Canada: Demilitarize Dawson.

Travelling the world, getting a free education, and having rent and food payed for sounds like a pretty good deal. The only catch: being used as a tool for an imperial system based on violence and oppression, suffer from PTSD as a likely result, and would then not be helped as your condition would worsen. This kind of deal was exactly what the soldiers recruiting at my school were offering.

Standing proud in their uniforms, the soldiers offered a variety of brochures to students that stopped by their stand. Beside them was a poster that looked like a scene from the latest action movie portraying special forces with assault rifles. To most, there is not much of a problem up to now. But let me tell you a story:

On September 13th 2006 around 12:30pm, 25 year old Kimveer Gill parked his car near the Dawson College entrance on Maisonneuve Boulevard. He walked to the entrance of the school, Beretta Cx4 Storm semi-automatic carbine in hand, and fired at students on the steps of the building. He then made his way to the Atrium and the cafeteria where most students were having lunch. He loaded another pistol and shot more students. Raising his gun in the air, Gill ordered students to get down on the ground and kept shooting in their direction. Eventually, two police officers that were on scene for another incident, were able to hit the shooter in the arm. After killing one victim and injuring 19 more, Kimveer shot himself in the head and died.

Gill had briefly received military training from the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, from January 17 to February 16, 1999 and told his friends he wished to eventually become a mercenary.

Therefore, I would argue that advertising the use of assault weapons, specifically designed to kill people, in an establishment where a mass shooting took place exactly 10 years before, is completely fucked up.

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Schools are a no brainer for military recruitment since many “teenagers are at a stage in their development when they are impulsive, apt to engage in risky behavior, and uniquely susceptible to persuasion”. Studies by the National Priorities Project and the Syracuse University also found that kids coming from low-and-middle income backgrounds are disproportionately signing up compared to those who come from families that make more than $60 000 a year. This can be attributed to both the promise of free education and the appealing monetary compensation during the years of service.

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