Weep for Toronto, but then stand with its citizens

April 23, 2018, will go down as one of the darkest days — perhaps the darkest day — in the history of Toronto.

Never in living memory has Canada’s biggest metropolis experienced the horrific and indiscriminate violence that hit from out of the blue on Monday, when the driver of a rented van embarked on a three-kilometre rampage along a sidewalk that left 10 people dead and 15 others injured.

Words seem an inadequate response to something so momentous, terrible and terrifying.

What can be said with certainty, however, is that this cruel attack on people simply going about their daily lives will fill us all with grief, shock, incomprehension and, finally, resolve.

Sorrow comes first, and it is for the innocent lives lost and damaged, for the searing pain felt by so many people and the pain that will linger, not only with the survivors but their families and friends. We weep for them all.

Next comes the shock that this atrocity happened in Toronto, which by any standard is a vibrant, global city with a laudably low crime rate. Toronto stands as a model of how a diverse, tolerant citizenry lives, works, plays and thrives in harmony.

We know cars or vans have been used as weapons in cities such as Edmonton, Berlin, Paris and London, England. But we still somehow wonder how such carnage could occur in Toronto.

And that fuels the incomprehension.

There’s nothing the people walking along that Yonge Street sidewalk could have done in advance to shield themselves from a killer randomly targeting them. How should we act in such a world? Increased situational awareness makes sense. Hyper-caution tinged with paranoia does not.

Yes, some relief comes from the preliminary reports that this was not a terrorist act. Unless and until authorities say otherwise, Toronto and Canada need not fear this is the start of an organized campaign of ideologically-inspired violence. And it is comforting to know a suspect has been arrested and charged for Monday’s crimes.

But what if this turns out to have been the act of an alienated and dangerously deranged mind? Will that not feed existing fears that modern life is never quite safe enough despite our best efforts? Canada works hard to control guns. A rental van can prove lethal, too.

The coming weeks may also lead to reflection on how individuals in our normally caring society can go through life with personal demons that rage undetected and untreated. If so, such contemplation would be welcome.

But just as appropriate would be a defiant display of resolve.

Toronto can be proud of how it acted collectively in the face of this tragedy. The first responders, especially the calm arresting officer, were admirable.

But the whole city was, too. It might have seemed incongruous on Monday night to watch on TV the thousands of people cheering the Toronto Maple Leafs in a pivotal NHL playoff game after a brief, official acknowledgement of what had happened only a few kilometres away and a few hours before.

Yet this was an inspiring example of how we must stop, mourn and then continue going forward, just as this city goes on.

Torontonians stood together on Monday and stand together today. They should know the rest of Canada stands with them.

This cruel attack will fill us all with grief, shock, incomprehension and, finally, resolve.