There was a murder on a bus in Canada Wednesday night, rare in it’s brutality, but not rare in that ordinary people are heroes. In split seconds of shock and horror people caught up in the unthinkable do what they need to do. The bus driver’s training kicked in, lives may have been saved. A mother at the back of the bus threw her child to another passenger who got the child out safely. The mother also got out safely. The murderer was locked inside, a stopping truck driver lent passengers some tools and a couple of men went in to see if they could save Tim McLean.
Some people who have not experienced violence won’t see the passenger and bus driver as heroes. Would have, could have, should have are common human themes.
What would I have done? is an intuitive response as our minds and emotions grapple with danger and death. It’s been my experience that what I’d like to do, what I want to do might not square up with that I would do, and I remain amazed at the courage and instincts I’ve seen in people who are caught in life threatening situations.

22 year old Tim McLean didn’t make it home. He travelling to Winnipeg after working the carnival circuit. He had a long trip. The bus left Edmonton just after midnight, and it would normally be a 20 hour 1300 kilometer ride to Winnipeg.

What appalls me is what the McLean family is experiencing. Their son’s murder occurred early Thursday morning and no police notified the family. His sister found out from a reporter Thursday night. It’s being reported seasoned officers who attended the crime scene were shocked. I get that. Human to human violence is not something we are able to scrub from our minds. Police officers are assigned tasks, and one of the tasks is notification of next of kin. The RCMP have enough personnel, what it appears they lacked is internal departmental communication. It isn’t the first time, it won’t be the last.

What I don’t get is why a reporter winds up being the one to tell a family member.
That happened to me once, and I’ve never gotten over it. Because of jurisdictional and territorial jostling between two police departments I was given false information by police about family notification. I believed the police and I will live with that broken trust the rest of my life. So will they. A mother lives with the emptiness of hearing a detached voice on her car radio saying her son’s body had been found.

I don’t know how to say this any clearer than this.
No reporter should ever be in the position they break the news of a death in a family. It is not the responsibility of media to tell anyone privately their child or sibling is dead. In the death of Tim McLean it was not the responsibility of the bus company to tell a family their son had been murdered.
On a lazy summer night on the Canadian prairies a vicious murder occurred, and it was reported around the world.
It was the responsibility of the RCMP.
Pending notification of next of kin are not empty words.

A reporter was at the family home last night when the RCMP finally arrived to speak to them. He’ll live with being the ‘news breaker’ the rest of his life. In the insanity of senselessness, the deep wells of shock and grief, the mistrust between jurisdictions and media and the banality of the 24/7 news cycle, our ability to use technology to instantly communicate; it is possible the reporter knew police had not talked to Tim McLean’s family and went to the family home anyway. He’ll have to live with his words.

A lot will be misreported, Transport Canada and the US bus company will go into overdrive and over-react. What matters in the short term is that passengers and the driver are given solid trauma counselling, police and first responders who attended are thoroughly de-briefed, and the McLean family is shown respect and given dignity by all the peripheral officials who carry out their tasks, and that this family is supported and held up by their community. Let their anger be heard so other families are less likely to experience failures of communication by those tasked by us to do so.

Earlier Friday, McLean’s family said they are angry at how long it took the RCMP to inform them that McLean was the victim.

CTV’s Murray Oliver visited the family’s house in Winnipeg Friday and spoke to McLean’s sister.

“She told us that in fact they didn’t know that Tim was the victim in this crime until last night when a journalist came to their house and knocked on the door,” said Oliver.

“Obviously they’re wondering why the RCMP did not come and inform the family for such a long time.”

He said the family had been following the story when the news first broke early Thursday.

“Then, to get the knock on the door, and to find out that it’s your son, it’s your brother — I can’t imagine how it must have been for them and that shock is written on their faces,” said Oliver.

He said the family was also angry with the media.

“Tim’s sister told us the family feels they really can’t say a word — not even to speak about Tim’s life — until they can assemble the family together and they can come up with a joint statement,” he said.

40 year old Vince Weiguang Li of Edmonton has been charged with second degree murder. He appeared in a Portage la Prairie court today; no lawyer, no family, no words.

My deepest sympathy goes out to Tim McLean’s family, friends and fellow travellers.