Fourteen candles were lit during noon hour in remembrance of the 14 victims. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

Memorial

Montreal Massacre remembered in La Ronge 30 years later

Dec 6, 2019 | 4:38 PM

Communities across Canada held events today to remember the 30^th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre in 1989.

About two dozen people came together at the United Church in La Ronge to mark the occasion. The memorial began with a moment of silence, before the names of the 14 women who were murdered were read aloud and a candle was lit for each one. Northlands College student Katheleen Sanderson assisted in organizing the vigil, and although she wished more people would have attended, she’s happy so many people did.

“I still think it affects us all very deeply,” she said about the Montreal Massacre. “It’s about 14 women who were brutally murdered.”

On Dec. 6, 1989, a gunman entered the engineering school at École Polytechnique in Montreal. He told the men to leave before killing 14 women and himself. The massacre brought violence against women to the forefront of a national conversation.

In 1991, the federal government designated the date as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, intended as a call to action against discrimination against women.

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On Thursday, a new commemorative plaque was unveiled in Montreal to honour to 14 lives lost at École Polytechnique. It calls the massacre a anti-feminist attack and serves as a reminder of the fundamental values of respect and equality, and the condemnation of all forms of violence against women.

“I would say it’s getting better than it was before,” Sanderson said about gender equality in Canada. “I do think there’s still a lot of women who are victimized.”

A candlelight vigil to remember the victims of the massacre has occurred in La Ronge for 27 consecutive years. It’s held in conjunction with the United Church and Piwapan Women’s Centre.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno