In Montreal this evening fourteen light beams will rise from the top of Mount Royal, one by one into the sky. One for every woman murdered in the École Polytechnique Massacre 30-years-ago. Murdered just for being women, by a man who hated feminists.
They were so young, they were so full of hope in the future.
Only to have their dreams of being engineers, so long reserved for men, brutally extinguished in a few murderous minutes. And then have their legacy defiled by Stephen Harper and his bestial Cons. Who like the Scheer Cons cared more about god and guns, than they cared about women and girls. And didn't give a damn about the effects of gun violence.
The bastards. I remember how angry I used to be to see the gun lobby treat the murdered women as The Enemy for making them look bad. I remember how they insisted that the massacre was the work of a madman not a misogynist. And how some of them threatened to kill me for refusing to believe that cowardly lie. So I can't tell you how relieved I am to see that after thirty years, attitudes are finally changing. At last, 30 years later, the reluctance of officialdom to call what happened what it was has been made right. A new sign has just gone up in the Place-du-6-décembre-1989, a memorial park at the base of the U of M campus, on the corner of Decelles Street and Queen Mary Road.
The old sign said only that there had been a tragedy.
The new sign states that 14 women were murdered in an anti-feminist attack at École Polytechnique on Dec. 6, 1989. It condemns all forms of violence against women. And that the legacy of the Montreal Massacre is finally being rescued. It also makes me happy to know that we now have a prime minister who supports women's rights, and is proud to call himself a feminist.
Who is working to curb gun violence. And who will be on Mount Royal tonight when those fourteen beams of light rise into the sky.
So after so many years I can at last feel sure that the legacy of those murdered women will live on. Always remember their names. Geneviève Bergeron, 21 - Hélène Colgan, 23 - Nathalie Croteau, 23 - Barbara Daigneault, 22 - Anne-Marie Edward, 21 - Maud Haviernick, 29 - Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, 31 - Maryse Laganière, 25 - Maryse Leclair, 23 - Anne-Marie Lemay, 22 - Sonia Pelletier, 23 - Michèle Richard, 21 - Anne St-Arneault, 23 - Annie Turcotte, 21 Always honour their memory...
And keep their precious legacy alive. By demanding an end to the violence against women and girls. And fighting forever for a more equal world...
Almost two years ago Gilles Michaud, the RCMP's Assistant Commissioner, held a splashy news conference to announce that the force had laid no less than 31 charges against Mike Duffy. And despite the way the trial went, a few hours before the verdict came down, he sent out a memo to staff members. Which in retrospect couldn't be more absurd.
When Justice Charles Vaillancourt acquitted Mike Duffy, he brought down his gavel on the head of quite a few others. He savaged Stephen Harper's PMO for the way it had tried to cover-up a scandal. He heaped scorn on the Senators who had treated Duffy so badly, and on the crown for the way it prosecuted the case. And as Neil Macdonald points out, without singling them out for special treatment, he also raised some disturbing questions about the conduct of the RCMP.
They turned my neighbourhood and much of downtown Toronto into a police state. They arrested more than a thousand people most of them peaceful protesters. They kettled them for no reason.
In the last nine years I wrote more than 100 posts about the case of Omar Khadr, because I considered it one of the most shameful episodes in modern Canadian history. And could never accept that a Canadian child soldier could be tortured and jailed in a place like Guantanamo. And abandoned by his own government. But this will probably be my last post about him. Not because the case is over, it isn't. The federal government is still appealing his release on bail. But because amazingly enough it seems to have had a happy ending.
Of all the Canadians Stephen Harper has muzzled during his reign of terror nobody was muzzled more than Omar Khadr. For years Harper prevented the media from meeting with him, hearing about his ordeal, or even taking his picture. So he could portray Khadr as a monster. And since I have never defended anyone as long and as strongly as I have that child soldier, you can imagine how I feel to see him ride free at last.
It's the third time the Supreme Court of Canada has been asked to rule on the case of Omar Khadr. Twice before it has ruled in his favour, and today it did so again. And the way it did couldn't have been more of a slap in the face, or a kick in the head, to the Con regime and its depraved leader.
If you bike in the city you know it can be dangerous enough. There are not enough bike paths, and too many crazed motorists. So the last thing you need is to be attacked ....for nothing....by a cop.
And then be charged with attempted assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. The good news? The pig just got FIRED. A police officer who was videotaped knocking a man off his bicycle and onto the ground during a cycling event in Manhattan last summer has been fired, the Police Department said.
You know I was hoping he'd have a close encounter with a three hundred pound cyclist. Or be charged with attempted murder.
But if the cyclist now sues the crazy cop....and the police department....for at least 300-thousand dollars ...this will be fine.
As long as they remember that the streets belong to EVERYONE...
