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15
Sep

Quadrant Interceptor: The Dawson College Shootings

By Quadrant Interceptor 0 Comments
Categories: Guest Columns and Noteworthy Events

Admin Note: Quadrant Interceptor is a resident of Montreal and a former student at Dawson College. He sent this post via email and it has been reprinted (unedited) with permission.

I’ve always had faith in the number 13. I rail against the popular belief that it’s bad luck. I have a black cat, I love a full moon. I long to hang out in a graveyard on a Friday the 13th during a full moon and jam with folk as crazy as I am. But now my faith is shaken.

At approximately 1:30pm on Wednesday September 13th 2006, I was on the corner of Sherbrooke & Guy in Montreal Quebec waiting to catch the 24 bus when a police car blocked off westbound access. I tried to ask him what was going on but he wasn’t havin’ it. Snubbed by the cop. I decided to see for myself as I noticed a helicopter hovering over-from my perspective-Marianoplois College.

Seeing a couple unmarked cars with sirens whiz by, I though there had been a hostage situation. I also noticed droves of students on cell phones. Half way to Dawson I asked a couple kids what had happened and heard the worst: there had been a shooting. My first instinct was to hope it wasn’t a couple of rowdy black kids fighting over girls and bling. Sad to say, but it’s happened before.

When I got to Sherbrooke & Atwater, it was cordoned off. Students milled about in various levels of stress on cell phones. Lambert Closse & Maisonneuve and St-Catherine & Atwater became hubs of concern full of students and parents and staff. The police were holding it down. Being a former student at Dawson, this was particularly painful to see this happen. People had been shot in the atrium, where some of my best memories of school with Dominoes and card games and jokes had taken place.

I was concerned for two people in particular, my aunt and the father of my best friend. They are staff at Dawson college. I made a sign with the names of them both on a large piece of card stock and walked around, rather surprised that no one else thought of it. I got a lot more attention than I bargained for, but it helped because people came up to me to let me know that my aunt was okay. But I didn’t hear anything about my friend’s father. My friend showed up at the scene and we eventually discovered that his father had driven home and had no access to a phone. Today I found out that by some grace of god, karma or whatever energy force you care to believe in, he left the building at almost the same time things started to happen. To re-park his car. Minutes before he left, he was talking to the girl who got shot in the leg. Holy shit.

My aunt on the other hand was inside while it happened and bravo for her as she ushered students into her office and locked the door. I commend the staff and students of Dawson College for their sense of community and bravery, the fantastic work of the Montreal Police Department and the students of Concordia for setting up a place where parents, students and staff could meet with food and information waiting for them. My heart goes out to the wounded,. The parents and the parents of the young girl who was killed. My heart also goes out to the parents of the maniac responsible for this horror. Could they have known? Were the warning signs evident? Who’s to know for sure, but the shock of knowing that your offspring is responsible for so much death and pain is something no parent should know. Still, this is their burden and like all parents they should have taken the best care of their child they could have given. It is unjust that lack of responsibility, respect and love at home should result in the suffering of thousands. Again.

City of Shootings

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened in our great city. Marc Lepine killed 14 women at Ecole Polytechnique in 1989, literally blocks from my house. His hatred for women fueled his actions and the inaction of the police-trained to section off the area and wait for SWAT while he continued to kill-has resulted in their lightning-quick response to yesterday’s events.

In 1992, three years after the atrocity at Ecole Polytechnique, Mechanical Engineering Professor Valery Fabrikant opened fire on his collegues killing three of them. Now Dawson College, the largest English college in the province of Quebec, the home of great memories, excellent staff and happy students from around the world.

Although this may be considered as an isolated incident, the problem of school shootings is not. Lest we forget the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado in 1999 and the shootings a week later at W.R. Myers High School in Taber, Alberta, and several more around the world.

The Columbine and Taber shootings were the result of isolation and teasing by peers. It is not quite known what the motivations were for the shooter at Dawson, but the disturbing incidents point to a horrible cancer within our competitive society. The unfair treatment of those who are considered losers, outsiders, nerds and freaks. Some
of us have found avenues to channel this pain, many don not and a few lash out, with fatal results. Back in the day, shootings just didn’t happen. Twenty and thirtsysomethings, ask your parents.

But as we are exposed to more and more violence-and more importantly the flippant attitude towards it and its repercussions through media-it only stands to reason that there will be those who are numbed to it. Worse yet that they would use violence as their only means of communication.

These are dangerous times. Video games, movies and television are tightening the noose on entertainment and violence. Soldiers listen to rock and roll as they invade neighbourhoods overseas. Cool weapons and endless lives to killer soundtracks can be found in videogames at your local Futureshop. A healthy mind can deal with these games and movies, but what about those who fall into the cracks?

Government has also taken advantage of this phenomenon in their recruiting campaigns for the army. just look at their ads. But as a creator of grimy stories I also feel responsible. Who will think I’m glorifying death and violence? What effect will the dark themes I explore through text and visual art have on those who are isolated and feel they have no other way to communicate?

These topics have to be face with frank discussion. Let us hope that recent events can help us come together and find solutions.

14
Sep

Shooting Rampage at Dawson College

By Cynapse 0 Comments
Categories: Noteworthy Events

By now you are probably at least somewhat familiar with the Columbine-style shootings at Dawson College in Montreal. I’ve got a couple posts coming up related to this but first let’s lay down the groundwork -

The Associated Press has the general story:

A 25-year-old man who mounted a deadly shooting rampage at a downtown Montreal college had posted pictures of himself on the Internet with a rifle and said he was feeling “crazy” and “postal” and was drinking whiskey hours before the attack.

The man, identified by police as Kimveer Gill, also said on a blog that he liked to play a role-playing Internet game about the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado and wanted to die “in a hail of gunfire.”

In the end, Gill – dressed in a black trench coat like the Columbine shooters – put his own gun to his head and pulled the trigger during a shootout with officers at Dawson College on Wednesday, police said.

The Globe and Mail gets in depth about Gill’s background, including his links to the already-infamous VampireFreaks.com

Mr. Gill’s Web page, which was taken down by early Thursday morning, included a photo of a tombstone with his first name printed on it with an epitaph that read: “Lived fast died young. Left a mangled corpse.”

The last entry on his blog was posted a 10:41 a.m. Wednesday, just hours before the rampage at Dawson College.

…

The site also contained 55 pictures of Mr. Gill, several of them with him holding knives and guns, wearing a black trench coat and combat boots, which witnesses said he was wearing at the time of the attacks.

…

The blog was posted on the now infamous VampireFreaks.com, which has figured prominently in at least two high-profile killings in Canada in the past few years.

A 12-year-old and her 23-year-old boyfriend met on the site before being charged with murder in the deaths of an Alberta family in April.

In February, 2005, a judge declared a mistrial in the Johnathan murder trial, in which a three young men were charged in the slaying of the 12-year-old boy, after it was discovered that a key 15-year old witness may have perjured herself after her blog on VampireFreaks.com contradicted some of her testimony.

A torrent of users at Vampire Freaks let it known they’re not terribly supportive of Mr. Gill’s last opus:

“There is no glory in what he did. It was a pathetic act and hopefully his death was miserable.
Good riddance”

“I went to Dawson College for 2 years and never imagined such violence would take place at the hands of genetic debris such as yourself. I am not a religious person but if there is a hell I hope you are burning there as I type. You killed an innocent 18 year old girl today. Why would you do something like that??? Conformity and lies anger you? BFD!!! It angers a lot of people as does lying, backstabbing and all the other things you complained about on here. All I feel is sympathy for Anastasia De Sousa and her family. I of course feel sadness for those who you injured as badly as you did.”

“TOO BAD YOUR PARENTS FAILED YOU THEY OBVIOUSLY SPOILED AND RUINED YOU.

I’M GUESSING THEY SPARED THE ROD BIG TIME, YOU SOUND LIKE A TOTALLY SPOILED BRAT.
WHILE YOU ARE SMELLING THE BRIMSTONE, AND YOU WANT SYMPATHY FOR THE WORLD NOT DOING ENOUGH FOR YOUR SPOILED ASS NOTHING ANYONE DID TO YOU COMPARED TO WHAT YOU HAVE DONE. AND YOU WERE DELIBERATE VS ALL THE IMAGNED THINGS THAT HURT YOUR OVER SENSITIVE FEELINGS. LIKE DID ANYONE SHOOT YOU BEFORE YOU SHOT OTHERS? LIKE THOSE YOU KILLED AND MAIMED? IF YOU ARE WILLING TO DO WORSE TO OTHERS YOU HAVE NO CREDIBILITY.

COURSE YOU ARE TOO SELFISH TO SEE IT.”

12
Sep

9/11 Also Showed Our Strength

By Cynapse 1 Comment
Categories: American Politics, Noteworthy Events and Politics

Everyone remembers where they were on the morning of September 11, 2001

I was lying in bed, sick from one of the many illnesses that float about university dormitories. Ordinarily I would have been in class, but decided to turn on my “television” (which was actually a computer with a TV tuner card). CNN was on and showing one of the twin towers on fire. At the time the speculation was that a small plane had crashed into the building and that there might be a few deaths outside of the plane passenger list. The TV camera was still trained on the twin towers when, much to everyone’s shock, a second plane hit the other tower – and it was clearly a jetliner. Talk of accidents quickly turned into “America is under attack”

Quite honestly, “Looks like Osama Bin Laden” was the first words out of my mouth. The attack was consistent with his hit-and-dodge attacks in Kenya, Tanzania and the Persian Gulf. Each attack seemed to be progressively brutal and civilian-oriented. An attack on the enduring symbol of western commerce seemed like a logical next step for an organization like Al Qaeda. But the melee was hardly over – within the next hours, both towers would fall, the pentagon would be hit with an attack and another plane would go down before hitting any targets.

From my bedroom, Manhattan looked like hell on earth. As the first tower fell, I remembered the fact that one of my close schoolmates was doing his co-op term at the World Trade Center, and became even more anxious. 9/11 became very personal for me very quickly. It would be days before I heard from my schoolmate and his survival story was one of chance – he was actually supposed to be in the towers at the time but decided at the last minute to sleep in until 10:00am. He was prematurely awoken by a telephone call from a coworker that consisted of a single sentence: “Turn on the TV”.

After seeing the carnage, he, like hundreds of New Yorkers, rushed towards the towers to see how they could help. Some people were bringing food and towels for those that were injured in the two plane blasts. As the twin towers came in full view, his blood “ran cold” (in his words) as the first of two towers started to crumble to the ground. Most people around him stood frozen in shock until it was apparent that the growing outward wave of dust and debris was not going to subside, causing the most hardened New Yorkers to run for cover.

It didn’t even take a New York minute for American citizens to finger Middle Eastern terrorists for the attack, and the NYPD, already burdened with securing ground zero, rushed to form barriers between a minority of angry New Yorkers and the nearby Arab neighborhoods to which they were quickly advancing. In this detail lies a point about America’s response that often gets lost amid the debates on post 9/11 civil liberties: the US government and even some citizens initially worked furiously to protect middle-easterners from the angry mobs and discriminatory activity. For the most part, they were successful: in the coming weeks the world heard stories of police protecting middle eastern neighborhoods, Christian Church groups providing security at local mosques and citizens opening their homes to Muslim colleagues who were at risk for becoming victims of backlash.

Canada played a significant role in the early 9/11 response when Atlantic Canadians provided food and shelter to over 15,000 stranded Americans whose flights were immediately diverted (44 flights went to Nova Scotia alone). Police officers and firefighters from Canada also rushed to ground zero to help with the rescue and cleanup.

In the coming weeks, North Americans and indeed the world would re-fracture into the usual political/social groupings. The sorrow from the 9//11 attack was used for every cause from promoting nuclear war to severing ties with Israel. Conspiracy theorists reacted almost immediately in gathering evidence they believed pointed to the Bush administration’s prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks (if not worse). Christian fundamentalists, busy promoting their own brand of Jihad, saw their ranks swell at least temporarily. Other Christian personalities, like Jerry Falwell, cast the attacks as punishment from God for sinful behavior. Socialists used the attack as evidence of danger of America’s “imperialism” (a sentiment soon echoed by much of Europe and the Third World), while sleeper cells derived encouragement from carnage that affected far more than just American citizens.

Nonetheless, Americans and Canadians were able to forget their social/political differences and pull together during an unmeasured crisis. In a moment of terror, we became humans first and foremost, and exhibited a potent courage that, if properly analyzed by Osama Bin Laden and his lieutenants, should have been the first sign that the West would not so easily surrender its humanity even the in the face of savagery.

Update: Removed references to “how” the fourth plane went down. Dick Cheney originally stated something on CNN far from the commonly-accepted story, but it would be difficult to prove so without consulting the credibility-killing “conspiracy theorists”

06
Sep

Crikey! The Knives are Already out for Steve

By Cynapse 2 Comments
Categories: Media and Noteworthy Events

The Crocodile Hunter isn’t even in the ground yet and already the pundits are taking shots at his legacy. Witness Germaine Greer’s toxic evaluation of Steve Irwin, published in the September 5 online edition of The Guardian:

Every creature he brandished at the camera was in distress. Every snake badgered by Irwin was at a huge disadvantage, with only a single possible reaction to its terrifying situation, which was to strike. Easy enough to avoid, if you know what’s coming. Even my cat knew that much. Those of us who live with snakes, as I do with no fewer than 12 front-fanged venomous snake species in my bit of Queensland rainforest, know that they will get out of our way if we leave them a choice.
…
The only time Irwin ever seemed less than entirely lovable to his fans (as distinct from zoologists) was when he went into the Australia Zoo crocodile enclosure with his month-old baby son in one hand and a dead chicken in the other. For a second you didn’t know which one he meant to feed to the crocodile. If the crocodile had been less depressed it might have made the decision for him. As the catatonic beast obediently downed its tiny snack, Irwin walked his baby on the grass, not something that paediatricians recommend for rubbery baby legs even when there isn’t a stir-crazy carnivore a few feet away

It really shouldn’t be so surprising that memory of a larger-than-life character like The Crocodile hunter would eventually be ripped to shreds in the media … but could the commercial trolls not wait at least a week before doing so posthumously?

To be honest, I didn’t know who Germaine Greer was before reading her odious commentary, but based on some quick reading she sounds like a bitter holdover from the bra-burning era who has to resort to shock-factor in a vain attempt to remain relevant. Thus, she offered little more than the usual condescension of the far left without realizing that by causing animals minor discomfort for the purpose of show, Steve Irwin was bringing awareness to the much larger discomfort caused by industrialization and civilization. Educating millions of humans on how changes in our ecosystem can affect snakes is just a bit more helpful than bragging about snakes on your property or demonstrating your “superior” knowledge in the handling of animals (or children for that matter). True, Greer can’t be faulted concerning the Crocodile Hunter’s lapse in judgment by bringing his son so close to a crocodile, but as said before there’s a time and a place for snooty critiques.

I look forward to the abuse my blogosphere peers will heap on this testosterone-a-phobic relic Greer.

04
Sep

“Crocodile Hunter” Killed in Marine Mishap

By Cynapse 1 Comment
Categories: Noteworthy Events

steveirwin.jpg

Steve Irwin (1962-2006)

Some sad news concerning the untimely death of Steve “The Crocodile Hunter” Irwin …

Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the “Crocodile Hunter,” was killed Monday by a stingray during a diving expedition. He was 44.
Irwin was filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Queensland state when he was stung, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on its Web site.
He collapsed at Batt Reef, near Low Isle and the resort town of Port Douglas, Queensland state police said in a statement. Port Douglas is about 1,260 miles north of Brisbane, the state capital.
A rescue helicopter rushed to the scene but Irwin had died, the statement said.

While not a faithful viewer of the Crocodile Hunter, I caught the occasional show and found his measured-yet-dangerous encounters with lethal snakes, spiders, crocodiles, etc to be highly entertaining. Occasionally someone watching the show would argue that the danger was staged just like most so-called “reality” TV shows, but I’ve yet to hear a good explanation of how one goes about choreographing the movements of a Black Mamba snake.

More important that the on-screen danger was Steve Irwin’s off-screen conservation work. Irwin is credited with building up what has become the Australia Zoo, a predominantly reptilian zoo that reportedly had at one time the world’s oldest living animal – a Galápagos tortoise named Harriet. He was also a vocal opponent of proposed wildlife hunts in Australia and lent his celebrity to media campaigns urging Australians to protect the nation’s flora and fauna.

seaturtle.jpg
A Sea Turtle Wounded by a Stringray Barb (credit: Topsail Turtle Project)

Steve Irwin’s death isn’t totally shocking. Like a volunteer soldier or police officer, he chose a high-risk career that could have killed him in 2 years or 2 minutes. The longer he spent on the field, the more likely the chance of a mishap. Some will call Irwin’s death senseless or deserved for taking such foolish risks with dangerous animals; in reality, the man who re-popularized the term “crikey” did more to raise environmental awareness than a whole stadium full of placard-waving protesters shouting down modernity could ever hope to achieve. Steve Irwin almost single-handedly rescued environmentalism from the fringe left and made it palatable for the population at large, and this rise in public interest can only help grassroots conservationists who are still working diligently to protect, say, the fragile coral reefs in South East Asia.

One final note – the media has behaved most unethically if there is any truth to the statement that Irwin’s wife, Terri Reines –said to be trekking in Cradle Mountain- was not notified of his death before the story broke internationally. Imagine Reines returns from Tasmania to first hear of her husband’s death on the local news … Some discretion could have been exercised.

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