Mr. Speaker, we are living in times often marked by sadness, but the tragedy unfolding in Nova Scotia is fraught with anger and disbelief.
We experienced this with the Dawson College shooting, the École polytechnique massacre and the Quebec City mosque shooting, all acts associated with a time when there was heightened fear of terrorist activities. We even experienced this right here, on Parliament Hill, and in several places across Canada. One thousand violent acts are committed every day. A more violent person assaults another person and, all too often, commits murder.
We have to move beyond the rhetoric about the exception, the isolated gesture and madness. No matter the reason for murdering another, it is a definitely an act of madness. Each individual, each incident, is one too many. I believe that we must change our relationship with violence. We will definitely come back to that. We have to change our relationship with instruments of violence.
In the meantime, this does not change the tragedy that has befallen the entire population of Nova Scotia and anyone who is compassionate. All I can do is extend our most heartfelt expression of support and encouragement to all those people and to all whose fear is heightened by every tragedy.