It is nearly twenty years to the day that a man with a legally acquired rifle entered our school and shot 23 people, including me, Nathalie Provost. Several of our close friends were among the 14 young women who died on December 6th 1989 at l’École Polytechnique. Our crime? We were women and we wanted to become engineers. And an angry man was able to easily get access to a lethal weapon.
Twenty years after that fateful day we would like to reflect, as survivors and former students, on how far we have come and how far we have yet to go. The murders sparked renewed interest and commitment to promote women in engineering and technology, to end violence against women and to strengthen Canada’s gun laws. In each case, we have made progress but there is much left to do.
First, following the Montreal massacre the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers issued its groundbreaking report “More than Just Numbers” which documented the barriers that young women face when entering the engineering profession, including the chilly climate in many engineering faculties. This sparked a number of initiatives aimed at encouraging women in engineering and through the 1990’s the numbers steadily climbed. However since 2001, the trend has reversed and the percentage of women enrolling in these programs has declined. And while considerable progress has been made with many women breaking through the glass ceiling and many engineering associations addressing harassment and discrimination, recent research suggests that women in technology continue to face barriers and in some companies the chilly climate persists. These barriers need to be addressed head on if we want young women to have equal opportunities while pursuing
this great profession.
Second, the tragedy focused national attention on the problems of violence against women and the range of crimes where women are victimized because they are women. December 6th is a national day of morning for women killed by gender violence. While progress has been made through greater awareness and more support for victims, the problem persists.
Every year in Canada, more than 75 women are killed by their intimate partner, the very person they should be able to trust and depend on. A renewed commitment to ending violence against women remains as important today as it was twenty years ago.
Finally, the terrible events of December 6th awakened Canadians to the gaps in our gun laws. The students of Polytechnique, the families of the victims, police, health care professionals, labour organizations, teachers and others banded together in the
Coalition for Gun Control, and together fought for a ban on assault weapons, for possession permits for all gun owners and for the registration of all firearms.
Suzanne Laplante Edward, whose daughter Anne-Marie died that day, called the 1995 legislation, “A monument to the memory of the victims of the Polytechnique tragedy”. The legislation has proven its effectiveness: It is used thousands of times every day by police across the country, firearm deaths have declined substantially,
and murders of women with guns have plummeted.
However just weeks before the twentieth anniversary of the Montreal massacre, the Conservative government, with the help of a number of Liberals and NDP Members of Parliament, voted in favour of legislation to eliminate the registration of rifles and shotguns — including the Ruger Mini 14, the gun used on that terrible day in 1989. How could this happen? Because the gun lobby is highly motivated and active in every electoral riding while the supporters of gun control do little or nothing.
But it is not too late. The final vote will not take place until early in the New Year. We are therefore urging citizens from across the country to contact their Member of Parliament and demand they put public safety before the narrow interests of the gun
lobby.
Help us ensure that our classmates did not die in vain.
Source: Heidi Rathjen & Alain Perreault:
Twenty Years after the Montreal Massacre
Twenty Years after the Montreal Massacre
By Nathalie Provost (B.Eng.), Heidi Rathjen (B.Eng., Dr.h.c., LLD, M.S.C.) and Alain Perreault (B.Eng. MBA) All three authors graduated from l’École Polytechnique in 1990.
On December 6th 1989, Nathalie Provost was injured and from her hospital bed encouraged girls to become engineers. Alain Perreault was president of the Polytechnique Student Association and later presented the student’s 560 000-signature gun control petition to Justice Minister Kim Campbell. Heidi Rathjen devoted the next six years of her life to fighting for gun control until the law’s adoption in December of 1995.
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Comments
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- Dave
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:14
As tragic as the events 20 years ago are, it does not change the fact that none of the changes to Canada's firearms laws since this event would have prevented it. We have added a couple of hoops that new firearms owners must initially jump through, but they are nothing more than hoops. Our firearms laws are politically motivated and lack common sense. Unfortunately, so many Canadians are so unfamiliar with our laws that they don't realize this and simply assume more is good and less is bad. The reality is farmers need to protect their livestock, hunters have a right to harvest deer and other species and many outdoorsman need firearms for protection from predators. All the firearms designed for the preceding legal purposes, will also do a wonderful of killing people in the wrong hands and will do the job just as well, if not better than black firearms people fear. The reality is, the anti gun lobby is woefully uninformed and present arguments based on emotion rather than logic and knowledge of our system.
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- L. Hill
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:14
I'd like to present the fact that the mini-14 is just a gun. Assault weapons have been banned (fully automatic) in Canada for a long time. I have a farm, and my mini-14 has been instrumental in protecting my property from varmints and predators. Banning any one item because of its history of misuse by a maniac is inane. Controlling and helping people with mental health issue is the answer, too bad so much money has been blown on chasing legal gun owners with the registry.
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- Wayne Lymburner
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:13
Another Dec. 6th is passing. Another memorial vigil will be held for the unfortunate women of L'Ecole Polytechnique who were murdered by Gamil Gharbi. This day is a day of incalculable emotion, but it is also a day that should never have happened. Emotion is the root cause of this tragedy. Emotion is devoid of logic, reason, and morality. Gharbi in his emotionally disturbed state committed the ultimate immoral act: he took human life. Every human being has the inalienable right to life; a right we forfeit only when we contrive to commit violence against a fellow human being. Gharbi was able to commit such a heinous a act solely because another immoral act was committed by the law and socialization. The law and our society removed our ability to defend our lives. There was not a single person on that campus that could have stopped Gharbi; the law made this so. The solution to this tragedy was even more irrational, illogical and emotionally unglued than Gharbi. Yes logic and reason left Canada that day... one deranged individual caused logic and reason to leave this Country. The Canadian Coalition for Gun Control -- with the aid of an immoral and opportunistic Government -- caused the most immoral law ever to be enacted by a Parliament of Canada. The Firearms Act authorized the criminalization of people who committed no crime. It authorized the use of force against individuals who had done nothing wrong. The most immoral part of this law, however, is that it ensured that another day like December 6th happened again. And it did, again in Montreal, again an angry emotionally disturbed person.
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- mike coyne
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:13
The event 20 years ago at l'ecole Polytechnique was a tragedy. It's a shame that the CGC uses it year after year as a spring board in its crusade to paint every man who owns a gun with the same brush. The bigger shame is just how many half-truths and outright lies are told in the above article in an effort to support the agenda of the CGC. Politics at the best of times require a strong stomach. Politics while standing on the graves of 14 women is nauseating.
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- Takami dono
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:13
The problem are not the tools in question, it is our failed society and education system. The real problem are not guns, but it sure is very easy to blame it on guns since they cannot talk back.
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- John Evers
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:13
After 20 years of dancing in the blood of the victims in a vain attempt to promote their sick vision of gun control. Why oh why do Heidi and her gang still have to openly LIE about the facts
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- David Roussel
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:12
On days like this, I have to wonder why the Coalition for Gun Control drags the dead out to politicize this tragedy. Why is it that the actions of one madman 20 years ago has so taken the minds of these crusaders? Their rational is that they need to hammer home the fact that a firearm was used to kill, thus the country should be stuck with ineffectual and costly legislation that was rushed into law by a Liberal government that is long since gone. It doesn't seem to matter to the CGC that said laws criminalize law abiding citizens. It doesn't matter that the Registry has never solved a single crime. It doesn't matter that the Registry is wasting our money as I write this. Instead, every year about this time; they gather to rail against a society that allowed something so terrible to happen. The tragedy has passed, new tragedies await. It is the cycle of life and living. The late comedian George Carlin once said that there is no rebuilding after a tragedy, just a short pause before the next tragedy. No law in the world will stop a madman. So, we should remember those who passed on that terrible day, but we need to lay the spectre of a madman to rest. The CGC needs to stop politicizing this tragedy, some 20 years hence and let people get on with the living of life in this wonderful, free society of ours. Letting the Registry go and bill C-391 pass on will only speed the healing and we can get ready for the next tragedy. We know there will be one regardless of what we write in the hallowed halls of Ottawa.
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- Pittsky
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:12
Most people who want the long gun registry to stay don’t understand what it really is. The gun registry is not gun control by any definition. The gun registry does not screen potential gun owners. It only lays a piece of paper beside a gun after the gun has already been legally purchased by a person that has already been screened and holds a proper and up to date firearms license. Gun registration is automatic and only happens after all the checks have already occurred. The gun registry is not gun control. The gun registry does not prevent anybody from acquiring firearms. The long gun registry has not resulted in a single conviction in Canada. Nor has it been proven to have stopped a single crime. After the registry was implemented, it had no effect on how quickly gun deaths in Canada were already dropping. This is according to Statistics Canada. The only measure that has proven to curb gun deaths in Canada is licensing. Licensing will remain after the gun registry is abolished and that is a very good thing. The data in the gun registry is so muddled it is not admissible in court. It has a 90% error rate. http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publications/ErrorRatesLicencingRegistration.pdf Using the Montreal tragedies as a rationale to maintain the long gun registry is as ridiculous as it is deceitful. That argument unreservedly implies that a mad man would choose not go on a murderous rampage because the gun he has is registered. I find that logic (or lack of it) beyond preposterous.
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- Mongo
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:11
If "gun control" is so fantastic, why do the anti-gun extremists always have to lie to support it?
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- Jenn Sikorsky
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:11
Wow! I can't believe it, I just checked some of the info that all the anti gun registry people have been saying in the comments. They have their fact right. The article says more then 75 women are killed by their intimate partner. Where do the authors get their facts from? StatsCan says otherwise. As a women married to a police officer, I can tell you that he doesn't use the registry at all. To the Examiner, please check the facts claimed by authors before posting them.
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- L. Iberty
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:10
Why isn't it showing my text? Anyways, why don't the Marc lepines of this world shoot up police stations or gun ranges? Please excuse my incompetence with typing on a cell phone.
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- Douglas Bailey
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:10
No one can deny that this was truly an horrendous, tragic event, but to use it to justify and support the existence of the wasteful and ineffective long gun registry is nothing more than emotional gamesmanship. The money misdirected to the long gun registry could have been better used to fund anti-violence education or more womens' shelters. In a world of priorities, the money certainly went in the wrong direction. Mention of Marc Lepin and lawful gun owners in the same sentence is certainly misleading. Lepin was a sick man. He grew up in a female hating family and was mentally ill. To say that lawful gun owners are just criminals waiting to be unleashed is akin to accusing all who drink alcohol of being drunken and irresponsible impaired drivers. There simply is no connection. We need to focus more on human behaviour and less on innanimate objects.
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- Leandra Murray
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:10
Maggie Rose It's interesting that every comment here against the registry is written by a man. Just sayin. Wow! They accuse you of lying and all you can come up with is this profoundly bigoted statement. Is it possible you are one of those man hating types who naturally assume all men are wrong and you are right regardless of facts…..fact do get in the way don’t they?
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- Teddy T Bear
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:09
Sorry I’m not trying to be insensitive, but the though of some using others as martyrs to further their agendas whether in Feminism, anti-gun, hoopla phobic (fear of arm men), misandry (hatred of men), for political gain or any other reason, is a little disturbing in itself. Some individuals here don’t want to hear or understand the root cause of violent behavior or admit their subject knowledge may be bias. Also being Canadian, doesn’t have to mean only deciding what desk to hide under, blaming or labeling others when dealing with acts of criminal insanity. We as Canadians need to solve problems without putting our backs up against the wall and analyzed solutions respectively. I do sympathize with the violence against women objective but don’t agree on some of solutions brought forward over the last two decades. The redundancy of long gun registry hasn’t solved or deterred, with any measurable amount of success in crime and is seems to be always confused with National testing, screening and licensing individuals.
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- Teddy Bear
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:09
Help us ensure that our classmates did not die in vain -------------------------------------------------------------- How could they rest in peace when their still stomping on their graves. I still find it amazing those trained at that level of education still can fail to do research to actually know what their talking about. Audacity, arrogance and plain ignorance rolled up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Neurotic phobia comes to mind and saying gun owners are spreading myths.Wow!
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- John Evers
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:08
Sorry Maggie............I can have my 19 year old daughter come and post. She is a competative handgun shooter afterall. You can bet that if she had been armed at Ecole we would not be having this conversation. But that does not take away from your obvious misandry.
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- Chuck Buster
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:08
Interesting how the Coalition for Gun Control attributes a 30 year trend with the implemenation of the registry some 10 years ago. As I recall, the Coalition's high priestess, Wendy Cukier was hard pressed to come up wih a defense of this fact in an interview with the National Post. From what I remember, she was unable to definitively say that the claim was factually correct. Instead, she left it largely as a matter of conjecture. At the same time, from Statistics Canada it would appear from the homicide tables that the 30 year old decline in spousal homicides seems to have stopped and begun to plateau since the implementation of the registry. That of course would mean that the registry has done nothing to solve the problem of spousal homicides or homicides in general. Now how about that?
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- Shawn Kay
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:07
I find this type of journalism disturbing. The information contained in the gun registry was already being controlled by police services across the country, therefore making the gun registry redundant. The money used for the gun registry could have been better served in social programs to prevent tragedies like this. Perhaps if the unfortunate victims of this tragedy were armed, the outcome would have been very different. The same legislation people think will protect them, only prevents them from protecting themselves from the same thing they strive to avoid.
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- Jeffery Walker B.T.D.T
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:06
Well. My wife has a Concealed Carry Permit. Why? Events like Poly taught us that the realistic response was to be prepared to defend one's life instead of curling up in a corner hoping for someone else to do it. Dial 911. The police are minutes away when seconds count. A CCW license, course, firearm(HANDGUN) and gear comes to about 1000.00. It provides for her immediate availability to protect herself. 911 costs millions, the Registry thousands of millions. You do the math and tell me which one can save a life for the least dollar expense.
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- Carson Hirner
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:06
STOP using falsehoods to promote that useless albatross: the Gun Registry. If you want to protect women, stop advocating for them to be disarmed! Funny how mass murders always happen in gun free zones like schools or miltary bases (yes, regular soldiers are disarmed on bases). As stated above, let's try a different approach. Guns in the right hands save lots of lives!! That's why we arm our police after all. Please put your emotion away and re-engage your logic centers. We ALL want to save lives. Let's not waste more money on useless bureacracy
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- Edward Teach
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:05
It's interesting how different people react to these sorts of tragedies in different ways. Suzanna Gratia Hupp was present at Luby's Cafeteria in Texas when a crazed gunman drove his truck through a window and began shooting patrons. She lost both of her parents in that massacre. She later went on to become an advocate for concealed carry rights, reasoning that equipping would-be victims with the tools necessary to defend themselves in the event that they were confronted by such horror. You, also an eyewitness and a victim, instead advocate piling on layers of bureaucracy. Which is a more effective countermeasure? Did additional bureaucracy save the lives of four RCMP officers at Mayerthorpe? Did additional bureaucracy save the life of Anastasia DeSouza? The failed gun registry has had its chance. Perhaps it's time to try a different approach.
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- Andrew Spencer
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:05
14 years... 2 billion dollars... "10,000 hits a day"... and not a single crime prevented or solved. More women are murdered with knives than with guns every year, and more partners are assaulted with fists or anything close at hand that can be used as a weapon. Let's focus on violent behaviour, not the tools. The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again, expecting different results. In that context, the registry is a failure and a fraud perpetrated on Canada as a knee-jerk, feel-good reaction to this tragedy.
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- Greg Popik
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:05
The shooting was a certainly a tragedy. A larger tragedy is the fact that some sick misandrists annually twist this event to encourage hatred and shame for masculine ideals as they lobby for bad laws that target the wrong people. Like policies that prevent parents from taking cameras to playgrounds as a measure to prevent pedophiles from targeting and filming children, it makes about as much sense as kicking the hell out of my dog when the neighbors dog barks at night. As stupid ideas go, it really is a Two Billion dollar contender. But the yearly exploitation of this tragedy to justify a failed program that only ever targeted law abiding citizens is not only a shameful slap in the face of victims who should have had their peers stand up to defend them. Its getting very old on account of the political shenanigans.
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- Brad 514
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:04
There's no shortage of people trying to leverage the memory of a tragic event to further their political (and thus financial) agenda. This 'Open Letter' was likely crafted over weeks or months and every word discussed by the three co-authors and edited to maximize it's emotional impact. If nearly as much time had been spent verifying data... Quoted from a Statistics Canada report: Homicide in Canada 2008 The rate of female victims has generally been declining since the late 1960s... This decline may be related to the decline in spousal homicide rates over the past 30 years... The overall rate of homicides committed with a firearm generally declined from the mid-1970s to 2002. However, since then, the rate of firearm homicides has generally been increasing. Between 2002 and 2008 the rate of firearm homicides went up by 24% including a 5% increase in 2008... Guns on the street in the hands of criminals... Had the 2 billion (or more) dollars been spent to that end we would all be safer today. A 5% increase last year. What do you suppose the statistics will show us for this year? This is an increase in non-registered guns used by criminals who will never register their guns. With all due respect to the victims and their families, I wish those who embarked on their 'mission' as a reaction to the acts of a single lunatic would finally admit that they were wrong in how they sought to improve things and direct their efforts toward something that actually produces results. Even if it means they can't expense their lunches when they meet.
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- Dave Chappelle
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:04
December 6th is the 20th anniversary of the day a deranged man entered L’Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, segregated females and males, and used a rifle to slaughter 14 young women. It is the anniversary of dozens of males standing around with their thumbs in their mouths while a crazed Muslim (given name Gamil Gharbi) murdered 14 women. It is the anniversary of Montreal and Quebec Provincial Police standing around outside while 14 killings took place, and waiting until long after the shooting had stopped before entering the building. It is also the event that the Liberal government used to begin socially engineering Canada into the defenseless image desired by the ruling elite. After 20 years Canadians now realize that elitist dream for the empty promise it was. How do they know? Because the expensive gun registry was useless at preventing another lunatic from using a rifle to shoot up yet another Montreal school. Canadians have smartened up to the fact that billions of dollars spent registering hunting rifles was completely wasted on Liberal contractors. Indeed, the ethics advisor to Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) resigned over the money given CACP – particularly the “donations” from CGI Group, which administrates the firearm registry. Police officers ignore the registry because they know criminals don’t register guns. Regardless of how many thousands of times automatic checks are run on law-abiding citizens, the registry remains worse than useless. Even the RCMP admits it has been hacked hundreds of times, providing criminals with shopping lists of where guns are stored. After 20 years of false promises and billions of wasted tax dollars, Canadians are fed up with the elitist’s dream. And they’re even more fed up with elitists dancing on the graves of 14 women to guilt a once proud country into accepting foolish law.
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- Colin Vincent
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:03
This article is full of twisted statistics and outright lies. Why? If the argument for gun control is so strong, why does it rely on deception? All the registry money could have been used to better effect in innumerable other ways. Health care? No, who wants to ACTUALLY save lives or diagnose the mentally ill before they commit a crime. Police resources? No, who wants to solve crimes? Anti-smuggling efforts? No, far too practical. After all, smuggling is the main source of illegal firearms. No, let's just criminalise already law abiding folks because of the action of one woman-hating madman Also, you call the Mini-14 an 'assault' weapon? Hardly. It is a semi-automatic sporting rifle. Ask any miliary in the world and you won't find any semi-automatic 'assault' rifles. An assault rifle is automatic. Using the word 'assault' is just playing to sensationsalism. A Canadian civilian can't legally aquire an 'assault' weapon. So put this garbage to bed. In short, please stop politicising the tragic deaths of these poor victims. And stop trying to make law-abiding Canadians pay for it, decade after decade.
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- HTC1
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:03
I am a man, I own guns. Does that mean I will do what Gamil Gharbi did, also a man with a gun ? I'm also a Chinese born Canadian. Does that mean I will do what the Chinese Canadian drug dealing gangsters in Calgary and Vancouver do?
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- L. Iberty
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:03
Ooops, ran out of room. Why don't the Marc lepines (
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- Eric Weder
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:03
My deepest condolences to Nathalie, the other survivors, and the families of those slain twenty years ago. I myself was an engineering student at the time of the tragedy. The fact remains that bill C-68 and the gun registry have done nothing to enhance the safety of women, nor of men, nor of children. These knee-jerk responses to a tragedy were never on target, and the result is billions of dollars wasted and harmless people in jail for paper crimes, while evil men continue to walk our streets.
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- L. Iberty
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:02
Can the author of this piece answer one simple question for me? Here it is Maggie: how does being legislated into being defenceless make one safer? Is this the circular logic of the coalition for gun control: "We must ban guns because a lunatic could go on a shooting spree at any moment, but anyone who wants to carry a gun to protect themselves from such a lunatic is paranoid" why don't the Marc lepines (
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- Michel Trahan
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:02
Twenty years later... we still have learned anything! Paperwork doesn't make YOU or ME any safer... Want some proof? - In 1991, Marc Lepine murdered fourteen women at l'ecole Polytechnique. Marc Lepine had a government issued firearm license and used a legally bought firearm. - In 1992, Dr. Valery Fabrikant murdered four colleagues at Concordia University. Dr. Valery Fabrikant had a government issued firearm license and used legally bought firearms. - in 2006, Kimveer Gill murdered an innocent student at Dawson College. Kimveer Gill had a government issued firearm license and used legally bought firearms. all 3 individuals had some known mental issues, all 3 of them had try to seek help, the system failed to help all 3 of them... and most importantly, all 3 of them were able to bypass the so call paperwork security measures. If we want to reduce violence in Canada, we'll have to start help the sick and disturbed individuals instead of trowing paperwork at them.
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- Vari Rampasahd
- - February 17th, 2010 at 14:18:01
Even if Lepine had been required to register his rifle, how would that have prevented this tragedy? Registration is just a number on a piece of paper and in a database. How would either of those bits of information prevent Lepine from pulling the trigger on those women? Answer: they wouldn't. The requirement for having a license is not being removed. lepine still had to get a license from the police to buy a gun, which in those days meant walking into a police station and filling in a form in person, and waiting while they ran a check on you. If the police couldn't see that he was a danger when they had him at the police station, how would they be able to stop him between then and the day of the tragedy? It would be best if all the money spent on registering guns was used for women's shelters instead, so that they and their children would have somewhere to go when an abusive spouse threatens them. Wasting more money on this ineffective registry is spitting on the graves of the women who died.
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- Dave
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:41
As tragic as the events 20 years ago are, it does not change the fact that none of the changes to Canada's firearms laws since this event would have prevented it. We have added a couple of hoops that new firearms owners must initially jump through, but they are nothing more than hoops. Our firearms laws are politically motivated and lack common sense. Unfortunately, so many Canadians are so unfamiliar with our laws that they don't realize this and simply assume more is good and less is bad. The reality is farmers need to protect their livestock, hunters have a right to harvest deer and other species and many outdoorsman need firearms for protection from predators. All the firearms designed for the preceding legal purposes, will also do a wonderful of killing people in the wrong hands and will do the job just as well, if not better than black firearms people fear. The reality is, the anti gun lobby is woefully uninformed and present arguments based on emotion rather than logic and knowledge of our system.
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- L. Hill
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:41
I'd like to present the fact that the mini-14 is just a gun. Assault weapons have been banned (fully automatic) in Canada for a long time. I have a farm, and my mini-14 has been instrumental in protecting my property from varmints and predators. Banning any one item because of its history of misuse by a maniac is inane. Controlling and helping people with mental health issue is the answer, too bad so much money has been blown on chasing legal gun owners with the registry.
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- David Roussel
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:40
On days like this, I have to wonder why the Coalition for Gun Control drags the dead out to politicize this tragedy. Why is it that the actions of one madman 20 years ago has so taken the minds of these crusaders? Their rational is that they need to hammer home the fact that a firearm was used to kill, thus the country should be stuck with ineffectual and costly legislation that was rushed into law by a Liberal government that is long since gone. It doesn't seem to matter to the CGC that said laws criminalize law abiding citizens. It doesn't matter that the Registry has never solved a single crime. It doesn't matter that the Registry is wasting our money as I write this. Instead, every year about this time; they gather to rail against a society that allowed something so terrible to happen. The tragedy has passed, new tragedies await. It is the cycle of life and living. The late comedian George Carlin once said that there is no rebuilding after a tragedy, just a short pause before the next tragedy. No law in the world will stop a madman. So, we should remember those who passed on that terrible day, but we need to lay the spectre of a madman to rest. The CGC needs to stop politicizing this tragedy, some 20 years hence and let people get on with the living of life in this wonderful, free society of ours. Letting the Registry go and bill C-391 pass on will only speed the healing and we can get ready for the next tragedy. We know there will be one regardless of what we write in the hallowed halls of Ottawa.
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- Pittsky
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:40
Most people who want the long gun registry to stay don’t understand what it really is. The gun registry is not gun control by any definition. The gun registry does not screen potential gun owners. It only lays a piece of paper beside a gun after the gun has already been legally purchased by a person that has already been screened and holds a proper and up to date firearms license. Gun registration is automatic and only happens after all the checks have already occurred. The gun registry is not gun control. The gun registry does not prevent anybody from acquiring firearms. The long gun registry has not resulted in a single conviction in Canada. Nor has it been proven to have stopped a single crime. After the registry was implemented, it had no effect on how quickly gun deaths in Canada were already dropping. This is according to Statistics Canada. The only measure that has proven to curb gun deaths in Canada is licensing. Licensing will remain after the gun registry is abolished and that is a very good thing. The data in the gun registry is so muddled it is not admissible in court. It has a 90% error rate. http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publications/ErrorRatesLicencingRegistration.pdf Using the Montreal tragedies as a rationale to maintain the long gun registry is as ridiculous as it is deceitful. That argument unreservedly implies that a mad man would choose not go on a murderous rampage because the gun he has is registered. I find that logic (or lack of it) beyond preposterous.
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- Wayne Lymburner
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:40
Another Dec. 6th is passing. Another memorial vigil will be held for the unfortunate women of L'Ecole Polytechnique who were murdered by Gamil Gharbi. This day is a day of incalculable emotion, but it is also a day that should never have happened. Emotion is the root cause of this tragedy. Emotion is devoid of logic, reason, and morality. Gharbi in his emotionally disturbed state committed the ultimate immoral act: he took human life. Every human being has the inalienable right to life; a right we forfeit only when we contrive to commit violence against a fellow human being. Gharbi was able to commit such a heinous a act solely because another immoral act was committed by the law and socialization. The law and our society removed our ability to defend our lives. There was not a single person on that campus that could have stopped Gharbi; the law made this so. The solution to this tragedy was even more irrational, illogical and emotionally unglued than Gharbi. Yes logic and reason left Canada that day... one deranged individual caused logic and reason to leave this Country. The Canadian Coalition for Gun Control -- with the aid of an immoral and opportunistic Government -- caused the most immoral law ever to be enacted by a Parliament of Canada. The Firearms Act authorized the criminalization of people who committed no crime. It authorized the use of force against individuals who had done nothing wrong. The most immoral part of this law, however, is that it ensured that another day like December 6th happened again. And it did, again in Montreal, again an angry emotionally disturbed person.
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- mike coyne
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:40
The event 20 years ago at l'ecole Polytechnique was a tragedy. It's a shame that the CGC uses it year after year as a spring board in its crusade to paint every man who owns a gun with the same brush. The bigger shame is just how many half-truths and outright lies are told in the above article in an effort to support the agenda of the CGC. Politics at the best of times require a strong stomach. Politics while standing on the graves of 14 women is nauseating.
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- Takami dono
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:40
The problem are not the tools in question, it is our failed society and education system. The real problem are not guns, but it sure is very easy to blame it on guns since they cannot talk back.
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- John Evers
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:40
After 20 years of dancing in the blood of the victims in a vain attempt to promote their sick vision of gun control. Why oh why do Heidi and her gang still have to openly LIE about the facts
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- Douglas Bailey
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:39
No one can deny that this was truly an horrendous, tragic event, but to use it to justify and support the existence of the wasteful and ineffective long gun registry is nothing more than emotional gamesmanship. The money misdirected to the long gun registry could have been better used to fund anti-violence education or more womens' shelters. In a world of priorities, the money certainly went in the wrong direction. Mention of Marc Lepin and lawful gun owners in the same sentence is certainly misleading. Lepin was a sick man. He grew up in a female hating family and was mentally ill. To say that lawful gun owners are just criminals waiting to be unleashed is akin to accusing all who drink alcohol of being drunken and irresponsible impaired drivers. There simply is no connection. We need to focus more on human behaviour and less on innanimate objects.
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- Leandra Murray
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:39
Maggie Rose It's interesting that every comment here against the registry is written by a man. Just sayin. Wow! They accuse you of lying and all you can come up with is this profoundly bigoted statement. Is it possible you are one of those man hating types who naturally assume all men are wrong and you are right regardless of facts…..fact do get in the way don’t they?
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- Mongo
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:39
If "gun control" is so fantastic, why do the anti-gun extremists always have to lie to support it?
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- Jenn Sikorsky
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:39
Wow! I can't believe it, I just checked some of the info that all the anti gun registry people have been saying in the comments. They have their fact right. The article says more then 75 women are killed by their intimate partner. Where do the authors get their facts from? StatsCan says otherwise. As a women married to a police officer, I can tell you that he doesn't use the registry at all. To the Examiner, please check the facts claimed by authors before posting them.
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- L. Iberty
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:38
Why isn't it showing my text? Anyways, why don't the Marc lepines of this world shoot up police stations or gun ranges? Please excuse my incompetence with typing on a cell phone.
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- Chuck Buster
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:37
Interesting how the Coalition for Gun Control attributes a 30 year trend with the implemenation of the registry some 10 years ago. As I recall, the Coalition's high priestess, Wendy Cukier was hard pressed to come up wih a defense of this fact in an interview with the National Post. From what I remember, she was unable to definitively say that the claim was factually correct. Instead, she left it largely as a matter of conjecture. At the same time, from Statistics Canada it would appear from the homicide tables that the 30 year old decline in spousal homicides seems to have stopped and begun to plateau since the implementation of the registry. That of course would mean that the registry has done nothing to solve the problem of spousal homicides or homicides in general. Now how about that?
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- Teddy T Bear
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:37
Sorry I’m not trying to be insensitive, but the though of some using others as martyrs to further their agendas whether in Feminism, anti-gun, hoopla phobic (fear of arm men), misandry (hatred of men), for political gain or any other reason, is a little disturbing in itself. Some individuals here don’t want to hear or understand the root cause of violent behavior or admit their subject knowledge may be bias. Also being Canadian, doesn’t have to mean only deciding what desk to hide under, blaming or labeling others when dealing with acts of criminal insanity. We as Canadians need to solve problems without putting our backs up against the wall and analyzed solutions respectively. I do sympathize with the violence against women objective but don’t agree on some of solutions brought forward over the last two decades. The redundancy of long gun registry hasn’t solved or deterred, with any measurable amount of success in crime and is seems to be always confused with National testing, screening and licensing individuals.
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- Teddy Bear
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:37
Help us ensure that our classmates did not die in vain -------------------------------------------------------------- How could they rest in peace when their still stomping on their graves. I still find it amazing those trained at that level of education still can fail to do research to actually know what their talking about. Audacity, arrogance and plain ignorance rolled up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Neurotic phobia comes to mind and saying gun owners are spreading myths.Wow!
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- Jeffery Walker B.T.D.T
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:36
Well. My wife has a Concealed Carry Permit. Why? Events like Poly taught us that the realistic response was to be prepared to defend one's life instead of curling up in a corner hoping for someone else to do it. Dial 911. The police are minutes away when seconds count. A CCW license, course, firearm(HANDGUN) and gear comes to about 1000.00. It provides for her immediate availability to protect herself. 911 costs millions, the Registry thousands of millions. You do the math and tell me which one can save a life for the least dollar expense.
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- Carson Hirner
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:36
STOP using falsehoods to promote that useless albatross: the Gun Registry. If you want to protect women, stop advocating for them to be disarmed! Funny how mass murders always happen in gun free zones like schools or miltary bases (yes, regular soldiers are disarmed on bases). As stated above, let's try a different approach. Guns in the right hands save lots of lives!! That's why we arm our police after all. Please put your emotion away and re-engage your logic centers. We ALL want to save lives. Let's not waste more money on useless bureacracy
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- Shawn Kay
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:36
I find this type of journalism disturbing. The information contained in the gun registry was already being controlled by police services across the country, therefore making the gun registry redundant. The money used for the gun registry could have been better served in social programs to prevent tragedies like this. Perhaps if the unfortunate victims of this tragedy were armed, the outcome would have been very different. The same legislation people think will protect them, only prevents them from protecting themselves from the same thing they strive to avoid.
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- John Evers
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:36
Sorry Maggie............I can have my 19 year old daughter come and post. She is a competative handgun shooter afterall. You can bet that if she had been armed at Ecole we would not be having this conversation. But that does not take away from your obvious misandry.
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- Greg Popik
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:35
The shooting was a certainly a tragedy. A larger tragedy is the fact that some sick misandrists annually twist this event to encourage hatred and shame for masculine ideals as they lobby for bad laws that target the wrong people. Like policies that prevent parents from taking cameras to playgrounds as a measure to prevent pedophiles from targeting and filming children, it makes about as much sense as kicking the hell out of my dog when the neighbors dog barks at night. As stupid ideas go, it really is a Two Billion dollar contender. But the yearly exploitation of this tragedy to justify a failed program that only ever targeted law abiding citizens is not only a shameful slap in the face of victims who should have had their peers stand up to defend them. Its getting very old on account of the political shenanigans.
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- Brad 514
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:34
There's no shortage of people trying to leverage the memory of a tragic event to further their political (and thus financial) agenda. This 'Open Letter' was likely crafted over weeks or months and every word discussed by the three co-authors and edited to maximize it's emotional impact. If nearly as much time had been spent verifying data... Quoted from a Statistics Canada report: Homicide in Canada 2008 The rate of female victims has generally been declining since the late 1960s... This decline may be related to the decline in spousal homicide rates over the past 30 years... The overall rate of homicides committed with a firearm generally declined from the mid-1970s to 2002. However, since then, the rate of firearm homicides has generally been increasing. Between 2002 and 2008 the rate of firearm homicides went up by 24% including a 5% increase in 2008... Guns on the street in the hands of criminals... Had the 2 billion (or more) dollars been spent to that end we would all be safer today. A 5% increase last year. What do you suppose the statistics will show us for this year? This is an increase in non-registered guns used by criminals who will never register their guns. With all due respect to the victims and their families, I wish those who embarked on their 'mission' as a reaction to the acts of a single lunatic would finally admit that they were wrong in how they sought to improve things and direct their efforts toward something that actually produces results. Even if it means they can't expense their lunches when they meet.
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- Dave Chappelle
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:34
December 6th is the 20th anniversary of the day a deranged man entered L’Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, segregated females and males, and used a rifle to slaughter 14 young women. It is the anniversary of dozens of males standing around with their thumbs in their mouths while a crazed Muslim (given name Gamil Gharbi) murdered 14 women. It is the anniversary of Montreal and Quebec Provincial Police standing around outside while 14 killings took place, and waiting until long after the shooting had stopped before entering the building. It is also the event that the Liberal government used to begin socially engineering Canada into the defenseless image desired by the ruling elite. After 20 years Canadians now realize that elitist dream for the empty promise it was. How do they know? Because the expensive gun registry was useless at preventing another lunatic from using a rifle to shoot up yet another Montreal school. Canadians have smartened up to the fact that billions of dollars spent registering hunting rifles was completely wasted on Liberal contractors. Indeed, the ethics advisor to Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) resigned over the money given CACP – particularly the “donations” from CGI Group, which administrates the firearm registry. Police officers ignore the registry because they know criminals don’t register guns. Regardless of how many thousands of times automatic checks are run on law-abiding citizens, the registry remains worse than useless. Even the RCMP admits it has been hacked hundreds of times, providing criminals with shopping lists of where guns are stored. After 20 years of false promises and billions of wasted tax dollars, Canadians are fed up with the elitist’s dream. And they’re even more fed up with elitists dancing on the graves of 14 women to guilt a once proud country into accepting foolish law.
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- Edward Teach
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:34
It's interesting how different people react to these sorts of tragedies in different ways. Suzanna Gratia Hupp was present at Luby's Cafeteria in Texas when a crazed gunman drove his truck through a window and began shooting patrons. She lost both of her parents in that massacre. She later went on to become an advocate for concealed carry rights, reasoning that equipping would-be victims with the tools necessary to defend themselves in the event that they were confronted by such horror. You, also an eyewitness and a victim, instead advocate piling on layers of bureaucracy. Which is a more effective countermeasure? Did additional bureaucracy save the lives of four RCMP officers at Mayerthorpe? Did additional bureaucracy save the life of Anastasia DeSouza? The failed gun registry has had its chance. Perhaps it's time to try a different approach.
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- Andrew Spencer
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:34
14 years... 2 billion dollars... "10,000 hits a day"... and not a single crime prevented or solved. More women are murdered with knives than with guns every year, and more partners are assaulted with fists or anything close at hand that can be used as a weapon. Let's focus on violent behaviour, not the tools. The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again, expecting different results. In that context, the registry is a failure and a fraud perpetrated on Canada as a knee-jerk, feel-good reaction to this tragedy.
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- L. Iberty
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:33
Can the author of this piece answer one simple question for me? Here it is Maggie: how does being legislated into being defenceless make one safer? Is this the circular logic of the coalition for gun control: "We must ban guns because a lunatic could go on a shooting spree at any moment, but anyone who wants to carry a gun to protect themselves from such a lunatic is paranoid" why don't the Marc lepines (
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- Michel Trahan
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:33
Twenty years later... we still have learned anything! Paperwork doesn't make YOU or ME any safer... Want some proof? - In 1991, Marc Lepine murdered fourteen women at l'ecole Polytechnique. Marc Lepine had a government issued firearm license and used a legally bought firearm. - In 1992, Dr. Valery Fabrikant murdered four colleagues at Concordia University. Dr. Valery Fabrikant had a government issued firearm license and used legally bought firearms. - in 2006, Kimveer Gill murdered an innocent student at Dawson College. Kimveer Gill had a government issued firearm license and used legally bought firearms. all 3 individuals had some known mental issues, all 3 of them had try to seek help, the system failed to help all 3 of them... and most importantly, all 3 of them were able to bypass the so call paperwork security measures. If we want to reduce violence in Canada, we'll have to start help the sick and disturbed individuals instead of trowing paperwork at them.
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- Colin Vincent
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:33
This article is full of twisted statistics and outright lies. Why? If the argument for gun control is so strong, why does it rely on deception? All the registry money could have been used to better effect in innumerable other ways. Health care? No, who wants to ACTUALLY save lives or diagnose the mentally ill before they commit a crime. Police resources? No, who wants to solve crimes? Anti-smuggling efforts? No, far too practical. After all, smuggling is the main source of illegal firearms. No, let's just criminalise already law abiding folks because of the action of one woman-hating madman Also, you call the Mini-14 an 'assault' weapon? Hardly. It is a semi-automatic sporting rifle. Ask any miliary in the world and you won't find any semi-automatic 'assault' rifles. An assault rifle is automatic. Using the word 'assault' is just playing to sensationsalism. A Canadian civilian can't legally aquire an 'assault' weapon. So put this garbage to bed. In short, please stop politicising the tragic deaths of these poor victims. And stop trying to make law-abiding Canadians pay for it, decade after decade.
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- HTC1
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:33
I am a man, I own guns. Does that mean I will do what Gamil Gharbi did, also a man with a gun ? I'm also a Chinese born Canadian. Does that mean I will do what the Chinese Canadian drug dealing gangsters in Calgary and Vancouver do?
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- L. Iberty
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:33
Ooops, ran out of room. Why don't the Marc lepines (
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- Eric Weder
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:33
My deepest condolences to Nathalie, the other survivors, and the families of those slain twenty years ago. I myself was an engineering student at the time of the tragedy. The fact remains that bill C-68 and the gun registry have done nothing to enhance the safety of women, nor of men, nor of children. These knee-jerk responses to a tragedy were never on target, and the result is billions of dollars wasted and harmless people in jail for paper crimes, while evil men continue to walk our streets.
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- Vari Rampasahd
- - February 10th, 2010 at 12:55:32
Even if Lepine had been required to register his rifle, how would that have prevented this tragedy? Registration is just a number on a piece of paper and in a database. How would either of those bits of information prevent Lepine from pulling the trigger on those women? Answer: they wouldn't. The requirement for having a license is not being removed. lepine still had to get a license from the police to buy a gun, which in those days meant walking into a police station and filling in a form in person, and waiting while they ran a check on you. If the police couldn't see that he was a danger when they had him at the police station, how would they be able to stop him between then and the day of the tragedy? It would be best if all the money spent on registering guns was used for women's shelters instead, so that they and their children would have somewhere to go when an abusive spouse threatens them. Wasting more money on this ineffective registry is spitting on the graves of the women who died.
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- Maggie Rose
- - February 10th, 2010 at 11:46:28
It's interesting that every comment here against the registry is written by a man. Just sayin.
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- Mark Goddard
- - February 8th, 2010 at 11:15:12
The gun registry can be easily defeated if a gun owner files-off the serial numbers. The gun can no longer be traced back to its owner. The gun can then be sold to anyone. Gun audits are not done on gun owners to see if they still have the gun that is registered to them, even when renewing a gun license. If they do not renew their licenses, they can claim the gun was stolen or lost in a boating accident or that they sold it to an American who was visiting in Canada.It is not the gun registry that keeps law abiding gun owners in line, it is the law itself.Good people follow the laws of the land. The gun registry is redundant and innefective.Gun LICENSING is what screens citizens for gun ownership and gun licenses can tell the police that the citizen might be armed.Many otherwise law abiding citizens also own unregistered guns and certainly crimnals don`t register their guns. The police may consult the registry often but does it really help and does it make cops more trigger happy? Shouldn`t all citizens be given the benefit of the doubt and be treated equally? The police are announcing the make, model and locations of firearms over their police channels all the time. Criminrals use police scanners too. This has put gun owning citizens at risk of break and enter and home invasion. The firearms data in the registry is also not secure.The money wasted on the registry could have gone into building womens shelters and setting up help programs for those who may want to do harm to others.This continuing waste of money is really only a catharsis for the emotional suffering for the people involved in the Montreal massacre. The killer is being made infamous from all the propaganda. It is sickening.The gun registry should be scrapped.
