Montreal Massacre occured on December 6, 1989. Marc Lepine entered the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal and killed 14 women students before taking his own life. Montreal Massacre of December 6 has become a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. Montreal Massacre has been a rallying point for women's groups who see the killings as reflective of generalized devaluation and violence against women in society. Marc Lepine stated that he was "fighting feminism" and opened fire. Many characterize the Montreal massacre as an anti-feminist attack representative of wider societal violence against women. One of the main narratives to evolve from this mass murder was violence against women, of which Marc Lepine became the symbol.
Beyond the Logic of
Emblemization: Remembering and Learning from the Montreal Massacre.
Rosenberg, Sharon; Simon, Roger I. Discusses prevailing remembrance practices related to a Montreal Massacre at
one Montreal university, addressing what has contributed to their normative form, problems
resulting from those formations, and potential new memorials. The article proposes an
argument for understanding Montreal Massacre not only as the killings, but also as the
memorial formations that have been forged in its wake (particularly emblemization).
Neither Forgotten nor Fully Remembered - Tracing an Ambivalent Public Memory on the 10th Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre - Sharon Rosenberg - This article works from 10th anniversary reporting on the Montreal massacre and its legacy, arguing that the public memory of the massacre, far from being settled, is charged with ambivalence.
Reframing the Montreal
Massacre: Strategies for Feminist Media Activism
- Maureen Bradley.
Abstract: In the days that followed the Montreal Massacre at the Ecole Polytechnique,
December 6, 1989, the Canadian mass media became a discursive battleground regarding
violence against women. In response to this phenomenon, I released a half-hour documentary
in 1995 entitled Reframing the Montreal Massacre: A Media Interrogation. Designed as a
feminist tool for media literacy, the tape deconstructs six key moments in the media
coverage of the Montreal Massacre.
After the Montreal Massacre - Video (NTSC).
ABSTRACT: December 6, 1989. Sylvie Gagnon was attending her last day of classes
at Ecole Polytechnique, an engineering school in Montreal, when Marc Lepine
entered the building. Systematically separating the women from the men, he
opened fire on women students, yelling you're all a bunch of feminists.
After the Montreal Massacre is a useful tool for helping us come to terms with these
murders and how they relate to the larger picture of male violence against women.
The haunting images taken on the day of the Montreal Massacre and in the days following, set the stage for an exploration of the urgent issues of misogyny, male violence and sexism. Testimony from Sylvie Gagnon about what the Montreal Massacre means to her, conversations with a group of college students, and interviews with noted writers, feminist activists, and leaders of organizations for women, contribute to this moving and important documentary which provides a challenge for change in our political, social and personal lives.
The Hidden Narratives: stories of the many in the Montreal Massacre - Sue McPherson 2006. Abstract: The Montreal Massacre is seen as one of the most appalling tragedies in Canadian history. On December 6th, 1989, a 25 year-old man walked into the ecole Polytechnique in Montreal and shot to death fourteen women, wounding twelve others, before turning the rifle on himself. The individual stories and fragments of stories of those who died and those who survived, and the injustice felt on all sides, from before the event and the years since then, are what make up the Montreal Massacre. As a means of drawing together the different spaces of the Montreal Massacre I draw on Michel Foucault's model of the heterotopia, and consider the possibility of moving forward towards more diverse forms of remembering.