Polytechnique 6 décembre

by Marie Chalouh (Editor), Louise Malette (Editor), Sylvie Bérard (Contributor)

These are the powerful voices of Quebec feminists writing about the massacre of fourteen women at the University of

Genres: Canada, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm shocked, when I searched Goodreads to read comments on this extraordinary work, what others thought. That the only people on Goodreads to offer a review were two women who are on my friends list. I'm so wonderfully thankful that these two friends reviewed this book that made me seek it out.
I was young, and feeling so empowered in 1989, a young woman at the cusp of my career. I remember the massacre and how horrified I was. This happened in my OWN COUNTRY! It opened a whole new world for me in terms of being a more critical thinker, reader, and speaker. I'm just sorry that it took me so long to find this book. Essays, articles and poems that were published after the massacre at the Polytechnique College in Montreal. We shall not speak his name. That piece is so important. I'm saddened that this happened in 1989 and today we are still struggling with the same issues in our society.

[Orla Hegarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read most of this book in bits and pieces but after the recent (April 2018) terrorist van attack against women in Toronto I read it again from start to finish.

I was a math/eng undergrad at the University of Waterloo when the Montreal Massacre took place in December 1989 and that was a formative Canadian tragedy in my life. That classroom could've easily been my classroom.

It made me the feminist I am today and it made me the first feminist in Canada to create a Counting Dead Women Canada list in 2015 (inspired by the then 3 year running Counting Dead Women UK effort). Every 3 days in Canada a woman (and/or her children) are slaughtered by men they know. And if the woman is indigenous she faces a higher chance of being one of those murdered or missing.

Every word in this small little known book published by a small printing press after translating from the french version is sadly all too relevant today. A particularly painful statement recorded in one of the essays was a quote from someone questioning if the banning of guns would help because shouldn't vehicles also be banned because they also kill people. Goosebumps.

[Wisewebwoman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading for every female. Most of us were horrified at the massacre itself but this book does an enormous service by reporting on the actual reportage of it. A complete disservice to the women who died at the hands of an extreme misogynist who hated women. Recommend. I was enlightened.