The commemoration of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre of Dec. 6, 1989, in which 14 young women were murdered by a lone gunman, has always been a subdued affair. But this year the ceremonies will take on an even more sombre aspect as they unfold under the pall of the imminent abolition by the federal government of the long-gun registry, created following those deaths.
As many as 600 people, including those who lost family members in the massacre, will converge on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday morning to remember the dead and to repeat their argument that the gun registry protects lives.
A federal bill eliminating the registry is in third reading and could soon be passed.
At noon in Montreal, a demonstration organized by a collection of Quebec women's groups will take place in front of the Montreal courthouse to protest violence against women.
No one has ever accused our current Prime Minister nor his gang of neo-con thugs of giving a festering gob for women. Or for the poor, the sick, the weak, the mentally ill, or First Nations. Or anyone who isn't rich and male, in fact. As their passage, yesterday, of the Omnibus Crime Bill, a regressive, punitive, expensive and phenomenally stupid throw-em-all-in-jail-and-throw-away-the-keys piece of legislation which will do damage it will take decades to undo once we've finally got the sack of crap out of office. Which won't be for another 3 years at least because he's got a fucking majority. I am in despair.
ReplyDeleteBut the Long Gun Registry? Why would we want that? Let lunatics kills as many bimbos as they like. Who cares, they're only women.
I simply wanted Merely Academic to know that it is possible for there to be genuine debate on these issues (the justice system, criminal penalties, the efficacy of the gun registry vs. its costs) and that there are normal academics who who would disagree with what she says. I'm not wanting to open a debate on these issues since I don't think this is the venue. And no, I don't think any of my colleagues believes I'm some sort of thug. It might come as news to Merely Academic, but there are hunters, farmers, skeet shooters, etc. (I know them all) who actually care about women's lives.
ReplyDeleteI'm embarrassed to say I've never heard of this tragedy. Now I've read up and I just feel so sorrowful for the victims and their families.
ReplyDeleteI was not much more than a kid when it happened.
Terribly sad. Thanks to whoever sent this in.
It was never the wake up call it should have been in the women's movement. Bless you, ladies.
ReplyDeleteAmongst my friends who are also university profs we occasionally talk about a number of shooting incidents that have occurred on campuses, but being Canadian we certainly talk most about the Montreal Massacre, and in terms that go beyond gun control and into women's issues and the importance of access to postsecondary education for women's rights. I would agree with Myra and I'm reminded of a phrase I once heard as a student, "this is a turning point that failed to turn."
ReplyDeleteDue respect to both Merely's indignation and Steve's effort to moderate, but at least in the US of A, the reasonable gun users Steve mentions have been marginalized by an insanely rabid lobbying force which inspires the sort of discontent embodied in Merely's words.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize Canada also had a Texas whose "conservative values" had been given a disproportionate amount of control over the national mindset.
It is indeed sad when "turning points fail to turn" or when intellectually bankrupt ideologies are not relegated to scrap heap of history.
I think the turning point 'failed to turn' because it happened in Canada, so it didn't get wide press. I am not sure, even now, if crimes against women qua women can be prosecuted as hate crimes. The mass murderer at l'Ecole Polytechnique made everyone in the classroom lie down, and then walked around the room, selectively killing only the women. Then he walked through the rest of the building, shooting mostly women. In the end he had murdered 14 women, and wounded 10 more women and 4 men. He left a suicide note blaming feminists for ruining his life. This was clearly a hate crime but I do not know, had he lived, if it would have been prosecuted as one, even if the law allows that; because misogyny is embedded in our culture even more deeply than homophobia, racism, and classism, and so it is harder to see. It is easier to say that he was obviously insane - since that's true - without reflecting on how his culture was reflected in the distorted lens of his insanity.
ReplyDeleteSo, as PP says: the turning point failed to turn. But the tide, equally, moved on. More than 50% of university students and graduates in Canada today are women. Not in Engineering, though. That's still a male preserve, as the shooter in Montreal in 1989 wanted it to be.
I wanted to add: I know the killer's name of course, but one feature of the memorial services conducted up here on December 6 is that his name is not mentioned. We remember instead the names of the 14 who died. Thanks for posting the picture of the memorial, CM.
ReplyDeleteSteve (may I call you Steve?)
ReplyDeleteThere may well be legitimate places for such a debate. Unfortunately, the House of Commons is no longer one of them given Your Namesake's enthusiasm for invoking closure on debate.
Maybe 'thug' is inflamatory (whether its accurate can be debated). But the long gun registry was brought in *because* of the Montreal Massacre, and the government will scrap it next week while issuing insincere comments about “a solemn day to remember the victims of violence against women, especially the victims of the attacks at École Polytechnique.”
That there is certainly some dickish behaviour.
Sorry Rosenkranzt and/ or Guildenstern, but you're mistaking any action for productive action. Yes the long gun registry was brought in because of the Ecole Polytechnique shootings, but had it existed before that it would not have stopped Lepine. Its intent was good, but its details and implementation were not. I don't think I am being dickish in deploring the brutal murder of those women (which I do) and at the same time not believing that the long gun registry was the answer to the problem. Or do you think that one is obliged to support the registry if one thinks that murdering people is bad? As an academic, I want to see evidence, and I don't think name-calling is a way to have a debate. As an aside, I have never owned or even fired a gun, and I consider myself a lifelong supporter of women's rights.
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