Blame for shooting rests with Sulejman Talovic alone
By Freda Lewkowicz
Article Last Updated: 02/17/2007 02:18:20 PM MST

Five months ago, I watched as Canadian media turned Kimveer Gill, the Dawson College shooter, into a victim. In the aftermath of the bloodshed that saw one young student murdered and others injured, the blame game rushed to center stage. Suddenly and erroneously, it took a village to raise a killer.
The first to be blamed for his rampage were the bullies who tormented him in high school. When an angry Gill wrote on his vampirefreaks.com blog, “I might forget but I never forgive,” to whom else could he have been referring? When he wrote of hating bullies and teachers, it seemed obvious that, once again, a child had been bullied and passive teachers and administrators were to blame.
The only problem was that three of his high school friends denied it. He may not have fit in with the popular group, and he may have been a loner, but he wasn’t bullied.
The next scapegoats were his grieving parents and his younger twin brothers. His parents were too strict, some hinted. Bashir Hussain, the executive director of the Alliance of South Asian Communities, blamed harsh discipline that might promote violence and might lead to alienation.
Perhaps his parents were just too blind and uninvolved. How could Gurvinder Gill and Parvinder Sandhu not have known what their son was doing, isolated in the basement and addicted to violent computer games? They should have seen the warning signs. They should have
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snooped more, read his handwritten diary and on-line blogs, and been generally more aware of his dark mood and activities. Some said.
But people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. It’s difficult to penetrate the enigma of adolescence and young adulthood. To monitor everything a child does in cyberspace or in the real world can be mission impossible.
Then the gun club in Ville St-Pierre, Quebec, where Gill honed his shooting skills was blamed. The Club de Tir de Ville St-Pierre is ironically the same place where another Montreal school shooter named Valery Fabrikant took courses. Obviously, a club that attracts two killers is negligent but Gill’s guns were purchased legally and target practice is not illegal. He passed the firearms safety course and did all the right things to earn his license.
Next, Canada’s gun registry was blamed. If someone as unbalanced as Gill could obtain guns legally, the registry must be at fault. Its follow-up procedures were too lax and post-registration screening was insufficient.
The Goth community that Gill so admired and the violent music and video games that he was so attracted to were also used as scapegoats. Dawson College’s security was at fault, said others. Where were the metal detectors and the armed security guards? Schools should not be open houses.
As Kimveer Gill’s former English teacher, I struggled with my own accountability and guilt. I wondered if I should have known that one day he would shoot and kill students at Dawson College. Was there some sign that I overlooked?
He was a quiet student, always sitting by himself at the back of the classroom. I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t remember trying to penetrate his solitude.
There are so many scapegoats and yet, the litany of blame omitted someone. There’s only one person who should be blamed for Kimveer Gill’s school rampage on Sept. 13, 2006, and that is Gill himself. In the same way, there’s only one person responsible for the Trolley Square massacre. Only one angel of death is responsible for this sorrow, and that is Sulejman Talovic.
He and other shooters before and after him are not victims. Blame must be assigned to him and not to those on the periphery of his life. He, and he alone, is responsible for the Trolley Square massacre.
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* FREDA LEWKOWICZ is a teacher and a freelance writer in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.