Sunday, December 6, 2009

In memoriam: Montréal Massacre


Twenty years ago today, a mad but equally rational man named Marc Lépine (born Gamil Gharbi) wrote a suicide note blaming all his problems on "feminists," signed it Alea iacta est (The die is cast), walked into the engineering building at the University of Montréal and systematically murdered fourteen women (twelve of whom were studying engineering, one studying nursing and the last who was a university employee) and injured ten more women and four men before killing himself.
 
The names of those who died:
 
Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student
Hélène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Barbara Daigneault (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student
Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student
Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department
Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student
Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student
Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student
Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student
 
Today, as a man, I remember this despicable act of terrorism and the disgrace it brought upon all men, and again commit that I will not stand for any act of violence against women. This includes continuing to fight for compulsory gun registration.


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