The St. Pius X High School Shooting: Robert Poulin's Secret Life

Update: 2025-11-07

Description

In October 1975, Ottawa was a picture of calm - polite, predictable, and almost boring in its safety. But that illusion shattered when 17-year-old Robert Poulin, a Catholic school student, carried out one of Canada’s first modern school shootings. Before walking into Saint Pius X High School with a sawed-off shotgun, he set fire to his own home, where firefighters would later discover the body of 17-year-old Kimberly Rabot, his friend and neighbour.

In this episode, we dig into the hidden life of Robert Poulin: the quiet boy with good grades and a polite smile who was secretly drowning in shame, repression, and violent obsession. His diaries revealed a mind twisted by guilt, pornography, and resentment, and a plan for destruction no one saw coming.

We’ll explore how the Catholic Church and Ottawa’s media handled this tragedy - or more accurately, buried it. Because in 1970s Canada, people didn’t talk about teenage sexuality, mental illness, or male violence. They whispered, denied, and moved on. And in that silence, the lessons from this case were lost.

Sources:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/the-murder-of-kim-rabot-and-the-st-pius-x-school-shooting-all-our-coverage-of-the-tragedy-s-50th-anniversary-9.6956730

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/50-years-later-an-ottawa-high-schoolers-violent-unravelling-still-leaves-deep-scars-9.6931797

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/who-is-kim-rabot-remembering-the-first-victim-of-a-faded-canadian-tragedy-9.6937685

https://todayinottawashistory.wordpress.com/2021/10/09/the-pius-x-high-school-tragedy/

https://criminal-justice.iresearchnet.com/types-of-crime/school-violence/robert-poulin/

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/raymond-j-de-souza-companions-ensure-evil-will-not-prevail

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