35 years later, local organizations say it's crucial people remember deadly shooting at École Polytechnique

A number of organizations are holding events Friday to remember the women killed at École Polytechnique in Montréal on Dec. 6, 1989, and honour those who have lost their lives to femicide.

Friday marks the 35th anniversary of when 14 women were killed and another 13 were injured at École Polytechnique by a man motivated by hatred of feminists. Their deaths sparked a movement that took direct aim at violence against women.

National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women is observed yearly on Dec. 6, and CFUW K-W, formerly known as the Canadian Federation of University Women, says it's more important than ever to remember the 14 young women.

"We believe this is especially important at a time when Statistics Canada has released crime data indicating that Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge have the highest rate of reported hate crimes across all metropolitan areas in Canada," the group said in a statement.

CFUW K-W will host a vigil at St. Columba Anglican Church, 250 Lincoln Road in Waterloo, at 5:30 p.m.

• École Polytechnique, Montréal: Remember the 14

Walker, who is also the vigil organizing committee chair, said the event will include short speeches and opportunities for reflection and remembering, adding that the vigil is a way to affirm equal rights. 

"These 14 young women should be at the peak of their careers today," CFUW K-W member Margaret Walker said in a release. "Instead they lost their lives at a young age solely because of their gender."

The vigil will feature music performed by violinist Kaitlynn Cook and pianist Lisa Santoprete from Wilfrid Laurier University's Faculty of Music.

1989 killings 'galvanised the nation'

Cindy McMann, public educator for Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis, said the 1989 killings "galvanized the nation around the issue of femicide and violence against women," and remembering what happened is still relevant today.

"Femicide still happens today. It doesn't, of course, usually unfold so suddenly and spectacularly as the events in Montreal did. But we're still facing the same systemic issues," McMann said in an interview with CBC K-W's Craig Norris, host of The Morning Edition.

"Those women were killed because they were studying things that were 'supposed to be a male field of study.' They were engineering students. They were in a space where women were 'not supposed to be.' And of course, we still face this in the present. When women try to enter male-dominated spaces, we often face harassment and violence that happens to us all the time."

According to McMann 44 per cent of women experience some form of intimate partner violence, while in Ontario in 2023, 62 people died by femicide. 

Last September, Region of Waterloo councillors officially declared intimate partner violence an epidemic. The City of Guelph made a similar declaration in November 2023.

McMann says this is an important step.

"I think it does a couple of things. One thing that I think we're hoping that these epidemics will do is really bring the issue more into the public light so that we can look at it from a public health perspective and that we're hoping will help reduce stigma around intimate partner violence," she said.

"The other thing that I think sort of shifting our conversations into a public health framework will do is really help us to try to tackle the issue proactively."

She said one of the most powerful things people can do as a community is speak out against violence.

Events happening Friday:

• YW Kitchener-Waterloo is holding a breakfast at 8 a.m. at the Walper Hotel in downtown Kitchener. Tickets were required to be purchased in advance.
• The Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo, will hold a ceremony and moment of silence at  Engineering 7, 2nd Floor Event Space. This event is scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
• Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis will hold an is an in-person, outdoor event on the patio of the Guelph Civic Museum, 52 Norfolk St. Starting time is 12 p.m.
• University of Guelph School of Engineering will mark the day with a vigil from 2:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Adams Atrium, Thornbrough Building.