星空传媒

Skip to main content

'My heart breaks': Trudeau reacts to Texas elementary school shooting

Share

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his "heart breaks" for those impacted by the "horrific" shooting at an elementary school in Texas that killed 21 people on Tuesday.

"The students, the parents, the teachers, the entire community have had their lives changed forever by this unimaginable event," Trudeau on Tuesday.

"All of Canada grieves with our American friends in this terrible, terrible day."

Officials say an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two adults as he went from classroom to classroom at Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde, a heavily Latino town about 135 kilometres west of San Antonio. The shooter was later killed by law enforcement.

鈥淎s a parent, I鈥檓 going to have to go home to my kids, including my eight year old, and talk to them again about the inexplicable school shooting that we saw in the United States,鈥 Trudeau said.

He mentioned that he used to be a teacher himself, and that he is thinking of the trauma that students, parents and teachers must be going through in Texas right now. 

Reacting to news of the attack, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh took to Twitter on Tuesday to say that he is heartbroken like "so many."

"Children deserve more than thoughts and prayers. They deserve protection and safety. They deserve life," .

Marco Mendicino, minister of public safety, called it 鈥渢he type of news that just stops us all cold in our tracks.鈥

Speaking Wednesday in Halifax, he told press that when this type of tragedy occurs, he thinks of how important the 鈥渨ork that we do as parliamentarians鈥 is.

鈥淚 think about the young people that we are here to represent and protect,鈥 he said.

鈥淭he harsh reality of the matter is that there are no words that can sufficiently do justice to the pain and the anguish and the devastation that the families and that community feels this morning.鈥 

Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said Wednesday morning his thoughts are with those families affected by the tragedy in Texas.

"The arms trade - sordid when it comes to smuggling - and the protection of very personal privileges must no longer be used as collateral for heart-breaking scenes," .

Tuesday's assault marks the deadliest shooting in a U.S. school since the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012, which killed 20 children and six adults, and has reignited calls for greater gun control in that country.

The shooting also comes just 10 days after a gunman in body armour killed 10 Black shoppers and workers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in what authorities have since deemed a racist attack.

Speaking from the White House Tuesday, just hours after the shooting in Uvalde, U.S. President Joe Biden called for new restrictions on firearms.

"I am sick and tired of it," he said. "We have to act. And don't tell me we can't have an impact on this carnage."

Although calls for greater gun control in the U.S. have resurfaced numerous times after the country has suffered through mass shooting after mass shooting, those campaigns have made little progress thus far.

In the wake of this latest mass shooting, Trudeau reiterated Canada鈥檚 efforts to control access to guns.

鈥淎s a government over the past years, we have stepped up significantly on keeping Canadians safe,鈥 he said. "We just recently further strengthened background check requirements for purchasing firearms in Canada. Last year we banned military style assault weapons, which are now illegal to buy, to sell, or to use anywhere in Canada. And we鈥檝e committed to moving forward on doing even more.鈥

Mendicino added that Canadians need to remember that these tragedies can and do happen here as well.

鈥淲e still have a lot of work to do ourselves here in Canada,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not immune from the kind of gun violence that sadly has afflicted many communities here.鈥 

With files from The Associated Press

IN DEPTH

Opinion

opinion

opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike

When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.

CTVNews.ca 星空传媒

The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

B.C.'s police watchdog is investigating the death of a woman who was shot by the RCMP after allegedly barricading herself in a room with a toddler early Thursday morning.

Local Spotlight

They say a dog is a man鈥檚 best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.

A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.

Stay Connected