Emotional response to Broncos tragedy transcends both physical and cultural borders,
Emotional response to the tragedy has broken physical, cultural borders
The far-reaching response to the bus crash that killed 16 members of the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team has left many in awe. Experts say it provided a means to mourn the tragedy and support those who are grieving in a way Canada has never had before.
As of Friday night, more than $11 million had been donated to the GoFundMe campaign. The original goal was $100,000.
Hockey sticks are still standing on front porches across Canada and countries around the world. Friday was Jersey Day, and the second time the colours of the Toronto sign outside City Hall turned green-and-white. Each tribute is amplified every day by social media, with the hashtag #HumboldtStrong trending strongly.
The Star spoke to psychologists, social media experts and emergency responders about why this tragedy seems to be resonating at such an unprecedented scale.
They pointed to the universal fear the bus crash embodied of what could happen to a child far from home, an imagined horror that turned into unbearable grief on April 6.
Social media has allowed it to be felt beyond borders in different communities and countries and supplied a forum for people to mourn together.
“In the past, there was little people could do with these feelings,” said Boyd Neil, a professor at Humber College’s school of media studies and information technology.
In the age before social media, Neil said you could send condolence cards if you knew the addresses of those affected, or, if you lived close enough, you could drop off flowers at a memorial site.
“But, now, there’s no geographic limitation to your ability to express that,” he said.
“To express how you feel, all you need is access to a social platform and a hashtag to coalesce these feelings into a simple signal.”
The emotional response to the tragedy experienced by the Humboldt Broncos has surpassed the usual barriers of geography and culture, said Steve Joordens, professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. What has proved to be more powerful is the notion of the universal ritual of parents and kids, sports and bus rides. “(Everyone has) thought about this happening, potentially many times,” said Steve Joordens, professor of psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough.
Social media, he added, has created a world where you can make decisions instantly based on emotions, more than reason.
“They see on the news their worst nightmare come true to another family, quickly feel that, sit on their computer, hop on their phone, and feel like they did something about that.”
“The funny thing about the modern world is we’re so connected through information we get to people we don’t know,” said Joordens. Social media gives agency to the individual and collective feeling of grief.
Cindy Fuchs is a 33-year-veteran of the Canadian Red Cross, who has lived in Saskatchewan all her life.
In Saskatchewan, normally, the emergency response organization responds to forest fires and flooding. This was the first time they were called to respond to a social crisis, said the vice-president of Canadian Red Cross, Saskatchewan.
The first people Fuchs called were her colleagues in Quebec and New Brunswick, the two places that had seen something like this before. Three months ago, New Brunswick marked the 10th anniversary of the van crash that killed seven members of a high school basketball team and the wife of its coach. It was the deadliest bus accident involving a sports team in Canada until the Humboldt Broncos bus crash.
Despite occurring 10 years apart, there are similarities between the two tragedies: both took place in a small-town rural highway, because of trailer trucks.
The Lac-Megantic rail disaster in Eastern Quebec saw 47 people lose their lives. There, too, a Code Orange was called at the local hospital, and leaders around the world sent messages of condolences to the small town.
A big difference between then and now is social media. “They told us to follow the lead of the community, advised us to make sure we were actually present when they needed us and to do nothing,” Fuchs said. Normally, the Red Cross would offer shelter and supplies, helping to fill and fix the void of physical loss.
In the wake of the response to the Humboldt Broncos, the advice was good; Canadian Red Cross volunteers handed out blankets and teddy bears for comfort. They helped clean up after the vigil, and hold doors open. The community, and the country, Fuchs said, took care of everything.
“Every time we respond, we need to adapt,” said Fuchs. In the age of social media, this has become even more important. The Canadian Red Cross in the province is on standby, and is working with the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League to provide psychosocial help for those in need.
Fuchs and her team have offered to help the organizers of the Humboldt Broncos GoFundMe page. The fund is the largest campaign to date in Canada, and now one of GoFundMe’s three largest campaigns globally. It has more than 120,000 donors from over 80 countries. The money will take several months to distribute.
How the fund will be distributed is still unknown.
“This crisis will go on for years,” Fuchs said. “You have to play out what do we need, what’s the legacy, what do the players and families need down the road.”