I have to say I had never heard of this event here in the States; it's heart-wrenching. Thank you for consistently bringing my attention to things like this; it's often hard to get any kind of perspective about this type of crime that's not "America" or "the Third World".
That stupid bill sounds like something I'd see here; in my state we had a landmark law passed two years ago dealing with racial bias in death penalty trials, which the conservatives are trying their hardest to repeal. ::is confounded by the stupidity of people::
I suspect Canadians talk more about American school shootings than vice versa, but definitely the Montreal Massacre is the one we Canadians all remember.
Yeah, I'm worried about the Crime Bill. There's been opposition but I don't know if it'll be enough to sway the vote, especially since the Conservatives have a majority.
I actually only just heard of the massacre this past year, when I had to read a play about it for a gig. It's called The December Man and is based on the true story of one of the male survivors who ended up committing suicide out of remorse for not having done anything to help the women, and his parents, who took their lives after he did. Gutwrenching.
I didn't know that about the male survivor--thanks for the info. To be honest, I've never really given much thought to the survivors but I suspect that's partly because it was the first big school shooting in Canada and nobody really knew what to think. From the articles, I gather there was a lot of blaming going around--there might not have been the kind of survivor support there is now.
Thank you for posting this. I should go back and edit my post with their ages and majors. It's always so surreal, remembering that this happened here.
That is an excellent article (although now I'm wishing I hadn't gone to read the comments). A lot of what's been bugging me about the articles today is all this dancing around the word "feminist". You'd think feminism really was a crime.
I went to Waterloo and there was a joke among engineering guys that there were no hot girls in their programme. I also have a friend (well, sister of a friend) who is an engineer who went to work with oil companies in Alberta, and she's hot and wears stilettos and is very assertive, and I wonder what kind of crap she gets from the men there.
And yeah, there does seem to be some dancing around "feminism", like people really don't want to believe that's what it was about. (Which isn't to say there weren't other issues, but come on, he said it straight out. Several times and in many different ways.)
Actually, I remember that event, and the news coverage around it well, and at the time it happened, I was living here in Arizona. Maybe it was because I was a graduate student myself at the time? It was gut-wrenching and anger-inducing, and frigging scary.
Oh yeah, I can see how being a grad student would have heightened the fear. You're in their shoes too. It's weird for me, being a student again and looking around my classroom at students who aren't much older than those women.
Sometimes I feel disgust, as having the same gender these monster? / sick individuals?. And it (nearly?) always men who do these insane things.
In our neighbour country Norway, a place that many of us, here in Denmark feel social and historical closely connected to. There where the Breivik mascara, not so long ago. A deed in cynical brutality that I can't will not understand. It also unfortunately showed, how hard it's to protect a society against a mad men who have used seven years in planning in how to kill a maximum of people.
I was in London when the Norway massacre happened and watched the news in the airport and in the pub. It was horrible how many people were killed.
I don't think you should feel disgusted about being the same gender as these men, but I think it's okay to feel disgusted about the statistics. And I feel that one of the best ways to end violence is for men to teach other men, their guy friends, sons, fathers, etc, about how this kind of violence gets perpetuated. Most men aren't really going to listen to women, but they'll listen to other men.
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That stupid bill sounds like something I'd see here; in my state we had a landmark law passed two years ago dealing with racial bias in death penalty trials, which the conservatives are trying their hardest to repeal. ::is confounded by the stupidity of people::
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Yeah, I'm worried about the Crime Bill. There's been opposition but I don't know if it'll be enough to sway the vote, especially since the Conservatives have a majority.
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That is an excellent article (although now I'm wishing I hadn't gone to read the comments). A lot of what's been bugging me about the articles today is all this dancing around the word "feminist". You'd think feminism really was a crime.
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And yeah, there does seem to be some dancing around "feminism", like people really don't want to believe that's what it was about. (Which isn't to say there weren't other issues, but come on, he said it straight out. Several times and in many different ways.)
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In our neighbour country Norway, a place that many of us, here in Denmark feel social and historical closely connected to. There where the Breivik mascara, not so long ago. A deed in cynical brutality that I can't will not understand. It also unfortunately showed, how hard it's to protect a society against a mad men who have used seven years in planning in how to kill a maximum of people.
Reply
I don't think you should feel disgusted about being the same gender as these men, but I think it's okay to feel disgusted about the statistics. And I feel that one of the best ways to end violence is for men to teach other men, their guy friends, sons, fathers, etc, about how this kind of violence gets perpetuated. Most men aren't really going to listen to women, but they'll listen to other men.
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