Tomorrow is December 6th - Part 2

On December 6th, 1989 a madman stalked the hallways of L'École Polytechnique in Montréal. He shot and killed fourteen women. He singled out women. While he stalked these women down, he was screaming "I hate feminists". He was born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian immigrant man who was an alcoholic and abusive to Gamil's mother. When his parents divorced, his name was changed to Marc LePine.

This tragic event shocked Quebec, Canada, and the world. A cry went up in certain corners to ban guns, something that resonated here in Canada. This event led to a series of gun controls that ended up costing over $2 billion dollars, yet the coroners report had this to say:

The issue of firearms control has intentionally not been addressed. With the unlimited ammunition and time that Marc Lépine had available to him, he would probably have been able to achieve similar results even with a conventional hunting weapon, which itself is readily accessible. On the other hand, the importance of the questions raised in respect of pre-hospital care and police emergency response are matters that are worthy of our full attention.

So, today I read an article. It was talking about how women's shelters were running out of money. I think to myself, what the hell is wrong here?

We've spent $2billion dollars on a gun registry, and can't afford to keep our shelters open. That's fucked up. Really. That is tremendously, and horrifically twisted.

The gun registry has been called a memorial to those fourteen women. It isn't. As a licensed gun owner which he was, Marc Lepine could walk into a store today, and walk out with the exact same semi-automatic firearm that he did that day over fifteen years ago. In actual fact, the system as it stands today is even less likely to stop people who shouldn't get firearms from getting them.

I have been fighting for years to destroy that memorial, because I don't see it as such. I see it as a continuation of the attitudes that led to their deaths. These women have been portrayed as victims of Marc Lepine. The sad fact is that Marc Lepine was a victim of poverty, an abused childhood, and a twisted religious upbringing. He didn't stand a chance. They were victims of a system that has systematically told women that they can't defend themselves. How many times could those women have fought back and won? How many of them would have died if we had CCW in Canada.

The reality is that too many people were killed and injured that day because they trusted the system to protect them, and the system can't protect them. There are going to be other mass murders. We really have to change our attitude towards self defence, so that the next Gamil Gharbi runs into women who will fight back.

I am not blaming those women for not fighting back, for being Too Canadian. It's how we as Canadians have been trained to be. It's how we've been taught. Our government has made us believe that it's the Canadian way. The same reason that not a single man stepped forward to grab Gamil, despite there being opportunities to do so, but instead they docilely walked out of a classroom with a crazed armed man, leaving the women behind.

So what would I like the legacy, or the memorial to be? For one, I'd like to see some of the $2 billion spent on programs to help women who were abused. I'd also like to see programs aimed at the chidren of families that are dysfunctional. I'd like see that we stop future Gamil Gharbi's from ever getting created. Ultimately I'd like to see a society where neighbours see a man in crisis who's about to go postal, and step in to help him. I'd like to see CCW implemented in Canada so that if those programs fail, women won't have to hide under chairs and helplessly hope for someone else to come and help them.

Ultimately I'd like to see a society where people actually give a shit. Where people who are insane get the help they need, where people who are in danger can not only help themselves, but also count on the help of the people around them.



Nef pour quatorze reines - Memorial to the women who died