“Dead but not forgotten”: this is one of the sentences that the activists of the Collages feministes Montréal collective posted on the walls of buildings on Sunday evening, on the occasion of the 32e anniversary of the Polytechnique attack.
About fifteen activists gathered at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Édouard-Montpetit metro station. Their backpacks filled with glue, brushes and papers, they were about to stick sentences in memory of the 14 women killed in the anti-feminist attack of December 6, 1989, in the area surrounding Polytechnique.
The goal, “is above all to remember that there are women who died because they were women. It was 32 years ago, but it still happens today ”, explains to Press Magenta, a member of the collective. “It happens every day, it happens all over the world,” she adds.
Magenta, like Kira and Boussole, are pseudonyms used by members of the collective which operates anonymously. Collages feministes Montréal is a select single-sex collective. That is, it accepts people of any gender identity except cisgender men (a man whose gender identity matches the sex assigned to him at birth).
Since March 2020, the collective has been posting sentences on the walls of buildings in the metropolis at nightfall, which convey feminist, environmentalist or anti-capitalist messages. The activists must remain discreet, because their activity is illegal. They have already been fined, amounting to nearly $ 1,000.
“We have to be quick”
Before leaving the metro station, the activists split into three groups of five, so as not to attract too much attention. Each person has introduced themselves first and indicated the pronoun they are using. Press one of the groups followed.
First stop: the entrance to the Université-de-Montréal metro station. The “glueers”, the name by which they refer to themselves, observe the places in order to find the ideal wall. After making sure that there are no surveillance cameras nearby, they rule on the windows facing the metro station. “We have to be quick,” says Kira, a member of the collective.
Two activists are on the lookout to warn the “colleurs” of the possible arrival of police officers. The other three manage, in a few minutes, to paste the sentence “Dead but not forgotten”, as well as a sheet on which appear the first names of the 14 victims of the Polytechnique attack. A mixture of flour and water acts as glue.
The same process then resumes further on, in the driveway which allows cars to go up to the Polytechnic building. This time, on a low stone wall to which it is more difficult to make the leaves adhere, the activists write: “We remember the 6th”.
Despite the cold which was becoming more and more biting, the five young women walked to Polytechnique.
They plastered the words “32 years later…” on a nearby concrete wall. For lack of glue, the activists deposited on the ground the letters forming the continuation of the sentence, where one could read “We are still being killed”.
Recall that on December 6, 1989, a man armed with a semi-automatic rifle entered the Polytechnic school and murdered 14 women, in addition to injuring 13 other people. “I fight against feminism,” he said, before committing the crime. The shooter subsequently committed suicide.
“I would like to be listened to”
The other two groups of “glueers” posted messages in different areas of the neighborhood. The words “Feminicide? Murder of a woman because of her gender ”were inscribed on a wall near the Édouard-Montpetit metro station.
Last year, the collective stuck the names of the 14 women murdered during the Polytechnique massacre, as well as their dates of birth, in the streets of Montreal.
For Boussole, “colleureuse” since September, the action of Sunday evening had a particular meaning, since she studied to become an engineer.
When we thought of sentences [sur le fait] to encourage women in science, that meant a lot to me.
Boussole, “colleureuse” since September
The newly graduated engineer still perceives stereotypes about the place of women in science.
Collages feministes Montréal aims to denounce all forms of oppression. The collective focuses on several causes, including denouncing sexual assault, domestic violence and poverty.
“I would like to be listened to, that’s why we do this. I think the collective is based on that, ”says Kira, involved in the collective since December 6, 2020.
With the collaboration of Lila Dussault, Press