Today, the mass shooting at Polytechnique turns 28 years old. The fall out from that tragedy is still being felt, especially by the victim's families, those close to them and the many people who stand in solidarity with them across the country. However, millions more people are also affected by this date: they are the law-abiding, gun owning Canadians of every creed and culture who are unfairly carrying the sins of the shooter 28 years later.
It is a deep irony in our time that while national inquiries and royal commissions have been tasked with issues ranging from bilingualism to missing and murdered indigenous women, the Polytechnique Massacre remains uninvestigated by a publicly accountable body. It is said this choice was made out of deference to the victim's families - an answer that holds no water post MMIW. If the activities of many killers are up for debate, why not a single mass shooter?
As such, the massacre has become excellent political fodder for a very well-heeled group of lobbyists. Like the myths of monsters from ages past, this tragedy in now a perfect fear- inducing mechanism, its diviners conjuring up whatever demon they choose as a pretext for why there need to be more regulations and resources allocated to disarming civilians. Of course, all opposition to these activities is deemed heretical, even sympathetic to the perpetrator himself.
To be clear, if you or anyone you know belong to the elitist minority that I am describing above, it ought to be recalled that there is a very special place in Hell for those who commit fraud and calumny - it's the deepest circle actually. The billions spent on useless laws, the many innocents jailed because of paper crimes, the politicization of the lives of those killed, and the rhetoric that paints fellow citizens as murderers in waiting are all inexcusable. Repent, I say.
But where the light of reason shines, the darkness of ignorance is banished, so it's said. It is time for this tragedy to be given its proper last rites - to be assessed by the standards of an inquiry open and broadcasted to the public. Yet having waited this long, I propose a minor edit - that at the conclusion of the topic at hand, the same committee be tasked with investigating the effectiveness of the gun-laws that came about as a result of that evil day in Montreal.
This is only right and just, as thanks to the lobbyists, that is the actual legacy of this rampage. What ought to be recalled as a deeply sad and mournful event has been overshadowed by an opportunistic and self-congratulatory minority. Of course there is no chance of ever bringing these perpetrators to justice for their crimes against fellow citizens and the treasury. But at least their false idol could be struck down, and the victims finally laid to rest.
Looking over the reports of that day, two things are clear: the shooter intended to murder as many women as possible, and he knew his victims, as well as their fellow classmates, would be unarmed. Twenty-eight years later, it is shameful that he could walk onto any of our campuses and find the exact same scenario. An inquiry is needed, to investigate all the aspects of this evil event, but most importantly, to ensure that in future, our fellow citizens have the ability to fight back.
