'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
WARNING: Details in this story may be disturbing to some
In the early morning hours of June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen opened fire inside Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., killing 49 people and injuring more than 50.
At the time, it was the U.S.’s deadliest mass shooting.
The victims were overwhelmingly Latinx and members of the LGBTQ2S+ community, and the global outpouring of grief and solidarity resonated deeply in the queer community.
Survivors and allies are now marking the five-year anniversary in the midst of a global pandemic that limits the ability to gather together and grieve, during a month meant to celebrate acceptance and pride.
Orlando Torres was in the restroom at Pulse when the gunman began shooting, held hostage while Mateen rampaged through the club and then called authorities, pledging his allegiance to the terror group ISIS.
“It’s unbelievable that five years have passed already,” Torres told CTV News Channel on Saturday. “Every time that there’s a mass shooting out there, it opens up our wounds and reflects back on what we went through, which seems like yesterday.”
Torres was able to reconnect with the two SWAT officers who rescued him from the shooting that night.
“I was trying to express my sincere thank you but I started breaking down, it was hard to express the words quickly as I was deeply touched,” he said.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to make Pulse nightclub – which has remained closed since the shooting – a national memorial site.
Reflecting on the support he and other survivors received, Torres said the tragedy changed a lot of people’s minds about the queer community.
“It’s not just our community – we gained support from around the world,” he said, noting that LGBTQ2S+ and heterosexual people came out to donate blood to the wounded after the shooting.
“It opened up a lot of minds and hearts that we are not just members of the LGBTQ community, we’re children of God, we’re human, we hurt, we bleed,” Torres said. “We saw the compassion.”
----
If the details in this story have affected you, Canadians can visit the Crisis Service Canada site to find resources in their area.
The Kids Help Phone is available is available 24 hours a day for Canadians aged five to 29. Call 1-800-668-6868 (toll-free) or text CONNECT to 686868, or download the Always There app for additional support.
The Hope for Wellness Hotline is available for all Indigenous persons across Canada who need immediate crisis intervention. Call 1-855-242-3310 (toll-free) or connect to the online Hope for Wellness chat.
Hope for Wellness telephone and online counselling is available in English, French, Cree, Ojibway and Inuktitut
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.