The Waterloo Engineering community came together to mark Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, commemorating the 14 women, mostly engineering students, who were killed at École Polytechnique de Montréal (now Polytechnique Montréal) in 1989 by a lone gunman — because they were women.
For staff, students and faculty members, December 6 is an opportunity to remember, to reflect and to respond to the scourge of gender-based violence and society’s collective responsibility to eradicate it.
Dr. Mary Wells, dean of Waterloo Engineering, says the Montreal Massacre continues to resonate deeply within engineering education and the profession.
“Something really broke in all of us that day — our collective innocence, our belief that progress was certain and equality inevitable,” Wells says. “But as survivor Nathalie Provost reminds us, strength can rise from adversity. Remembering the women we lost compels us to be strong, to bear witness and build a country where everyone can pursue their dreams without fear.”
Faculty members Dr. Maud Gorbet and Dr. Marc Aucoin spoke to the Remember and Respond parts of the program, and biomedical engineering student Victoria Swanson shared her reflections.
Go to Commemorating the victims of the Montreal Massacre for the full story.