The Vancouver Canucks donated roughly 1,000 tickets for last Sunday’s game to those affected by the recent violence at Abbotsford Senior Secondary.
Ticket recipients who attended the game saw a rare win for the home team, as they beat the Dallas Stars 5–2.
“It’s something small that we can do,” team spokesman Chris Brumwell said Thursday. “I can’t imagine what the past 10 days have been like there, so if we can provide a bit of a happy distraction for a couple hours on a weekend, it feels like the least we can do.”
He said the tickets were donated to school principal Rob Comeau to be handed out to students, their families and perhaps even first responders.
Some online commenters on the original version of this story said they were disappointed that their children, Abbotsford Senior students, did not receive any tickets.
School district spokesperson Kayla Stuckart said the tickets were distributed to students on whom the recent stabbing had the most impact and their families, to ensure they were not unaccompanied and had transportation to and from the event.
“Staff used their best judgment to get the tickets out in an extremely short period of time,” she said, in an email.
Gabriel Klein, 21, appeared in court this week on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of 13-year-old Letisha Reimer, who was fatally stabbed Nov. 1 at the school.
Her friend, a 14-year-old girl who cannot be named due to a court-ordered publication ban, was also stabbed, but survived. Klein is charged with aggravated assault in that incident.
