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Michael
Peter SLOBODIAN
TheBrampton
Centennial Secondary School massacre
Classification:
Homicide
Characteristics: Juvenile
(16) - School shooting - "Fed up with life"
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders:
May 28,
1975
Date of birth: 1959
Victims profile: John Slinger,
17(fellow classmate)
/ Margaret E.
Wright, 25 (art teacher)
Method of murder:
Shooting
Location: Brampton,
Ontario, Canada
Status: Committed suicide by shooting himself the same day
TheBrampton
Centennial Secondary School massacre was a school
shooting, which occurred at Brampton Centennial
Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. It was
the first school shooting in Canada.
On Wednesday, May 28, 1975, 16-year-old
Michael Slobodian opened fire in the boy's washroom.
Slobodian killed fellow classmate John Slinger in the
boy's washroom and then his English teacher, Margaret
Wright in the art classroom, and wounded 13 other
students. Slobodian then committed suicide in one of the
school's hallways.
Ontario Premier William Davis had a
15-year-old daughter Cathy Davis attending the school,
but she was not injured. Another witness of the shooting
was future Kids in the Hall star, Scott Thompson
who was a classmate and acquaintance of Slobodian.
This shooting incident led to tough
gun laws in Canada. Previously, anyone could walk into a
store and buy a firearm.
Wikipedia.org
Slobodian's terror may have helped spur gun law
changes
Michael Slobodian's legacy may be more than a litany of shattered
families and traumatized lives.
In the days following the shootings at Centennial Secondary School
in Brampton thousands of names were penned to petitions calling on the
federal government for better gun control. Slobodian was not a criminal.
He was a kid with guns who could lash out when he was angry.
The day after the shootings, then Ontario Premier William Davis --
whose daughter Cathy, 15, was attending Centennial Secondary when the
shootings happened -- asked his attorney-general John Clement to meet
federal Justice Minister Otto Lang and Solicitor General Warren Allmand
to review stringent amendments to the Criminal code.
Pat and Berwick Slinger put aside their grief following the death of
their son John -- who was said to be probably Slobodian's only friend --
and testified at the subsequent inquest, calling for gun control rules.
The Slingers took the petitions to Ottawa, meeting with Allmand, who, in
1995, chaired the committee reviewing Justice Minister Allan Rock's
firearms registration legislation -- laws proposed to make access to
weapons more difficult. The proposals were recommended for legislation
and passed.
