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Friday December 6th marks the thirtieth anniversary of the "Montreal Massacre" - a grim day in 1989 when fourteen female students at the École Polytechnique were murdered by a man known to posterity as "Marc Lépine". Much followed from that terrible slaughter, including various useless "gun control" measures - and the formal annual commemorations that, three decades on, are attended by as many eminences as Remembrance Day or Dominion Day. The men present in that classroom are now in their mid-fifties; the women are not. I was far from home that December and was not back in Quebec until Christmas....

Montreal — Every year, in memorial ceremonies across the country, Genevieve Bergeron's name is heard first when the list of the victims of Canada's worst mass shooting is read. The tragedy of her death overshadows her life for most Canadians. They're seldom told she was a loving, inspirational sister, a top student, a gifted musician and a talented athlete. "For me, she was like the sun," said Catherine Bergeron, who fought tenaciously for tougher gun laws after her sister was killed. "I see her like sunshine. She was a beautiful blond, with blue eyes, always smiling." Genevieve was 21 when...