For 45 minutes on Dec. 6, 1989 an enraged gunman roamed the corridors of Montreal's École Polytechnique and killed 14 women. Marc Lepine, 25, separated the men from the women and before opening fire on the classroom of female engineering students he screamed, "I hate feminists." Almost immediately, the Montreal Massacre became a galvanizing moment in which mourning turned into outrage about all violence against women. Marc Lepine's actions were not a crime of passion or an isolated event; many times men who commit violent acts against women are deemed to have some form of mental illness. However at SASC we believe that these are normal men, who do not suffer from mental illness, but rather have power/ control over women,therefore have the ability to commit acts of violence without consequence. 

That is why on December 6th, every year, we mourn. December 6 is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada. Established in 1991 by the Parliament of Canada, this day marks the anniversary of the murders in 1989 of 14 young women at l'École Polytechnique de Montréal. They died because they were women, Marc Lepine had deemed these womyn feminists. They had occupied a male dominated space in the school of Engineering that he believed was meant for men only. Feminism in itself challenges patriarchy;a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization. Patriarchy sustains systems of power that marginalize womyn, and contributes to the violence that women experience.December 6th is an important day for our organization (SASC) because it  represents an opportunity for Canadians to reflect on the phenomenon of violence against women in our society. It is also an opportunity to consider the women and girls for whom violence is a daily reality, and to remember those who have died as a result of gender-based violence. And finally, it is a day on which communities can consider concrete actions to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls.