$0--&$5*7*5 r$0..6/*5:
Candlelight vigil at Parc Simon
GREGG CHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
In the dark of a cold Tuesday night in Rockland, about a dozen people gathered at Parc Simon to hold a silent candlelight vigil in memory of 14 women who died at the hands of a madman, almost three de- cades ago in Montréal. They joined others across Canada in observing the annual National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, on Dec. 6. “Why have we gathered here?” said Sylvie Bisson, of the Prescott-Russell Coalition to Eliminate Violence Against Women (PRCE- VAW). “It is to remind us that 27 years ago, a massacre took place on Dec. 6, 1989.” In December 1989, Marc Lépine, armed with a rifle and a hunting knife, walked into the Polytechnique Montréal and shot 28
people, almost all of them women. His vic- tims included 14 women who died. Before he killed himself that day, Lépine claimed he was “fighting feminism” as the reason for his attack. Since then, by parliamentary approval, Dec. 6 is a National Day of Remembrance to highlight the need for public awareness of the issue of violence against women, and by extension against children. The Dec. 6 vigil in Rockland included a recitation of the names of the 14 women killed in the Montréal Massacre and also the names of eight women from the Prescott- Russell region who have died during the past two decades as a result of violence. As each woman’s name was called out, Jo-Anne Poirier of the Coalition placed a rose into a basket held by Mayor Guy Desjardins. “Participating in vigils like this,” said Mayor Desjardins during a brief speech, “is a concrete way of saying ‘No more’.” The women who died in what has become known as the Montréal Massacre are: Gene- viève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Michèle Richard, Nathalie Croteau, Anne St-Arneault, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Sonia Pel- letier, Barbara Daigneault, Annie Turcotte, Anne-Marie Edward, Maude Haviernick, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, and Anne- Marie Lemay. In the Prescott-Russell région, during the past two décades, these women died as a result of violence: Violet Graves, Ma- rielle Portelance, and Cassidy Ridler, all of Hawkesbury; Jacqueline Rouleau of Alfred; Zdenka Sykora of Lefaivre; Barbara Teske from the Curran village area; Francine Mailly and her three children, from Cumberland; and Stacey Heil, found beaten to death in the Larose Forest near Bourget. For more information on the issue and referrals for help go to www.coalitionvio- lencepr.ca. Au cours d’un service commémoratif à la chandelle qui se déroulait la semaine dernière au Parc Simon, Jo-Anne Poirier de la Coalition de Prescott-Russell pour éliminer la violence faite aux femmes place les roses, une à une, dans un panier que tient le maire de Clarence-Rockland, Guy Desjardins. Chaque rose représente les 14 victimes du massacre de Montréal le 6 décembre 1989 et les huit femmes de la région de Prescott-Russell qui sont mortes à la suite de violences au cours des deux dernières décennies. —Gregg Chamberlain
:O\SWUSSabO``Wd{S
>=C@C<B3;>A:7;7Bp(>/A234@/7A 23B@/<A>=@B<723>@p>/@/B7=< AC@<=A;=2Â:3A %3<AB=19
u^O`bW`RS% '' =CB:/<23@
aS[
$ aS[
u^O`bW`RS'$'' @3<35/23
!' aS[
"' aS[ u^O`bW`RS " '' 1=;;/<23@
u^O`bW`RS & '' ;/D3@719
!
u^O`bW`RS $'' 2343<23@
aS[
ECC! %)Ydb`d´v' STaPQPXbTc!P]bST_a^cTRcX^] 3454=34A! %)Ydb`d´v $ STaPQPXbTc"P]bST_a^cTRcX^]
AC7D3H<=CA(
UXH7XSSHU+DZNHVEXU\21 %RPEDUGLHU3URGXLWV5pFUpDWLIVLQF %53 7RXVGURLWVUpVHUYpV0&HWOHORJR%53VRQWGHVPDUTXHVGHFRPPHUFHGH%53RXGHVHVVRFLpWpVDႈOLpHV2ႇUHV YDODEOHVDX&DQDGDVHXOHPHQWHQWUHOHQRYHPEUHDXMDQYLHU/HVFRQGLWLRQVSHXYHQWYDULHUG¶XQHSURYLQFHjO¶DXWUHHWODSURPRWLRQSHXWSUHQGUH¿QRXrWUHPRGL¿pHHQ WRXWWHPSVVDQVSUpDYLV&RQVXOWH]YRWUHFRQFHVVLRQQDLUH%53SDUWLFLSDQWSRXUWRXVOHVGpWDLOV2%7(1(=-8648¶¬G(5$%$,6685/(602'Ê/(6 6e/(&7,211e6 /HUDEDLVHVWDSSOLFDEOHjO DFKDWG XQ977&DQ$P'HIHQGHUGHVDQQpHVPRGqOHVQHXIHWQRQXWLOLVp/¶DFKHWHXUG¶XQPRGqOHVpOHFWLRQQp EpQp¿FLHUDG¶XQUDEDLVDOODQWMXVTX¶j/HPRQWDQWGXUDEDLVGpSHQGGXPRGqOHDFKHWp-XVTX¶jpSXLVHPHQWGHVVWRFNV3DLHPHQWVSDUVHPDLQHEDVpVVXU PRLVj 7D[HVHQVVXV
1=<13AA7=</7@31/</;6=@A@=CB3 23:³/<<p3>=C@:³3AB1/</273<
ZZZPD[LPXPSRZHUVSRUWVFD
Made with FlippingBook HTML5