Today marks a grim anniversary.
In 1989, a man walked into #Polytechnique #Montreal with a rifle, driven by a hatred of women, and murdered 14 women simply because they dared to exist in spaces he believed weren’t for them. Fourteen bright lights, extinguished by misogyny, leaving behind families, friends, and futures that would never be fulfilled.
This wasn’t just an act of individual violence—it was the product of a system steeped in patriarchy, feeding the idea that women stepping out of “their place” are threats. And let’s not kid ourselves—this shit didn’t die in ’89. It lives on in the casual sexism, the wage gaps, the gendered violence Indigenous women face at horrifying rates, and in every damn space where women have to fight to be seen, heard, and safe.
We remember the names of those 14 women today, but we also have to ask ourselves how we fight the systems that made their deaths possible. How we push back against the structures that teach people to hate and to harm.
Because remembrance without action? That’s just lip service.
So let’s mourn, let’s remember—but let’s also rage and refuse to settle. For the women who were lost, and for every person who keeps fighting to exist in a world that doesn’t always want to make space for them.
Never forget. Never stop.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre