On Dec. 6, 1989, 14 women were murdered in an anti-fem­in­ist attack at the École Poly­tech­nique de Montréal

[IwantToRetire]

On Dec. 6, 1989, 14 women were murdered in an anti-fem­in­ist attack at the École Poly­tech­nique de Montréal in what is still the second dead­li­est mass shoot­ing in Canada. Another 10 women and four men were injured in the shoot­ing.

Shooter Marc Lépine, armed with a leg­ally-obtained Ruger Mini-14, semi-auto­matic rifle and a hunt­ing knife, entered a mech­an­ical engin­eer­ing class at the École Poly­tech­nique and ordered women to one side of the classroom while also instruct­ing the men to leave.

He claimed to be fight­ing fem­in­ism, shoot­ing nine women, killing six, in the first room before mov­ing through cor­ridors, the cafet­eria and another classroom all while tar­get­ing more women. The attack las­ted just under 20 minutes, killing eight more women before the 25-year-old turned the gun on him­self.

Lépine blamed uniden­ti­fied women for sev­eral fail­ures in his life and said he would kill some women in revenge.

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/medicine-hat-news/20251204/281857239850230

The Montreal Massacre is one of the 16 Days of Action Against Violence Against Women https://www.womensgrid.org.uk/?p=28070

I don’t remember hearing about this appalling incident before. Utterly horrific.

I am not sure it was that widely reported in the UK at the time. 36 years ago. And no social media to amplify the story.

And although the 16 Days of Action has been going for sometime, again not something that is part of most people's awareness.

But a shocking reminder.

Yes a shocking reminder, the horror for me amplified by the way Canada has diminished the rights of women in favour if trans ideology.

I agree, and trans identified males have tried to appropriate the memorials for their own agenda multiple times, sometimes enabled by the organisers of the memorials because who cares that these victims of male violence and misogyny were actual women, right?

Just one example https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-trans-woman-guestspeaker-1.6274185

Thank you for the reminder OP.
those poor young women, slaughtered by an inadequate man. My daughter is an engineer and I can’t think about this without crying but I don’t want them forgotten.

I learned about this appalling crime here a few years ago. Must be one of the earliest incel crimes, I would think.

❤️

It wasn’t ‘incel’ exactly - that’s about sexual inadequacy and entitlement. But related - men treating women as not fully human, definitely not equal things, and blaming women for their own failures.

It is good to remember those killed and injured in this attack. Thank you for the reminder.

Horrific. We mustn't forget. Thank you for the thread.

• Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968; aged 21), civil engineering student
• Hélène Colgan (born 1966; aged 23), mechanical engineering student
• Nathalie Croteau (born 1966; aged 23), mechanical engineering student
• Barbara Daigneault (born 1967; aged 22), mechanical engineering student
• Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968; aged 21), chemical engineering student
• Maud Haviernick (born 1960; aged 29), materials engineering student
• Maryse Laganière (born 1964; aged 25), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department
• Maryse Leclair (born 1966; aged 23), materials engineering student
• Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967; aged 22), mechanical engineering student
• Sonia Pelletier (born 1961; aged 28), mechanical engineering student
• Michèle Richard (born 1968; aged 21), materials engineering student
• Annie St-Arneault (born 1966; aged 23), mechanical engineering student
• Annie Turcotte (born 1969; aged 20), materials engineering student
• Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958; aged 31), nursing student

10 other women and 4 men injured.

Do we know he wasn’t a sexual inadequate?

Also of course it was committed by a white native Canadian, not a brown immigrant. So plenty of people have less motivation to care about it.

I don’t think that’s a necessary condition for misogynistic violence, do you? It doesn’t seem to have been the prime motivation in this case.

His father was Algerian. Canada has many people of mixed heritage, I’m not sure the dynamics are quite the same there, and at that point in time (just before the first Gulf War)as they might be now.

Thank you for reminding us of this anti-feminist, anti-women massacre, OP, and thank you to ErrolTheDragon for naming the 14.

The killer had a list of many more feminists he wanted to kill but did have enough time.

One of the many women who were injured but not fatally was a woman who later became a Liberal MP, and a campaigner for gun control; I don't know if she also became an equally energetic campaigner against male violence against women, and supporter of women's rights in contemporary Canada...

But I accept that as a survivor of such a horrific massacre, she has the right to determine for herself where she puts her campaigning energy.

His motive for the killing isn't in doubt: he shouted 'I hate feminists'.

Marc Lépine was born as Gamil Rodrigue Liass Gharbi and legally changed his name when he was 14 years old.
He took on his mother's pre-marital surname, Lépine, due to a profound hatred of his abusive, Algerian father.

Yes.
unfortunately he didn’t reject his father’s abusive misogyny.

It’s not a necessary condition, no, but it does seem to often be a factor, which I personally find relevant. It was just a question 🙄 I take it you don’t actually know either way though, so as the pp said it may well be an early “incel” incident. It’s a pattern.

Sexual motivations are often key even when they don’t appear to be.

Hatred of feminism was the killer's motivation, he said so in his suicide note.

Lépine blamed feminists for ruining his life and claimed women wanted the privileges of men.
'It was him giving us his reasons for killing', said Pelletier.
'He was aiming at feminists in the sense that he was aiming at the progress that had happened in society through women.'
Polytechnique murderer Marc Lépine had her on his kill list. She never forgot the moment she found out | Radio-Canada.ca

Yes, I know that. I’m not sure it rules out other motives. I’m not trying to diminish the misogyny and killing in any way, just being realistic about what motivates men.

I’m responding to the positive claim that he wasn’t an incel type as we understand it today. I don’t think anyone can definitively rule that out, which doesn’t have any bearing on the misogyny or the violence of what happened in 1989, and I’m a bit surprised that that’s being implied tbh. It’s certainly not what I’m saying.

It’s the same theme, of women having something he can’t have.