 17th annual AIDS Walk for Life.
Veterans, military personnel, and supportive Ontarians unveiled a monument at Queen’s Park honouring the sacrifice and contribution made by Canada’s armed forces past and present.
At parks and schools across our city and throughout the world, millions of people of all ages and abilities gathered together to continue Terry Fox’s courageous quest to find a cure for cancer.
Behind Trinity College, an intramural baseball team competed with some soccer players for field space, joshing back and forth when their games crossed paths.
And inside Museum station, a smiling TTC collector waved a uniformed veteran through without charge.
There are so many moments, large and small, that showcase the community spirit and social awareness of our city. These are days when we reaffirm and strengthen our reputation as Toronto the Good.
Amidst this spirit and sense of pride, however, there is sadness over the recent shootings at Dawson College in Montreal. It was sickening to read of Kimveer Gill’s rampage, especially since we take for granted that universities like ours are by and large safe, welcoming places in which to gather and grow.
As students ourselves, contemporaries of Anastasia De Sousa-who died in the shooting-and those recovering from their wounds, we feel too keenly the lost potential and wasted life that this incident brought about.
Yet it does little good to blame violent video games, goth culture, the media, and the like for the tragedy in Montreal. Realistically, some people have psychopathic tendencies that no amount of conditioning or therapy can diminish.
It also doesn’t help to blame our politicians and police for not anticipating the random act of a pathetic man. Our enforcement officers are well-trained and intelligent, but they cannot be everywhere. There are many sick people out there who threaten the same things Gill did online and never actually deliver.
What we as a university community can do is focus on the good in our country this week as a way to counterbalance, and indeed outweigh, the bad. We can encourage our disengaged youth to join community activities, on a local or grand scale, as a way to connect to those around them. We can ensure that whatever organization or social group we identify with is open to and active in the community. We can offer our condolences and prayers to the victims of violence and terror everywhere.
And we can continue to strive for what is good and fruitful in our lives and in our world, not in fear of the evil around us, but in spite of it.
