It was a terrible night that had devastating consequences for many in Squamish, especially for the tight-knit Sikh community.
On Jan. 2, 2018 a van carrying seven workers home to Squamish from Whistler crashed, leaving two dead and others injured.
As the second anniversary of this tragedy approaches, let’s pause to reflect on how fragile life is — particularly on our highway — but also to look for the silver lining.
The Squamish Sikh Society’s Avtar Gidda told The Chief the families directly involved and the Sikh community has healed as best they can.
“It was very unfortunate. Sometimes bad things happen and we can’t control that,” he said, matter-of-factly.
He noted that there has been much more discussion about driving safety on the highway since the tragedy.
“Our principle of life is to share your feelings with each other and try to help the people who need help. That is what we are doing. We are trying our best to adjust ourselves within the mainstream, to be good citizens.
“That is our duty to help the needy people, or to show them mercy or compassion — whatever we can do for the families,” Gidda said.
And while nothing makes this situation OK, the response from Squamish helped make it less bad.
The online campaign, “Fund for Squamish Accident Victims” raised $61,500, well above its $50,000 goal.
“We are appreciative of the others in Canadian society, too... because they accept the Indo-Canadians and all people. The people we talked to were very... sympathetic. They gave us financial help, too.”
Well done, Squamish.
This is what we do well here. We rally around those who need us most.
As this year comes to a close, let’s try to do more of that.
There is so much that divides us, but those neighbours who we most vehemently disagree with regarding LNG, Garibaldi at Squamish, the pace of development, and the myriad of other issues we form opinions on, are likely the same ones who will be there for us — and us for them — if the worst happens.
Happy holidays, take care of each other.
