Canada not immune to tragedies
OTTAWA — In the wake of Friday’s devastating school shooting in the United States that left 28 people dead — 20 of them young children — security experts warn that shootings of this magnitude can and have happened in Canada, and that it’s crucial to take measures to keep schools safe.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Sunday that school shootings aren’t unique to the United States.
“We have had examples of things like this,” Baird told CTV’s Question Period, pointing to the Dec. 6 anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique shooting in Montreal.
Gunman Marc Lepine killed 14 women and then himself in the 1989 massacre. “But obviously you watch the images that are coming out of Newtown and it’s just heartbreaking, and brings a lot of big questions about what we can do on the mental health challenge, and other challenges,” Baird said.
On Friday, a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and turned his weapon on 26 people and then himself. Of the victims, 20 were children aged 6 and 7. Another victim, the gunman’s mother, was killed in her home. Authorities on Sunday identified the shooter as Adam Lanza, 20.
As the identities of the victims were released over the weekend – including a little girl who was looking forward to making a gingerbread house after school that day, a little boy who loved riding his bicycle, a young teacher who reportedly died shielding her students from gunshots — many were left wondering how the tragedy could have been prevented.
There has been a significant focus on the safety of both elementary schools and high schools in Canada, said Stu Auty, the founder and president of the Canadian Safe Schools Network.
Ever since a school shooting occurred in Taber, Alta., just a week after the Columbine shootings in 1999, people started becoming more concerned for school safety north of the border, Auty said.
“There was a concern that this happened in the United States, can these things happen in Canada? Well, the answer is yes, they can,” Auty told CTV.
Each province has its own policies and procedures that they have put in place for school safety, Auty said, noting that there’s a “heightened awareness” of these issues across the country.
There are a lot of difficult questions being asked about gun control and mental health in the wake of Friday’s tragedy, but in a society with a propensity for such violence, there are other issues that must also be addressed, said Doron Horowitz, the Director of National Security Infrastructure for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
“I think the more critical questions that need to be asked is what are we doing to ensure the safety and security of communities, of our schools, so that we can attempt to mitigate those threats,” Horowitz told CTV.
That will come through enhanced situational awareness, training, and developing security apparatuses so that schools can provide a sense of safety and security to their children, Horowitz said.
“We don’t have the ability to control what goes on in the minds of those that have ill intent,” Horowitz said.
“But it’s certainly incumbent on us to take responsibility to engage, whether it’s police, to ensure the proper training, whether it’s active shooter or lockdown procedures, other emergency procedures — that’s our responsibility.”