Dawson attack was 15 years ago
TVA notes that it’s 15 years since the attack on Dawson College in which one young woman was shot dead, and the attacker suicided after being winged by police sharpshooter Denis Côté. If anyone is living with physical consequences from the attack, it’s not mentioned here, but families of people hurt in the attack have made a plea to the public not to vote for the Conservatives, who have shown themselves amenable to the gun lobby.
Radio-Canada talked to the mother of Anastasia De Sousa, the one person killed by Kimveer Gill that day – and she too mentions wanting better gun control.
H. John 11:21 on 2021-09-13 Permalink
I thought journalist Martin Patriquin made a good point when he replied to a LPC tweet warning about the Conservatives and the gun lobby. He wrote:
“Counterpoint: the Liberals have been in power for the last six years, and the gun remains legal to buy.”
Kate 13:04 on 2021-09-13 Permalink
True. The Liberals talk about gun control, but don’t do much about it. I suppose it’s pragmatic for them in not wanting to alienate the kind of people who would turn against them, but I wonder how many gun nuts would even consider voting Liberal anyway.
H. John 23:14 on 2021-09-13 Permalink
The Liberals aren’t lying to the gun nuts to get their votes, they’re lying to the people who want a party that will provide better gun control.
Kate 23:36 on 2021-09-13 Permalink
But why would they promise gun control and not deliver it? On whose side are they really, and why?
H. John 00:31 on 2021-09-14 Permalink
Sorry, I understand why you’d ask that question; but making a promise is very easy – it doesn’t come with a best before date. The LPC are running on promises they made the last time, and the time before that. The difference is they were the government for 6 years, and yet that gun can still be purchased legally in Canada.
Mark Côté 09:43 on 2021-09-14 Permalink
It’s just like their promises about environmental change. I don’t think they’re lying exactly… but as H. John says, it’s easy to make promises and way harder to deliver on them.
Kate 10:43 on 2021-09-14 Permalink
Yesterday CBC had Francis Scarpaleggia on the noon-hour radio show. He’s been an MP in the West Island Lac St-Louis riding since 2004, but has never been a minister. I texted in a question, then someone phoned in with the same question: one of Justin Trudeau’s original campaign promises was electoral reform, and Scarpaleggia was chair of the committee to deal with this. In the end it came to nothing. The phone questioner was quite sharp and Scarpaleggia flailed around, claiming a) electoral reform was too hard and complicated, b) not enough people were interested in the matter to make it worth doing and c) first-past-the-post was a fine system so why would we want to change it anyway?
It made me wonder how dominant that kind of fatalism is, in the federal Liberals. In many ways they’re quite happy with the status quo, even when it’s clear that, as with pipelines and guns – and electoral reform – a fair number of people actually would like to see the situation change or at least be given a push in a better direction.
I suppose this is still marginally preferable to a party like the Tories who want to actively pilot the country back in time, but status quo isn’t very impressive as an aim.