Photo exhibit remembers victims of Polytechnique massacre
Posted December 3, 2024 12:33 pm.
Last Updated December 3, 2024 5:10 pm.
When student Qéna Cantuel posed for a photo honouring Polytechnique victim Geneviève Bergeron, it dawned on her that she was older than the woman she was paying tribute to.
Bergeron was 21 years old when she and 13 other students were gunned down in an anti-woman attack at the Montreal university on Dec. 6, 1989.
Cantuel’s realization that Bergeron was younger than her when her life was taken 35 years ago was a difficult one.
“I’m at the same position right now because I’m a senior. And so it was like a lot of mixed feelings,” Cantuel told CityNews.
“As a female student at school it impacts you in a different way because it could happen to you.”
But it ultimately didn’t stop the Polytechnique student from wanting to be part of the photo project paying homage to the victims.
“I still wanted to honour them and be like, ‘OK, you have to remember.’ We all have to remember those ladies,” Cantuel said.
Bergeron was killed alongside Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, and Annie Turcotte.
Polytechnique student Marie Rouillard says she thinks of the victims and what they could have accomplished if given the chance.
“I have the opportunity to continue my studies. I have the opportunity to do more. And I know that these women didn’t have this, this opportunity,” the mechanical engineering student said. “So it really is a push in my back to go for it.
“If I want bigger roles like becoming a CEO, becoming a director, becoming a project manager, nothing can stop me, that’s really what I want to do.”
Current Polytechnique students and staff members posed for the pictures while holding a victim’s name. The photo exhibit, which was organized by PolyPhoto and the Polytechnique student association, is set up in the walkway between the main university building and the Lassonde building.
“The theme this year is ‘stuck in time’ because, well, when you read all the descriptions of the victims, you can see that most of them were in the same class, they were friends and they had a trip planned to Mexico,” explained photographer Romaine Brand. “So when the event happened it (caused their lives) to be stuck in time.
“It reminds you that life is short, and horrible things happen to good people.”
The photos will be on display until Saturday.
“It’s really the role of every person, man or woman, to act on this issue the way they can, and to reflect on what they can do to end violence … towards women,” said Loic Goyette, president of the Polytechnique student association.
