One 18 year old girl is dead. Eight others are in serious condition. It could have been worse, but I think that the Montreal Police learned from the 1989 Ecole Polytechnique massacre that you should try to confront and disable anyone who walks into a public area and intends to commit mass murder.
This had to take place at Dawson, of all places. I have some of my best memories there. For those of you not familiar with education in Quebec, after high school, all students are required to go to CEGEP (or college) for two years before entering university. As we have one year less of both high school and undergrad, it evens out in the end. Dawson is such a multi-cultural place. Students from every background imaginable attend classes there. Italian, Portuguese, Jewish, Arab, Chinese, Filipino, Indian and even students of Mauritian descent all mixed together with the "Anglos" and the "Francophones". And there were never any major incidents. We were all Montrealers, a stronger bond than Canadian, Quebequois or even American ... and we all had strong principles ... equal opportunity, mutual respect, and we were all fiercely proud of these traits. So it hurts me that of all places that this tragedy happened at Dawson.
And who is this deranged man? Apparently his name is Kimveer Gill, from Laval Quebec. This is bad, I'm from Laval too. (I hope he didn't attend my high school, one of two english highschools in predominantly french Laval.) According to the Globe and Mail he had a blog (it's apparently offline now) whose content was at times mundane and other times disturbing. It did not look like a case of revenge. This guy is clearly deranged.
In an on-line blog, Kimveer Gill includes a photo of a tombstone with his name printed on it -- below it the phrase: "Lived fast died young. Left a mangled corpse."
The blog, posted on an on-line hub of goth culture, paints a dark portrait of the 25-year-old man published reports have identified as the trenchcoat-wearing gunman who opened fire on students at Montreal's Dawson College Wednesday, killing one and injuring at least 12 others.
Mr. Gill's image gallery, which contains more than 50 photos, depicts the young man in various poses holding a Baretta CX4 Storm semi-automatic rifle and donning a long black trenchcoat and combat boots.
"His name is Trench. you will come to know him as the Angel of Death," he wrote on his vampirefreaks.com profile.
...
"I think I have an obbsetion with guns ... muahahaha," is the inscription below another picture of Gill aiming the barrel of the gun at the camera.
"Anger and hatred simmers within me," said another caption below a head shot of Gill grimacing.
I guess there will always be deranged individuals out there. I could type away that we could have implemented X, Y and Z, and thus prevented this tragedy, but at some point it's just impossible. I just hope that all those in critical condition make it.
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I was a student at the University of Iowa when a delusional former grad student killed several of the faculty in the physics department, another former student who was his supposed rival, and an administrator. He also wounded a young student working in the administrator's office, paralyzing her. I know that awful feeling you must have, when a place that seems so idyllic is brought to its knees by violence. It's very sad.