Today marks the 33rd anniversary of the Montreal Massacre in which 14 women at l'École Polytechnique were murdered due to their gender. Medicine Hat Women's Shelter Society is honouring the victims with a vigil tonight at Medicine Hat College.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
kking@medicinehatnews.com
Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter Society is hosting its annual vigil for victims of the Montreal Massacre tonight at 5:30 p.m. at Medicine Hat College’s Centennial Hall.
The vigil recognizes the 33rd anniversary of the massacre, in which 14 women at Montreal’s l’École Polytechnique were targeted and killed by an anti-feminist gunman due to their gender. It also marks Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
“The loss of 14 women at l’École Polytechnique decades ago is still felt across Canada to this day,” MHWSS executive director Natasha Carvalho said. “They were killed simply because they were women. This type of violence isn’t an isolated moment in our history. It’s an everyday reality for many women in Alberta, Canada and around the world.”
While individuals of any gender identity can face gender-based violence, data shows women are disproportionately affected by such, often at the hands of an intimate partner or family member.
In 2019, Canadian women were almost eight times more likely to be killed by an intimate partner than men, and almost twice as likely to be killed by a non-spousal family member.
A 2021 Statistics Canada report found, on average, women are 38 per cent more likely to experience violent victimization than men – a difference almost entirely attributed to the higher risk women face for violent sexual assault.
And many experts hypothesize that percentage to be higher, as many incidents of violence – especially sexual violence – go unreported.
“This is why the National Day of Remembrance and Action is still so important decades after the Montreal Massacre,” Carvalho said of gender-based violence and family-based violence statistics. “To remember the lives lost and to speak to a future where there is no more gender-based violence.”
