December 5, 2024
Hon. Judith G. Seidman: Honourable senators, it was a cold Wednesday afternoon when a young man walked into l’École Polytechnique de Montréal armed with a .223-calibre rifle. The date was December 6, 1989. He entered a classroom of engineering students and instantly ordered all six women to the back and the men to leave.
On that dark day, a total of 14 women lost their lives. The gunman’s suicide note stated that women had no place in engineering because they would take jobs from men, that feminists were ruining his life and that his intention was to end the lives of all women in the department of engineering.
Tomorrow is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, and I wish to pay tribute to these 14 brave women who lost their lives 35 years ago. Their only sin was daring to dream that they could be engineers.
Polytechnique Montréal has found a way to commemorate these 14 women and to encourage girls to stay in fields like engineering. They created their Order of the White Rose, a scholarship for a female engineering student who wishes to pursue graduate studies at an institution of their choice. This year’s winner is 23-year-old Makenna Kuzyk, the first woman to be admitted to the International Test Pilots School in London, Ontario. She wants to inspire women to take an interest in the stars and study aerospace engineering.
Honourable senators, remarkably, violence against women remains all too common today. According to the World Health Organization, one in three women experiences some form of violence in their lifetime, and most of this is by their partners. It doesn’t take much thinking to remember recent assaults and abuses against women all over the world. No doubt you are perhaps even remembering someone you know.
December 6 is an opportunity for Canadians to reflect on the phenomenon of violence against women in our society and to commemorate women such as those 14 students in Montreal who died on that Wednesday afternoon 35 years ago.
They are Geneviève Bergeron, 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.