City with heart
Hamilton: Canada’s compassion capital
If you want others to be happy, practise compassion. If you want to be happy, practise compassion. — Dalai Lama THE WORLD KNOWS Canada is compassionate.
I wear that reputation with pride when I travel, much like the little flags we sew on our backpacks or the hockey jerseys we throw over our swimsuits on tropical beaches.
As a nation, our compassion shines on the international stage.
I cheered when we took in Syrian refugees. Hamilton, an official Sanctuary City, has opened its arms to nearly 1,500 thus far.
And it feels good knowing Phan Thi Kim Phuc, the little Vietnamese girl running naked and burning with napalm in that famous Pulitzer Prize winning photo, is now raising her family in Ajax.
Covering 9/11 from Ground Zero in New York City, I met Canadians who raced there to help. And of course, as told in the new Broadway musical “Come From Away,” the entire town of Gander, N.L., opened its doors to international passengers from 38 planes grounded in their tiny community on the day of those terror attacks.
Boarding a plane with medical staff from St. Joseph’s hospital heading for Haiti right after the earthquake, I was deeply touched when sleepy, early morning travellers at Pearson Airport spontaneously applauded our nurses and doctors.
But what the world may not realize is that Hamilton is the compassion capital of Canada. At least it is from where I have been sitting, here in The Spectator newsroom, for the past 20 years.
Without fail, this city steps up when someone is in need.
ANY TIME The Spec publishes a story of someone less fortunate, we in the newsroom know what our readers will do. And we are never disappointed.
Our readers show up at our front desk after working the night shift to hand over cash for the family who lost their house in a fire.
Our readers send sympathy cards and prayers to families of homicide victims. They organize fundraisers for children with terrible illnesses. They collect clothes for the homeless and buy food for the hungry.
They have helped solve murders and capture wanted offenders.
Spec readers have bought a wheelchair for a young woman, dentures for a cancer patient and a chairlift and bed for an amputee. They bought a new hand for a man attacked with a machete.
They bought back a missing dog from its new family to reunite it with its rightful owner, and blasted social media with photos of other lost pets.
They have renovated homes for wheelchairs free of charge and taken on court cases pro bono.
They lined the streets when fallen soldier Nathan Cirillo was brought home.
They have hung their art on the bare walls of homes for vulnerable adults.
Hamilton Spectator readers bought back-toschool clothes for kids who had none.
They covered training fees for a future Olympic gymnast and cheered a man who shed hundreds of pounds to run Around the Bay.
Our readers cooked 15 turkeys at once for those who wouldn’t otherwise have a Christmas dinner.
They have paid for burials and have attended the funerals of those who died alone in the world. They donated wedding dresses to be remade into tiny gowns for babies who die at birth.
They have come to courtrooms to support some victims and held candlelight vigils to remember others. They have searched for the missing.
Our readers signed petitions that established a new law requiring an inquest any time a child dies while on a court-ordered visit with a parent.
They lined up to be tested for potential organ donation matches and registered as organ donors.
They’ve kept the lights on and the doors open at a women’s shelter and at a house for homeless kids, and they saved a street youth breakfast program.
Our readers have won psychiatric help for jurors and bought plastic surgery for a young stabbing victim.
They came to the rescue when a fry truck was repeatedly broken into and its donation jar for baby food was stolen over and over.
They donated 37,000 children’s books to a Spectator initiative that distributed them to families at Christmas.
As wildly proud as I am to be born in Canada, I have a special kind of love for Hamilton. I was not born here. I chose to live here. To work here. To raise my family here.
And each time Spectator readers let loose their compassion, I am reminded why this home is where my heart is.
Hamiltonians have kept the lights on and the doors open at a women’s shelter and at a house for homeless kids.