In Memoriam: Twenty Years

[mousme]

Fourteen young women were killed on this date twenty years ago. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and most importantly they were the wrong gender.

Geneviève Bergeron, 21
Hélène Colgan, 23
Nathalie Croteau, 23
Barbara Daigneault, 22
Anne-Marie Edward, 21
Maud Haviernick, 29
Barbara Maria Klucznik, 31
Maryse Laganière, 25
Maryse Leclair, 23
Anne-Marie Lemay, 27
Sonia Pelletier, 23
Michèle Richard, 21
Annie St-Arneault, 23
Annie Turcotte, 21

Today is Canada's National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, here is the Wikipedia article on the Polytechnique Massacre.

Comments

[curtana.livejournal.com]

It's hard to believe it's been twenty years already.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I know. It doesn't feel like that long.

I used to live fifteen minutes away from Polytechnique. I was ten years old, and it was the first time that I came face to face with targeted violence and with a hate crime. It was profoundly shocking.

Twenty years. Jesus.

[elanya.livejournal.com]

But they *weren't* the wrong gender :(

I know what you meant though.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

According to the psychotic murdering bastard who killed them, they were. That's what's wrong about it.

My phrasing needs improving, though.

[threnodythefop.livejournal.com]

May we never forget.

[guruwench.livejournal.com]

I remember this event very well also; I was remote, being in Saskatoon at the time, but a friend of mine was at McGill and I didn't initially know where the incident took place, news being a bit slower then.

I borrowed pretty much wholesale your post, with credit; I'd had the same idea, but you beat me to it.

I always remember.

[guruwench.livejournal.com]

I thought you might find this interesting as well...

an interview with one of the survivors, Nathalie Provost.

[diggerlicious.livejournal.com]

For anyone who has ever battled to enter a gender-dominated profession, I light candles for you tonight.