From: news@sifon.cc.mcgill.ca
Subject: Re: grad students killing professors
Organization: McGill University
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 22:39:02 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.170930.16555@bnrmtl.bnr.ca> stud6u3@bmtlh204.BNR.CA (6u student Kim Parsons) writes:
>
>In article <Bxwu6G.DKy@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, mcwg9235@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
>(Marsha Woodbury ) writes:
>|> While lurking around mensa this morning, it occurred (sp?)
>|> to me that folks in mensa could help me with my quest--
>|> i have a story about a guy named Fabrikant who went crazy
>|> and killed some people on a college campus.  I don't think
>|> this is Urban Legend, but I need the name of the school,
>|> the country (Canada?  US?) and year, etc.
>|> We mensans are smart, right?  So we flip out under
>|> pressure, right?  I hope wrong.  If you can't tell me
>|> about Frabrikant, let me know about any others you
>|> have heard of.
>|> Thanks in advance!
>|> --
>
>The shootings you are refering to happened at Concordia University,
>Montreal, Quebec, Canada on August 24, 1992.
>
>Fabrikant was a professor (Mech Eng), not a grad student, who shot
>and killed four other professors and a secretary.  He claims he was
>driven to do it by the suffering he had to endure as a result of
>alleged financial and academic fraud at the university.
>

Fabrikant is currently charged with four counts of first-degree
murder for his four fellow professors.  The secretary was only
wounded (shot in the leg).

(some text deleted)

>If you are really interested, I suggest you try to get a hold of the
>Nov. 9 issue of Maclean's Magazine.  Maclean's is a Canadian news
>magazine, but it should be available at libraries in the US.  The
>Nov 9 issue was devoted to Canadian Universities: rankings, their
>financial state, etc.  and it includes a special report on the
>Concordia shootings.  (this is where I got the above information).
>

The magazine mentioned above might not be very accessible.  As a
suggestion, you might try to consult issues of the newspapers
"The Globe and Mail" (a national Canadian newspaper) or "The
Montreal Gazette" (the only English newspaper in town) during
the time period of August 24.


>
>------------------------
>On a slightly different note:
>
>There was another shooting incident at a university in Montreal
>within the last few years.  In this case, a man walked in off the
>street into L'Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal and killed 14 female
>engineering students before killing himself.  I'm not too sure on
>the details anymore, but I believe the man's name was Marc Lepine.
>He was neither a student or a prof: he was just an outcast on a
>rampage against women (particularly women in traditionally male
>careers).  His hatred of women cost fourteen students their lives.
>
>This tragedy sparked a lot of discussion and action (in Canada
>anyway) about women in non-traditional roles, men's attitudes,
>women's safety, gun control laws, etc.
>
>------------------------------

The "Montreal Massacre" occurred on the night of December 6, 1989.
Fourteen women were indeed killed but only twelve were female
Engineering students at the Polytechnique (Universite de Montreal/
University of Montreal).  The gunman's name was Marc Lepine and he
went through the halls of the school deliberately targetting females
and walking past men.

Stricter gun control laws have been enacted as a result, limiting
the sale of semi-automatic rifles (used by Lepine) which can
easily be converted to fully automatic rifles.

Remembrance services are held annually on December 6 in memory of
those slain in most (if not all) Engineering schools in the
country.


Gary Ng
Dept. of Chemical Engineering
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

bffn@musicb.mcgill.ca