Mural honours victims on Day of Remembrance

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on December 7, 2024.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Friday marked the 35th anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre where 14 women lost their lives on Dec. 6, 1989 and to remember and honour them the University of Lethbridge has unveiled a Peace Garden Mural.
Since 1991 Canada has recognized Dec. 6 as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on violence Against Women. This year the Library, in collaboration with the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion teams, unveiled the Peace Garden Mural which will be a place to reflect, remember and celebrate the lives that were cut short.
The mural showcases the names of the 14 women who were killed in 1989 mass shooting at the Montreal engineering school on a column along with 14 roses to represent each of them and another mural on a wall with a variety of colours, a butterfly and a bee designed by Claire Lahey, a second-year Fine Arts student.
The Peace Garden Mural honours 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.
Leah Webster from the Sexual and Gender Based Violence Prevention Office told reporters Friday about the importance of unveiling the mural in the middle of the library.
 “I think for me, the publicness of it being in the library shows how valuable our voices are and it means a lot that they would customize it to this campus and to these students,” said Webster.
 She said this helps look into a future free from violence and having a space that is so beautiful recognizes there is beauty coming from tragedy and the growth forward is where we’re headed.
 “I think as more time goes on and more new students are coming onto campus that may not have even been born at the time of this event, it becomes more important to bring it to the forefront and bring it to a bigger, brighter space so that people can learn more about it,” said Webster.
She said it is important to learn from Canadian history, even though it is recent compared to other events, it is something that if learned from it can be prevented from happening again.
“This is the first year that the U of L has an engineering program on campus again, so there is also a connection to our university. We have women in our science building, in the trades and it’s important that we remember these women,” said Webster.
Claire Lahey, the artist behind the murals in the Peace Garden Memorial told reporters it was an honour and a privilege to be asked to create the mural.
 “This mural was such an amazing opportunity, I was inspired just by the name of it and the cause of it,” said Lahey.
 She said this was the biggest artwork she has created yet and it was something that took many hours to complete.
 “Art has been such a big part of who I am for my whole life, and it just means so much to be able to share it in a space that is supporting a cause of remembrance and anti gender-based violence,” said Lahey.
When talking about her work, Lahey said she wanted the pillar to be the highlighted focus, very crisp, a lot more organized and for the wall mural to be a space of colour and nature.
“I really hope that the takeaway, unfortunately some of it has to be a bit of a harsh understanding of gender-based violence and how it impacts so many people every day and I just want that to come across, as well as an awareness and understanding, so we can take steps against it,” said Lahey.
 She said she also wanted to create a scene of appreciation and to embody the spirits of the victims.
 “To show the victims that we are growing, we are moving forward and we’re doing things to prevent anything like that from happening,” said Lahey.

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