INVICTUS

The Games had created a “real buzz around Toronto,’’ Harry told Trudeau at an earlier meeting Saturday at which they shared laughs and pleasantries. Trudeau thanked the royal visitor for founding the Games and creating opportunities for veterans.

The number of well-wishers who gathered outside the room where Trudeau and the prince met paled in comparison to the several hundred who stood behind a barricade in unseasonably blazing heat earlier in the day as the prince toured one of Canada’s premier mental-health facilities.

The crowd whooped as they glimpsed him entering the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and clamoured for his attention when he emerged more than hour later. The prince did not disappoint, crossing the road to talk to children, meet a pup and shake outstretched hands.

“Oh, my goodness, I’m so happy, he shook my hand,” said a dazzled Robinowe Bukirwa, who wondered if she was dreaming even as the prince faded into the distance. “I don’t think I’m going to wash my hand today. I’m so very excited.”

The prince’s tour of the centre included two roundtables — one with nine senior staff members focused on research, the other on

dealing with youth coping with mental illness.

Describing the complex issue as one requiring a “massive team effort,” Harry listened attentively to staff discuss their work, and anecdotes from patients who had sought treatment for mental-health and addiction struggles at the facility in downtown Toronto.

The prince stressed the importance of mental-health research and treatment — a topic he has championed. There is no “silver bullet” when it comes to dealing with the problem, he said.

“You need options,” he said at one roundtable.

One person in attendance told Harry she still cherished a visit decades before from his mother, the late Diana, the Princess of Wales. The prince also met privately with teenaged inpatients of the mental health facility.

Harry’s busy schedule Saturday, which followed meetings with Games athletes on Friday, included a short get-together with Gov. Gen. David Johnston.

“Welcome to our humble country,” Johnston told the prince.

“It’s fantastic to be back,” Harry answered. “Always, a pleasure to be in Canada, my home away from home.”

The inaugural Games were held in London in 2014 and next year’s will be in Sydney.