**Trigger Warning: This post includes mentions of gender-based violence, and feminicide. A list of regionally available support can be found here for those who may need it.
On December 6, 1989, an anti-feminist gunman murdered 14 women in an act of femicide at École Polytechnique in Montreal. 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
These women were targeted because they were women in STEM. The commemoration of this tragic event is a 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.
We are committed to shifting the culture of the engineering profession to one where all are safe, celebrated, valued, and supported. Read more here about Engineers Canada’s work to advance gender equity in the profession, on the occasion of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
