I have a huge affinity for the Tragically Hip as a band. I mourned the loss of Gord Downie with the rest of Canada after his battle with brain cancer and farewell tour. I have always stood in awe of how he used his fame and fortune to impact the poorest Canadians in the northernmost reaches of the nation. He tried to speak for those without a voice, like the generation of aboriginal children taken from their families and sent to re-education boarding schools, often never seeing their home or families, or way of life again. He made that effort and showed such a measure of courage, right through to his last show in 2016 in the college town of Kingston, Ontario on the St. Lawrence Seaway. And there he was, sicker by the week, weak and wearing a crazy hat and baggy shirt to cover his ravaged body and the crowd filled the stadium and the grounds surrounding the stadium and he leaned into his sickness and pressed on. Would I have had that in me?
I was listening to a remake of a song from an older album called “Montreal”. The lyrics have always struck me as haunting but I did not know the story behind them and the national response to a tragedy in French Canada. While doing a bit of reading for this article, I found a video produced by Gord Downey’s brother after his death, it’s very good, and very hard to watch. Check it out after you read the article perhaps.
The Tragically Hip - Montréal (Live From Molson Center, Montréal/2000)
As an American, I have lived through hundreds of mass shootings in my lifetime. My first memory of an incident was in 1965 when Charles Whitman killed 18 people with a rifle from the clock tower of the University of Texas at Austin. My father had attended UT and was heartsick at the news and seeing the beloved tower used for homicide. But I was just a child and in the years since, I have seen a drumbeat of shootings and our national response and the thoughts and prayers and ensuing arguments. And then we forget. But the sadness and the loss and horror spread out across the water of our national consciousness, while the families and loved ones are never whole. Ever. As a parent, I have that nightmare that wakes me up with a start, no doubt other parents have the same one. The child slips from my fingers in the parking lot and the car rounds the corner and I watch as I have failed to protect, failed my most elemental duty, and then I wake with a gasp. And it’s all right. But what of those who experience the loss in broad daylight? Where do they find peace in dreams ever again?
She used to like lavender pant suits
And long black velvet gloves
Smiles cross crowded rooms
From the only boy she'd ever love
On December 6, 1989, a troubled young man with a hunting rifle killed 14 women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique. They were all young people studying math and science and engineering in a country where entry into college is tough and entry into engineering is tougher still. Their parents must have been so proud of them.
The snow is so merciless
On poor old Montreal
Spite of everything that's happened
Yeah, in spite of it all
What strikes me most about this tragedy was the national response and the continued focus on remembering and commemorating so many years later. The day of the tragedy is a national day of remembrance and action on violence against women. The day is marked by white ribbons and on the 25th anniversary, 14 lights shone on top of the iconic Mount Royal in the middle of the city, and remain in place to this day.
Public commemorations and remembrances are dotted across the country and the Nave of the 14 Queens art exhibit exists today in Montreal.
Don't you worry
Her mother's gonna make her look good
Don't you worry
Her father's gonna make her look good
Give me the chance to explain
Well, why don't you just explain
Come on, explain away
What strikes me most about this story is the difference in our two nations. I have lots of Canadian friends and was just up in Ontario a couple weeks back. Driving 45 minutes from my house puts me across the Peace Bridge and into another nation. A nation that still remembers a mass shooting from 1989 and more importantly, a nation that did something about it. Within 2 years of the shooting, Canada passed the firearms act, instituting waiting periods, capacity restrictions, mandatory registration and other restrictions. Over time, the law had remained in play as the political winds shifted, but it is noteworthy that the demand for change was that powerful in the wake of a single shooting.
And so now we know the story of the song. I did not remember that particular mass shooting, because there have been so many. But I sit here typing away on this nice sunny day and it makes me sad to think about 14 young women who were full of hope and promise, just like my own two children. And I appreciate Gord Downie making the effort to help a nation heal and remember. Maybe the Canadians have the right of it on this, perhaps we need to spend more time remembering those lost and less time arguing about the why.
Going through old emails, this one has been here since May! I’m ‘in tune’ with you, The Tragically Hip, and their story-telling. So much gun violence, pain for the decay of sanity. ‘It gets so sticky down here…’