École Polytechnique Massacre (1989)
On December 6, 1989, Marc Lépine entered the engineering school at École Polytechnique in Montreal with a semi-automatic rifle. He separated male and female students, declared he was 'fighting feminism,' and systematically shot women throughout the building. He killed 14 women and wounded 14 others before dying by suicide.
The massacre prompted immediate national mourning and the first major push for gun control reform in Canada.
December 6 became the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. The tragedy directly led to the Firearms Act of 1995, which introduced licensing requirements, registration, and restrictions on certain weapons.
The Tumbler Ridge shooting is the deadliest Canadian school shooting since Polytechnique. Both involved attackers with documented mental health issues and legally questionable access to firearms, and both have reignited debates about gun control and early intervention.