Montreal Massacre Remembered: Dec 6, 2014
It was a cold, drizzly day on December 6th, 1989
when a young man brandishing a firearm burst into a college classroom at the
Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Canada. The 60 or so engineering students had
little time to react before the men were ordered from the room and the gunman
began shooting the women. Six female students were killed instantly, while
three more were left injured.
The killer, 25-year old Marc Lepine was armed with a legally
obtained mini-14 rifle and hunting knife: he had earlier told a shopkeeper he
was going after “small game.” Lepine had previously been denied admission to
the Ecole Polytechnique and had been upset, it later transpired, about women
working in positions traditionally occupied by men. Before he opened fire,
Lepine shouted: “You’re all a bunch of feminists, and I hate feminists!”
The gunman then moved through the college corridors, the
cafeteria, and another classroom, specifically targeting women to shoot. By the
time Lepine turned the gun on himself, 14 women were dead and another 10 were
injured. Four men were hurt unintentionally in the crossfire.
In Canada, December 6th is a Day of Remembrance
and Action on Violence Against Women. Michele Birch-Conery, Priest and Barbara
Billey, Deacon stood in solidarity with other men and women on the campus of
the University of Windsor, Canada to protest violence against women and to
remember the tragic demise of the women killed in Montreal. As the feminist
writer Andrea Dworkin said: “It is incumbent upon each of us to be the woman
that Marc Lepine wanted to kill. We must live with this honor, this courage. We
must drive out fear. We must hold on. We must create. We must resist.”
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