Gun Presser.
Dawson College shooting survivor and gun control lobbyist Hayder Kadhim, left, along with the parents of L'Ecole Polytechnique victim Anne-Marie Edward, Jim Edward and Suzanne Laplante-Edward, join the panel during a media conference Thursday at Eastminster United Church in support of maintaining the federal gun registry. (Sept. 16, 2010)
Photo/MIKE POCHWAT
A group of people affected by the Montreal Massacre more than 20 years ago travelled to Jack Layton’s Toronto-Danforth riding Thursday, Sept. 16, to tell the federal NDP leader he’s not doing enough to save the gun registry.
“Mr. Layton has convinced several MPs to change their votes, which is a good thing. This is progress,” said Heidi Rathjen. “Our message today is it’s not enough.”
Rathjen was a student at Montreal’s l’Ecole Polytechnique in 1989 when on Dec. 6 Marc Lepine walked into an engineering class, separated the women from the men and began shooting. He killed 14 women, and shot and injured another 10 (and four men) before turning the gun on himself.
Rathjen was not shot during the attack, but it spurred her on to lobby for tougher gun control in Canada leading to the passage of the Firearms Act in 1995 and the creation of the gun registry.
Now a private member’s bill by Conservative backbencher Candice Hoeppner, Bill C-391, threatens to undo the registry and loosen gun control laws even more than pre-1989 laws.
“The only way the police were able to identify the (l’Ecole Polytechnique) killer was to go from gun store to gun store to see if a Ruger 14 was recently purchased,” Rathjen said. “With this bill police would have even less information than they did in 1989 to investigate crimes.”
Rathjen was joined by students, graduates and families of the victims of l’Ecole Polytechnique in the basement of Eastminster United Church, on Danforth Avenue in the heart of Layton’s riding, to press his local constituents to push him to do more to ensure Bill C-391 doesn’t pass on Sept. 22.
All Liberals and the Bloc MPs are expected to vote against Bill C-391.
While Layton has said he will not support it he is not requiring NDP MPs to follow his lead.
“We thought it was better to try to convince people to do the right thing...rather than tell people what to do,” he said in a phone interview Friday, Sept. 17.
NDP MPs who intend to change their vote have been given the opportunity to make the announcement themselves in their riding. Layton said a significant majority of the rural and northern caucus now want to save the registry.
“I’m very confident that the votes that we need are going to be in place,” he said.
The group wanted assurances the registry would be supported with more than the minimum, it wants strong support.
“The gun registry is the only good thing that came out of the Montreal tragedy. It is a monument to the memory of our daughters,” said Suzanne Laplante-Edward, mother of Anne-Marie Edward, who was killed at l’Ecole Polytechnique.
She and her husband Jim Edward have also been working since the shooting for tougher gun control laws.
“We are doing this for other people’s children, sisters, spouses, grandchildren,” she said. “We work so others won’t have to experience the hell we have.”
Layton said he supports the concerns of the group and he wants to see the registry made stronger.
The group said it’s not just them who say the registry is effective, but it is a tool used by law enforcement personnel across the country every day.
“They say it helps protect the public,” Laplante-Edward said. “They say it helps save lives.”
Many say it helped save lives at Dawson College where on Sept. 13, 2006 a young man walked into the Montreal school and began shooting. One person was killed and 19 others were injured including Hayder Kadhim, who was shot in the leg, the back of the head (where a bullet fragment remains today), and the neck - where a bullet remains. He was in a coma and awoke to learn his good friend Anastasia De Sousa had been killed.
Since then he has worked to make Canada safer.
“I firmly believe the long gun registry is an essential component of gun control and it can not be destroyed,” he said.
Witnesses who saw the shooter remove guns from his car were able to give the license plate to police who were then able to identify the shooter, his address and use the registry to find out what guns he owned.
Kadhim expects more from Layton, a man who founded the White Ribbon Campaign to protect violence against women and who went to Dawson College after the shooting and promised the victims he would do what he could to help.
“I used to admire the man, he inspired hope...Jack is the co-founder of the White Ribbon Campaign,” Laplante-Edward said. “Jack, if we lose the registry your White Ribbon Campaign will become nothing more than meaningless strips of white fabric.”