After the tragedy of Charlie Kirk this past week, one thing has become clear. We need to stand against such evil and do so publicly. It’s not going away.

If we want things to change, we will need to be honest about who is celebrating this open murder and whose ideology keeps producing violence. The voices that promote such violence are being found right here in Manitoba, even in our own city.

Sometimes you have to stand up and do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do, and be willing to pay the price. Charlie Kirk did.

Saying, “There is nothing I can do,” isn’t good enough anymore.

Like many people, I was shocked and deeply disturbed by the assassination of Charlie Kirk last week. Kirk, a husband and father to two young children, became prominent for founding Turning Point USA from which he engaged young people across America. He became a well-known conservative figure who was credited with getting millions of young people to vote in elections and was particularly recognized for going to university and college campuses and engaging directly with students. It was at one of these events on a campus in Utah that he was assassinated.

While I was not a close follower of Mr. Kirk, like most people I would occasionally see clips on social media of him engaging with young people. While I agreed with much of what he said in these interactions, there were also things I did not agree with. But what I appreciated most about what I saw, was that he not only took the time to engage directly with young people, he did so respectfully and he wanted to have an actual dialogue. Instead of dismissing people who disagreed with him, he asked them to come to the front of the line so they could have a conversation.

In a world that is becoming so incredibly divided, this is increasingly rare. Far too often people who disagree with each other are quick to label those from a different perspective as evil or some other derogatory name that essentially ends any opportunity for a civil discussion on their disagreement. Charlie Kirk took the opposite approach, welcoming the disagreement and discussion.

Incredibly, while most people on all sides of the political divide recognized the horrific act of violence that occurred in Utah, there were still some who tried to minimize, justify or even celebrate the killing.

We were in Montreal last week and I had an opportunity to visit a display of the winning entries in the 2025 World Press Photo contest. The exhibit featured about one hundred of the very best of nearly 59,320 photos entered in the contest, by 3,778 journalists from 141 countries. The photos, which were blown up to a huge size were educational, stunning, and many were tragic and heartbreaking, especially those featuring children.

German photographer Florian Bachmeier took a picture of a six-year-old girl named Ahnelina whose family in Ukraine was forced to flee their home because of repeated bombings by Russian forces. In the photo Ahnelina lies on a bed and stares vacantly at the ceiling. According to the organization Save the Children, millions of kids in Ukraine are at risk of mental health issues due to the war.

Many of them spend countless days in underground shelters. Children are developing speech defects, having horrible nightmares and often are moody, fearful and anxious. The photographer wanted to show how war can impact children and break their spirits.

A photo by Samar Abu Elouf was deemed the very best photo of the year. It shows a nine-year-old boy named Mahmoud Ajjour who lost both his arms when the Israeli army attacked Gaza City in March of 2024. By the end of the year The United Nations said there were more child amputees in Gaza per capita than anywhere else in the world.

“Liberals basically feel free to say anything they want on any subject, regardless of consequences, that’s not an overstatement—while moderates and conservatives and libertarians feel like they have to radically self-censor if they want to avoid consequences for their beliefs,” said the research director of the Aristotle Foundation in the National Post. The foundation’s recent survey found that nearly half of Canadian university students are actively concealing their true beliefs.

Young Canadians are feeling muted, which then sadly cheats us as a society.

But that was not the case for Charlie Kirk. He spoke out at universities and public platforms across the U.S. with courage. Not only that, but he gave all perspectives a platform to voice their opinion. He was an advocate for open debate.

Yet, when asked by one young man what he wanted to be remembered for, Charlie replied for the courage to speak his faith. Not surprisingly, the legacy that is rising above many of the misconstrued and out-of-context statements against him is just that. A man who spoke from a place of conviction about the truth informed by his Christian faith, wanting to give truth a chance over the woke noise crashing around us. Not speaking out would be cowardly to him, as he believed he was speaking truth to power. That is, the power of the deceptive narratives is misleading so many of the next generation.

With about 20 people in attendance, Steinbach city council spoke in detail about recent flooding, promising to address it as part of a Tuesday council meeting.

While those in attendance were unable to speak, they were encouraged to come back as a delegation in the future.

Council wasted no time in addressing the issue.

Coun. Susan Penner gave the meeting’s opening, a privilege that councillors take turn delivering to start the meeting.

It’s the kind of thing no decent person wants to see. Thirty-one-year-old Charlie Kirk was shot in the neck at a public event when he was in the middle of answering a question.

Kirk was a conservative political activist in the United States. But that doesn’t really matter. Whether he was a conservative, a liberal, or something else entirely, no one deserves to be shot and killed for expressing an opinion. Because that’s what Kirk was doing.

I was also disgusted by the number of people who openly celebrated Kirk’s assassination. For example, Manitoba’s Minister of Families Nahanni Fontaine shared a social media post condemning Kirk as a “racist, xenophobic, transphobic, sexist white nationalist mouthpiece” and stating, “I extend no sympathy for people like that.”

Only after experiencing significant public blowback did Fontaine issue a perfunctory apology. Frankly, I’m amazed that Premier Wab Kinew is letting Fontaine remain in cabinet. It must be a low bar indeed to remain one of Kinew’s cabinet ministers.

It’s a phrase that has existed for generations: “What goes around, comes around.” And now a mean baseball fan, who stole a home run ball from a 10-year-old kid celebrating his birthday, is learning - in a very painful way - that you “reap what you sow.”

If you somehow missed it – the clips have gone mega-viral – type “Phillies Karen” in any search engine and you’ll see lots of videos of an event which happens at any game where a home run is hit into the stands. (If you take 5 minutes to watch the video now, the rest of this column will be a lot more enjoyable.)

In a recent game between the Phillies-Marlins in Miami, the Phillies’ Harrison Bader hit a home run into the left field stands. A scrum ensued and a dad emerged holding the ball. He promptly walked over to his 10-year-old son and deposited the home run ball into his kid’s glove. It was a beautiful moment.

Immediately a woman wearing a Phillies jersey runs over to the dad, grabs his arm and starts screaming that he stole the ball from her, that she had it first so she should get the ball.