The Shooting at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal
Analyzing Hate Crimes Assignment
Introduction
Childhood and upbringing
Marc Lépine was born in Montréal, to a French-Canadian mother and an immigrant Algerian father. Lépines father had a strong contempt towards women, and was both physically and verbally abusive towards his family, discouraging tenderness between mother and child. When Lépine was seven his parents separated; his father ceased contact with his children soon after. During his school years, Lépine was described as a quiet student who obtained middle to above average marks. Lépine spent much of his summers as a youth learning to hunt with his uncles; around this time he also began to insist on being called Marc Lépine, giving his hatred of his father as the reason for wishing to take his mother 's name. In 1981, he tried to join the Canadian forces, but was rejected due to his “anti-social” behavior. Lépine began a pre-university CEGEP (college) program in pure sciences in 1982 but switched to a three-year vocational program in electronics technology after his first year. He abandoned this program in his final semester without explanation. In 1986 Lépine applied to the École Polytechnique and in 1989 but lacked two CEGEP courses required for admission.
How was the attack carried out?
At around 4 p.m. on Dec. 6, 1989, Marc Lépine arrived at the building housing the École Polytechnique, carrying a 22-calibre rifle and a knife. He entered a mechanical engineering classroom on the second floor of about sixty students just after 5 p.m. After approaching a student giving a presentation, he asked everyone to stop everything and ordered the women and men to opposite sides of the classroom. No one moved at first, believing it to be a joke until he fired a shot into the ceiling. Realizing this was no joke the men left, the intruder spoke calmly but threateningly to the nine women who remained. Claiming they were the type of people who had ruined his life, he took aim and began shooting. Within
Introduction
Childhood and upbringing
Marc Lépine was born in Montréal, to a French-Canadian mother and an immigrant Algerian father. Lépines father had a strong contempt towards women, and was both physically and verbally abusive towards his family, discouraging tenderness between mother and child. When Lépine was seven his parents separated; his father ceased contact with his children soon after. During his school years, Lépine was described as a quiet student who obtained middle to above average marks. Lépine spent much of his summers as a youth learning to hunt with his uncles; around this time he also began to insist on being called Marc Lépine, giving his hatred of his father as the reason for wishing to take his mother 's name. In 1981, he tried to join the Canadian forces, but was rejected due to his “anti-social” behavior. Lépine began a pre-university CEGEP (college) program in pure sciences in 1982 but switched to a three-year vocational program in electronics technology after his first year. He abandoned this program in his final semester without explanation. In 1986 Lépine applied to the École Polytechnique and in 1989 but lacked two CEGEP courses required for admission.
How was the attack carried out?
At around 4 p.m. on Dec. 6, 1989, Marc Lépine arrived at the building housing the École Polytechnique, carrying a 22-calibre rifle and a knife. He entered a mechanical engineering classroom on the second floor of about sixty students just after 5 p.m. After approaching a student giving a presentation, he asked everyone to stop everything and ordered the women and men to opposite sides of the classroom. No one moved at first, believing it to be a joke until he fired a shot into the ceiling. Realizing this was no joke the men left, the intruder spoke calmly but threateningly to the nine women who remained. Claiming they were the type of people who had ruined his life, he took aim and began shooting. Within
Citations: "Rewind: The Montreal Massacre." CityNews 12 06 2006, n. pag. Web. 29 Dec. 2012. <http://www.citynews.ca/2006/12/06/citynews-rewind-the-montreal-massacre/>. Terry, Ashley. "Remembering a massacre: Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique." globaltvbc 6 12 2011, n. pag. Web. 29 Dec. 2012. <http://www.globaltvbc.com/remembering a massacre/41891/story.html>. scott mitchell, . "Survivors recall ecole polytechnique-shooting." macleans 4 12 2009, n. pag. Web. 29 Dec. 2012. <http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2009/12/04/survivors-recall-ecole-polytechnique-shooting/>. "Marc Lepine biography." <http://www.biography.com/people/marc-lepine-235980>. http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/waymac/Sociology/A%20Term%201/5.%20Research%20Methods/Montreal_Massacre.htm http://www.biography.com/people/marc-lepine-235980