National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

Flowers this Friday and weekend are placed to the Glory of God and in memory of

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

who were all killed by a man on 6 December 1989 at Ecole Polytechnique in Montréal because they were women.

Rest eternal grant to them O Lord, and may light perpetual shine upon them!

The Montreal Massacre

On Wednesday, 6 December 1989, in the late afternoon, a twenty-five-year-old man entered École Polytechnique in Montréal carrying a hunting rifle. About five o’clock he went into a classroom where a lesson in mechanical engineering was in progress. He told the sixty students to separate themselves, men on one side and women on the other. He told the fifty men to leave the room.

He opened fire on the ten women, killing six and wounding three. He then spent twenty minutes wandering around the building, shooting women, and killing another eight. All of the fourteen women were in their twenties, except one who was thirty-one years old.

He wounded ten women altogether, as well as four men. Finally, he shot himself. Since the event, two of the wounded have committed suicide.

In 1991, a woman MP from British Columbia introduced a private member’s bill designating 6 December as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

In 1995, the Firearms Act was passed giving the Government of Canada increased power to regulate firearms.

Many memorials were erected in Canada to commemorate the Montréal Massacre. In 1997, one was erected by the City of Vancouver. It stands in Thornton Park, between Main Street and the Pacific Central Station.

For more information about the Memorial visit https://covapp.vancouver.ca/PublicArtRegistry/ArtworkDetail.aspx?ArtworkId=165.