I’m Bill Kingston with today’s commentary. In my eight years of covering news in Cornwall and SD&G, I can’t recall a weekend filled with more tragedy, grief and shock. One or two deaths in a weekend has happened before. But this Easter weekend saw four deaths in a four day weekend – unprecedented – not to mention unspeakably tragic. A fatal on Highway 401 near Bainsville, two deaths in two separate fires and a murder where the accused is the victim’s son. The sad fact is half of these tragedies – the fires – could have been prevented as the cause of both blazes was smoking. A number of people were asking – What’s going on? Why is this happening now? There’s no rhyme or reason for it. Some of these events comes in cycles and, like the adage goes, bad things come in threes. Unfortunately, in this case, it was fours. Let’s hope that lessons are learned from what has happened – people that smoke are careful and people recognize signs of trouble before they escalate into violence. When you look at the big picture, Cornwall and SD&G is a safe community. Even the safest communities will have a bad spell from time to time.
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