Thursday, December 06, 2007

A Day of Remembrance


For 45 minutes on Dec. 6, 1989 an enraged gunman roamed the corridors of Montreal's École Polytechnique and killed 14 women. Marc Lepine, 25, separated the men from the women and before opening fire on the classroom of female engineering students he screamed, "I hate feminists." Almost immediately, the Montreal Massacre became a galvanizing moment in which mourning turned into outrage about all violence against women.

Today acknowledges a National Day of Remembrance and Action of Violence Against Women.

I was only five when this happened, but it is not something that Canadians have forgotten. The gunman killed women because they were women. It was a hate crime that tore 14 women from their families and changed lives forever. On this day, we remember those women and the lasting impact that their loss made on violence against women in Canada.

* Geneviève Bergeron 21, civil engineering student.
* Hélène Colgan 23, mechanical engineering student.
* Nathalie Croteau 23, mechanical engineering student.
* Barbara Daigneault 22, mechanical engineering student.
* Anne-Marie Edward 21, chemical engineering student.
* Maud Haviernick, 29, materials engineering student.
* Maryse Laganière 25, budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department.
* Maryse Leclair 23, materials engineering student.
* Anne-Marie Lemay 27, mechanical engineering student.
* Sonia Pelletier 23, mechanical engineering student.
* Michèle Richard 21, materials engineering student.
* Annie St-Arneault 23, mechanical engineering student.
* Annie Turcotte 21, materials engineering student.
* Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz 31, nursing student.

9 comments:

  1. Oh my, I don't remember ever hearing about this. How tragic! Not only for their families and friends, but also for the world at large. Just think what those women might have been contributing to society...

    Thanks for posting this, Kailana.

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  2. It's always good to take a moment to remember events like this. When you already know about them, you think everyone else has heard of it, too. But honouring these women is the least we can do.

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  3. Oh how awful! I don't remember ever hearing about this, I was only three at the time. Still, you would think this would be up there with the Columbine shooting in terms of everyone knowing at least something about it.

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  4. Wow, I don't even remember this. I have an engineering degree. That's scary!

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  5. I just looked at the date, and I was even in college at the time! I graduated in '90.

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  6. Nice tribute, Kelly.
    My sister was at St FX in engineering when it happened. It was a scary time.
    I always talk to my high school physics classes about this on Dec 6th. I tell how he walked in the room and only picked the girls, as I tell them, I point out all the girls in the physics class.

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  7. How devastating. I'd never heard about this until now.

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  8. How interesting that so many people have never even heard of this before. If it had happened elsewhere, everyone would know...

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