Date: September 13, 2026
Reporter: Emilly Jordan
Twenty years after a gunman opened fire at Montreal's Dawson College, survivor James Santos is reflecting on the day that changed his life and the loss of his friend Anastasia De Sousa, whose death remains at the centre of the college community's remembrance.
The shooting took place on September 13, 2006, when gunman Kimveer Gill entered Dawson College and opened fire on students. De Sousa, an 18-year-old student, was killed, while 19 others were wounded. Gill later died after being shot by police.
Santos was among the students caught in the attack. At the time, he was a Dawson College student who witnessed the violence and attempted to help De Sousa after she was shot.
Two decades later, the memories remain vivid.
Santos has since become a Montreal police officer, a career that has given him a different perspective on the events of that September afternoon. His experience as both a survivor of a mass shooting and a police officer has shaped the way he remembers the tragedy and understands the responsibilities of those responding to emergencies.
Speaking ahead of the 20th anniversary, Santos recalled seeing the gunman continue firing toward the cafeteria and watching De Sousa collapse. His recollections provide a personal account of a tragedy that has remained deeply embedded in Montreal's collective memory.
The Dawson College shooting was one of several major shootings that had occurred in Quebec, following the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre and the 1992 Concordia University shooting. The Dawson attack once again raised questions about gun violence, school security and how communities respond to traumatic events.
For the Dawson community, the tragedy was not limited to the immediate loss of life. Students, teachers and staff were left to cope with fear, grief and the psychological consequences of witnessing or experiencing violence.
The college closed in the immediate aftermath. Students were eventually allowed back onto campus, and classes resumed several days later. Dawson also established counselling and other supports for students and staff as the community began the long process of recovery.
A lasting memorial was later created on the campus. In 2011, Dawson College inaugurated an ecological Peace Garden dedicated to remembering De Sousa and representing the community's healing and resilience. The garden became part of the college's continuing effort to preserve the memory of those affected while creating a space for reflection.
For De Sousa's family, however, the passage of time has not erased the loss. Her mother, Louise De Sousa, has spoken about continuing to remember her daughter decades after her death. She has described adapting to life without her while maintaining an emotional connection with the daughter she lost.
The 20th anniversary has therefore brought together different dimensions of the tragedy: the memories of survivors, the grief of families, the experiences of first responders and the continuing effort by an institution to remember and heal.
Santos' journey is particularly striking because he moved from being a student caught in a violent attack to becoming one of the people responsible for protecting others. His career with the Montreal police has placed him on the opposite side of emergencies from the position he occupied as a young student in 2006.
His experience also illustrates how survivors can carry the consequences of traumatic events for decades while continuing to build their lives. Becoming a police officer has not erased what happened at Dawson, but it has become part of the story of how Santos moved forward.
The anniversary also provides an opportunity to remember the wider Dawson community members who were wounded. Nineteen people survived the shooting with injuries, with several suffering serious wounds. Their experiences, like those of other survivors, form an important part of the history of the attack.
Twenty years later, Dawson College continues to remember September 13, 2006, not simply as the date of a shooting, but as a moment that permanently changed the lives of students, families, staff and the wider Montreal community.
For Santos, remembering the tragedy means carrying the memory of a friend and former classmate while also recognizing how far his own life has moved since that day.
The anniversary is a reminder that while time can create distance from a traumatic event, it does not necessarily remove the grief associated with it. For survivors such as Santos and families such as the De Sousas, the memories remain part of their lives, even as they continue to move forward.