Terror in Toronto is unlike terror anywhere else.The impact here is more piercing, for we Canadians imagine ourselves to be exempt from terror — at a safe distance from the geographical and political hot spots that make targets of global cities. Yet we are blessed with a collective defence unique to Toronto.The difference is that we are different — for our diversity offers immunity, at least partially, from the bigotry and blaming that erupt in times of trouble elsewhere.Read more:Opinion | Edward Keenan: Cop who faced down suspect in Yonge St. carnage an example for all of usOpinion | Heather Mallick: No elitism in response to carnage, only compassionOpinion | Rosie Dimanno: Toronto van tragedy bonds city in blood. But no one will say the word ‘terrorism’Stop for a second, look and listen to what happened, who it happened to, how the city responded. Who were these people?The victims, eyewitnesses, police and paramedics on the scene were all Torontonians, yes. But the names and faces featured in the news reports, and producing the news reports — eyewitnesses like Ali Shaker, Amir Bahmeyeh, Ham Yu-Jin, Amir Farokhpour; Deputy Chief Peter Yuen — remind us that we are, uniquely, a people from around the world.From every place, every race, every faith. Which means that while the terror hurts all of us, most of us are in no rush to demonize any one of us.In Toronto, everyone is a target yet no one is a target. We are so many people that we are almost indivisible, or at least indecipherable.The old slogan, unity in diversity, is here a reality. If only because we are today too melded to be divided.The old terminology of terrorism may or may not apply to what befell Toronto this week. The difference between terror (overwhelming fear and anxiety) and terrorism (the calculated use of violence and “terror” to achieve defined political goals) is a clearly defined distinction.We won’t know whether the motives were to mer ...
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