Twenty-seven years ago, as many of you know, a young man carrying a rifle walked into a classroom at the École Polytechnique de Montréal. After declaring to stunned students that he was “fighting feminism,” he shot 14 women dead, most of them students, and wounded another ten women and four men before killing himself.
Every year on this date Canadians take time to reflect on the events of that day and honor those killed in the massacre. Here’s an open thread for you all to do the same, as well as to discuss how we might best prevent future tragedies caused by reactionary ideologues with guns.
No trolls, MRAs, alt-rightsts, etc.
As a professional Canadian woman (a professional who is also a woman – nobody pays me for being female as far as I’m aware) this always hit close for me. Just a few days ago a physician was murdered in Ontario a few days after filing for a divorce. I remember these women – and those who are not white and educated and wealthy enough to make the news and spark national outcry.
Each year seems even more depressing as it seems like anti-feminism, it it’s not growing, is getting louder.
Anti feminism is a cancer. That’s my opinion, despite the large amount of people who might disagree. The majority of people who choose to oppose feminism (after learning what it actually is) generally have misogynistic attitudes. Not all, but most. RIP to all the victims. It makes me so angry, and so genuinely sad that people can take their ideas and beliefs to such extremes. I’m all for freedom of thought and expression, but when it affects other people, that’s when there’s a problem. There’s too many Elliot Rodgers and Marc Lepines milling about, who otherwise appear normal. Not to mention the huge issues with gun control.
@latte cat
i agree with most of your post, it’s a good sentiment and well put. but I’m confused on one point, how can someone reject feminism and not be a misogynist?
Education, education, education!!!! Not necessarily just about feminism though that’s essential as well. I believe ignorance breeds hatred and I believe that hatred withers in the light of knowledge. It’s not guaranteed, but if we do not educate we will not learn.
(/s) sure they pay you for being female… they just pay you less
Maybe they really like women but they have some backwards attitudes about our role in society? I mean in answer to mechzawas question
I was in my second year of university a few provinces over (Alberta) when this happened. I remember the shock, then the struggle to decide how to honour the fallen.
Eventually, it was decided that only women would take part in the ceremony, though all were welcome to watch it. Some men objected, but that’s how it went forward. We assembled in the atrium of the main building. While a (female) music professor played a sad refrain on the piano, the names of the fourteen victims were read out. Then fourteen young women, each carrying a candle and a rose, walked out onto a snow-covered verandah adjoining the space. The candles were snuffed, and the roses left in the snow.
In later annual ceremonies, some biographical details of the victims were shared along with their names, but the ceremony stayed largely the same.
That sounds like a lovely ceremony, Ludomancer. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for this, David.
@Weird Eddie – fortunately all residents within a province are salaried at the same rate by year, so that doesn’t apply to me… yet. Even though Public Health is a SJW-fest speciality started by women, today it’s a male-dominated field because it’s seen as a leadership role. My time will come.
@Ludomancer, this year one of our university’s speakers is a man who is talking about the importance of men speaking out against gendered violence. I agree with the premise but I feel like this isn’t the appropriate time/space for men to have the platform. Sometimes being a good ally means being willing to just listen.
Absolutely. I can empathize, but I cannot speak about your pain
Thank you for this. So many of my fellow USA-dwellers seem never to have heard of the massacre. I play these songs every year in a personal commemmoration.
From Judy Small, an Australian singer/songwriter (and I recommend all of her songs, many of which are about women’s issues and queer issues)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpoahz5VZuw&w=560&h=315%5D
and Stephen Fearing, a Canadian:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjGJSPxA-_Q&w=560&h=315%5D
@ Flora – I didn’t mention my gender earlier, but I’m a man, and I agree with you. Male allies should be able to speak, of course, but I would prefer it be at some related event, not at the memorial itself.
This is specifically about a man who targeted women because they were women who dared to step outside of our society’s traditional gender roles. There were men in the building, but the perpetrator (I will not name him) had them stand aside while he gunned down their female classmates. The ceremony should be by and about women.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N12dOqXPwb4/Tt0Dc4lH2oI/AAAAAAAAU4E/4Hk8TN9h6eU/s1600/CA+Ecole+polytectnique+massacre+victims.jpg
Spend some time imagining the sorts of people they might be today, and thinking of what the world has lost.
Only fourteen out of so many lost.
Ty for the thread David.
I hope we’re lucky enough to see this sort of violence stop within our lifetimes. At least the youngests’ lifetime.
An act of terrorism, pure and simple.
Since the shooter was trying to “end feminism” with this horrible hate crime, I think it’s important to point at this horrible incident and say ‘this is why we need feminism’.
@Flora
Agreed. In fact, the topic of “men speaking out against gendered violence” sounds very male-centric (I may be wrong, but IMO this “we need to speak out about this” sounds like fluff without discussing the underlying issues”). Perhaps a woman, especially someone who has experience sexism in STEM (so, in other words, a woman in STEM fields) should decide the topic and be the speaker.
@Moocow – Men are, of course, the instigators of the vast majority of gender violence, and so men must speak out against it, just not in a way that drowns out the voices of women. As I said upthread, I am personally against men participating in École Polytechnique memorials, just as (for instance) only women should march in Take Back the Night events.
You’re right that simply saying that one is against violence is insufficient. Men have to work do eliminate their own privilege, as well as the other underlying causes.
Men do need to shut up and listen – but they also need to speak. Now I think I’m going to spend the rest of the thread shutting up and listening.
It’s also independence day in Finland.
There were multiple nazi demonstrations, as well as anti-nazi ones. Police were brought into the capital from the provinces to help keep order. Fortunately things went better than expected, almost everything was peaceful. I only heard of one minor violent incident, a fight between a few nazis, that was interrupted by the police before it could escalate.
People pledged small sums of money to charities for every nazi that would be reported taking part in the marches. The sum reached 1195,91 euros per nazi. It will go to causes in support of democracy and equality. So that’s nice at least.
Still, it sucks that we can’t have nice things because of the nazis. I’m not a patriotic person, I’ve always found national pride dreadfully embarrassing. It shouldn’t have to be that way. There’s nothing inherently wrong with loving one’s country, and it probably even has some benefits. I am grateful for the security and standard of living we have, and maybe even a bit proud of them. As I see it, the correct way to honour those achievements would be to share them as widely as possible, and to build even greater things onto them.
But, like I said, we can’t have nice things because of nazis.
@dust bunny
I do love the idea of the pledges (per Nazi). What a wonderful way to demonstrate that people do not agree with them, while also bringing funds to causes that are in need of resources. If you don’t mind me asking, how was a collection like that organized?
@ preuxfox
Social media and word of mouth, mostly. Here’s their site: http://pernatsi.fi/en
Also worth noting that this is the event that really kicked gun control into high gear in this country; including the long gun registry that the Canadian Conservative government (acronym: CCRAP – they used it for two whole days before scraping it) opposed and destroyed.
I’m so upset about the fact that I need to work today instead of going to the memorial.
And I’m so upset that my (Canadian) school has lately been covered in MRA propaganda. Today, of all days, I did not need to find that out.
@Flora, thank you for mentioning the missing and murdered indigenous women.
I was a 15 year old Montrealer when the massacre at the Polytechnique happened. It was horrifying. It was one of the catalysts for my becoming a feminist, since anti-feminism perpetuated such horrors. My father, a physics teacher who knew some of those murdered (he taught at a college where some of these young women had gone before enrolling at the Polytechnique. He dedicated future editions of his textbook to the young women murdered that day. May we never forget them, but learn the lesson that vile, hateful ideologies are deadly when they incubate in the embittered.
I was reading the wiki article about the massacre, and I noticed something. None of the women were named in the sequence of events, but the shooter continuously was.
I think I would prefer for the women’s names to feature more prominently than the man who murdered them. But is it like… ghoulish to specify where each woman died?
I mean, there was more to them and their lives than this. It just seems like everyone knows his name, and no one (at least not me) knows their names.
@Rhuu
This is why many people on social media make a point of posting the names of the women every Dec. 6. Many of my Facebook friends have done this.