Thursday May 19, 2022
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday May 19, 2022
‘Canada is not immune,’ leading Black voices say in response to Buffalo mass shooting
Members of the Black community in Canada on Monday are warning this country is also vulnerable to hate crime as they react with shock and horror to Saturday’s bloodshed in Buffalo that left 10 Black people dead.
“Canada is not immune to it,” Velma Morgan, the chair of Operation Black Vote Canada, told CBC News Monday.
“We’ve seen what happened at different places of worship, we see what happens in London, Ont., we’re definitely not immune to it at all.”
Payton Gendron, 18, is accused of a racist rampage after he crossed the state to target people at the Tops Friendly Market in one of Buffalo’s predominantly Black neighbourhoods. He had talked about shooting up another store as well, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told CNN.
Authorities in Buffalo are working to confirm the authenticity of a 180-page manifesto posted online, which identifies the accused by name as the gunman. It cites the “great replacement theory,”‘ a racist ideology that has been linked to other mass shootings in the United States and around the world.