MONTREAL (AP) – As Canadians paused Tuesday to remember the victims of the country’s worst mass shooting, the sister of one of the 14 women who were killed said she hopes tougher gun laws will become an issue in the federal election.

Catherine Bergeron said a lot has been done to tighten gun laws since her sister Genevieve was slain in gunman Marc Lepine’s rampage at the University of Montreal’s engineering school on Dec. 6, 1989, but more is needed.

“I think it’s an important message that all the politicians get, that it’s an important law,” she said at a commemorative service to remember the slain women.

She added the message is especially important for the Conservative party.

Bergeron made the remarks as Green Party Leader Jim Harris urged Conservative Leader Stephen Harper to reject the recent offer of support for the Conservatives from the U.S.-based National Rifle Association.

Homolka gets to keep freedom

MONTREAL (AP) ­- Ontario schoolgirl killer Karla Homolka can still go where she wants and meet with anyone she pleases.

The Quebec Court of Appeal rejected a request by the Crown to seek leave to appeal the recent decision that lifted restrictions on her freedom.

The three Appeal Court judges unanimously ruled there were no legal errors made when a lower court judge struck down the restrictions.

Ontario government prosecutor James Ramsay, who argued the case with the Quebec government, said he’s disappointed with the decision but accepts it.

“The court has spoken,” Ramsay said after the hearing, adding it would be up to the Quebec government to pursue the matter further.

CN Rail suffers two derailments

RICHMOND, British Columbia (AP) ­- CN Rail is facing more questions after two derailments in a single day, including one on the trouble-prone former British Columbia Rail line north of Vancouver and another that sent a car loaded with new automobiles into the Fraser River.

The accidents happened within hours of each other on Monday, and while CN said there is no evident connection, critics want federal regulators to take a closer look at the railway’s record and rail safety overall.

The first accident took place Monday afternoon when seven empty cars of a 125-car train jumped the tracks in the Cheakamus Canyon north of Squamish, British Columbia

It’s the same stretch of former British Columbia Rail line where a tank car loaded with a caustic soda broke open after plunging into the Cheakamus River last summer, causing a serious fish-kill.

CN, which acquired the British Columbia Rail operation from the provincial government in 2003, has experienced 11 derailments on the line so far this year.

On Monday evening, four cars of a 39-car northbound train carrying new autos derailed while crossing a swinging trestle over the Fraser River into the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby from an industrial area in neighboring Richmond.

“The train was almost across the bridge,” said Graham Dallas, CN’s regional communications manager. “Three of them derailed upright on the bridge. The last car in the train, however, fell off the bridge into the water.”