Oh Suzie!!! *hugs* I can't even imagine how stressful and terrifying this must be for you and your family. I wish I had something helpful to say, but I really don't--and certainly not anything that wouldn't sound trite. But I will be keeping you in my thoughts.
As to Canada, my experience has indicated that Toronto is far safer than similarly sized cities in the US (Toronto and Chicago are around the same size, for instance). People in wealthy neighborhoods often don't feel it necessary to have security systems on their homes, and I've walked a lot of the city and have never been in an area I felt to be unsafe. But it's not perfect, by any means: there are plenty of unsafe areas, and increasing amounts of violence. There was a shooting at a suburban mall last week, and a stabbing at a subway station a couple of weeks before that, for instance. But as an American, my response is "only one?" whereas the Canadians are usually more shocked that it happened at all. I'm sure smaller towns and cities are safer yet. But is moving to Canada the answer/a viable solution? I don't know. We're never going to escape greed, selfishness, capitalism, poverty, and all the terrible things that happen as a result.
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As to Canada, my experience has indicated that Toronto is far safer than similarly sized cities in the US (Toronto and Chicago are around the same size, for instance). People in wealthy neighborhoods often don't feel it necessary to have security systems on their homes, and I've walked a lot of the city and have never been in an area I felt to be unsafe. But it's not perfect, by any means: there are plenty of unsafe areas, and increasing amounts of violence. There was a shooting at a suburban mall last week, and a stabbing at a subway station a couple of weeks before that, for instance. But as an American, my response is "only one?" whereas the Canadians are usually more shocked that it happened at all. I'm sure smaller towns and cities are safer yet. But is moving to Canada the answer/a viable solution? I don't know. We're never going to escape greed, selfishness, capitalism, poverty, and all the terrible things that happen as a result.
*more hugs*