Heidi Rathjen
A few days after the first anniversary of Dec. 6, Campbell announced that the bill would die. I was so angry. It was such an injustice; a slap in the face to all the victims of the tragedy. But, at the same time, it made me push even harder.
Wendy and I formed the Coalition for Gun Control, with Wendy as president, as she still is today. I was thinking about gun control all the time, so I quit my job at Bell to fight for the legislation full time. Fighting for gun control wasn't just another job. It was my mission. And I saw the whole world through the eyes of that mission. Every day, we made progress that encouraged me to keep going. I felt like we were David versus Goliath. Every time I got a supporter or a politician to meet with me, it was all the encouragement I needed.
On Dec. 5, 2005, Bill C-68 became law and introduced new, stricter gun control legislation, including a ban on assault weapons and mandatory registration of all firearms. During the victory party, the parents of the girls who had died raised glasses of Champagne and spoke to the crowd, thanking us for years of fighting and for this tribute to their daughters.
Heidi Rathjen is cofounder and codirector of the Quebec Coalition of Tobacco Control, and mom to a five-year-old daughter. She was a student at L'École Polytechnique de Montréal on Dec. 6, 1989.
Page 2 of 5 – Catherine Bergeron, whose sister Genvieve lost her life on December 6, shares her story on page 3.
