December 6

[Black Dog]

Today is the 16th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, when Marc Lepine walked into Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique and murdered 14 women.

Today is a day to remember:

Geneviève Bergeron

Hélène Colgan

Nathalie Croteau

Barbara Daigneault

Anne-Marie Edward

Maud Haviernick

Barbara Klucznik Widajewicz

Maryse Laganière

Maryse Leclair

Anne-Marie Lemay

Sonia Pelletier

Michèle Richard

Annie St-Arneault

Annie Turcotte

The White Ribbon.

[kimmy]

I was very young at the time, and my understanding of the event was pretty limited but I found the media coverage upsetting. Just as at the time I didn't really understand what the first Gulf War was about, but found the CNN coverage to be mesmerizing and scary. Dim video of anti-aircraft guns hopelessly firing thousands of tracer-bullets into the night sky at invisible enemies as explosions went off all around was something that was kind of etched into me, and likewise with the hundreds of crying people with their candles at the university, and photographs of that clueless, non-descript looking loser who was apparently the monster behind it all.

Since then there have been rounds and rounds of debates over whether it was a hate-crime or a symbol of a larger problem in society or a gun control issue or just an isolated case of a mentally ill individual. Many different people have tried to use the incident to gain political mileage.

My dad, and my special guy, and some of my male friends are engineers. I've attended classes on occasion. I'm quite possibly going to pursue a career in engineering myself. I know that for some people the field has the reputation of not being inclusive to women, and I know that women are a relatively small minority in the field. But the engineers that I know are kind and good-natured and I know they think very highly of their female classmates and colleagues and are very upset by the idea that this incident might have cause women to not enter the field. I personally don't believe so. I don't personally believe that the deranged thug was a symbol of a deeper problem or an expression of male resentment towards career women or similar motives attributed to him. I think he was probably a very small man with serious feelings of inadequacy. I don't believe he represents any aspect of the men that I know. I think the massacre should be remembered for what it was: a horrible tragedy... but I feel uncomfortable with the idea of people using it as a starting-point to launch into some political crusade. I don't think that's fair to anyone concerned.

-kimmy

[FTA Lawyer]

I think the massacre should be remembered for what it was: a horrible tragedy... but I feel uncomfortable with the idea of people using it as a starting-point to launch into some political crusade. I don't think that's fair to anyone concerned.

-kimmy

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree...I have always thought it inappropriate that supporters of gun control / registration have routinely used this abhorrent incident to further their agenda. And at risk of turning this into an attempt to make a political point of my own, I will leave it at that...

FTA

[August1991]

I loathe the annual commemorations of the Montreal Massacre. I especially dislike the way it's become a state occasion, with lowered flags, like Remembrance Day. But, in this case, whatever honour we do the dead, we spend as much time dishonouring the living -- or at least the roughly 50% of Canadians who happen to be male: For women's groups, the Montreal Massacre is an atrocity that taints all men, and for which all men must acknowledge their guilt. Marc Lepine symbolizes the murderous misogyny that lurks within us all.

M. Lepine was born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian Muslim wife-beater, whose brutalized spouse told the court at their divorce hearing that her husband "had a total disdain for women and believed they were intended only to serve men." At 18, young Gamil took his mother's maiden name. The Gazette in Montreal mentioned this in its immediate reports of the massacre. The name "Gamil Gharbi" has not sullied its pages in the 12 years since.

Mark Steyn

If the purpose is to commemorate the victims of pointless violence, then I surely must agree with remembering this date. I recall at the time discussing this event with others and the generally feeling at the time was that this guy was a lunatic.

On 13 July 1966, Richard Speck killed seven young women in Chicago. Speck was remembered, if at all, as a psychotic.

[Guest eureka]

Unfortunately, Kimmy, I think that all the things you hope it was not, did play a part. Psychotic he certainly was but that in itself would not have led to this. There has to be a trigger amongst those other failings.

I think it important to remember the day not just as a horrible incident from the past but as something that expressed some of the social problems we have still not resolved allied to madness.

[Black Dog]

I loathe the annual commemorations of the Montreal Massacre. I especially dislike the way it's become a state occasion, with lowered flags, like Remembrance Day. But, in this case, whatever honour we do the dead, we spend as much time dishonouring the living -- or at least the roughly 50% of Canadians who happen to be male: For women's groups, the Montreal Massacre is an atrocity that taints all men, and for which all men must acknowledge their guilt. Marc Lepine symbolizes the murderous misogyny that lurks within us all.

I'd draw attention to the strawman, but, um, the whole screed reads like the ramblings of your average barromm philosopher in the queue for off sales. "These feminists, man, they blame us men for everything. But itsh really the Mushlims! And the fugging Liberalsh! Fugging gun registry....makesh me wanna RETCH! I don't have yer money, you baloney!"

Steyn is a braying jackass.

[Leader Circle]

I loathe the annual commemorations of the Montreal Massacre. I especially dislike the way it's become a state occasion, with lowered flags, like Remembrance Day. But, in this case, whatever honour we do the dead, we spend as much time dishonouring the living -- or at least the roughly 50% of Canadians who happen to be male: For women's groups, the Montreal Massacre is an atrocity that taints all men, and for which all men must acknowledge their guilt. Marc Lepine symbolizes the murderous misogyny that lurks within us all.

I'd draw attention to the strawman, but, um, the whole screed reads like the ramblings of your average barromm philosopher in the queue for off sales. "These feminists, man, they blame us men for everything. But itsh really the Mushlims! And the fugging Liberalsh! Fugging gun registry....makesh me wanna RETCH! I don't have yer money, you baloney!"

Steyn is a braying jackass.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don't let his intelligence and enlightenment frighten you BD, we all think you are a smart fella!

Steyn may stray off topic at times, but he is right, that the world would hold all men responsible for one screwed up dude!

Are we going to have an anti women day for that screwed up woman who sent her car into a river with her kids inside? Should we hold all women responsible for that? Or the young girl in Calgary a couple years back who had a kid at home & put the child in a garbage bag and left it at the curb? What Steyn is getting at is, you can't blame the entire male sex for a horrible crime done by one guy and make it a friggin national holiday(of sorts). These are the things wrong with all these "rights" groups.