York remembers slain women

On York Women”s Remembrance Day Dec. 6, students, staff and faculty are encouraged to remember the lives of 14 women  who were slain at Montreal”s L”Ecole Polytechnique in 1989.

The University will hold a memorial at Vari Hall Rotunda,11:30am to 1:30pm, which will include live music by Heike Santiago and Keira Grant. Chairs decorated with roses will be arranged to commemorate the deceased, and the video After the Montreal Massacre will be aired repeatedly. In addition, the York radio station CHRY will carry 14 hours of programming that day, starting at 5am. Listeners can tune in at 105.5 FM or visit the Web site at www.yorku.ca/chry.

The event is sponsored by the Office of the Advisor to the University on the Status of Women, the Centre for Human Rights & Equity and the Centre for Race & Ethnic Relations.

Right: Scene from video, After the Montreal Massacre

The day of remembrance on, on a broader scale called the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada, marks what is also termed the Montreal Massacre, when Marc Lepine shot 14 women, claiming that feminists had led to the ruination of his life. There will be numerous similar services throughout the city, the province and the rest of Canada, not just to remember those slain, but also to draw attention to the problem of violence against women.