The tragedy of the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. has already been adopted by some right-wing fanatics as evidence that “transgender people commit a disproportionate share of crimes.” The shooter has been reported to be transgender. Rather than acknowledging the heartbreaking depth of the tragedy, some right-wingers are using the event as an opportunity to promote their intolerant view of the world. The Toronto Star reports that U.S. right-wing media already have begun that propaganda campaign. Some Canadian government officials echo the prejudice. The focus of the Globe and Mail‘s coverage of the devastating event focuses more on the community’s reaction and response to the horror. Reading some comments online from readers of articles about the violence led me to move on. Rather than treating the mass shooting as the horrific tragedy it is, many commenters choose to use it as a launch pad to spread their politics of unsympathetic callousness. The U.S. export of ill-will, cruelty, and hatred is in full production; I find it incredibly sad that some Canadians celebrate the opportunity to import those inhumane characteristics.
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I did not sleep well last night, courtesy of aches and pains and disturbing dreams that, fortunately, have not followed my mind into this morning. I remember only that I was awakened several times by some unknown, unpleasant, and unconscious experience. When, finally, I got up around 4, I felt tired and worn and still aching from muscles and joints that punished me during the night. Although the renovation is complete, for now, there’s still clean-up to be done and dishes removed from cabinets must be returned to their rightful places. Those tasks and the residual anxiety and disorder of having construction “visitors” for several weeks probably shoulder some of the blame for nervous semi-insomnia and intrusive discomfort. Soon, though, life will be back to normal…at least as close to that state of being as possible under the circumstances. I should have had a gin & tonic or a gummy last night, but I satisfied myself with just a hydrocodone chaser. Apparently, that did not have the effect I had hoped it would. Maybe a return to bed for an hour or two of dedicated sleep will correct all that’s wrong with the world.
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Speaking as a Canadian, I have heard very little said about the significance of the shooter being a transgender person. We have had so few mass murder type events in Canada and those few, until this, were committed by cisgender men. Most Canadians don’t have a problem with LGTBQ2+ identifying persons. What I’m hearing more about it why there were guns in that household considering that there seem to have been past problems in the home. Also, what kind of guns – I haven’t seen the models mentioned yet other than it being a long gun and some kind of modified handgun (hand guns are very difficult to own here, so where did this come from?). As for politicians jumping on this, the federal Conservative Party, and some of the provincial Conservative parties are echoing the crap coming out of the U.S. They are not popular with much of the population and this is one of the reasons. That said, we have a part of the voting public that is much like the MAGA crowd – it’s worrisome to most of us as, yes, it is infiltrating our country, mostly via social media. There is also a politician (female) in B.C. who is a big loudmouth and was shooting off her mouth about this event being the result of a transgender youth before even much was known. She’s not well thought of by most rational Canadians.
Anyhow, you can count on this whole event being carefully studied. That is one thing about Canada – when there is something like this, there will be a lot of investigation into how and why it happened, what could have prevented it, etc.. We do not have many such mass murder events. In fact, I saved a chart showing how many there have been in schools or colleges and it is 13 since 1975. This is the second worst. The killing of 14 people in Montreal in 1989 was the worst – by a sort of incel man who was, as I recall, rejected from the engineering program at the CEGEP and blamed that on the women students accepted into the program. In any case, it was so “out there” as far as being a shocking event, that there continue to be memorials each year. We don’t have much of this kind of thing up here, so when it happens, it’s incredibly shocking and never really forgotten.