REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS

Vigil marks 1989 Montreal killings

Just as they did 28 years ago to mark the first anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, female University of Windsor engineering students, other U of W students and members of the community came together Thursday evening to remember the victims.

On Dec. 6, 1989, a gunman entered Ecole Polytechnique and gunned down 14 women, a tragic event that shook Canada long before most of the vigil participants were born.

“I had sort of known about the tragedy and sort of heard the name Ecole Polytechnique and sort of knew that something had happened vaguely but it wasn’t until I got involved with the Women’s Centre as a volunteer that I knew there were events every year and all this work that goes into it and I really found out the details of what happened,” said Micaela Nimmo, 23, coordinator of the University of Windsor Women’s Centre. “It’s so important.”

About 100 people gathered at the Memorial of Hope, erected several years ago to mark the tragedy, between Dillon and Essex halls at the university.

Standing in the -2 C temperatures, participants held lit candles while 14 current female engineering students read out brief profiles of each of the 14 Montreal victims in English and French.

Amal Siddiqui, 21, the president of Women in Engineering at the university, read out the story of Annie Turcotte, a first-year engineering student who was also 21. “She was known as a gentle and caring person who was also athletic,” Siddiqui said.

A rose was placed on each of the 14 obelisks that make up the Memorial of Hope.

Siddiqui said she was unaware of the tragedy until she arrived at university three years ago.

“It means a lot to us to remember the lives that have been lost, and also remembering them so moving forward we can learn and appreciate how much we can improve the engineering community in the future,” Siddiqui said.

“I think it’s important to remember that these were human beings, every year we read their names off a piece of paper but they were actual human beings but it could happen to any of us.

“They were just like us.”

A 15th rose was also laid at the memorial on behalf of Lori Dupont. Dupont was murdered on Nov. 12, 2005, while on the job, by anesthetist Dr. Marc Daniel, a former boyfriend.

Every year we read their names off a piece of paper but they were actual human beings ... it could happen to any of us.

NICK BRANCACCIO Rupesh Vagheshwari, Deepthi B. Jampana and Eva Kratochvil prepare roses for the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women event at the U of W Thursday. About 100 people attended the vigil to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Montreal Massacre.