When I shared an article about the Orlando mass shooting and expressed my regrets that, as a Canadian, I really couldn’t do much more than send my thoughts and prayers, such as they are, Mel (and yes, I’m another Mel—try not to get confused) challenged me to write a reflection on the tragedy from the Canadian perspective.

My response: Eek!

Why? Because I’m probably one of the least qualified people to speak for my fellow Canadians.

I mean, I don’t live on what Chuck Wendig calls “hetero-normative white dude mountain,” but I married a hetero-normative white dude, I am white myself, and hetero, and cis-gendered. I live in a northern mining town that, while it was founded by immigrants from fourteen different countries, those fourteen countries were all white European. For example, my heritage is Finnish and Irish. Yes. I am neon-pale, fish-belly white.

I’m probably snugly ensconced in the…