**Trigger Warning: This post includes mentions of gender-based violence. A list of regionally available crisis lines is available here for those who may need support: https://women-gender-equality.canada.ca/en/gender-based-violence-knowledge-centre/crisis-lines.html
On December 6, 1989, 14 women were murdered in an act of femicide at École Polytechnique de Montréal. Most of them were engineering students. Today we remember:
Geneviève Bergeron, civil engineering student
Hélène Colgan, mechanical engineering student
Nathalie Croteau, mechanical engineering student
Barbara Daigneault, mechanical engineering student
Anne-Marie Edward, chemical engineering student
Maud Haviernick, materials engineering student
Maryse Laganière, budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department
Maryse Leclair, materials engineering student
Anne-Marie Lemay, mechanical engineering student
Sonia Pelletier, mechanical engineering student
Michèle Richard, materials engineering student
Annie St-Arneault, mechanical engineering student
Annie Turcotte, materials engineering student
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, nursing student
Each year, December 6 is a tragic reminder that women and gender-diverse peoples’ presence in any field, realm, workplace, institution, or profession can be met with fatal violence, including the engineering profession. Engineers Canada is committed to shifting the culture of the engineering profession to one where all are celebrated, valued, safe, and supported.
In Canada, December 6 is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, which forms part of an annual international campaign that begins on November 25 and ends on December 10. This period marks the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. The federal government has set the theme of the 16 Days for 2023 as Listen. Learn. Act. It addresses the key steps to tackling gender-based violence (GBV). According to the federal government, LISTEN refers to supporting survivors who share their experience, and to the experts that work on the frontlines. LEARN encourages us to educate ourselves on what GBV is, how to spot it, and how we can prevent it and take action. ACT is for taking the information and applying it in our daily lives, to collectively tackle GBV. Learn more about the 16 Days, and resources that Engineers Canada has made available to address GBV in the engineering profession, here.
