Today is Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
On this day (December 6) in 1989, fourteen women were murdered at École Polytechnique de Montréal because of one man’s backward belief that women don’t belong in engineering.
We remember the women lost that day:
- Geneviève Bergeron, 21, second-year Civil Engineering student
- Hélène Colgan, 23, graduating Mechanical Engineering student
- Nathalie Croteau, 23, graduating Mechanical Engineering student
- Barbara Daigneault, 22, graduating Mechanical Engineering student
- Anne-Marie Edward, 21, first-year Chemical Engineering student
- Maud Haviernick, 29, second-year Materials Engineering student
- Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, 31, first-year Nursing student
- Maryse Laganière, 25, budget clerk at École Polytechnique de Montréal
- Maryse Leclair, 23, fourth-year Materials Engineering student
- Anne-Marie Lemay, 27, fourth-year Mechanical Engineering student
- Sonia Pelletier, 28, graduating Mechanical Engineering student
- Michèle Richard, 21, second-year Materials Engineering student
- Annie St-Arneault, 23, graduating Mechanical Engineering student
- Annie Turcotte, 21, first-year Materials Engineering student
Violence against women, of course is not limited to engineers. It is an epidemic. A disease that continues to afflict societies across the world. Unacceptable. Damning for all those who sit by and let the lesser signs of sexism go by without speaking up.