It was a cold blustery day in the parking lot of Innisfail’s Co-op Mall during the late morning hours of Feb. 1.
Innisfailian Bev Carson was driving into the parking lot and saw a man standing outside his vehicle with a sign calling for urgent help.
Carson stopped by his vehicle and soon learned the man, who was of Mexican/American heritage, had challenges speaking English but she fully understood he was trying to get his family, a wife and four children, safely back home to Portland, Oregon.
This man had no money.
His family faced hunger, cold and desperation.
They all just wanted to get home.
For Carson a decision had to be made immediately; help a family in crisis or walk away.
But there was also another reality.
It was Feb. 1, the day when U.S. president Donald Trump announced there would be a potentially catastrophic 25 per cent tariff hammer laid against Canada.
It was a jolting reality that stunned millions of Canadians into righteous anger, notably in Ottawa and Calgary where hockey fans booed the American national anthem at the start of a pair of NHL games.
This family was from the United States, a country Canadians fought side by side with in two world wars, in Korea and more recently in Afghanistan.
This was a group of citizens who felt a crushing helplessness much like the six American diplomats in 1980 that had to run and hide due to a revolution in Iran.
But Canada rescued them.
These folks from Portland had few options, much like the thousands of desperate American airplane passengers on Sept. 11, 2001 who could not go home because of deadly terrorism.
Canada didn’t think twice. We took all of them in.
We fed them, lodged them, and yes, loved them.
There was never any thought about differing politics, or tariffs.
“Not for a second. This was a human being that was facing hardship,” said Carson. “It didn't cost me anything beyond a little bit of kindness.”
Her kindness included giving the man $10, buying him groceries and offering to fill his tank with gas.
“I said, ‘Can I take you over to the gas station and fill your truck? He said, ‘no, no, no. I'm good now,” said Carson.
But the family’s plight soon caught the attention of many other Innisfailians who read Shawna Ravenhill’s post on the Innisfail Bulletin Facebook page.
Other Innisfailians donated money to the family, and Gurcharan Gill, owner of the Innisfail Hotel and Innisfail Grill & Chill, gave each family member a full meal and $50 for travel expenses back to Portland.
Pending tariffs were never discussed.
“I don't care. If a human needs any help, I'm there. Any human, any colour, doesn't matter to me,” said Gill. “My door is always open if anyone needs that kind of help; if anyone is in trouble, my door is always open.”
We don’t know yet if this family has arrived safely in Portland.
But we do know the remarkable has happened; these six vulnerable Mexican/American human beings encountered the very best of what Canada is all about during this tumultuous time in our history.
Or, as Shane Koyczan said in his brilliant We Are More poem for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, “We are the surprise the world has in store for you, it’s true.
“And what’s more
Is that we didn’t just say it
We made it be”
Johnnie Bachusky is an editor with the Albertan.
