As a Canadian watching the tragedy of America’s gun violence unfold, it’s easy to write Americans off as crazy people who value their right to bear arms more than their own lives. Mass shootings are so common in the United States, they’re no longer surprising. According to the Violence Policy Centre, Americans are more likely to die because of gun violence than they are in a car crash in 21 of the states.
Canada is often held up as a safer, more level-headed example. There are few instances when Canadians can feel smugly satisfied they’ve done something better than the United States, but having stricter gun regulations is one of them.
Yet just three weeks after President Barack Obama delivered his emotional speech introducing his executive action on gun control, Canada was hit with its own shooting tragedy in La Loche, Sask. Four were killed and seven were injured in the shooting on Jan. 22, part of which took place inside a high school.
According to a Statistics Canada report from 2012, Canada’s firearm-related homicide rate is seven times lower than that of the United States. And while Canadian gun violence is nowhere near as prevalent as it is in America, our country is not as immune to it as we like to pretend.
Growing up in Toronto, a report of someone killed by gunfire was—and remains—a regular occurrence on the city’s newscast. From 2005’s “summer of the gun” to the Danzig Street shooting in 2012 that killed two and wounded 23, to this past summer’s shooting spree at an OVO after-party, the struggle with gun violence in Canada’s biggest city is undeniable.
Of course, gun violence isn’t restricted to Toronto alone, as La Loche proves. Anyone who was in Ottawa during the shooting on Parliament Hill can remember the fear and uncertainty of that day, and every year Canadians honour the memory of the 14 women killed in 1989’s Montreal Massacre. While gun violence may not be as frequent in Canada as it is in the United States, it is by no means a problem our nation is unfamiliar with.
A statement released by the family of Adam Wood, one of the victims of the recent shooting in Saskatchewan, asks Canadians to “stop and listen to the voices of La Loche.” A 17-year-old was arrested. Two teachers and two teenagers are dead. Canada may have better gun control than the United States does, but that is not enough to pride ourselves on.
So long as there are lives being lost to gun violence in our country, Canadians are in no position to gloat over our American neighbours.
