It’s been three weeks since the mass shooting in Nova Scotia.

It began in Portapique, about a 30-minute drive from Truro, a small town where I grew up and where my parents still live. Portapique is a beautiful village on the Cobequid Bay. I have vivid memories of hanging out with my family and friends on the trails in and around the village. 

In a region where, I can tell you, the friendliest people in the country live, news of the shooting came as a shock. The shooter evaded police for more than 12 hours and killed 22 people, including a police officer, a nurse, firefighter, and teacher. 

This mass shooting is the worst of its kind in Canada since a gunman killed 15 women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal in December 1989, since a man driving a van deliberately ran over and killed 10 people in Toronto in April 2018, and a man shot dead six people at th