Warning: This story comprises graphic particulars of violence and mentions of suicide.
On Dec. 6, 1989, 14 ladies, together with engineering college students, a nursing pupil and a workers member, had been killed in a taking pictures rampage at Montreal’s École Polytechnique by a gunman who shouted: “I hate feminists.”
Marc Lépine had utilized to the college however did not have the credit wanted to be accepted. His buddy later instructed CBC he felt “rejected” by ladies.
It was Canada’s deadliest mass killing on the time.
Two days later, Francine Pelletier was dealt one other shock. She was a columnist for La Presse, and finally turned a co-host at CBC’s The Fifth Estate, the place she produced a documentary on the tragedy 10 years later.
Early that morning in December 1989, Pelletier’s editor at La Presse known as to inform her that her identify was on successful checklist discovered inside Lépine’s pocket, together with a handwritten suicide observe, and it had been leaked to the newspaper.
“In order that’s that is how I discovered that my identify and people of many different ladies had been printed within the newspaper with out us figuring out beforehand,” Pelletier stated.
The checklist included 19 ladies Lépine claimed had been “radical feminists” who he would have killed if it weren’t for a “lack of time.” Some had been well-known, together with a Quebec cupboard minister and a union chief.
Nevertheless it wasn’t simply the hit checklist itself that angered Pelletier.
“That was form of his final act of bravado,” she stated. “There may be actually no conceivable manner that he might have completed the plan that he had thought out so fastidiously — the École Polytechnique killings — and on the identical time go across the metropolis and shoot numerous ladies.”
As an alternative, her anger was provoked by why their names had been leaked when Montreal police had refused to launch the gunman’s suicide observe.
“Crucial piece of data that we would have liked to try to make sense of this was … put to the facet.”
On the time, there was public debate on what motivated the shooter. Some thought it was an remoted incident, whereas others believed it was a response to the progress ladies had made in society.
Pelletier believed it was a political crime and the observe would convey solutions the general public deserved.
“I made a decision then and there that I did not know the way, however I’d get the suicide observe.”
Francine Pelletier explains why Marc Lépine’s motive got here as a shock to her and girls of her era.
It took months. She requested police immediately, however she stated they refused to launch it, citing concern of potential copycat crimes.
She tried requesting by entry to info legal guidelines and was refused once more.
Lastly, approaching the one-year anniversary of the tragedy, Pelletier acquired an envelope from an nameless supply within the mail. Inside was a photocopy of the observe.
She by no means discovered who despatched it, regardless of efforts to search out out.
In it, Lépine blamed feminists for ruining his life and claimed ladies needed the privileges of males.
“It was him giving us his causes for killing,” stated Pelletier.
“He was aiming at feminists within the sense that he was aiming on the progress that had occurred in society by ladies.”
The following day, she took it to her newspaper and had it printed. Earlier than doing so, she says she spoke to Monique Simard, the union chief whose identify was additionally on the checklist. She agreed it ought to be made public.
If her identify was on the gunman’s hit checklist, she instructed police it was her proper to know why the Polytechnique gunman focused ladies.
“I believe that may be very vital that it was ladies’s liberation that he was after. And that is what we’re seeing now as effectively.”
Pelletier factors out that 35 years later, gender-based inequality and violence is one thing that hasn’t gone away.
“Violence in opposition to ladies is mostly a response to ladies’s place in society immediately and controlling the final components that may be managed,” she stated.
“I believe so many extra tales should be completed as a result of ladies are nonetheless paying for ladies’s liberation.”
On Dec. 6, 1989, 14 ladies had been shot useless at a college in Montreal. The gunman Marc Lépine’s hate crime left behind a profound and painful human tragedy. Lépine additionally left an inventory he’d ready of different ladies whom he had additionally deliberate to kill. CBC reporter Francine Pelletier’s identify was on that checklist. The actual thriller of the crime, nevertheless, was about what in Lépine’s life had led him to choose up a gun and assault full strangers. On this piece from 1999, The Fifth Property explores Lépine’s previous and discovers many elements that will have led him to behave as he did.
Dec. 6 is the Nationwide Day of Remembrance and Motion on Violence In opposition to Girls, marking the anniversary of the École Polytechnique tragedy. Vigils and commemoration occasions can be held throughout the nation to honour each of the victims:
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Geneviève Bergeron, civil engineering pupil.
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Hélène Colgan, mechanical engineering pupil.
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Nathalie Croteau, mechanical engineering pupil.
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Barbara Daigneault, mechanical engineering pupil.
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Anne-Marie Edward, chemical engineering pupil.
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Maud Haviernick, supplies engineering pupil.
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Maryse Laganière, price range clerk.
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Maryse Leclair, supplies engineering pupil.
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Anne-Marie Lemay, mechanical engineering pupil.
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Sonia Pelletier, mechanical engineering pupil.
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Michèle Richard, supplies engineering pupil.
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Annie St-Arneault, mechanical engineering pupil.
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Annie Turcotte, supplies engineering pupil.
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Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, nursing pupil.
The Fifth Property is marking its fiftieth 12 months of investigative journalism.
We debuted in 1975 with a aim of holding energy accountable. That continues to be a core tenet of our fearless and provocative journalism. As Canada’s flagship investigative documentary program turns 50, we go into the vaults and behind the scenes.
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