Somber ceremonies in Montreal on Sunday marked the anniversary of the anti-feminist rampage that left 14 women dead at a university campus 20 years ago.
In what was the deadliest shooting spree in Canadian history, Marc Lepine, 25, fired a semiautomatic rifle at women in classrooms and the cafeteria of the Ecole Polytechnique at the University of Montreal on Dec. 6, 1989.
His suicide note said he was fighting against feminists who had ruined his life.
The names of Lepine’s victims were read out at a downtown park and a minute of silence was held to remember them 20 years to the day since they were killed. Many in the crowd cheered as speakers highlighted the importance of doing everything possible to eliminate violence against women.
The weekend was marked by several commemorative events, including a conference on violence against women at the University of Quebec in Montreal, the gathering at a downtown park to protest violence and a photo exhibit of feminist artists.
“My parents lost their only daughter. Annie, so pretty, intelligent and filled with curiosity,” said Daniel Turcotte, addressing the hundreds gathered at a private ceremony at Notre Dame Basilica to share their collective grief.
Dozens of floral bouquets were laid at a commemorative plaque on the University of Montreal campus to honor the women.
The Montreal Massacre persuaded the government to stiffen its gun-control laws by launching a national gun registry program in 1991. But last month, the federal government voted by a slim majority to kill it, a move that has fueled an emotional response from survivors and family members of victims.
“It is disturbing,” said Sylvie Haviernick, who lost her sister Maud in the attack, and has since been a vocal supporter of the gun registry. “We really have the feeling we are stepping back, so this means we’ll need to redo, maybe better, what we’ve done 20 years ago.”
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS