Police say they won't investigate a disturbing online video game that is being called sick and twisted for re-enacting the shootings at Dawson College.
Players re-enact the role of Kimveer Gill, who four years ago this week killed one person and injured 16 others in a shooting spree at the Montreal CEGEP.
One online description says the aim of the flash game is to "storm Dawson College with your favourite rifle, and kill those students and kill any cops you can."
An 18-year-old student, Anastasia De Sousa, was killed when Kimveer Gill opened fire at the downtown college and later killed himself.
Hayder Kadhim was injured in the attack, when a bullet seared through his skull. He said he's disturbed by the game.
"It promotes something that's obviously not good, something terrifying something tragic. It's a touchy subject for all of us," said Kadhim.
Dawson's student union has filed a complaint with the police.
"I think it's something that we can't take lightly and we immediately informed the authorities," said Dawson Student Union director of internal affairs & advocacy Nadia Kanji.
Police say they are limited in what they can do as there is no criminal infraction. They are, however, asking the site to take the game down.
"But they have no obligation to do so because there is no infraction," Marie-Elaine Ladouceur, a civilian police spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, the creator of the game says he has no intention of taking it down.
In an online post Wednesday, the creator defended his game by saying it brought attention to an important issue.
"I am sorry for any pain the game has caused, but I do not think this game will be removed from the Internet," wrote the game creator, whose online moniker is Virtuaman.
"I can see that Montreal is most angry with this games (sic) existence and at me for creating it. For that I can only say, it is only a game, it was not created with the purpose of offending anyone specifically, it was not created to make money (I never received and never will receive money for this game).
"It was created to bring attention to the reality of school shootings."
McGill University media and technology expert Dr. Michael Hoeschmann said the answer is to ignore it.
"We're drawing attention to something that might have just remained in some subsection of some subcultures bizarre habits," he said.
Kahdim agrees.
"The more attention you give it, the more you feel it, and the more you fuel it," he said.
The video game isn't the first to glorify school shooters. After the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, a similar video game was made and posted, and it was later revealed Gill had played the game online.
Concordia psychology professor Dr. William Bukowski said the trend needs to be addressed.
"The more an event like this becomes played and replayed, the more normal it becomes and the less frightening it becomes," said Bukowski.
With files from Canadian Press
