Remembering the Montreal Massacre

The Montreal Massacre is remembered during a candlelight ceremony on Sexton Campus two years ago. (Photo by Leigh Beauchamp Day)

Eighteen years ago today, Marc Lepine stormed into an engineering class in Montreal’s École Polytechnique, ordering the male students to leave before opening fire. He killed 14 women and wounded 13 others before turning the gun on himself.

The enraged man murdered the women because he “hated feminists.” And, almost immediately, the Montreal Massacre became a galvanizing moment in which mourning turned into outrage about all violence against women. Since 1991, December 6 has been the National Day of Commemoration and Action on Violence Against Women.

“Violence against women is just as apparent as it was then, and the massacre brought these issues to the fore,” says Nessa Trenton, a third-year Dal student who volunteers at the Dalhousie Women’s Centre.

Through the month of November, the centre planned a number of events in honour of the women who were killed on Dec. 6, 1989. They ranged from the “Bathtub Project,” a campaign to collect new and gently used toiletry items to donate to women’s shelters, town-hall discussions and film screenings. On the anniversary date, there will be a candlelight memorial held in the alumni lounge on Sexton campus. The vigil, beginning at 6:30 p.m., is a joint effort by the Women’s Centre and Dalhousie engineering students. 

While many women at Dalhousie don’t call themselves feminists, they say they do believe in equality and changing people’s attitudes so women won’t have to face oppression and violence.

“The Montreal Massacre was the mistake of one man who didn’t believe in equality, and it reflects the violence and suppression of women everywhere,” says Michelle Hampson, 18, a Dal student who hopes to study journalism. 

It wasn’t that long ago that women weren’t expected to go to university, much less enter male-dominated fields such as engineering or medicine. To some women at Dal, that in itself makes commemorating the massacre all the more important.

“The massacre means that my being in school has historical significance,” says Sonya Wellhausen. She says she will stop for a few moments on December 6 and remember “because we are all those 14 women (and) we will always be.”