Candlelight vigil at Regina's Q Nightclub for victims of Orlando shooting

Hands clutched candles and flowers while tears flowed, and hugs were freely given at the Q Nightclub and Lounge in Regina on Sunday night.
 
A candlelight vigil was held for the victims of the mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub early that morning.
 
People quickly filled all the seats in the room, and soon lined the walls and staircase just to fit in for the program. Many stared at the front, where 103 candles sat flickering for each person killed and hurt in the shooting.
 
Many people got up to talk to the room. Some said they had wondered “what if it had been here?” Most expressed surprise that this kind of hate crime against the LGBTQ community still happened.
 
One man said he’d been to enough vigils for people hurt in hate crime in Saskatchewan in the early 1990s, and didn’t want to buy more candles.
 
But almost everyone spoke about hope for the future – that this kind of thing wouldn’t happen again, and that the best way to fight such hate is with love.
 
“There’s been a lot of tears shed, a lot of emotion flowing back and forth, but a lot of love and caring and solidarity with any differences that people have, it’s all put aside for this collective moment,” said Dan Shier, a co-chair with Queen City Pride. The group organized the vigil in just hours on Sunday.
 
Shier said after first hearing about the attack he was shocked and surprised.
 
“But it just kind of makes you think about the need for pride and the need to be together as a community and work together … Definitely a reminder that there’s so much more left to do, not only here at home in Canada or even in Regina, but around the world.”
 
Though the attack happened more than 3,700 kilometres away from Regina, Shier said any time something like this happens it affects everyone.
 
One of the people who stood to speak to the room was Everett Raymond Osicki. He talked about a good friend who lives in Orlando and frequents the bar where the attack happened.
 
“The longest wait I’ve ever had to wait was (for) the response from him,” Osicki said.
 
Osicki’s friend is alright, though he has several friends who were killed. That’s something Osicki knows all too much about.
 
Six years ago, a fire was started in a bath house in Winnipeg, and one of Osicki’s friends died of smoke inhalation.
 
“I still remember that building was on fire, people having to run out, and getting a phone call from my friend Maury going ‘we can’t find Kerri, we don’t know where Kerri is’.”
 
The police at the time said there was no indication it was a hate crime. A 25-year-old man was charged with manslaughter in two deaths that occurred from the fire, but was found not guilty last summer.
 
Osicki explained that, often, a bar in the LGBTQ community isn’t just a bar, it’s more like a community centre.
 
“It’s the one place we can go where you can hold somebody’s hand without having to worry about any repercussions, where you’re not checking behind your shoulder every moment of the day.”
 
June is Pride Month, and Osicki said this attack just shows that there’s still a need for Pride.