Vigil held for victims of Tumbler Ridge mass shooting in Toronto’s Beach area

A vigil was held on Feb. 14 in Toronto's beach neighbourhod for Tumbler Ridge, B.C.

People in Toronto’s Beach neighbourhood came together over the weekend to honour the victims of the Tumbler Ridge, B.C. mass shooting and offer their support to survivors and their families.

“It’s so sad, tragic,” said one attendee.

“It’s really sad how this happens and people are just so cruel,” added another young attendee.

Another woman tearfully said the devastation been “really hard to watch on TV.”

“I just hope it doesn’t happen again,” she said.

These kind words from people in the city’s east end hit especially close to home and touched the heart of Beach resident Christi Johnson, who is a Tumbler Ridge native.

“Despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sounds,” said Johnson, who read a moving poem during Saturday evening’s gathering.

Heartbroken for her hometown, she said it’s “so much better to share (her grief) with others and have the opportunity to mourn together and not feel alone.”

Johnson told CTV News Toronto that said her hometown is the last place anyone would imagine a mass shooting would occur.

“Tumbler Ridge is like this incredibly safe place. I often joke to friends about how my mom would give us stern lectures about the bears, but there were very few lectures about strangers because there just aren’t strangers in Tumbler Ridge,” she said.

“Everybody seems to know each other and children are safe and have this incredibly beautiful, free childhood.”

That sense of safety in that remote region is now shattered.

“For these families on the other side of the country, the shock, the horror, pure evil that happened and they’re grieving and their heartbreak right now, I think that obviously resonates with this community, resonates with Torontonians,” Beaches-East York Coun. Brad Bradford said.

Dr. Johanna Carlo, the vice-chair of the Beach Business Improvement Area, said grief in itself can be isolating, but those in Tumbler Ridge aren’t alone.

“We’re a small community. Tumbler Ridge is a small community. When these events happen, they ripple through our schools, our stores, our neighbourhood, and they’re deeply felt here,” she said.

Saturday evening’s vigil served as a reminder of the good that exists among neighbours, from one tight-knit community to another, even if 4,000 kilometres apart.

“It really connects us all right. In such a sad way but it does,” another attendee said.

Johnson said the show of support for the people in her hometown is heartwarming.

“Little tumbler Ridge is spread out all over the world,” she said.