Tragedy at Dawson College

While reports remain uncomfirmed, a guman (possibly two) walked into Dawson College here in Montreal and opened fire on students. For Americans or readers outside Quebec in Canada, College is basically equivalent to Grade 12 and 13. The age group is 17 or 18 years of age on average.

As I write this, up to 16 people have been shot, 8 critically. French sources - who were first to provide coverage through RDI - were reporting that two (and not one) gunmen have been killed (one by police and the other by suicide). Unfortunately, they are also reporting that two students may also be dead. The figures will fluctuate in the coming hours no doubt.

It's a sick story. I attended Dawson College in the early 90s as did many of my friends. It's located in the heart of downtown Montreal in the district of Westmount - the wealthiest district in all of Quebec. Beneath the beautiful campus exists an extensive underground city that stretches eastward for several blocks (a few kilometers) that marks this fair city - and also an easy escape route as the subway is also attached to Dawson. I'm also often in the area as the Montreal Children's Hospital is nearby (for my autism foundation and my daughter). The story is obviously close to me.

This is the third tragedy to strike Montreal since 1989. In 1989, Marc Lépine entered the University of Montreal and shot dead 16 women from the engineering faculty. It was a defining moment in contemporary Montreal history as it was the first mass murder this city had ever witnessed on this scale. Lépine killed himself and now resides in the bowels of hell. In the mid 1990s an engineering professor named Valery Fabrikant opened fire on his colleagues killing I believe four people. He is currently in prison serving a life sentence. And now this.

It got me thinking about many things. The arm chair psychologist and sociologist for one thing. There will, as usual, be a lot of finger pointing (some may blame America I am sure) from gun imports to violence on TV. Heaven knows what stupidity the NDP will come up with. But it really points to a deeper malaise doesn't it? Canadians still live in a world where they think this sort of act of random violence is an anomaly. That we somewhow are immuned from this. It isn't anymore. We've had our share of violence. Our own list of serial killers is long and the fact is that mass killings are not restricted to America. Indeed, it transcends 'Canadian' or 'American' labelling. There is something going on that cuts right through nationality.

Now, without getting into a debate - this is clearly not the time. However, I will say that Montreal averages 90 murders a year for a population of 3 million. In terms of major cities, this is low but we do seem to be vulnerable to major incidences as seen today.

This eventually brought me to Michael Moore and his hysterical nonsense. Once and for all I no longer want to hear about how pristine Canada is. Yes, on average, there is far less gratuitous violence up here. However, we do have our own problems (robbery and rape remains high on a per capita basis. Not to mention a growing gang problem and outright violence in urban centers in all our major cities. Notably Winnipeg, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal). I wonder what fabricated spin Moore can come up with a-la Columbine in the aftermath of this tragedy.

The fact is that this was an isolated case from someone who suffered some form of psychological trauma in his life. It's important to at least understand the in order to begin the process of finding solutions to help prevent this sort of thing from happening again. As we have seen time and again across the continent, what may seem as spontaneous acts of evil often have been dormant inside the mind of a person. How do defend against this?

By extension, pressure is already mounting for Harper to not scrap the gun registry. The problem is that it's not just access to the guns. People with intentions to kill will find out ways to carry out their mission. The gun registry proved to be a disorganized collossal waste of money that only the lawful were observing. Besides, it seems to me we would be better off focusing on other aspects that lead to such events. Getting access to guns is probably the last step a person completes before going on a rampage. What about dealing with bullying once and for all first?

In any event, Montreal has a world class police force and from what I observed they lived up to this reputation. They were organized, brave and outstanding in their approach. As were Urgence Santé (our Paramedics). They were quick on the scene and as a result were able to kill the gunman. The sealed off the area and established a perimeter and were in control of a very difficult situation. Montrealers can take comfort that our government and police forces did learn from previous experiences.

Alas, this is neither here or there. Kids have been possibly killed. It was the first day of school for them. They were met with evil instead. I feel for them. The city feels for them. God Bless and God speed to the victims.