Le 6 décembre 1989
Thirty years ago, on December 6 1989, in Montreal, 14 women in l’Ecole Polytechnique were killed because they were women.
I was only a young kid back then and I don’t recall those events. Years later I remember, on the day of the anniversary, listening to the news and seing the sorrow the souvenir brought into the lives of people across the country but not fully understanding why it had happened.
It’s only years later, while attending university in the engineering program, that I really became fully aware of the gravity and the meaning of that day in the evolution of women’s rights.
They were 14 women just like me, just like many women I’ve grown with and shared challenges of studying in a field where men dominated in numbers. We were all aspiring to do great things, to push the limits established in the society, and complete our education with a goal in mind of helping our communities, our country and the world.
We had dreams, and we were going after them. Never in our minds would we have thought that someone would see our desire to grow ourselves academically, as challenge to manhood.
All we have ever wanted is to be treated equal, with the same opportunities and the same choices as another human being.
I was fortunate that my own experience was a very positive in university, and a generally positive in the work place.
Sadly, it took events like the ones that took place on December 6th 1989, it took the courage of many women before that day, to advance the cause of women’s rights. It took courage and support from husbands, fathers, brothers and communities to get us to where we are today, and give all of us greater chance at equality for people from all genders, background, ethnicity and sexual orientations.
Events that are hard to make sense of, events that should have us reflect on our progression as a society, events that are reminders that we need to all work towards equality in each individual moments of our lives. We need to set example, we need to speak up when we witness discrimination or violence, against any beautiful human on this planet because no one’s life needs to end like theirs did!
I was only a young kid back then and I don’t recall those events. Years later I remember, on the day of the anniversary, listening to the news and seing the sorrow the souvenir brought into the lives of people across the country but not fully understanding why it had happened.
It’s only years later, while attending university in the engineering program, that I really became fully aware of the gravity and the meaning of that day in the evolution of women’s rights.
They were 14 women just like me, just like many women I’ve grown with and shared challenges of studying in a field where men dominated in numbers. We were all aspiring to do great things, to push the limits established in the society, and complete our education with a goal in mind of helping our communities, our country and the world.
We had dreams, and we were going after them. Never in our minds would we have thought that someone would see our desire to grow ourselves academically, as challenge to manhood.
All we have ever wanted is to be treated equal, with the same opportunities and the same choices as another human being.
I was fortunate that my own experience was a very positive in university, and a generally positive in the work place.
Sadly, it took events like the ones that took place on December 6th 1989, it took the courage of many women before that day, to advance the cause of women’s rights. It took courage and support from husbands, fathers, brothers and communities to get us to where we are today, and give all of us greater chance at equality for people from all genders, background, ethnicity and sexual orientations.
Events that are hard to make sense of, events that should have us reflect on our progression as a society, events that are reminders that we need to all work towards equality in each individual moments of our lives. We need to set example, we need to speak up when we witness discrimination or violence, against any beautiful human on this planet because no one’s life needs to end like theirs did!
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