# The École Polytechnique Massacre, December 6, 1989: Sixteen years to remember **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 6, 2005, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315 "2005-12-06T05:43:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/1 "2005-12-06T05:43:31Z")
**Geneviève Bergeron** **Hélène Colgan** > [@](#): > > Of all victims of crimes against the person in 2000, females made up the vast majority of victims of sexual assaults (86%), criminal harassment (78%) and kidnapping/hostage-taking or abduction (67%). **Nathalie Croteau** **Barbara Daigneault** > [@](#): > > Over three-quarters (77%) of reported victims of criminal harassment in 2000 were women. **Anne-Marie Edward** **Maud Haviernick** > [@](#): > > From April 1, 1999 to March 31, 2000, there were 96,359 admissions (57,182 women and 39,177 children) to 448 shelters for abused women across Canada. **Maryse Laganière** **Maryse Leclair** > [@](#): > > According to the 1999 General Social Survey, only 37% of cases of spousal violence involving female victims were reported to the police in the five years preceding the survey. **Anne-Marie Lemay** **Sonia Pelletier** > [@](#): > > In 1995, the financial costs to society [of violence against women] in health care, social services, criminal justice and lost employment were established to exceed $4.2 billion annually in Canada. Costs related to health and well-being alone amount over $1.5 billion. **Michèle Richard** \*\*Annie St-Arneault \*\* > [@](#): > > Half of Canadian women (51%) have been victims of at least one act of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16. **Annie Turcotte** **Barbara Klucznik Widajewicz** Sixteen years since fourteen young women were extinguished because they had the gall to pursue what society owed them. Sixteen years to remember the terror and grief, and fume that it took days before someone noticed it wasn’t just fourteen people shot, but fourteen women. Sixteen years to work and act to end violence against women. Sixteen years to remember fourteen names, and let them be a symbol of the thousands whose names we do not know. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/2 "2005-12-06T05:46:02Z")
Thanks **Matt**. I have drawers and drawers of bee wax candles that I buy every year at this time. I just keep buying more. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/3 "2005-12-06T05:52:50Z")
I’ll be going tomorrow to light a candle at our memorial. Thanks **Matt**. _N’oublions jamais._ ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/4 "2005-12-06T12:00:26Z")
I remember. It happened on my birthday. I was young, female, ambitious, and college-educated, just the kind of young woman this young man hated enough to kill. Thank you for the reminder. Siege ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/5 "2005-12-06T13:12:15Z")
[Link for those who, like me, had not heard of this horror before](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_Massacre). Thanks for educating me, **matt**. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/6 "2005-12-06T14:35:02Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > [Link for those who, like me, had not heard of this horror before](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_Massacre). Thanks for educating me, **matt**. > > Daniel Ditto. I was in South Carolina in 1989, and I expect the local paper there gave it about as much attention as it gave anything outside the U.S. borders that didn’t directly involve America, i.e. at most a brief squib in the “world news” section buried deep in the paper. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/7 "2005-12-06T17:33:31Z")
_hugs **matt** _ Thank you. _Merci_. We all need to remember this today. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/8 "2005-12-06T17:41:58Z")
Thanks, **matt**. We will not forget. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/9 "2005-12-06T17:54:29Z")
Sixteen years ago I was finishing my first semester of college, less than 500 miles south of Montréal, yet this is the first I’ve heard of the École Polytechnique tragedy. I’m somewhat horrified that my small, liberal arts school didn’t bring this incident to our attention. ---
**Author:** ![Lathe\_of\_Heaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Lathe\_of\_Heaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lathe_of_Heaven)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/10 "2005-12-06T20:30:37Z")
As a woman engineer myself, I honor the memory of these women. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/11 "2005-12-06T23:09:45Z")
Has it been 16 years? It doesn’t seem that long ago- probably a good thing to keep it fresh in our collective minds. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/12 "2005-12-06T23:55:40Z")
Thank you, **matt\_mcl**. ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/13 "2005-12-07T01:21:07Z")
It’s hard to believe it’s been sixteen years. And sad to think, notwithstanding the efforts of innumerable Canadian women and men, how far we still have to go. Thanks, **matt.** ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/14 "2005-12-07T01:30:15Z")
Thank you, Matt. I was just a kid when that happened, but I remember being scared that someone could hold so much hate against these people just because they were _women_. Thinking about it still makes me cry. Tonight, I’m going to call all the successful, educated, ambitious women I know and tell them I’m proud of them. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/15 "2005-12-07T02:11:31Z")
Aha. So that’s the horrible crime that Law and Order episode was based on… ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/16 "2005-12-07T02:20:41Z")
My father came in from the garage where he’d been listening to am news radio and asked me, “Where is it Laura goes to school?”. There’d just been a story about women being shot to death at a college in Montreal. My best friend Laura had left Michigan to go to university in Montreal the year before. I spent the next couple of hours trying reach her or her parents w/ no success while the American news stations gave no other details. Finally I got through to her at MacGill University and found it wasn’t her school and she was fine but shook up. I won’t forget my franticness and fear for her, and I can’t imagine it’s any thing like what the families and friends of the real victims went through. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/17 "2005-12-07T02:33:18Z")
Why the interspersed statistics? It reads like the text equivalent of a martial procession played over ever more ghastly images of your dead troops, i.e. propaganda. I could list the names of men killed in Iraq, along with the statistics\* for false accusations of child and spousal abuse, would that spur parent’s rights legislation? I remember hearing about this and it was truly horrific, amongst the starkest incidents of sheer prejudice and hatred in the decade. But I still think it cheapens it to use it for political purposes. > [@](#): > > Sixteen years to remember the terror and grief, and fume that it took days before someone noticed it wasn’t just fourteen people shot, but fourteen women. Huh? It’s more powerful to note that it was fourteen people, killed by prejudice and hatred. Their particulars serve to humanize them, but their gender is just a specific example of their humanity. \*Don’t have them, it being by definition an extra-legal thing. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/18 "2005-12-07T02:39:49Z")
> [@neuroman](#): > > Aha. So that’s the horrible crime that Law and Order episode was based on… That was just on tonight. Too bad they made it more about the gun manufactorer than the guy who actually committed the murders. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/19 "2005-12-07T02:57:33Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I could list the names of men killed in Iraq, along with the statistics\* for false accusations of child and spousal abuse, would that spur parent’s rights legislation? Except that those two have nothing to do with each other. Soldiers killed in the line of duty, and child abuse? What’s your connection? These women were killed because they were women. Violence against women has always been a problem, and still is a huge problem. Violence against women is under-reported, and often ignored. The statistics that Matt included just show that incidents like this are not isolated, but most of it isn’t as visible as a mass shooting. If a woman’s husband beats her to death, she’s not getting her name on a memorial plaque. But maybe the women who died so tragically at the Ecole Polytechnique can serve as a reminder to the rest of us that there is still an issue here to be dealt with, and we can’t just ignore it. > [@](#): > > Huh? It’s more powerful to note that it was fourteen people, killed by prejudice and hatred. Their particulars serve to humanize them, but their gender is just a specific example of their humanity. Actually, no. It’s important to note that they were women. If someone killed over a dozen gay men _because_ they’re gay, or a dozen Asians _because_ they’re Asian, or a dozen Catholics _because_ they’re Catholic, then it’s a form of hate crime. The murders were driven by prejudice and hatred against a certain group of people - members of that group need the world to know what happened, and want to try and prevent this sort of thing from happening again, in any form. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315/20 "2005-12-07T03:00:29Z")
> [@](#): > > The murders were driven by **prejudice and hatred** against a certain group of people - members of that group need the world to know what happened, and want to try and prevent this sort of thing from happening again, **in any form.** I’m glad to see we agree. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-december-6-1989-sixteen-years-to-remember/334315.md?page=2)