Day of Remembrance.

Today is the 18th anniversary of the "Montreal Massacre", a horrific shooting that took place at the Ecole Poytechnique in Montreal, Quebec. Mark Lepine walked into an engineering school classroom, separated the men from the women, told the men to leave, yelled "I hate feminists," opened fire, and shot the nine women, killing six and injuring the rest. Then he moved onto other parts of the school, By the time he turned his gun on himself, Lepine had killed a total of 14 women:

• Geneviève Bergeron (b. 1968), civil engineering student.
• Hélène Colgan (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
• Nathalie Croteau (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
• Barbara Daigneault (b. 1967) mechanical engineering student.
• Anne-Marie Edward (b. 1968), chemical engineering student.
• Maud Haviernick (b. 1960), materials engineering student.
• Maryse Laganière (b. 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department.
• Maryse Leclair (b. 1966), materials engineering student.
• Anne-Marie Lemay (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
• Sonia Pelletier (b. 1961), mechanical engineering student.
• Michèle Richard (b. 1968), materials engineering student.
• Annie St-Arneault (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
• Annie Turcotte (b. 1969), materials engineering student.
• Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (b. 1958), nursing student.

While I do not generally condone posting suicide notes, here is Lepine's.

I have decided to send the feminists, who have always ruined my life, to their Maker. For seven years life has brought me no joy and being totally blasé, I have decided to put an end to those viragos.... Even if the Mad Killer epithet will be attributed to me by the media, I consider myself a rational erudite that only the arrival of the Grim Reaper has forced to take extreme acts. For why persevere to exist if it is only to please the government. Being rather backward-looking by nature (except for science), the feminists have always enraged me. They want to keep the advantages of women (e.g. cheaper insurance, extended maternity leave preceded by a preventative leave, etc.) while seizing for themselves those of men.

In Canada, today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action On Violence Against Women.