Marking three decades since the Montreal massacre, Ann Davis Transition Society is holding a candlelight vigil on Dec. 6 at 5 p.m. at Five Corners in Chilliwack.
On the heels of that fateful day in Montreal when a gunman strode into École Polytechnique, shooting 14 women because they were women, there have been many candles lit and white ribbons worn in their memory.
“We hold a service every year to mark this crime against women,” said ADTS executive director Patti MacAhonic, adding that the incident caused a “wrenching loss of innocence” in Canada.
READ MORE: Vigil held at museum years ago
In addition to the 14 women killed by the angry shooter, four men were gunned down, and another 10 women were injured.
ADTS partnered with the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) three years ago, to host the annual candlelight memorial and to raise community awareness, not just about the horrific mass shooting in Quebec that targeted women, but the everyday violence that Canadian women continue to face.
READ MORE: ADTS and UFV join forces to hold vigil
Violent crime has risen nearly 70 per cent locally, MacAhonic said, which is made worse by the lack of affordable housing.
The gender-based mass murder of 1989 so shocked the nation that Parliament decided to declare Dec. 6, as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada in 1991.
“Come out and be a part of making a difference in stopping violence against women; our mothers, grandmothers, daughters and sisters,” MacAhonic said.
The names of the murdered women:
•Geneviève Bergeron (1968), civil engineering
•Hélène Colgan (1966), mechanical engineering
•Nathalie Croteau (1966), mechanical engineering
•Barbara Daigneault (1967), mechanical engineering
•Anne-Marie Edward (1968), chemical engineering
•Maud Haviernick (1960), materials engineering
•Maryse Laganière (1964), budget clerk
•Maryse Leclair (1966), materials engineering
•Anne-Marie Lemay (1967), mechanical engineering
•Sonia Pelletier (1961), mechanical engineering
•Michèle Richard (1968), materials engineering
•Annie St-Arneault (1966), mechanical engineering
•Annie Turcotte (1969), materials engineering
•Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (1958), nursing
@CHWKjourno
jfeinberg@theprogress.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.