By Tiffany Goodwein

Remembering the women lost in the Montreal Massacre

Dec 5, 2019 | 5:40 AM

Walking single file, a parade of 20 people travelled through the Okanagan College Vernon Campus, each clutching a candle and rose to solemnly remember the lives of women lost to violence.

It will be 30 years on Dec. 6; thirty years since Marc Lepine entered a mechanical engineering classroom at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique, and opened fire with a semi-automatic gun. Lepine reportedly separated the men from women and yelled “You are all feminists” before killing fourteen women and taking his own life.

The victims were: Genevieve Bergeron, Helene Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, Maryse Laganiere, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michele Richard, Annie St-Arneault and Annie Turcotte.

The Montreal Massacre sent shock waves across Canada and eventually led to federal firearms legislation known as Bill C-68.

(Tiffany Goodwein/ VernonMatters Staff)

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At Wednesday’s event, organizers took the time to remember the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women of Canada and to call for an end to violence against women.

“What’s changed? What’s changed? Indigenous women are being beaten and murdered and left in the ditches and, what’s changed? Have we not progressed as a society? said speaker Wendy Chambers.

According to Micki Materi, co-executive director at the Archway Society for Domestic Peace, half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16 and approximately every six days a woman in Canada is killed by their intimate partner.

“So, what has changed? I would say not much,” she said.

Materi told the audience that gender equality needs to be achieved in order to reduce the rates of violence against women. Gender inequality, she said, often prevents women from leaving violent and abusive relationships.

“If we are all afforded equal access to education, resources, decision-making power, women would not be vulnerable and men would not feel entitled,” she said.

For Micheal Ochoa, a youth justice worker with the Okanagan Indian Band; men play a critical role in ending violence against women.

“You would think that this is a female problem, but it isn’t. It isn’t the females. They aren’t beating themselves up. You aren’t killing yourselves. It is us guys that are doing the damage,” said Ochoa.

To end the violence, Ochoa argues men need to be taught respect, not just for others but for themselves and women need to be taught that violence is not okay.

“I believe that’s the only way that we can stop this violence is to teach our sons that balance, and to teach our daughters that they don’t have to take it. Stand up for yourself. Say no.“

The annual candlelight vigil was organized by education advisor and aboriginal transitions planner Marilyn Alexis and featured about a dozen speakers.

by Tiffany Goodwein

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