Yesterday marked the 17th anniversary of the "Montreal Massacre" that left 14 women dead.
On Dec. 6, 1989, 25 year-old Marc Lepine opened fire at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, targeting the female students. Before opening fire on a classroom full of women engineering students he screamed, "I hate feminists." He later turned the gun on himself.
Vigils and ceremonies were held across Canada yesterday in remembrance of the victims. In 1991, December 6 was made into Canada's National Day of Commemoration and Action on Violence Against Women.
A list of the young women killed in the massacre is after the jump.
Geneviève Bergeron, 21
Hélène Colgan, 23
Nathalie Croteau, 23
Barbara Daigneault, 22
Anne-Marie Edward, 21
Maud Haviernick, 29
Barbara Maria Klucznik, 31
Maryse Laganière, 25
Maryse Leclair, 23
Anne-Marie Lemay, 27
Sonia Pelletier, 23
Michèle Richard, 21
Annie St-Arneault, 23
Annie Turcotte, 21
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sad. at least it became something important after the fact. why does this seem to be happening more instead of less?
Thanks for posting on this horrible, horrible event. I, like most women I know in Canada have a vivid memory of where I was when this massacre happened (high school history class) and the ensuing arguments about whether this was a random act of violence or targetted violence against women pointing to a broader problem. I remember my younger feminist self being totally frustrated at the push to separate this event from discussions about violence against women, as though this was the random act of one crazy person.
Thank you for posting the names of the women killed in this massacre. Unfortunately, their names are far less familiar than that of the gunman. I think we give this man more notoriety than he deserves by naming him over an over in every story about this massacre.
Anyway, thanks for this from a lefty Canadian feminist who reads this blog almost every day.
Thanks for posting this. Absolutely horrible, but I ought to be more shocked than I am. This sort of tragedy happens way too often. It's just devastating.
We were in a clown class across town at the National Theatre School when we heard. We stood with our red noses on. The women at the time seemed a little older than me, like big sisters. Now they seem like my stepchildren.
It would be interesting to see how many men fell victim to this tragedy, for experiencing this horrific act must of been extremely confusing at the best of times. Perhaps, some men in that room may have felt so guilt ridden for not doing more to prevent it turned to suicide for a way out. Maybe, we could put their names on the memorial too.
Genderdetective (what a misnomer), the reason you haven't heard about any men that "fell victim to this tragedy" is because there weren't any. The murderer ordered the men out of the room and then systematically killed the women. There are no men to put on a memorial. There are 14 women. That is all.
All it would have taken to avoid making a ridiculous statement was a quick Google search. Instead, in a bizarre attempt to diminish the fact that a person set out to deliberately kill women, you've intimated that some men were victimed as well. Absolute rubbish.
RGM, this statemnent is not ridiculous. I did do a Google search and that's why I made this statement. There were men in that room who committed suicide after the fact and that's what I'm talking about. I'm saying that violence against women affects us all in more ways we can imagine.
Oh really? Name one.
It's too bad that most men with whom I've discussed gender issues spend most of their time arguing over specifics than acknowledging that violence against women affects them too. I had a lovely comment fight with a man over the weekend over the FBI's statistics of rape. He refused to believe it. Maybe he'll change his mind if someone he loves is ever raped, but probably not.
as i understand it, at least one of the men who committed suicide afterwards did so because he let lépine walk right past him, thereby allowing him to continue... and as for katie's comment that "most women I know in Canada have a vivid memory of where [they were] when this massacre happened", i think there ought to be a caveat affixed : such is the consensus only for people like her and i (also canadian, but male) who were old enough at the time to remember it still...but many people from the generation[s?] that followed don't have a clue "that this event even happened" (from a post-graduate student friend, female). a very telling example is the play by montréal native adam kelly "the anorak". not meant as glorification, it really sticks this tragedy in everybody's face, yet when i saw it last friday there weren't 2 dozen people in the house. sylvie haviernick and catherine bergeron, both of whom lost a sister december 6, have publicly supported the play ; the problem is that every year we have to teach too many people about this all over again, so what should be activism often becomes education 101. (revised school curricula anybody?) as for putting a man on the memorial, that would only make sense if he had perished trying to stop the rampage. since none of them did...
Thank you for posting the names of the women killed in this massacre.games