TORONTO — Soon after his neighbors were gunned down in rural Nova Scotia, Cees van den Hoek started a memorial site near an old church.

He hammered together boards for people to fasten cards and mementos to, and was hauling one into place when a middle-aged woman raced toward him.

“She gave me a hug,” said Mr. van den Hoek, an antique dealer who lives in the area where a gunman murdered at least 22 people last weekend in a 13.5-hour killing spree, before being shot by police. “I couldn’t stop her. That’s the natural instinct, people need hugs.”

But these days, hugs can be almost as lethal as bullets.

As Canadians mourn the country’s worst mass shooting, they are also mourning the toll of the global coronavirus pandemic, which, in Canada, has sickened 42,000, and claimed 2,200 lives — and robbed the nation of its routines and rituals for recognizing loss.