A soft target

This cartoon by Kate Curtis appeared in the New Yorker

When I went to sleep, we'd heard about shootings in northern Nova Scotia. Details were vague: "multiple victims" - no word about injuries or deaths. Something about a guy dressed up as an RCMP officer and driving a car made to look like an RCMP vehicle. By dinnertime, we knew an RCMP officer (a real one) had been killed, leaving her husband and two children to grieve. When I woke up this morning, the number of dead had risen to eighteen, worse than École Polytechnique shooting of December 1989. It's now the worst shooting in Canadian history.

The RCMP in Nova Scotia says the number is likely to rise.

Elder daughter, who trained in journalism in Halifax, has the surreal experience of recognizing the names of the people reporting on this bleak story. She spent four years in Nova Scotia, amid people known for their friendliness and willingness to help. The people shot in cold blood were no exception.