It has been one year since the devastating North York van attack that left 10 people killed and 16 injured. On April 23, 2018, a man drove southbound on Yonge Street, plowing into pedestrians on the sidewalk between Finch and Sheppard. 9-1-1 was called and paramedics were dispatched to the site.

After this attack, Coast2Coast First Aid & Aquatics Inc organized and hosted a free First Aid training workshop for the Toronto community in hopes of breaking the bystander effect. “There’s too many people watching an incident happening and people don’t take action,” Ashkon Pour-Heidary, an owner of Coast2Coast First Aid & Aquatics, said. “You see a crowd and then you don’t know if you have to be the person to call 911 or not, or the other person has to call 911, and then at the end no one calls 911.”

The workshop was set up in stations under multiple tents where you could learn one part of First Aid and CPR skills at a time. There was a great turnout with many Toronto community members, including police officers and other trained professionals, with a desire to learn First Aid.

Coast2Coast First Aid & Aquatics plans to host another free First Aid and CPR training workshop near the anniversary date of the attack. We plan to set the workshop up the same as last year, making each tent a separate First Aid & CPR station which will be providing important life saving skills and techniques that will be critical in the moment of emergency. We will supply proper First Aid training equipment including CPR dummies and will be taught by Canadian Red Cross trained instructors.

We are planning to do this event even bigger and better by inviting non-profit organizations to come out and join our cause to raise awareness for safety preparedness as well as help us raise money.