Usually, the mayor’s report is the section of the Langley City Council proceedings reserved for local matters, but at Monday night’s meeting, mayor Ted Schaffer and the rest of council departed from the agenda to address the recent attacks in Edmonton and Las Vegas.
“I normally do not do this, but I know my council colleagues,” Schaffer said.
“We had a discussion on what is happening around the world (before the meeting). On behalf of the council and the city of Langley, I would like to give out condolences to those that were affected.”
There are “issues out in the world” that deserve comment because they have an impact locally, the mayor said.
On the weekend a man was arrested for running down and stabbing an Edmonton police officer outside a military appreciation night football game between the Edmonton Eskimos and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers then running down four pedestrians with a truck.
In Las Vegas, a lone gunman killed himself after opening fire on a country music concert from his hotel room, killing 59 people and wounding more than 500.
Three Canadians are known to be among the victims, including a Maple Ridge man.
On an evening when the Langley City council chamber was packed with more than 40 people filling seats in the audience, Schaffer noted that there were “more dead in Vegas than there are people in this room.”
“Its a very scary world and we need to stick together,” Schaffer said.
“My heart breaks,” said Coun. Val van den Broek, who grew up in Edmonton and considers Las Vegas her “second home.”
“It was a tragic, tragic incident that should have never happened,” van den Broek said of the Vegas mass killing.
“To me, that’s a terrorist attack,” van den Broek added.
Coun. Rudy Storteboom was one of several speakers to note that the incidents in Edmonton and Las Vegas are far from the only recent instances of violence directed against innocent people in the world.
“In local government, we’re not responsible for the world but we do have a responsibility to be aware of what’s happening in our world.” Storteboom said.“(It feels like) there are bigger and blacker headlines rolling over us all the time.”
Storteboom said the latest news underlines the need to be prepared for “what might happen.”
Coun. Paul Albrecht talked about the “value of family, the value of friends and the value of community” during such times.
Coun. Jack Arnold expressed sympathy for the hundreds who were wounded, saying “we just hope that all the ones in the hospital will get better.”
Coun. Nathan Pachal, who has family in Edmonton, called the attack there and the Las Vegas shootings “really, really shocking.”
“It’s a horrible time,” Pachal said, but it is also a time for people to come together.
“There’s also people who love you, respect you and you have to hold on to that,” Pachal said.
Coun. Gayle Martin was not present.
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