Tributes planned for victims of Polytechnique shooting on 32nd anniversary
Posted December 6, 2021 8:01 am.
Last Updated December 6, 2021 3:17 pm.
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Today is the 32nd anniversary of what’s widely believed to be Canada’s largest mass shooting specifically targeting women.
The shooting at Montreal’s École Polytechnique took place on Dec. 6, 1989 when a man opened fire, killing 14 women and injuring others.
WATCH: Survivor of Montreal’s Polytechnique massacre speaks out
A recent spate of femicides in Quebec has renewed discussion of the issue, but also has some advocates lamenting a lack of progress in the fight to end violence against women.
“I do not accept the fact that we have 18 femicides. Those number are much too high,” Nathaie Provost, a survivor of the massacre said.
Last year in Quebec, eight women were victim to femicides.
“The deadliness of the first half of this year is very very striking in Quebec,” said Anuradha Dugal, the Vice President of Community Initiatives, for the Canadian Women’s Foundation told CityNews. “But also elsewhere. The Canadian Femicide Observatory reports that 92 women and girls were killed in the first 6 months of 2021 and that compares to 78 last year and 54 in 2019 so that’s almost double rates from pre pandemic.”
“It’s something we all [need[ to take a stand against and we all have to say this is unacceptable. So we have to speak out in our workplaces, we have to speak out in our homes, we have to speak with families [and] friends,” Dugal said.
WATCH: Awareness on femicides 32 years later École Polytechnique
École Polytechnique has held a number of tributes over the past week which will culminate today.
Representatives and student associations from the school will lay white roses in front of a commemorative plaque outside the building this morning.
Fourteen beams of light representing the shooting victims will be projected into the sky from Mount Royal tonight, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers are asking crowds not to gather.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2021.
