Vigil to be held in Waterloo for the École Polytechnique massacre anniversary

A vigil will be held on Wednesday to mark the 34th anniversary of the mass shooting at École Polytechnique in Montreal.

The vigil will take place at St. Columba Church at 250 Lincoln Road in Waterloo at 5:30pm. It will be hosted by the Kitchener-Waterloo chapter of Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW K-W) and will feature speakers from around the community. The event is free to attend and there is no registration.

Margaret Walker, the priest-in-charge of St, Columba Church and chair of the CFUW K-W organizing committee, said the event is a chance to recognize that gender-based violence is still an issue in Canadian society. She said some progress has been made in awareness of gender-based violence, but the number of women being killed every day is rising.

“There’s a woman being killed every other day,” said Walker.

On December 6, 1989, a gunman walked onto the Montreal engineering school campus and killed 14 women and himself. 13 of the women were students and one was an employee at the university.

The anniversary was proclaimed a national day of remembrance and action on violence against women in 1991.