UW holds vigil on 27th anniversary of Montreal Massacre
Posted Dec 6, 2016 06:55:04 AM.
Last Updated Dec 6, 2016 11:30:16 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
December 6th is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
The day began in the wake of the Montreal Massacre 27 years ago today in 1989 at the l’École Polytechnique de Montréal.
Parliament officially recognized the day in 1991.
To honour the 14 young women, mostly engineering students, who were killed, the University of Waterloo is holding a vigil at 10:30am Tuesday in their Engineering 5 building.
Mary Wells is the Chair of the Ontario Network of Women in Engineering and is an Associate Dean Outreach and Professor at The University of Waterloo.
She feels honouring these women is very important.
“It’s important as engineers because we lost some of our future colleagues, along with the insight, creativity and passion they would have brought to the profession,” says Wells, who was around the same age as the women when they were killed. “It’s very important to remember these women who lost their lives way too soon.”
Her personal connection is even stronger to these women because she grew up in Montreal and the massacre happened in her home town.
She just graduated from Montreal’s McGill University several years before.
She says the number of female engineers is on the rise, from 4,000 in 1989 to roughly 15,000 today, and she hopes to inspire other women to take this career path too.
“Women make fantastic engineers. They bring…different ways of viewing and thinking about a problem to the profession and engineering is all about problem solving,” says Wells. “If you want to get involved with a profession that’s going to change the world, think about becoming an engineer.”
Wells adds this day is a great way for us all to recommit ourselves to diversity inclusion of all kinds in the workplace.
