Remembering December 6 with on-campus memorial

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On December 6 at noon in the Alumni Lounge, the Women's Campus Safety Committee will be providing a memorial for the 14 young women, all engineering students at École Polytechnique in Montréal, who were murdered on December 6, 1989 by Marc Lepine. Fourteen other students, of which four were male, were injured and Marc Lepine subsequently killed himself.

The murder of such talented young women profoundly shocked everyone — both women and men. For women, it was a terrifying reminder of their vulnerability to hatred and harm as a result of their sex and aspirations. For men, it was a stark realization of the fear that women face every day of their lives.

There was no doubt that Marc Lepine had targeted the women. His suicide note talked about other women whom he wished to kill. When he first entered the university, he separated the men in the building from the women and made statements during the shootings about "fighting feminism."

December 6 has become the anniversary of what is known as the "Montréal Massacres," but more importantly, it has been designated as the National Day of Remembrance and Action On Violence Against Women. But there is a present perception by some that women are no longer particularly at risk of violence and that there is no longer a need to advocate for social and political change, or education and training to prevent violence against women. Others suggest that the violence that women experience is no different from the violence experienced by men and that is mostly perpetrated by strangers or casual acquaintances.

In Ontario, a Committee was formed in 2003 by the Chief Coroner's Office to review domestic violence related homicides in Ontario each year. These cases are homicides perpetrated by intimate partners — not strangers or casual acquaintances. In Ontario, there are approximately 20 to 30 domestic violence related homicides a year. In 2010, there were 18 cases, involving 36 deaths reviewed by the Domestic Violence Review Committee. Most of the victims were female. There were two male victims and both of these were the children of the perpetrator. All of the perpetrators were male.

It is estimated that there are over 600 cases of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada. In spite of repeated attempts by families of these women to have these cases fully investigated, the tragedies that these families experience — Amnesty International calls these tragedies of a national proportion — continue.

What can you do about it?

Acknowledge that this violence is still happening. Learn to recognize the signs of abuse and know what actions to take.

Attend the memorial on December 6 at noon in the Alumni Lounge to honour the 14 engineering students, to honour the missing and murdered Aboriginal women and to honour all of the women — our mothers, our sisters, our neighbours, our friends — who have been abused or lost their lives in our own communities through violence.