Everyone is a Raptors fan, it would appear, and the last few days have seen massive celebrations across the country. Close to a million people lined the streets of Toronto to watch the Raptors Parade on Monday (photo from Toronto Star June 17) and several hundred thousand were in the area near City Hall for the culmination of that parade. The sea of smiling faces highlighted the diversity and acceptance that is the essence of Canada. |
The beginning of this week also saw the Conservative Party of Canada announce that it would campaign against Liberal plans to prohibit some military-style assault weapons, claiming that it would penalize law-abiding gun owners. This stance may play well with the traditional Conservative support in rural Canada because – as we know – farmers need an Uzi to keep the pesky wolves away from their sheep. Those joyous Raptors celebrations were marred briefly when shots rang out in the downtown core, leaving four people with non-life threatening injuries. I would ask Conservatives who see opposing the weapons ban as a winning campaign tactic to consider the carnage that might have resulted had some malcontent infiltrated the Raptors celebration with one of these military style assault weapons they think we should be allowed to keep.