36 years later, CFUW and city remember 14 women killed at Polytechnique Montréal

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault and Annie Turcotte.

Those are the 14 women who were killed at Polytechnique Montréal on Dec. 6, 1989. All of them were engineering students and all of them were specifically targeted for being women.

Now, 36 years later, those women are still remembered across Canada during the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, an anniversary enshrined for Canadians to fight the hatred that led to the tragedy back then, and the misogyny that still exists today.

On Dec. 5, the City of Stratford and the Stratford branch of the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) lowered the Canadian Flag at city hall to half mast in honour of the 14 women. Cambria Ravenhill of CFUW told the Times that even 36 years later it is important to remember those women, no matter where in Canada or the world you are.

“These women were killed because they were women,” Ravenhill said. “The perpetrator, whom we never name, had been at the school in engineering and had failed it, flunked out, essentially. And he blamed the fact on women being in the class, taking space for men, if you like. And so when he came into the school, he went to the engineering classrooms, and he separated the men and the women that he told the men to leave the class and he shot the women.

“… It was an intentional massacre of women for the crime of being women and taking engineering. And so it's really important to understand it was femicide, it was purposeful, it was a hate crime – it was violence against women.”

CFUW was joined by Mayor Martin Ritsma and Perth-Wellington MP John Nater for the occasion. As Ravenhill said, CFUW is incredibly grateful for local government support and leadership and, regardless of its own advocacy, the city will be having a yearly memorial for the day moving forward.

She highlighted that, although the issue isn’t exactly related to the femicide that occurred in Montreal, it is also important to note that the city joined with over 100 municipalities to declare another form of gendered violence, intimate partner violence, an epidemic.

Importantly, Dec. 6 is a day of remembrance and action. To not only remember violence against women but to fight against it. In that respect, Ravenhill advised the public to look at Optimism Place’s Not Ok. campaign.

The campaign, as previously reported by the Times, is focused on getting people talking about gendered and intimate partner violence openly and to learn the signs of escalating risk, including:

• The person fears being hurt, and/orfears for the safety of a child or another family member.

• The partner has a known history of domestic violence.

• The partner shows obsessive behaviour such as stalking, harassment, excessive gift-giving, sexual jealousy, and/or possessiveness.

• The partner has made threats involving weapons, and/or has access to firearms or knives.

• There have been threats to kill the person, a family member, and/or themselves.

• The partner has violated a no-contact and/or other court order.

• The relationship is ending, and/or there has been a recent pregnancy or birth.

• The partner is currently unemployed and/or without stable housing.

• The partner’s substance use contributes to an increase in violent incidents.

• The frequency or severity of violent incidents has escalated.

“Don’t be a bystander,” Ravenhill said. “Notice the signs.”