One by one, they lit a candle, walked up to a microphone on the podium, and read from a slip of paper the name of one victim of the serial bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai on July 11.
They named the victim, his/her age, and the rail station where the blast that took his/her life occurred. And then they placed their candle in trays laid out for the purpose, and yielded their place to the next person.
In that way, at a public condolence meeting outside Queen's Park July 25, 300-plus citizens of Toronto honoured the nearly 200 people killed in the blasts, and prayed for the recovery of the 800-plus that were injured.
Among the crowd was a lady identified only as Jharna. She had lost her uncle, J C Shah, in the Mumbai blast. As his name was called, she broke down and sobbed. Later, she said, 'Thanks each and every one of you for your presence this evening. I am proud that everybody is here and thinking about my uncle, and I thank you.'
The crowd spanned the cross section of political, religious, and community leaders and lay people from various communities.
On behalf of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Conservative Senator Hugh Segal expressed the 'solidarity of all Canadians to victims of Mumbai blasts.' He called the actions of terrorists 'inhumane, cowardly and cruel' and said that through their crimes, they 'bring sorrow on themselves and their families and whatever their cause.'
He called the people of India 'common brothers and sisters to all Canadians' and said they will not 'be frightened or in any way restrained in the robust nature of society and democracy.
'Terrorism is about crushing democracy and pluralism that both Canada and India promote and defend,' Segal, former chief of staff to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, said.
'Long live the alliance against terrorism that India and Canada share and embrace,' Segal said. 'Pluralism and democracy will always prevail in our two countries.'
The meeting was sponsored by 'Friends of India,' the group headed by Ajit Someshwar, former president of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce.
Ontario Citizenship Minister Mike Colle was very emotional, almost in tears as he told this reporter he could from their names identify some of the railway stations where the blasts had taken place, based on his own visit to Mumbai some time back.
"It is sad, sad," he said repeatedly. "It is important to stand up, to say we must not forget those victims, and that cowardly terrorism should be condemned."
He expressed the "solidarity of the people of Ontario with the people of India and Mumbai, and pay our condolences and whatever we can do to condemn this cowardly terrorism."
Colle, like the rest of the 300-plus crowd, took a candle, recited a name, and later sought permission of one of the volunteers to keep the small slip, containing the name of the victim he read out.
Ontario Minister for Small Businesses Harinder Takhar said such acts of terrorism "shouldn't be tolerated. We have to raise our voice against such acts of terrorism. This (condolence meeting) is a good way to pay tribute to the victims of those blasts, to young people who lost their lives and left behind their kids, their families."
Liberal Member of the Ontario Legislature Dr Kuldip Kular called the bombings in Mumbai "cowardly acts", and said there has to be "a huge change in the world; we need more Gandhis to keep the world more peaceful so that what happened in Mumbai is not repeated.
"We have to work pro-actively so that the world is peaceful and better place to live."
Representatives of several faith groups paid homage on behalf of their respective congregations. Imam Abdul Hai Patel, who couldn't come for the condolence meeting as he was very sick, later told rediff India Abroad "Canadian Muslims join fellow Canadians in grieving the loss of lives and properties of the victims in Mumbai, and in praying for the victims souls, and extend our condolences to the bereaved families."
Also present to pay homage were Frank Dimant of B'Nai Brith, and Marnie Silver and Stephen Posen of Canadian Council for Democracies.
'Hindus and Sikhs, Jewish and Christians, as also people of all other faiths, and people of no faith, we stand here all of us as brothers. We stand with you in the fight against hatred because together we all face a common enemy,' said Dr Charles McVety of the Canadian Christian College. 'We face a common enemy of hatred and evil and terrorism.'
There was a 30-minute video presentation showing slides of the chaos and destruction that accompanied the blasts.
This was followed by an interfaith prayer, and after observing one minute of silence, the crowd slowly melted away.
