The Montreal Massacre
Reposting an entry by 
eponymous_rose
On this day in 1989, a man named Marc Lépine walked into a mechanical engineering classroom at the École Polytechnique in Montreal with a legally obtained rifle and told all the men to leave the room. He claimed he was fighting feminism: "You're women, you're going to be engineers. You're all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists." He then shot all nine women in the room, killing six of them, then moved through the hallways and killed another eight women. Fourteen women killed, ten women injured, and four men injured.
This is not an event that's well-known outside of Canada - I was still a baby when it happened, but as a woman studying science in Montreal, this is a tragedy that looms large. I'm sure there are going to be a lot of articles today pointing out the dangerous idiocy of the Conservatives tearing down the very same gun-control laws that emerged as a response to this massacre, and while it's important to keep in mind the political consequences of this tragedy and the political motivators behind it, that's not what any of this is really about. This is about the fourteen women who were killed for the crime of studying engineering while female.
Geneviève Bergeron, 21, civil engineering
Nathalie Croteau, 23, mechanical engineering
Anne-Marie Edward, 21, chemical engineering
Maryse Laganière, 25, budget clerk in school's finance dept
Anne-Marie Lemay, 22, mechanical engineering
Michèle Richard, 21, materials engineering
Annie Turcotte, 21, materials engineering
Hélène Colgan, 23, mechanical engineering
Barbara Daigneault, 22, mechanical engineering
Maud Haviernick, 29, materials engineering
Maryse Leclair, 23, materials engineering
Sonia Pelletier, 28, mechanical engineering
Annie St-Arneault, 23, mechanical engineering
Barbara Klucznik Widajewicz, 31, nursing
If this isn't something you'd heard of, please consider reposting on your own journal. These women - and the circumstances of their deaths - deserve to be remembered. In Canada, today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. You can read more here.
This entry was originally posted at http://www.dreamwidth.org/12345.html. Comment there or here, as you like. I'd be glad to reply to your comments over on DW.
eponymous_rose
On this day in 1989, a man named Marc Lépine walked into a mechanical engineering classroom at the École Polytechnique in Montreal with a legally obtained rifle and told all the men to leave the room. He claimed he was fighting feminism: "You're women, you're going to be engineers. You're all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists." He then shot all nine women in the room, killing six of them, then moved through the hallways and killed another eight women. Fourteen women killed, ten women injured, and four men injured.
This is not an event that's well-known outside of Canada - I was still a baby when it happened, but as a woman studying science in Montreal, this is a tragedy that looms large. I'm sure there are going to be a lot of articles today pointing out the dangerous idiocy of the Conservatives tearing down the very same gun-control laws that emerged as a response to this massacre, and while it's important to keep in mind the political consequences of this tragedy and the political motivators behind it, that's not what any of this is really about. This is about the fourteen women who were killed for the crime of studying engineering while female.
Geneviève Bergeron, 21, civil engineering
Nathalie Croteau, 23, mechanical engineering
Anne-Marie Edward, 21, chemical engineering
Maryse Laganière, 25, budget clerk in school's finance dept
Anne-Marie Lemay, 22, mechanical engineering
Michèle Richard, 21, materials engineering
Annie Turcotte, 21, materials engineering
Hélène Colgan, 23, mechanical engineering
Barbara Daigneault, 22, mechanical engineering
Maud Haviernick, 29, materials engineering
Maryse Leclair, 23, materials engineering
Sonia Pelletier, 28, mechanical engineering
Annie St-Arneault, 23, mechanical engineering
Barbara Klucznik Widajewicz, 31, nursing
If this isn't something you'd heard of, please consider reposting on your own journal. These women - and the circumstances of their deaths - deserve to be remembered. In Canada, today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. You can read more here.
This entry was originally posted at http://www.dreamwidth.org/12345.html. Comment there or here, as you like. I'd be glad to reply to your comments over on DW.