Following the horrific incident in Tumbler Ridge, a prominent survivor of a mass shooting is sharing her experience with grief after traumatic events.

Nathalie Provost experienced and survived the mass shooting at École Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989. She is now the federal Liberal MP for Quebec’s Châteauguay—Les Jardins-de-Napierville riding.

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Provost says it’s important for surviving victims, family members, and everyone else affected by a tragedy to allow themselves to grieve, no matter how long that may take.

“It’s difficult, it’s ugly, but they have to go through that,” said Provost.

She adds that grief can often stay with a person forever, and that traumatic events, such as the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, can often take a long time to come to terms with.

Provost also recommends that the public respect the victims’ and the surrounding community’s grieving process.

“It’s extremely difficult to live those very powerful emotions in public, so we need to be very discreet, very calm around them for them to live what they have to go through,” she explained.

The silver lining she offers is that, according to her experience, people who can navigate through the trauma and grief can gain strength from it.

“We have to have faith in life. Life is strong in us, and we are strong, but we have to accept that strongness does not mean never being fragile. I think it goes together,” she told 1130 NewsRadio.

Provost, who was 23 years old at the time of the attack at the university that killed 14 women, says that she will always be a survivor.

“Until my last breath, I will still be a survivor inside of me. Those scars, I know now that they give me a strength that I didn’t have before, and it took me years to understand.”

For children navigating grief, she adds that it’s important to be allowed to just be a kid.

She says children need to be able to rely on adults around them to help them through the vast range of emotions they will experience.

The mass shooting in B.C.’s northeast town has killed nine people, including the shooter.

Six of the deceased were children between the ages of 11 and 13 years old.

–With files from Ben Bouguerra.