Yonge Street
If you live in or around Toronto you will remember what happened a year ago on Canada's longest road. The memory for many is more like a nightmare and for others a moment in time that Torontonians hope never happens again. An individual drove a van down the city's busiest street and killed 10 innocent people and injured 16 others. Yesterday was the one year anniversary of this tragedy but the truth is that many will live with the memories for the rest of their lives.
As a Chaplain for the Toronto Police Service I attended the ceremony marking the tragic events of April 23, 2018. Back on that day it was actually the first nice day of the spring in Toronto so many people were out walking along the wide sidewalks of Yonge Street around 1:30 in the afternoon. Some were taking late lunches and others simply enjoying the first sign of warmer temperatures. They weren't expecting that anyone would be so full of evil that they would change everything in just over 5 minutes.
The victims of this senseless act are still suffering today, as are the First Responders who were first on the scene. That scene stretched about 2 1/2 kilometres through the north part of Canada's largest city and took approximately 6 minutes of mayhem and pure evil. Consider yourself walking down a sidewalk enjoying the nice weather when suddenly out of nowhere, a crazed individual deliberately targets innocent people. It made no sense and never will.
The response from First Responders was quick but the damage was done by the time they started arriving on the initial scenes. The individual was apprehended by one cop and arrested but the damage and loss of life had already been done. As one cop told me, the stretch of Yonge Street looked like a war zone: not an accident scene. It was determined that it wasn't a terrorist attack but the courts will decide what it was only next year.
Yesterday Torontonians, victims, victim families and the First Responder communities, remembered the tragic events of that day. I played a small part by laying a rose in a vase on behalf of one of the victims. Some victim families and survivors were also present along with a few First Responder Chaplains. Some of the First Responders who were first on the scene were also there and it was clear speaking to some that the one year anniversary did not necessarily bring healing. The memories for many was still vivid. Those memories involved many emotions ranging from anger to grief.
As a Toronto Police Chaplain I had the privilege of sitting through 3 different debriefs the day after the van attack. In each group I heard heart-wrenching stories that impacted me, so I could only imagine how each of the police officers were feeling. The most difficult account was the young woman who died with a police officer holding her and then hearing her cell phone ring: it was her mom. He couldn't answer. Within most emergency services in Toronto the saying was true up until that day: it is not if something like this would happen but when. This was the when!
As a Police Chaplain there are confidentiality issues and that is why other details can't be shared here in this short blog. It is a day nobody who was involved will ever forget. Having said that, I do want to honour the brave men and women who serve the people of Toronto and who often see the horrendous things other human beings do to one another. They deserve our admiration every day as do all the citizens who went out of their way to help those who were injured on that day. It was a body blow to the city but the selfless acts were numerous.
As a Chaplain for the Toronto Police Service I attended the ceremony marking the tragic events of April 23, 2018. Back on that day it was actually the first nice day of the spring in Toronto so many people were out walking along the wide sidewalks of Yonge Street around 1:30 in the afternoon. Some were taking late lunches and others simply enjoying the first sign of warmer temperatures. They weren't expecting that anyone would be so full of evil that they would change everything in just over 5 minutes.
The victims of this senseless act are still suffering today, as are the First Responders who were first on the scene. That scene stretched about 2 1/2 kilometres through the north part of Canada's largest city and took approximately 6 minutes of mayhem and pure evil. Consider yourself walking down a sidewalk enjoying the nice weather when suddenly out of nowhere, a crazed individual deliberately targets innocent people. It made no sense and never will.
The response from First Responders was quick but the damage was done by the time they started arriving on the initial scenes. The individual was apprehended by one cop and arrested but the damage and loss of life had already been done. As one cop told me, the stretch of Yonge Street looked like a war zone: not an accident scene. It was determined that it wasn't a terrorist attack but the courts will decide what it was only next year.
Yesterday Torontonians, victims, victim families and the First Responder communities, remembered the tragic events of that day. I played a small part by laying a rose in a vase on behalf of one of the victims. Some victim families and survivors were also present along with a few First Responder Chaplains. Some of the First Responders who were first on the scene were also there and it was clear speaking to some that the one year anniversary did not necessarily bring healing. The memories for many was still vivid. Those memories involved many emotions ranging from anger to grief.
As a Toronto Police Chaplain I had the privilege of sitting through 3 different debriefs the day after the van attack. In each group I heard heart-wrenching stories that impacted me, so I could only imagine how each of the police officers were feeling. The most difficult account was the young woman who died with a police officer holding her and then hearing her cell phone ring: it was her mom. He couldn't answer. Within most emergency services in Toronto the saying was true up until that day: it is not if something like this would happen but when. This was the when!
As a Police Chaplain there are confidentiality issues and that is why other details can't be shared here in this short blog. It is a day nobody who was involved will ever forget. Having said that, I do want to honour the brave men and women who serve the people of Toronto and who often see the horrendous things other human beings do to one another. They deserve our admiration every day as do all the citizens who went out of their way to help those who were injured on that day. It was a body blow to the city but the selfless acts were numerous.
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