I remember Ottawa, 1975, when St. Pius X High School was the
scene of one of Canada's first random massacres. The gunman was an 18-year-old whacko who opened fire on his classmates with a 12-gauge shotgun. He killed one student and wounded five before killing himself.
Before the melee, the guy had raped and stabbed a 17-year-old school-mate he had lured to his home over the lunch hour; I worked with her father at CMHC. What I remember most hideously is that his mother was home at the time....while he was raping and killing her....making lunch! The boy had come from a military
family and had military aspirations, thwarted by
his physical condition and psychological immaturity. Rejected from the officer training program to which he had applied, rage ensued.
Obsessed with sex and
pornography, he had written about wanting to have sex before he died and had
been suicidal for three years prior to his attack. And all this was eons before the internet, where now pornography and violence and just a few key stokes away. Just imagine how many are out there now surfing, getting enraged and plotting revenge.
It is so frightening.
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I moved to Toronto in 1967 but while growing up in Ottawa I lived within walking distance from St. Pius X. (And we always called it St. Pius "X". Wasn't until years later in Niagara Falls when I met a former priest/teacher there that I learned it is St. Pius the Tenth.)
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time that I remember hearing of the 1975 killing there. I mourn for the mothers... ALL of them.
I appreciate your title, though, "Lest we get too self-righteous...". As a now-American, far too often I hear holier-than-thou comparisons from my Canadian family and friends.
Thank you for noting that lunacy - and tragedy - are universal.
Yes, Canada is not immune. Last summer there was a shooting in Toronto at a block party and several people were killed. There have also been many single gang killings in Vancouver in restaurants and on people's front lawns.
ReplyDeleteI think the difference in Canada is that these gang killings are ethnic-related, while in the US there is a native, entitled gun culture. But the St. Pius tragedy was home-grown.
Thanks for your insight.
Just googled you and your blog is excellent! Very professional and well-written. Not surprising; you learned your grammar in the good, old, Ontario school system when it was tops (me too).
DeleteI will read it.