Indigenous recipient a first for Order of the White Rose
Engineering student awarded bursary set up to honour Polytechnique victims
Brielle Chanae Thorsen, a Master's student in mechanical engineering at Queen's University, became the newest member of a powerful sisterhood Wednesday.
The 22-year-old is the first Indigenous recipient of the Order of the White Rose, a $30,000 bursary set up in 2015 in honour of the 14 women killed at Montreal's École Polytechnique on Dec. 6, 1989, along with those who were injured in or survived what is one of Canada's deadliest mass shootings. The winner is always a promising young female engineering student conducting world-changing graduate work — exactly the kind of woman the gunman was out to murder the night of his misogynistic rampage.
As feminist writer Andrea Dworkin once said, it is incumbent upon all women to defy the gunman's despicable intentions. And Thorsen, 22, certainly fits that bill.
Describing herself as a fearless “nehiyaw iskwew” or Cree woman, she hopes to help bring sustainable energy solutions to remote Indigenous communities who lack clean and affordable power, just as they shamefully often lack clean drinking water. She is a member of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation but grew up in Cochrane, Alta., near Calgary, with parents who were involved in the sciences. Her mother is an X-ray and laboratory technician and her father is an engineer. They inspired her to enter this male-dominated field.
“One thing my mom always said to me is, `If you're not a part of the solution, you're part of the problem.' And that motto is something that I really choose to live by because my parents have shown that to me,” Thorsen said in an interview. “This honour really isn't just for me. It's for my community and it's for every strong woman in my life that I've had the privilege of learning from and who have instilled in me the power of using my voice.”
Thorsen also counts herself as a survivor of violence against women, saying in her acceptance speech that she was sexually assaulted in her dorm room two days before starting classes at Queen's. She said while she struggled with “simple tasks at times, completing course work and even loving myself,” the experience made her the person she is today.
“We are so much stronger than those who hurt us,” she said, beamed in from Queen's, where she stood beside a new White Rose memorial wall in the engineering school.
Although the induction ceremony was held online because of the pandemic, it was still hard not to be moved to tears.
More than a monetary award, it signifies the passing of a torch. With it comes not only great expectations, but a duty of remembrance and a sense of belonging among female scientists and engineers. They carry the shared weight of breaking barriers in tribute to the 14 bright lights senselessly extinguished.
Nathalie Provost is the godmother of the order, an environmental engineer with the Quebec government, a gun-control advocate and a survivor of the Polytechnique shooting. She highlighted the inexorable bond she feels with each of the past recipients of the award, which was set up on the 25th anniversary of the massacre. She sees in Édith Ducharme, Viviane Aubin, Ella Thomson, Liane Bernstein and Tara Gholami a life-affirming force. Four of the five previous winners participated in the virtual event to welcome Thorsen to the fold.
“I will be there — we will be there — with you always,” Provost said.
Michèle Thibodeau-deguire, who presides over the selection committee, was the first female president of the board at Polytechnique — and its first female graduate in 1963. She hid under her desk the night of the shooting and later co-ordinated the communications response. It was announced Thursday that the trophy given to White Rose winners will heretofore be named for Thibodeau-deguire.
For many at Polytechnique, the legacy of the scholarship is personal. But almost all female scientists in Canada carry with them a keen awareness of the shooting — and a deep commitment to helping other women enter the profession and succeed.
Mona Nemer, Canada's chief science adviser, was a guest of honour at the online ceremony. She was a pharmacology professor just back from maternity leave and questioning her place in the sciences when the killings took place.
“Anger and sadness gave way to determination … to make more space for women in science and engineering,” Nemer said.
Thorsen feels a deep sense of responsibility as an Indigenous woman, to help and inspire others. Not only does she hope to lift far-flung Indigenous communities out of “energy poverty” through her studies and career path, she is already encouraging youth to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“It's just really important to me that Indigenous youth specifically see themselves represented in STEM and that they know that this is a career for them and there is space for them,” Thorsen said. “You don't need to be confined to these boxes that society has created for you. As Indigenous people, we've been practising the sciences for millenniums and I think it is a natural fit for many of our youth. So I want them to know that there is a space for them and I support them fully.”
In carrying the flame of the Order of the White Rose, Thorsen is also proud to bring diversity to the growing ranks of female engineering torchbearers.
“We can't only focus on the voices of one group of women,” she said. “So I think that's why intersectionality is so important, because it allows women of all races and economic standings and religions and identities and sexual orientations and beyond to have their voices heard. And we need to make space for these diverse perspectives in our classroom and in our profession.”