On Monday, October 27, 1975, a quiet Monday morning at St. Pius X High School in Ottawa turned into a national nightmare. Robert Poulin, a student at the school, walked into a packed religion class and opened fire on his fellow students before taking his own life in the hallway outside.
The Unfolding Tragedy at St. Pius X
This horrific event marked one of Canada's first documented school shootings, occurring at a time when there was no established protocol for how educational institutions should respond to such violence. The attack left one student dead immediately, with several others wounded by gunfire in the crowded classroom.
What made the situation even more chilling was the revelation that earlier that same day, Poulin had raped and murdered Glebe Collegiate student Kim Rabot in the basement of his family home. The troubled teenager had been leading a secret life that few could have anticipated.
The Aftermath and Recovery
Remarkably, staff and students returned to St. Pius X High School the very next day, with the smell of disinfectant and fresh paint still lingering in the air. The school community faced the daunting task of moving forward without any established playbook for recovery.
Tragically, the death toll would rise when injured student Mark Hough succumbed to his wounds over a month later in hospital, bringing the total fatalities to three lives lost in connection with the shooting.
Broader Context of Canadian School Violence
The St. Pius X incident was not an isolated event in 1975. Just six months earlier in Brampton, Ontario, 16-year-old Michael Slobodian had killed a fellow student and a 26-year-old pregnant arts teacher who had reported his school absences to his parents. Slobodian wounded 13 others before taking his own life.
Both incidents represented unfathomable murder-suicides that left Canadians asking difficult questions about why such violence was occurring in their country. At the time, many believed school shootings were primarily an American phenomenon.
Connections to Later Tragedies
The 1975 shootings preceded by a decade the devastating École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, where fourteen women were murdered and ten women and four men were injured in what was widely recognized as an act of misogyny and anti-feminism.
More recently, the Tumbler Ridge shooting has brought renewed attention to school violence in Canada. These incidents share common threads beyond the obvious tragedy—they all captured national headlines and forced the country to confront the reality of violence within educational institutions.
The Profile of Robert Poulin
Robert Poulin was described as quiet and studious, not conventionally attractive, and a loner who struggled with social interactions, particularly with girls. His background included military cadet training where he learned to shoot firearms and unofficially practiced commando tactics.
This profile of a troubled, isolated individual has become unfortunately familiar in discussions about school violence perpetrators, though in 1975, such patterns were not widely recognized or understood.
National Response and Remembrance
The rarity of such events in Canada makes each one particularly impactful on the national consciousness. When federal political leaders recently gathered in Tumbler Ridge, joining hands in unity at a vigil for victims, their presence represented more than symbolic gesture—it acknowledged these killings as national tragedies requiring collective mourning and response.
This stands in contrast to what might otherwise be marked by routine expressions of sympathy from those in power. The physical presence of leaders communicates that such violence represents a breach in the social fabric that demands attention beyond thoughts and prayers.
The 1975 St. Pius X shooting remains a sobering chapter in Canadian history, one that continues to inform how the country responds to school violence nearly five decades later. As communities like Tumbler Ridge grapple with their own tragedies, the echoes of Ottawa's 1975 experience remind us that while such events remain thankfully rare in Canada, their impact reverberates through generations.
