Anniversary of the 1989 Polytechnique Massacre

Today marks the 16th anniversary of the massacre at the École Polytechnique de Montréal engineering faculty during which 14 women were killed by shooter Marc Lépine for being women in a "men's field".

Considered one of the worst mass murders in Canadian history, the Montreal Massacre had a deep and lasting impact, leading to new programmes to deal with violence against women and to the official proclamation of December 6th as a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

• National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women (Status of Women Canada): Established in 1991 by the Parliament of Canada
• Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile 2005 (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics): "This year, the focus is the incidence of stalking and spousal violence reported by both women and men to Statistics Canada’s 2004 General Social Survey on Victimization (GSS). In addition, for the first time the report presents an analysis of family-related homicide-suicides that have transpired over the past 40 years. The report also details other family-related homicides which did not involve the suicide of the perpetrator and an analysis of non-lethal family-related violence against children and youth and older adults."
• Family Violence in Canada: Statistics Canada makes available annual reports on the topic for the period 1998 to 2005
• National Clearinghouse on Family Violence (Public Health Agency of Canada): collects, develops, and disseminates information on family violence across the country and abroad
• Centre for Research on Violence on Women and Children (University of Western Ontario) : "The Centre's role is to facilitate the cooperation of individuals, groups and institutions representing the diversity of the community to pursue research questions and training opportunities to understand and prevent abuse"
• Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research (University of New Brunswick): one of five research centres across Canada funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Health Canada
• RESOLVE - Research and Education for Solutions to Violence and Abuse (Univ. Of Manitoba) : "The goal of this regional centre is to undertake research which will offer practical, action-oriented ways to help end family violence. It is essential that we provide services for victims of family violence and intervention and treatment for offenders"
• Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la violence familiale: interdisciplinary research partnership between Quebec universities and social service agencies that focuses on the social context and determinants of violence, factors that make specific groups of women and youth vulnerable to violence, and measures of the efficacy of preventive, psychosocial and judicial approaches to violence