Dec. 6, 1999, marked the 10-year anniversary of the shooting deaths of 14 women at the Université de Montréal’s École Polytechnique. A sad anniversary indeed, and the event recently received a long overdue monument, one erected not far from the school’s door. December 6 is a monument of sorts, too, though while good intentions are rife here, perhaps the sculpture onsite has done more justice in commemorating the tragedy than this poorly written memoir.

December 6 inadequately touches on the circumstances and the aftermath of the massacre. Co-author Heidi Rathjen (it is unclear what Charles Montpetit’s role in the book is) describes how she was locked in a room just down the hall from the room where many of the female engineering students met their deaths. She was very close friends with a woman who narrowly escaped after being shot three times, and Rathjen discusses how this affected her. However, her descriptions are juvenile and simplistic. For example, when describing the aftermath of the tragedy Rathjen writes “…a massive vigil was scheduled for later on, and I couldn’t wait to join the crowd and be swept up by the atmosphere. My guts were still balled up in a tight knot, and I desperately needed to cry my eyes out.”

Still, Rathjen’s account of the effects of the deaths is more interesting than what follows. She goes on to explain how she became active with the gun control issue, and December 6 becomes a long foray into the bureaucratic red tape of passing a bill through Parliament.

This book does tell the important story of how the efforts of Rathjen and others helped to make it illegal for anyone to buy an assault rifle over the counter. It’s a shame that the deaths of 14 women are lost in the parliamentary bureaucracy of this account.