The week of the 33rd anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre, survivors and the school are speaking out against a crass attempt to profit off of the tragedy.
The Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights (CCFR) recently held a sale on their website where they offered a 10 per cent discount on the sale of their merchandise if customers used the promo code “Poly,” a reference to PolySeSouvient. PolySeSouvient is a group that advocates for stricter gun control laws made up of survivors of the massacre, their supporters, and family members and friends of the victims.
In a post on Twitter, École Polytechnique Montreal denounced the promotion as tasteless.
“We see this exploitation of a tragic event not only as a very tasteless provocation, but above all as an insult to the memory of the victims, as well as those injured, their families and the entire Polytechnique community,” the tweet reads.
The CCFR said in a statement on their website that the use of the promo code “Poly” was not in reference to the 14 women murdered by a misogynist man with a rifle at École Polytechnique.
“Concerning the discount code controversy: Our promocode was in no way a reference to the tragedy at Ecole Polytechnique. It was a two-week-old response to a Twitter account criticizing us for fundraising. Any suggestion to the contrary is blatantly false,” reads a statement posted by CCFR spokesperson Tracey Wilson on the CCFR website.
Wilson is referring to the PolySeSouvient/PolyRemembers twitter account which has been critical of the CCFR for their pro-gun advocacy.
Nathalie Provost is one of the survivors. She was shot four times during the shooting. She condemned the CCFR’s use of the promo code. A statement from Provost reads:
“Using us as a promo code to buy gun merchandise is incredibly disrespectful, but very typical of this particular gun lobby group. That they’ve decided to do this so close to the Polytechnique anniversary is not surprising, as they’ve dismissed the massacre as an ‘anomaly’ that doesn’t even merit changing our gun laws, to prevent similar ones. They’ve been mocking us for years, calling us ‘pearl-clutching narcissists’ and even blaming us for gun violence. They insist we’re not real victims, that we’ve been ‘hijacked by demagogues’. They also lie about our goals, claiming we have a secret agenda to ban all guns, and they lie about our funding, saying we get salaries from government subsidies — all untrue.”
Tensions running high over Bill C-21
Tensions between pro-gun control and anti- gun control advocates has been running high over the past couple of weeks due to different interpretations around the Trudeau government’s Bill C-21.
Bill C-21 was introduced by the Trudeau Liberals in the House of Commons in the spring of this year in response to a series of tragic shootings in the U.S.
The bill represented some of the strictest regulations on handguns in years, including introducing an immediate freeze on the sale and importation of handguns.
READ MORE: The freeze on handguns in Canada is now in effect. Is it enough?
Bill C-21 began drawing controversy last month when amendments to the legislation were introduced. Critics of the bill say that were it to become law it would ban a number of common hunting rifles and shotguns.
The bill would ban any rifle or shotgun that could accept a magazine of more than five rounds and also ban any gun with a muzzle wider than 20mm, and all guns that can generate more than 10,000 joules of energy when fired.
PolySeSouvient claims that these concerns are being raised by the Conservative Party of Canada and the gun lobby based on a very broad interpretation of the bill, but that the fine print in legislation does not target weapons used for hunting.
They claim that several hunting rifles that gun lobbyists claim would be banned under Bill C-21 are in fact specifically exempt.
Heidi Rathjen, PolySeSouvient’s coordinator and a graduate of Polytechnique who witnessed the massacre, says:
“In technical terms, this file is very complex. It’s almost impossible to draw a clear line between assault weapons and hunting guns. Because of this, it would not be surprising to find that there are some models that have fallen on the wrong side of the line and, if that is the case, corrections should be made. But one thing is certain: the opponents’ interpretation of the legal wording is fundamentally flawed and, in some cases, deliberate – nothing but fear mongering in order to generate opposition among hunters.”
A historic tragedy
On December 6, 1989 14 women were murdered and 14 others were wounded by an angry misogynist with a rifle.
The gunman had bought the rifle he used in the killings from a sporting goods store. He had told the clerk he intended to use the rifle for hunting small game.
In the aftermath of the shooting, more than half a million Canadians signed a petition asking the federal government to introduce gun control legislation. In 1995, the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien passed the Firearms Act which introduced, among other things, magazine size restrictions, restrictions on types of guns an individual can own and a requirement that all guns be registered with the government.
Even more than 30 years later, the movement that began in the wake of the massacre continues to fight for tighter gun restrictions and remember those who were victims that day of misogyny and gun violence.
The names of those killed are:
Geneviève Bergeron
Hélène Colgan
Nathalie Croteau
Barbara Daigneault
Anne-Marie Edward
Maud Haviernick
Maryse Laganière
Maryse Leclair
Anne-Marie Lemay
Sonia Pelletier
Michèle Richard
Annie St-Arneault
Annie Turcotte
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz
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