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Barrhaven has long been thought of as a sleepy Ottawa suburb, a place where young families come for a more tranquil life away from inner-city problems.
In fact, the cookie-cutter townhouse on Berrigan Drive near Palmadeo Drive — where six people were killed late Wednesday — is just steps from a park and two elementary schools. The illusion of neighbourhood calm has been brutally fractured.
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The reality, of course, is that this could happen anywhere. Still, Barrhaven?
Yet my community has faced violence and heartbreak before.
In 1975, 10-year-old Patricia Seesink was raped and murdered after being kidnapped near Barrhaven Public School. Her body was found in an abandoned barn. It was the first murder in Nepean Township in 18 years.
In more recent history, Jennifer Teague was abducted and killed in September 2005 while walking home on Jockvale Road. Jagtar Gill was beaten and slashed to death in January, 2014; her husband and his lover were sentenced to life in prison.
On Nov. 14, 2022, 64-year-old Linda Frederick was stabbed to death in her Sherway Drive home. Her son was found not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder.
As a journalist, I’ve covered many of these cases. I’m used to being in the thick of tragedy. But as a Barrhaven resident, I still couldn’t help but feel a sense of disbelief when I heard that Ottawa’s largest mass killing had happened this week, a five-minute drive from where I live.
I can’t comprehend what happened. This was a family who shopped in the same stores as us, attended local schools, and kicked around soccer balls at the neighbourhood park. They were average people who neighbours said were involved in the Monsignor Paul Baxter School community.
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The lives of a family have been forever shattered. The world will never get to see the bright futures these four kids could have had. Who knows what they would have gone on to do if they just had the chance? This Sri Lankan family was brave enough to come to Canada for a better life; a promise our country has always held. How heartbreaking.
Under clear, starlit skies, I attended a vigil at Palmadeo Park Thursday night. More than 100 people gathered, placing flowers and stuffed animals, and lighting candles. One person brought a baby’s rattle presumably to remember the two-month old who was killed. A note next to it read “our hearts are shattered.”
There was mostly silence. Children cried softly as they wept in their parents’ arms. I heard one kid ask “how could this happen?” Another said “it isn’t fair.”
I watched one mom try to explain it to her young son who was sobbing, but she was left speechless. He placed flowers outside of the Berrigan Drive home and said he missed his friend.
I’ve been to the scenes of countless homicides across Ottawa, but none quite like this one. As I watched the sorrow unfold around me, I couldn’t help but think this was like the U.S., where brutal killings seem to be a regular occurrence.
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