Guess What Madness Ensued in Canada After That Recent Shooting? None.
The response to Tumbler Ridge by the police, government, and public shocked me. In the wake of the shooting, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police released information in a controlled, steady flow without speculation or innuendo. They didn’t wait for hours like police did in the American school shooting at Uvalde, Texas. They didn’t throw bad information out there, like Attorney General Kash Patel did when he claimed that the Brown University shooter was in custody. I knew, with confidence, that what I was being told was the truth as far as they knew it in that instant, and that they were being cautious and deliberate. Everyone did the right things and indicated that they would continue to do the right things.
The same, sadly, cannot be said for U.S. law enforcement. I hadn’t realized how used I had become to the insane response to the frequent mass shootings in the United States.
In Canada, the public reacted with shock and horror, but it didn’t jump to conclusions or immediately begin demanding action in the absence of facts. Everyone seemed content to let the evidence come to light before designing laws and policy meant to prevent this from happening again. The perpetrator was transgender, but no one is calling for the RCMP to start rounding up all trans people or take away their legally owned firearms. The system failed at multiple points, any of which could have prevented this tragedy, and the public is patient enough to accept that a complicated problem will require a thoughtful solution.