The story of the massacre at the École Polytechnique in Montreal on December 6, 1989 was always told to me by a woman who was there: my mother. As a young academic myself now, I understand more and more what this act represents to this day.
Thirty-four years have passed since this killing. Just 34 years.
It was the end of the session. The last day of classes before final exams. It was an oral presentation day for one of the university’s materials engineering classes. My mother was present in the second class targeted by the killer on December 6, 1989. When the man entered her class with a gun, he ordered the guys to get out. One of the students said: “It’s a joke That ? » In response, the killer pointed his gun at the young woman who was giving her oral presentation in front of the class and fired.
At that moment, everyone understood what was happening. The students and teachers hid under the tables. Some managed to get out of the class. Others were caught on their way out. The shooter paced around the classroom. It only targeted women. The balls were bouncing all over the room.
My mother, lying on her stomach, crawled under the long metal tables so as not to be hit by the killer who was walking on them. She had her head between the legs of a young man who, like her, was lying on the ground. When the shooter stood over her, he pointed the gun at my mother’s head. The bullet landed in the young man’s pants, injuring neither my mother nor his friend.
The shooter continued on his way, making sure he had killed all the young women present. A friend of my mother’s was fatally shot. Lying on the ground, she was bathed in her blood. She was the fourth woman killed in this class. My mother escaped death because her hair was soaked in her friend’s blood. Lying in this blood, she faked her death. The man did not shoot her a second time.
I think that the story of this student, my mother, only illustrates a tiny part of the cruelty, the panic, the violence, but above all the injustice experienced by these young students.
After the killing, my mother no longer wanted to go back to school. There was this feeling of having left his ambition, his dreams and his love in this class. But on the occasion of the commemoration ceremony of one of his comrades, the mother of the deceased came to meet him. She hugged my mother and looked her straight in the eye and said, “Go get your diploma for her, you can. »
Today, my mother is an engineer. She obtained her degree in materials and metallurgy engineering at École Polytechnique 31 years ago. She had a great career.
My big sister and I are lucky to have this woman, this survivor, as a mother in our lives. A mother who pushes us to work hard for what we really want. A mother who also believes with all her heart in our abilities. She passes on to us her knowledge, her courage, her generosity, her previous experiences in the job market, her good and bad times.
Fourteen women. Fourteen brilliant and ambitious women who were unable to have the careers they wanted or a family to give their love to. Because they were women. It is impossible to express the pain and rage I feel at this killing. These young future engineers had the future ahead of them. They were kidnapped, their lives stolen by this assassin who shot them in cold blood in 20 minutes.
They wanted to become engineers. They embodied — through their trajectory to exercise a profession that was still marginal for women — a social advance.
Today I share this letter written for my mother, my mothers, my sister, my friends, but also for all women who are not afraid to denounce situations of injustice. Women who contribute, in their own way, to making society flourish. Women who keep alive the memory of those who did not have the opportunity to grow up and contribute to building this society.
It is fundamental to remember this feminicide out of respect for the 14 women who lost their lives. We must denounce this hatred towards women. This letter is an invitation to reflect on the social order in which we live. As of today, December 6, 2023, the Polytechnique massacre took place only 34 years ago. And gender inequalities still persist in educational and professional environments.
I love you mom.