
Dec. 6 – the 35th Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre – where a lone gunman walked into the Polytechnique Montréal, shot and killed 14 young woman, engineering students at the school, because they were women. He also wounded 13 others.
In 1991, the Canadian government declared Dec. 6, a National Day of Mourning and the National Day to End Violence Against Women, now the National Day of Remembrance and Action.
As they do annually, Piwapan commemorated the lives of the 14 women and the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women at the kohkum’s Cabin on Friday, Dec. 6.
Anne Tsannie, who is a youth worker and leads the iskwesis program for girls, spoke about the women killed that day, and members of iskwesis lit a candle for each of the young women as they were named. Valerie Barnes Connell Jordan said the prayer and a time of silence was held in memory.
Participants in the event shared supper, chili and bannock provided by Cravings Late Night Food, and watched a video, created by Piwapan staff, honouring the 14 women. Each was an Engineering student at the E’cole Polytechnique Montréal, and all of them had a very promising future ahead of them when their lives were cut short.
The move to keep woman safe in Canada continues to this day, and the Dec. 6 memorial is part of that campaign.
Those killed that day were: Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St. Arneault, Annie Turcotte, and Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz.