The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on Tuesday deleted a tweet in which it invited the public to apply for a weapon license via its new mobile application, even as Quebec remembers the massacre at the École Polytechnique.
“If you are applying for a firearms license for the first time, try the new online application,” said the federal police force, accompanying its publication with a link to its website and a photo of smiling woman thumbs up in front of her computer.
Almost immediately, the publication sparked its share of outrage. “Whatever your opinion of our gun laws, I hope we can agree that the anniversary of [la tuerie de Polytechnique] is not the right day for the RCMP to tweet this “, illustrated in particular an Internet user, followed by several others.
Less than an hour later, shortly before 1 p.m., the RCMP finally deleted the tweet in question, without offering an explanation to its followers. Internet users, however, offered the “benefit of the doubt” to the Royal Mounted Police, arguing that the publication had perhaps been planned in advance.
By email, RCMP corporal and spokesperson Kim Chamberland said her organization “recognizes the poor timing of posting our message this morning.” “We took it down and we apologize for that,” she said.
Remember that commemoration ceremonies are taking place in most major cities in Canada on Tuesday, in memory of the Polytechnique massacre on December 6, 1989.
A gunman had burst into the school premises that day and murdered 14 women and injured 13 people. This anti-feminist attack shook the whole country. This Tuesday, the flags in front of the main pavilion of Polytechnique Montréal are also lowered from dawn to dusk.
Like every year, at 5:10 p.m., the time when the first shots were fired 33 years ago, 14 beams will light up the sky above Mount Royal. The beams will be turned on one at a time, seconds apart, as the names of the 14 victims are called.
“33 years ago, 14 young women were brutally killed and 13 others injured at the École Polytechnique, just because they were women. Name them. Don’t forget them,” the Federal Ministry of Public Security tweeted earlier on Tuesday.
With The Canadian Press