i'm not here

I originally read this in eponymous_rose's journal and when she suggested that the rest of us may want to pass this along, I decided to do so. I'm in the States and was only four at the time anyway, so I had no idea that something like this had ever happened.


On this day in 1989, a man walked into a mechanical engineering classroom at the École Polytechnique in Montreal with a legally obtained rifle and told all the men to leave the room. He claimed he was fighting feminism: "You're women, you're going to be engineers. You're all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists." He then shot all nine women in the room, killing six of them, then moved through the hallways and killed another eight women. Fourteen women killed, ten women injured, and four men injured.

Geneviève Bergeron, 21, civil engineering
Nathalie Croteau, 23, mechanical engineering
Anne-Marie Edward, 21, chemical engineering
Maryse Laganière, 25, budget clerk in school's finance dept
Anne-Marie Lemay, 22, mechanical engineering
Michèle Richard, 21, materials engineering
Annie Turcotte, 21, materials engineering
Hélène Colgan, 23, mechanical engineering
Barbara Daigneault, 22, mechanical engineering
Maud Haviernick, 29, materials engineering
Maryse Leclair, 23, materials engineering
Sonia Pelletier, 28, mechanical engineering
Annie St-Arneault, 23, mechanical engineering
Barbara Klucznik Widajewicz, 31, nursing

Today is National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada, so I thought I'd re-post about this since these women deserve to be remembered. You can read more about the tragedy on Wikipedia but please beware of any links you follow there. Some of the source articles have comments on them that are grossly inappropriate and anti-woman. (I didn't read them but I'm taking eponymous_rose's word for it.)

Whatever you're doing right now, stop. Get together ten bucks. Then go see The Hangover. BEST MOVIE EVER. Deppgirl and I laughed through the whole thing and a few times we reached the point where you can't even make a sound anymore, only flail your hands while your shoulders shake. There isn't a single boring part!


Ed Helms was in it and completely ruled, Bradley Cooper was freaking hot, and Zach Gallifinakis is my new hero. You'd be doing yourself a disservice by not seeing it. Go! Preferably in a packed theater because you'll all feel bonded!

Megan is living in my brain. That's what I've most been wanting to bitch about and she said it best so now that's one less thing I need to do.


However, I lost my bus pass today so I'm still in a state of GRRRRRR SMASH!!! I doubt I'll see it again so now I need to look into how to get a new one. If I find out I'm S.O.L. and we're only entitled to one, I'm going to cry. I have enough change to go to school a few more days but after that, I'm fucked.


ETA: I LOVE MY SCHOOL. All I need to do is go to the Student ID Card office and tell them I need a replacement bus pass and I'll get one for FREE. That's the best thing I've heard all day.