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The Personal is Political

Sexist posters spark criminal investigation at Waterloo

Poster Caption: “The brightest Woman this Earth ever created was Marie Curie, The Mother of the Nuclear Bomb. You tell me if the plan of Women leading Men is still a good idea!”

“This poster was put over top posters for female election candidates at the University of Waterloo in early Februrary.”

Citation: Wallace, Alanna. “Sexist posters spark criminal investigation at Waterloo.” Canadian University Press Newswire February 25 2011.

A gutsy student

“I know for a fact that this was not easy for her given how truly frightening the University of Waterloo poster incident was, particularly for outspoken young women who insisted that their concerns be heard. These young women know well that little has changed since 1989 and that there are men who will kill for their "rights," as we remembered on Dec. 6.

For the most part, these women's concerns have been downplayed and ridiculed - similar to what D'Amato has done in her column. How disastrously shortsighted and inappropriate for her to have focused on a vulva patch on Miller's backpack instead of the real issue at hand - namely, we need more and more young, middle-aged and elderly women (and men) to speak up, to be counted, to be heard, so we never have to experience another Montreal massacre.”

Citation: Jakobsh, Doris R. “A gutsy student.” The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo) December 16 2011: A10.

Lessons of Montreal massacre must never be trivialized

“Marc Lepine did not commit his murders in a vacuum; his pathological hatred of women was nurtured by a misogynistic culture. While his actions were the product of mental illness, the surrounding culture - including his institutional culture** - helped to shape the terrible expression of his illness.

That the climate for women at the University of Waterloo has historically been a chilly one is well known. Last year, during the campaign of misogynistic flyers at Waterloo, women like Zoe Miller and I were very much aware of the violent extremes to which some misogynists are willing to go, and of the institutional similarities between Montreal Polytechnique and University of Waterloo.

Until the campaign ended, I wondered every day I came to work whether someone would show up to my classroom with a weapon in the hopes of punishing "feminists."”

Citation: Dea, Shannon. “Lessons of Montreal massacre must never be trivialized.” The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo) December 12 2011: A8

**R. Sims comments:  Before describing the institutional culture at the Polytechnique in misogynist tones, a more cautious approach is needed.  Heidi Rathjen, an eye-witness to Lepine’s murderous rampage, an engineering student, and the author of December 6: from the Montreal Massacre to gun control: the inside story had this to say about the Polytechnique: "’The atmosphere at school was totally egalitarian. It was a wonderful place for women. It was easy for people to think feminism was passé. Problem solved.’”  Marc Lepine was an outsider, not admitted to the Polytechnique.  It cannot be easily said that Lepine’s misogyny was fueled by the culture of the Polytechnique.

Citation: Porter, Catherine. “Lessons of the Montreal Massacre: Why women must fight to be what they want.” Toronto Star December 5 2009.

Campus sexism doesn’t equate with massacre

“Is the campus atmosphere at University of Waterloo in any way connected to his acts? I just don't see how.

But try telling that to some of the professors and students there, who have deluged me with angry mail since my column last week about the Montreal Massacre. In it, I criticized an undergraduate student named Zoe Miller, a women's studies major from University of Waterloo who spoke at a remembrance ceremony for the massacre victims.

I took issue with the fact that the occasion was used for Miller to speak about being harassed because she wore a "vulva patch" - a badge on her backpack designed to look like female genitalia. She also criticized the campus administration response when someone was putting up anti-female posters on campus earlier this year (a male student has since been charged).

I thought that talking about these matters on that night, particularly the vulva patch, was trivializing the dreadful events of 1989, and said so.

I can take criticism, no problem. But what worries me is the automatic connection that some people make between the campus environment and Lepine's particular acts against those particular women: as if some larger force than his own madness drove him to act.…

What happened to those young women in 1989 was a freakish outburst of psychotic rage. That's bad enough without trying to turn it into more.”

Citation: D’Amato, Luisa. Campus sexism doesn’t equate with massacre.” The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo) December 15 2011: B1.


R. Sims comments: “What happened to those young women in 1989 was a freakish outburst of psychotic rage. That's bad enough without trying to turn it into more.”  In my opinion, this is the standard explanation given by a majority that dismiss the misogynistic nature of the attack.  A hatred of women, of feminists, was at the centre of Lepine’s carnage.  This is undeniable.  Denying this fact, is not unlike denying the Holocaust.  The real question lies in a kind of self-examination, one that we naturally hesitate to begin.  Does the apparent physical superiority of men translate, through an evolutionary process, into a simmering contempt for women?  Does a nascent contempt form a part of the soul of modern man?  Did a kind of contempt for women make the men of the engineering class tacitly complicit in Lepine’s actions, as he separated them from their female colleagues?  Perhaps these are some of the questions Sarto Blais pondered in the eight months following the massacre, before he took his own life.

Male Allies Against Sexual Violence: The purpose of this blog is to share local information about sexual violence…

Lives Altered

Sarto Blais

“A graduate, (who) hanged himself eight months after the massacre, saying in his suicide note he was torn apart by guilt that he didn’t stop Lepine.  The following June, his parents also committed suicide, unable to cope with the loss of their only son.”

Citation: “Survivors remember Montreal Massacre 20 years later.” Waterloo Chroncile December 7 2009

The Wounded

(9 women and 4 men)

Sylvie Gagnon

Survived a bullet wound to the head.

“’I don’t know who Mac Lepine is, but he’s a symptom of all the little violences that we experience in our lives.’”

Citation: MacLean, Colin. “Never forgotten.” The Telegram December 7 2011

Nathalie Provost

“’We are not feminists.’”

“’I realized many years later that in my life and actions, of course I was a feminist.  I was a woman studying engineering and I held my head up.’”

Citation: Porter, Catherine. “Lessons of the Montreal Massacre: Why women must fight to be what they want.” Toronto Star December 5 2009.

“For me this is a way to say to Marc Lepine that women will continue to be present and active in sciences and engineering… He did not win.”  There are the words of Ms. Provost upon accepting an award of $3,000 from the Women Engineering Students Memorial Fund.  Nathalie received injuries to her head, legs and feet.

Citation: Lalonde, Michelle. "Women's Enrolment Up at Site of Montreal Massacre Survivor Says Lepine's Murderous Anti-Feminist Message Backfired." The Globe and Mail (Canada) September 11 1990.

The Women

Genevieve Bergeron, 21

A second year scholarship student in civil engineering

“She was a real ball of fire and a total woman.” Therese Daviau. (mother)

Citation: “The 14 women gunned down in Montreal.” Toronto Star December 9 1989.

Helene Colgan, 23

She was in her final year of mechanical engineering.

Nathalie Croteau, 23

She was in her final year of mechanical engineering.

Barbara Daigneault, 22

She was in her final year of mechanical engineering and held a teaching assistantship.

Anne-Marie Edward, 21

A first year student in chemical engineering 

Suzanne Laplante-Edward “recalled her daughter’s excitement after being accepted on the University of Montreal alpine ski racing team, just one week before her death at the hands of Lepine.  ‘Never mind that she will never actually race a single race on that team.  She made it, didn’t she?  And all through fall, she trained and practiced, and raised funds for the team.  The main thing is she had a ball doing it.  And she  is racing with theme in spirit.’”  “’She was a charmer, especially to handsome young men, but she was also warm and sincere.’”

Citation: Bueckert, Dennis. “Mother of massacre victim pleads for tougher gun laws.” The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo) January 17 1991.

“’I used to admire the man, he inspired hope… Jack [Layton] is the co-founder of the White Ribbon Campaign… Jack, if we lose the registry your White Ribbon Campaign will become nothing more than meaningless strips of white fabric.’”

Citation: Milley, Danielle. “Family and friends of Montreal Massacre victims visit Layton’s riding.” East York Mirror September 17 2010.

Twenty-two years after the Montreal Massacre, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government publicizes their dismantling of the long gun registry.

Maud Haviernick, 29
She was a second year student in engineering materials and a graduate in environmental design.

Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, 31

She was a second year engineering student specializing in engineering materials.

Maryse Laganiere, 25

She was employed in the budget department of the Polytechnique.

Maryse Leclair, 23

A fourth year student in engineering materials

Anne-Marie Lemay, 27

A fourth year student in mechanical engineering

Sonia Pelletier, 28
She was to graduate the following day in mechanical engineering.  She was awarded a degree posthumously.

Michele Richard, 21

A second year student in engineering materials

Annie St. Arneault, 23

A mechanical engineering student

Annie Turcotte, 21

A first year student in engineering materials

Film

After the Montreal Massacre
National Film Board of Canada

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

1990

Director: Gerry Rogers

Producer: Nicole Hubert

Reviews:

“After the Montreal Massacre is a useful tool for helping us come to terms with these murders and how they relate to the larger picture of male violence against women. The haunting images taken on the day of the massacre and in the days following, set the stage for an exploration of the urgent issues of misogyny, male violence and sexism.”

Citation: "After the Montreal Massacre”. School Libraries in Canada  22.3 (2003): 34.

“Centering on the searing words of one woman [Sylvie Gagnon] who survived by playing dead, After the Montreal Massacre forces viewers to confront the implications of this tragic event.  Interviews with other students, as well as journalists and sociologists, point out that there is no safe place for women. ‘Emancipation should not mean death,’ points out one feminist.  The film can serve as a powerful catalyst for facing, discussing, and working to eradicate the everyday violence that threatens and demeans women.”

Citation: Kress, PamelaFox, Bette-Lee. "Video Reviews." Library Journal 118.1 (1993): 183.

Polytechnique

Alliance Vivafilm

2009

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Producer: Don Carmody

Screenplay: Jacques Davidts and Denis Villeneuve

Villeneuve… says he wanted to explore the massacre’s narrative from the point of view of the male students who witnessed Lépine’s terror. “We have talked a lot about how this drama has affected women, as we should have, but men were hurt as well. It had a major impact on them,” the 41-year-old director says. “I wanted to explore and illustrate the humiliation and shame that [those] men lived.”

Citation: Bailey, Patricia. Montreal. “Reliving the tragedy: Director Denis Villeneuve discusses his film about the Montreal Massacre.” CBC News: Arts & Entertainment: March 19, 2009

Awards:

Toronto Film Critics Association, Best Canadian Film, 2009

Genie Awards: Nine awards 2009, including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Karine Vanesse) Best Supporting Actor (Maxim Gaudette)

Premiere:

Montreal, February 2^nd, 2009

Reviews:

“Nor do Villeneuve and screenwriter Jacques Davidts seek to make a grand statement about what it all means…

Instead they show, with minimal speculation and admirable restraint, the horror of that awful day when the rage of one became the grief of many.

Villeneuve and Davidts offer scant background into the lives of the killer and his victims. There is so little dialogue, Polytechnique almost plays like a silent movie, a feeling intensified by its black-and-white starkness and insistent one-note musical motif.”

Citation: Howell, Peter, Toronto. "Silent WITNESS; using very Little Dialogue, Denis Villeneuve Revisits that Horrible Montreal Day." The Toronto Star, sec. ENTERTAINMENT: E01. March 20 2009

Books

Aftermath: the mother of Marc Lepine tells the story of her life before and after the Montreal Massacre

Monique Lepine and Harold Gagne

Viking, Canada

9780670069699

2008

Interview with Monique Lepine

"That event destroyed my life," Lepine said. "On top of the pain of losing my son, I felt the shame of being the mother of a killer. You don't raise a son to become a killer."

Citation:  White, Marianne. “Mother of mass killer Lepine dredges up horror of rampage.” Windsor Star October 28 2008: C. 1

Excerpt:

“For the first time since they had told me that Marc was the killer, I felt anger and dislike for the forces of law and order.  For all their feigned consideration, those two detectives had little regard for what I might be going through.  They were intent on carrying out the orders of their superiors with single-minded determination.”

Citation: Lepine, Monique and Harold Gagne. “Aftermath: the mother of Marc Lepine tells the story of her life before and after the Montreal Massacre.” Toronto: Viking, Canada 2008, p. 11.

December 6: from the Montreal Massacre to gun control: the inside story, HV7439 .C3 R37 1999

Heidi Rathjen and Charles Montpetit

McClelland and Stewart

9780771061257

1999

Reviews:

“Yet Rathjen's account captures none of the upheaval of that time. In her quest for pragmatic solutions, she insistently severs gun control from any social discussion of violence -- violence against women, violence against men and our culture of violence -- omissions all the more glaring given the recent wave of school shootings.”

Citation:  Klein, Naomi. “One-track book robs meaning from massacre December 6: from the Montreal Massacre to Gun Control: the Inside Story.” Globe and Mail December 4 1999: D7

Montreal Massacre
Edited by: Louise Malette and Marie Chalouh

Translated by: Marlene Wildeman
gynergy books

9780921881148

1991

Reviews:

“Voice after voice reiterates that the murderer was a misogynist whose actions were carefully planned and executed and whose targets were women. This was no random act of violence but a deliberate political act of a man who blamed women for all his problems and conducted a careful plan of reprisal. His act graphically illustrates how violence against women is condoned by our patriarchal society.”

Citation: Freeman, Janice. "The Montreal Massacre." Canadian Dimension July-Aug. 1991: 36+.

“The Montreal Massacre is the bloody aftermath, a ritual, representative howl of anguish and anger at man’s inhumanity to woman.”

Citation: "A Documentary In Print." Books In Canada 20.5 (1991): 51.

Excerpt:

“All things considered, M.L. was no young man.  He was as old as all the sexist, misogynist proverbs, as old as all the Church fathers who ever doubted women had a soul.  He was as old as all the legislators who ever forbade women the university, the right to vote, access to the public sphere.  M.L. was as old as Man and  his contempt for women.”

Citation: Brossard, Nicole. “The Killer was no Young Man.” Trans. Marlene Wildeman. Montreal Massacre. Ed. Louise Malette and Marie Chalouh. Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island: gynergy books, 1991. 33.

Montreal Massacre: a story of membership categorization analysis
Peter Eglin and Stephen Hester

Wilfrid Laurier University Press

9780889204225

2003

Reviews:

“The authors deftly situate the shooter's statements within a political framing relevant to the status of women in society, including the examination of the perpetrator's suicide note, and subsequent interpretations made by media commentators.”

Citation: Adam McDowell.  "Montreal college shooting survivors, families urge NDP to save gun registry. " Postmedia News  16 September 2010.

“…I enjoyed the layered approach to the media accounts - first examining the characters and setting, then turning their attention to the stories put forth (and also those that were not put forth), and finally discussing the commentary from professionals, including academics, on those stories.”

Citation: Hester, Stephen, Eglin, Peter, and Atwood, Kristin (REVIEWER). "The Montreal Massacre: A Story of Membership Categorization Analysis. " Labour  55 (2005): 267.

Excerpt:

"Ms. Provost said that when Mr. Lepine burst into her classroom, ordering the male students to leave and the women to remain, she tried to talk to him.

   'When we were alone with him in the room... [sic] he said, 'I am here to fight against feminism, that is why I am here.'

   'Maybe I was still not realizing fully what was happening, but I told him: 'Look, we are just women studying engineering, not necessarily feminists ready to march on the streets to shout we are against men, just students intent on leading a normal life.'" p. 57

Rage and resistance: a theological reflection on the Montreal Massacre
Theresa M. O’Donovan

Wilfrid Laurier University Press

9780889205222

2007

Reviews:

“This volume represents the doctoral thesis of O'Donovan (religious studies and philosophy, Brescia U. College, Canada), in which she examines the presentation of, responses to, and debates over the Montreal Massacre, as well as their theological implications and connections to wider questions over violence against women.”

Citation: "Rage and resistance; a theological reflection on the Montreal massacre". Reference and Research Book News 1 Feb. 2007.

“If we are to eradicate the violence in our culture, the pain of all women and men under current unjust cultural and political systems must be addressed. O’Donovan’s work offers a refreshing perspective on a difficult topic.”

Citation: Adle, Barbara. "Rage And Resistance: A Theological Reflection On The Montreal Massacre." Letters In Canada 77.1 (2008): 410-412.

Excerpt:

"That the demonization of feminism in the media and elsewhere has been effective is manifest every time a woman vehemently denies  any affiliation with it, and every time it is used to dismiss a woman who claims it." p. 85