Honouring the Women of École Polytechnique
DISE's Allison Gonsalves, Co-Chair of Â鶹AV’s Senate Subcommittee on Women, gave the following statement at the vigil:
"As part of the virtual vigil for the women who were murdered at École Polytechnique on December 6, 1989, a new scholarship was announced to support female engineering students.
The Â鶹AV Senate Subcommittee on Women represents the interests of women students, faculty and staff at Â鶹AV. Each year, on December 6th, we commemorate the lives of 14 women who were killed in an anti-feminist attack at École Polytechnique. The Senate Subcommittee on Women invites the Â鶹AV and Montreal community to reflect on the reality that violence against women continues to be a part of our present.
Canada is still not a safe country for all women who live here, with women more likely than men to experience violence sometime in their lives, usually before they are 25. For some women, those most marginalized, these risks are even greater. Societal and structural policies and programs continue, especially to harm single mothers, women with disabilities, trans women, Indigenous women, immigrant, refugee and racialized women.
We call upon our communities to recommit to ensuring the deaths at École Polytechnique were not in vain. As we mourn these deaths, as well as the many women and girls murdered or abused since then, we need to continue to work for gender equality, for policies that lead to gender equity, and an end to structural and individual violence against all people who face gender-based oppression."
Read the full Â鶹AV Reporter article: