Thank you for letting me be here with you tonight.

I know that nothing I can say will bring your children home.

I know that no words from me – or anyone – can fill the silence in your homes tonight. I won’t pretend otherwise.

But I and the leaders of all the federal parties wanted you to hear – not from Ottawa, not through a screen – but standing together here in your town, we wanted you to hear that: Canadians are with you. We will always be with you.

And we wanted you to hear that, whatever portion of your sadness that Canadians can bear to help ease your heavy load, Canadians will gladly do so.

Canadians are with you. We will always be with you.

I have spent the last few hours in Tumbler Ridge. I’ve sat with people who are living through something no one should ever have to endure.

I’ve listened. And I have felt what has always defined this community – people caring for each other.

That is who you are.

In tough economic times, you stayed and helped your neighbours find work. You kept the lights on at the rink and the doors open at the school.

When wildfires threatened, you checked in on the seniors down the block. You loaded trucks. You made sure no one was left behind.

And when the unimaginable happened on Tuesday, you were there again. First responders at the school within two minutes. Teachers shielding their children.

You held each other – as you’re holding each other right now.

This is grace. It’s what we do for each other; it’s what we receive from each other. Open hearts when the world falls apart.

Tumbler Ridge is full of grace tonight.

I want to talk for a moment about those we lost.

Abel Mwansa: a bright, smiling ambitious young man who loved school so much that he cried when his father suggested homeschooling.

Zoey Benoit: a resilient, vibrant, smart, caring and strong 12-year-old, who loved art, to sing, and to play with her siblings.

‘Tiki’ Lampert: a young woman “powered by love and happiness” who loved her siblings, painting, cooking, crafts, and KPop Demon Hunters.

Ezekiel Schofield: a hockey player who always had a smile on his face.

Kylie Smith: a “beautiful, kind, innocent soul,” and an artist who dreamed of studying in Toronto one day.

Shannda Aviugana-Durand: who, on Tuesday, went to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School so students could learn. Who stayed to protect. There is no greater act of love.

Tonight, Maya Gebala and Paige Hoekstra are in B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. We are praying for them and the others who were wounded.

As we pray for Jennifer and Emmett Jacobs who were taken from their home, for they too deserve to be mourned.

I want to share something with you tonight.

In 1989, a young woman was sitting in a classroom in Montréal when a gunman opened fire. She was shot four times.

She survived. Fourteen did not – including six of her friends and classmates. In the weeks that followed, still recovering from her wounds, she made the decision to go back and finish her degree.

It wasn’t easy. It took years. The pain didn’t disappear. It never fully has. But she built a life. She became an engineer. She raised four children.

She now serves our country in the House of Commons. And this week, she spoke, through tears, about your children.

I share her story not because healing is simple – it’s not.

Not because there’s a timeline for grief – there isn’t. No one can tell you how to carry your burden. 

But Nathalie Provost is proof – living, breathing proof – that it’s possible to endure the unendurable. That the horror of what happened doesn’t have to be the end of what’s to come.

Because we give grace, and we receive grace.

Grace from Kylie, Ezekiel, Zoey, Tiki, Abel, Ticaria, Emmett, Shannda, and Jennifer.

The grace that fills this community – this extended family gathering in the cold and holding candles for all of your children.

The grace from across Canada.

When we leave here tonight, some of you will go back to quiet houses; some of you will go home to empty rooms.

Please know that you’re not alone. 

When you wake up tomorrow, and the world feels impossible, know that millions of Canadians are with you.

When the cameras leave and the quiet sets in – know that we will still be here, and know that we shall need you too.

Because Canada is a community that relies on each other’s grace.

May that grace bless us all.