Violence against women needs to end

December 6th, 2009 marks the 20th year since the Montreal Massacre, when a gunman named Marc Lépine entered Montreal’s École Polytechnique, shouted “I hate feminists!” and killed 14 women, just for being female engineering students.

Each year since, December 6th has been a day of memorial for the young women and an occasion to identify and deconstruct sources of the continuing violence against women in our society; this year, however, the Women’s Centre will not be holding a memorial, at the behest of the families of the 14 women slain.

We would like for Laurier students to continue to take this opportunity to think about violence against women, and recognize the need for organizations such as the Women’s Centre and the White Ribbon Campaign – a men’s group dedicated to eradicating violence against women – in Canadian society today.

Feminism was needed in 1989, and it is still needed today.
Violence against women is still an enormous problem, and the costs are too high for us to stand idly by.

–WLU Women’s Centre Collective