Canadians marked the 25th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre with ceremonies and vigils across the country Saturday.
It's been 25 years since Marc Lepine entered Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique and opened fire, killing 14 women. During the violent attack, Lepine was heard ranting that feminists had ruined his life.
In addition to the slain women, Lepine also wounded 13 others, before he took his own life on Dec. 6, 1989.
In Montreal, a procession marched through the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery on Saturday, along with the traditional laying of white roses outside of the school.
A light show was also set up at the top of Mont Royal, featuring 14 beams of light emanating from the mountain to honour the 14 women killed in the attack.
Current Quebec premier Philippe Couillard and former Montreal mayor Jean Doré were also among those who spoke to a crowded Mount Royal auditorium Saturday evening. Many of those in attendance were family members of the women killed.
Louis Courville, former principal of Ecole Polytechnique, also attended services in Quebec on Saturday. He said he still remembers standing behind the police tape the night of the shooting.
“There were many parents, mothers and fathers, who were asking me if their daughter was all right,” Courville told CTV’s Genevieve Beauchemin. “And I had to say, ‘I don’t know.’”
Vigils were also held in other Canadian cities. In Toronto, approximately 50 people attended a candlelight vigil at the University of Toronto. Small signs bearing the names of women killed in acts of violence lined a hill on the St. George campus.
Romain Gayet, the president of the students' association at Ecole Polytechnique, told CTV News Channel that his association works hard to ensure that the memory of the tragedy is preserved for younger generations.
He said that this year, the school is working with a gun-control group from Ottawa to demand tighter gun-control measures from the federal government.
In particular, the students are targeting Bill C-42, formally titled "The Common sense Firearms Act." The bill, put forward by the governing Conservatives, seeks to simplify the gun-licensing process for legal gun owners.
The bill was initially scheduled to be debated on Oct. 22, the same day lone gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau stormed Parliament after shooting a soldier standing guard at Ottawa's National War Memorial.
Gayet said the bill is "dangerous" for gun control in Canada. He added that the association stands against facilitating the licensing process for small guns and assault rifles.
Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control, said improvements to legislation had been made since 1989, but that recent changes to the system were detrimental. “We made some progress, but certainly we’re sliding backwards,” she said.
Destroying the gun registry and scrapping the requirement to record sales, she said, seemed to go against the values of a country whose Supreme Court has explicitly said gun ownership is not a right.
“I think that the situation in Canada, politically, is that a small but very vocal segment of gun owners have really hijacked the agenda,” she said. “Many people know about the influence of the NRA in the U.S., but have no clue about the extent of the effect of the gun lobby in Canada.”
