1 – 1972 Montreal QC – 37 Victims
September 1st, 1972 – After being denied entry, Gilles Eccles, James O’Brien and Jean-Marc Boutin set a fire on the staircase that served as the only entrance/exit for the upstairs of the Bluebird Cafe. The Cafe housed a cocktail lounge on the first floor, and a western-themed dance bar named the Wagon Wheel on the second. According to reports, the three drove to a nearby gas station to fill a plastic container full of gasoline. They drove back to the bar where James O’Brien and Jean-Marc Boutin poured gasoline on the stairs, only intending to make a small fire and scare people. The prank killed 37 people.
2 – 2020 Portapique NS – 22 victims *
April 18th, 2020 – 19th, 2020 – 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman committed multiple shootings using illegal firearms and set fires at 16 locations in Nova Scotia, killing 13 people with semi-automatic firearms and 9 in fires before the RCMP shot and killed him in Enfield, NS.
3 – 1989 Montreal QC – 14 victims
December 6th, 1989 – Marc Lepine entered a mechanical engineering class at the École Polytechnique and ordered the women and men to opposite sides of the classroom and ordered the men to leave. Stating that he was fighting feminism, Lepine shot all 9 of the women, killing 6 and injuring the other three with a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle. Lepine then moved throughout the school targeting women and killing another 8 before killing himself.
4 – 2018 Toronto ON – 10 victims *
April 23rd, 2018 – Alek Minassian, 25, rented a white cargo van early in the day on April 23, before driving it on a crowded sidewalk in the area of Finch Ave. and Yonge St. at approximately 1.30 pm. Minassian killed 10 people and injured another 16. The accused posted a cryptic Facebook message before the attack that read “Private (Recruit) Minassian Infantry 00010, wishing to speak to Sgt 4chan please. C23249161. The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys. All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!” Minassian was arrested uninjured after attempting to commit suicide by police.
5 – 1996 Vernon BC – 9 victims
April 8th 1996 – Mark Vijay Chahal walked into his former home and opened fire as relatives prepared for the wedding that day of his wife’s sister. Chahal fired 28 shots, with a .40-calibre semi-automatic handgun and a .30-calibre revolver, killing his estranged wife, Rajwar Gakhal, and eight of her relatives. Chahal then went to a nearby motel, where he shot himself.
6 – 1967 Shell Lake SK- 9 victims
August 15th 1967 – Victor Hoffman, 21, had been released from a mental hospital just three weeks before the murders. On August 15th 1967 Hoffman entered the Peterson’s farm armed with a .22-calibre Browning pump-action repeater rifle. Hoffman shot all but one of the members of the Peterson family, seven of them children. Mr. Peterson was shot in the kitchen, his wife Evelyn and their one-year-old infant were found in the backyard. The other six children were shot while sleeping in their bedrooms. Their ages ranged from 2 to 17 years old. 4-year-old Phyllis Peterson was the lone survivor of the massacre. Phyllis had been sleeping under the blankets between her sisters. Hoffman later said he spared the life of the child because “she had the face of an angel.”
Hoffman was arrested by the RCMP on August 19th at his parents house in Leask Saskatchewan. He was committed to a mental hospital in North Battleford where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Hoffman was found not guilty by reason of insanity on non-capital murder charges in February, 1968.
7 – 2006 Shedden ON – 8 victims
April 8, 2006 – Eight men were shot execution-style in a farmer’s field near Shedden. Six of the men killed were members of the Bandidos Toronto Branch, including the President of the organization in Canada. The bodies were found stuffed in trunks of vehicles on a property outside of Iona Station. The victims were identified as Luis Manny Raposo “Chopper”, John Muscedere “Boxer”, Jamie Flanz “Goldberg”, George Jessome “Pony”, George Kriarakis “Crash”, Frank Salerno “Bam Bam”, Paul Sinopoli “Big Paul” and Michael Trotta “Mike T”. According to reports the suspects Michael Sandham, Marcelo Aravena, Frank Mather, Brett Gardiner, Dwight Mushey, and Wayne Kellestine, were members of the Banditos, half of which didn’t even own a motorcycle. On October 29th 2009 Kellestine, Sandham and Mushey were found guilty of eight counts of first-degree murder. Mather and Aravena were found guilty of seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of manslaughter. Gardiner was found guilty of six counts of first-degree murder and two counts of manslaughter.
8 – 2014 Edmonton AB – 8 victims
December 29th, 2014 – Phu Lam went to two locations where he shot and killed six adults and two children with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, most of whom were his relatives. Thuy-tien Truong, 35, his estranged wife, and her eight-year-old son, Elvis Lam, her father Van-dang Truong, 55, her mother Thi-dau Le, 55, her sister Thanh-ha-thi Truong 33, her sister’s daughter, Valentina Nguyen, 3 and Truong’s male friend Viet Nguyen, 41 were all found dead inside their North Edmonton home. Lam spared the lives of his toddler daughter and an infant nephew who he dropped off with a relative before heading out to shoot the 8th victim the following day. Lam shot Cyndi Duong, before killing himself in a Vietnamese restaurant that he owned in Fort Saskatchewan.
9 – 1969 Buffalo Narrows SK – 7 victims
January 30th, 1969 – Frederick Moses McCallum, 19, punched through the Pederson’s door and murdered the Pederson family with an axe while they slept in their beds. The victims included a mother, father, two girls, two boys and a family friend. A 7-year-old boy was the sole survivor. McCallum was later arrested, diagnosed with schizophrenia, and found not guilty by reason of insanity.
10 – 2017 Quebec City – 6 victims *
January 27th, 2017 – Alexandre Bissonnette 27 entered a Quebec City Mosque after the evening prayer and started shooting, killing 6 people. The shooter attempted to shoot the two men with a semi-automatic .223 rifle, but when the rifle jammed he dropped the gun and proceeded to shoot with a 9-mm Glock pistol. Bissonnette left the scene when he emptied his weapon. The victims were identified as Azzedine Soufiane, 57, Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42, Khaled Belkacemi, 60, Aboubaker Thabti, 44, Ibrahima Barry, 39, and Abdelkrim Hassane, 41. Bissonnette was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder on January 30th.
* More information
