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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums6 dec 1989--ecole polytechnique (montreal) massacre
École Polytechnique massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mtl_dec6_plaque.jpg
The École Polytechnique Massacre, also known as the Montreal Massacre, occurred on December 6, 1989 at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Twenty-five-year-old Marc Lépine, armed with a legally obtained Mini-14 rifle and a hunting knife, shot twenty-eight people before killing himself. He began his attack by entering a classroom at the university, where he separated the male and female students. After claiming that he was "fighting feminism", he shot all nine women in the room, killing six. He then moved through corridors, the cafeteria, and another classroom, specifically targeting women to shoot. Overall, he killed fourteen women and injured ten other women and four men in just under twenty minutes before turning the gun on himself.[1][2] Lépine was the son of a French-Canadian mother and an Algerian father, and had been physically abused by his father. His suicide note claimed political motives and blamed feminists for ruining his life. The note included a list of nineteen Quebec women whom Lépine considered to be feminists and apparently wished to kill.[3]
Since the attack, Canadians have debated various interpretations of the events, their significance, and Lépine's motives. Many feminist groups and public officials have characterized the massacre as an anti-feminist attack that is representative of wider societal violence against women.[4][5][6] Consequently, the anniversary of the massacre has since been commemorated as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. Other interpretations emphasize Lépine's abuse as a child or suggest that the massacre was simply the isolated act of a madman, unrelated to larger social issues.[7][8] Still other commentators have blamed violence in the media[9] and increasing poverty, isolation, and alienation in society,[10] particularly in immigrant communities.[11]
The incident led to more stringent gun control laws in Canada.[12] It also introduced changes in the tactical response of police to shootings, which were later credited with minimizing casualties at the Dawson College shootings.[13]
Massacre
Sometime after 4 p.m. on December 6, 1989, Marc Lépine arrived at the building housing the École Polytechnique, an engineering school affiliated with the Université de Montréal, armed with a semi-automatic rifle and a hunting knife.[1] He had purchased the Sturm, Ruger brand rifle, Mini-14 model, on November 21, 1989 in a Checkmate Sports store in Montreal, telling the clerk that he was going to use it to hunt small game.[14] Lépine was familiar with the layout of the building since he had been in and around the École Polytechnique at least seven times in the weeks leading up to the event.[1
Lépine sat for a time in the office of the registrar on the second floor. He was seen rummaging through a plastic bag and did not speak to anyone, even when a staff member asked if she could help him. He left the office and was subsequently seen in other parts of the building before entering a second floor mechanical engineering class of about sixty students at about 5:10 p.m.[1] After approaching the student giving a presentation, he asked everyone to stop everything and ordered the women and men to opposite sides of the classroom. No one moved at first, believing it to be a joke until he fired a shot into the ceiling.[15]
Lépine then separated the nine women from the approximately fifty men and ordered the men to leave.[9] Speaking in French, he asked the remaining women whether they knew why they were there, and when one student replied "no," he answered: "I am fighting feminism". One of the students, Nathalie Provost, said, "Look, we are just women studying engineering, not necessarily feminists ready to march on the streets to shout we are against men, just students intent on leading a normal life." Lépine responded that "You're women, you're going to be engineers. You're all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists." He then opened fire on the students from left to right, killing six, and wounding three others, including Provost.[1][3] Before leaving the room, he wrote the word shit twice on a student project.[9]
Lépine continued into the second floor corridor and wounded three students before entering another room where he twice attempted to shoot a female student. His weapon failed to fire so he entered the emergency staircase where he was seen reloading his gun. He returned to the room he had just left, but the students had locked the door; Lépine failed to unlock it with three shots fired into the door. Moving along the corridor he shot at others, wounding one, before moving towards the financial services office where he shot and killed a woman through the window of the door she had just locked.[1]
He next went down to the first floor cafeteria, in which about a hundred people were gathered. The crowd scattered after he shot a woman standing near the kitchens and wounded another student. Entering an unlocked storage area at the end of the cafeteria, Lépine shot and killed two more women hiding there. He told a male and female student to come out from under a table; they complied and were not shot.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre
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Flowers sit in front of the memorial plaque at the Ecole Polytechnique on the 22nd anniversary of the Montreal massacre, Tuesday, December 6, 2011 in Montreal.
Canadians mark 24 years since massacre at Montreals École Polytechnique
By Staff The Canadian Press
Vigils will be held across Canada Friday to mark the 24th anniversary of the massacre at Montreals École Polytechnique.
On this day in 1989, gunman Marc Lepine walked into the engineering school and murdered 14 women and shot and injured ten more women and four men before taking his own life.
While we will never fully understand this atrocity, our government is committed to helping ensure that it does not happen again by making our streets and communities safe for women, girls and all Canadians, said Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a statement Friday. As we continue to work to eliminate violence against women, let us remember and commemorate the lives of all women who have been victims of gender-based violence.
Annual vigils are a reminder that much work remains to be done so women are no longer the victims of violence.
In Montreal, womens groups will hold a ceremony to mark the end of a 12-day Quebec campaign to eliminate violence against women.
http://globalnews.ca/news/1013888/canadians-mark-24-years-since-montreals-ecole-polytechnique-massacre/
polly7
(20,582 posts)laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)niyad
(113,302 posts)there is discussion of mass shootings, this almost never makes the list.
RC
(25,592 posts)Every loonie toons has a reason that he thinks is a good reason to kill people. It has nothing to do with any "war on Women".
That war on women is being done by another set of crazies, the Conservatives. Leave the rest of us out of your war.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)No one has suggested that you're included in this war but . . . you.
That you choose to deny the existence of gender-based violence is on you.
RC
(25,592 posts)What I was implying are those that include all or at least most men as the 'enemy'.
Most of us are not. But we are getting tired of being attacked, denigrated, put down, belittled for being of the male gender, by a small minority here. A minority that blame others, men in this case, for their problems.
That was what my post was about. The shooter was nutz. He could have just as well used a day of the week as an excuse for killing and it would have been just as valid.
Doesn't the phrase, "Not right in the head" have any meaning to you? The shooter was not right in the head. Feminism for him was just a trigger, nothing more. Not everything is ammo, to be used in any gender wars. Sometimes a reason, an excuse is just that, a reason or an excuse. And has nothing to do with any reality based facts.
xulamaude
(847 posts)Yeah, well, girls and women are tired of being attacked and belittled and put down for being females.
And not just here, and not just by a "small minority". It's part and parcel of our daily lives.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)men in general.
What qualifies you to speak as to what his motives were?
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)turn into a subthread about a man complaining that men are the real victims?
niyad
(113,302 posts)a certain mindset shows up. we can almost count down to the seconds when they will, and it is the same technique every single time. because we dare to turn our eyes to the root of the problem, to focus on it, we are somehow persecuting them. I wish I could find it funny or even pathetic, but I have been around too long to even pretend.
niyad
(113,302 posts)Last edited Fri Dec 6, 2013, 11:50 PM - Edit history (1)
are you saying, as seems to be the case, that any man who expresses such hatred toward women is actually "not right in the head"?, because, really, you cannot have it both ways. but one does have to wonder why you are so freaked out by us pointing this out. in reality, most of the murders, most of the rapes, most of the violence, most of the wars, most of the ugly in this world of ours is committed by MEN (this TINY little minority of whom you speak must be incredibly powerful, yes)
by the way, just as a matter of curiosity, what do you, personally, do about that "tiny minority"? do you speak out? do you point out to your buddies at a party that having sex with unconscious women is actually RAPE? do you excoriate the violence committed by this TINY minority? or do you prefer to bash the women who DARE to speak of such things, pointing out that THIS is the reality of our lives?
xulamaude
(847 posts)feminists 'ruined' his life is not an attack (or, war) on women?
RC
(25,592 posts)I'd say no.
xulamaude
(847 posts)and what she did didn't have anything to do with 'gender'?
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)NoOneMan
(4,795 posts)His attack was not part of some grand, all-encompassing, organized war upon women (which seems to be suggested by the start of the subthread).
xulamaude
(847 posts)men single out women (and children) over and over and over again...
Women know there is a pattern (or war) because we have to live (and die) by those crazy "personal wars".
niyad
(113,302 posts)NoOneMan
(4,795 posts)Ill prove it when you prove that pink unicorns do not exist
niyad
(113,302 posts)anything about pink (or any other colour) unicorns, that was a typically absurd statement. but, nice try at deflection. on the other hand, keep trying. it is cold tonight, and I could use a good, warming laugh.
believe it or not, we all do understand very well what is going on here, as it is, alas, nothing new. as a matter of fact, it is as old as patriarchy itself, and just as tedious, just as disgusting.
Reread this subthread. The nutty assertion that this act is proof (or part or associated with) of the War on Women wasn't my statement (rather, I am questioning that because it is absurd and not proven or even provable)
It was I that mentioned unicorns. I can make any crazy shit up. If you disagree with it, the burden of proof lies on my side. Questioning a nutty statement doesn't make the questioner have to prove anything.
we all do understand very well what is going on here
Then you have a warped view of the world. This lone act of a crazed nut was no more part of a grander War on Women than Aileen Wuornos' acts were part of the War on Men (it was her own personal war). Whether or not there is some grander war, lone crazy acts of crazy people are sometimes just that.
I await a confused reply with "patriarchy" and "oppression" mentioned at least once
niyad
(113,302 posts)you and the others have taken up quite enough time and energy, as usual.
xulamaude
(847 posts)about Eileen Wournos?
Nice spin.
NoOneMan
(4,795 posts)niyad
(113,302 posts)feminists. what part of that did you not get? "I hate feminists" is NOT a part of the war on women????? do you seriously expect anybody with two brain cells that arc to buy that?
no, it isn't just conservatives (and I note the caps), so please don't try that.
so, YES, I want to, do, and WILL go there. that the truth offends you is not my problem.
NoOneMan
(4,795 posts)redqueen
(115,103 posts)Allow me to help:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/30/1259247/-This-Week-In-The-War-On-Women-The-War-is-Everyday
Did the Newton murderer instruct all the adults to leave, and murder only children? No.
Please, don't insult people's intelligence with such rank stupidity. This thread is about a tragic incident, and your clowning and trying to derail the topic is fucking sickening and offensive as hell.
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)The "men's rights" groups would be pouring champagne.
xulamaude
(847 posts)but publically they'd be trying to blame his 'mental health/reality' issues on his mother or girlfriend or grandmother or sister or teacher or or or...
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)They're all mad a their mom, and at hot women who aren't lining up down the block to fuck them. Hell, I saw one of them on the series of tubes who was mad at his mom for not fucking him. I wish I were making that up.
redqueen
(115,103 posts)Was it the guy who said governments should hire escorts for men?
Ugh ugh ugh... anyway.. K&R for the topic.
And ugh again
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)The "I'm a niiiiiice guy, why don't women like me?" lament is really the same idea, expressed a bit less ham-handedly. Somebody owes them sex, and that somebody had better be hot. And a hellcat in the sack. And a virgin. Nevermind that the last two really don't work together.
redqueen
(115,103 posts)and a you know the rest.
Sadly this kind of thinking is far from uncommon.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)I'm almost surprised there wasn't an NRA 'counter-protest' right outside the building...
Naturally a couple of comments at the link are saying the commemoration is just a stunt to vilify gun owners and score cheap political points...
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)redqueen
(115,103 posts)Just the idea that we could devote any time to remembering, honoring, discussing or hell even thinking about women who are targeted simply for being women. No, there must be some other reason. We mustn't be allowed to focus on this underlying imbalance. We mustn't allow any scrutiny of the many forms of hate and violence which spring from this one form of oppression.