One of the posters hung by the Medicine Hat Women's Shelter Society for its memorial to the victims of the 1989 Montreal Massacre. The annual vigil will be virtual this year on Dec. 6.  (CHAT News Photo/Ross Lavigne)

By Chris Brown

Remembering Montreal Massacre victims

Temporary memorial adds to annual women’s shelter vigil

Dec 3, 2020 | 2:23 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter Society will hold a vigil on Dec. 6 to mark one of Canada’s darkest days.

On that date in 1989, a gunman killed 14 women and injured many more at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique. He separated and targeted women in the attack, declaring he was “fighting feminism.”

The women’s shelter will hold a virtual vigil this year due to the gathering restrictions in effect with COVID-19.

“We’re still doing it at the college, we think it’s important to do it at the college, it happened at a college and so we think it’s important to honour that,” said women’s shelter executive director Natasha Carvalho. “We’re going to livestream it so everybody can join and hopefully even more people can join.”

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She says a few people will be at the college to speak on the livestream and while the shelter doesn’t want to discourage people from attending in person, Carvalho asks people to be conscious of the numbers, gathering restrictions and physical distancing.

The women’s shelter has also set up a temporary memorial along Sunrise Rotary Trail near the college overlooking Kin Coulee Park. Posters on trees share the photos and stories of the 14 women killed in Montreal.

The memorial, done with the help of the Students’ Association of Medicine Hat College, also pays tribute to the 22 people killed in Portapique, N.S. in April. That shooting has also been linked to family violence and violence against women.

Carvalho says it’s a beautiful visual and tribute.

“Just for people to take a moment and read and just read about what those people were and what they meant to everybody and what their lives were and what their lives were lost.”

The memorial will be up until the middle of the month.

The Dec. 6 vigil falls in the middle of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. The annual UN campaign begins on Nov. 25 (The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) and runs until Dec. 10 (Human Rights Day).

Even though COVID is understandably top of mind for many, Carvalho says, people shouldn’t lose sight of the fact there are other struggles.

“There are people who aren’t safe in their homes and … we just don’t want people to feel like they’re stuck at home. We’re always open and there’s always somebody they can call to talk with and come on down to the shelter if they need support.”

The vigil on Sunday will start at 4 p.m. and be shown on the women’s shelter’s Facebook page.