The Eighties in America - Salem Press (2009)

years of life at the hands of his Muslim Algerian fa-
ther. Few journalists ventured beyond these two
broad explanations or considered the connections
between society and the individual.
Despite these attempts at explanation, many mem-
bers of the Canadian media and the general public
had great difficulty understanding such a brutal
crime. They could not satisfactorily explain Lépine’s
motivation, nor could they comprehend how he had
been able to spend twenty minutes hunting down stu-
dents without any challenge from the police. Some
media accounts blamed the school’s male students
and suggested that they should have done something
to protect their female classmates. These reports were
extremely detrimental to the survivors, and after the
massacre, several students committed suicide.
Many Canadian students and others strove to cre-
ate something positive after the event. A number
of memorials were established, and groups were
founded to work for increased gun safety in Canada,
resulting in social changes in the 1990’s and later.

Impact The Montreal Massacre was a bloody re-
minder to Canadians of women’s vulnerability to vio-

lence and of the ready availability of powerful weap-

ons. It generated a national discussion about misog-

yny, safety, and gun control whose effects are still on-

going.

Further Reading

Adamson, Nancy, Linda Briskin, and Margaret

McPhail.Feminist Organizing for Change: The Con-

temporar y Women’s Movement in Canada.Toronto:

Oxford University Press, 1988. A history of Cana-

dian feminism that does an excellent job of sum-

marizing the state of the movement at the time of

Goldmark murders.

Eglin, Peter, and Stephen Hester.The Montreal Mas-

sacre: A Stor y of Membership Categorization Analysis.

Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press,

2003. An ethnomethodological analysis of media
      accounts of the massacre, focusing on the catego-
      ries employed in those accounts, such as “femi-
      nism” and “women.”
      Malette, Louise, and Marie Chalouh, eds.The Mon-
      treal Massacre.Translated by Marlene Wildeman.
      Charlottetown, P.E.I.: Gynergy Books, 1991. Doc-
      umentation of French Canadian reactions to the
      murders, including newspaper articles and letters
      to the editor; includes brief biographical infor-
      mation on the fourteen murdered women.
      Nelson, Adie, and Barrie W. Robinson, eds.Gender
      in Canada. 2d ed. Toronto: Prentice Hall, 2002.
      Presentation of a gendered understanding of
      Canada.
      O’Donovan, Theresa.Rage and Resistance: A Theologi-
      cal Reflection on the Montreal Massacre.Waterloo,
      Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2007. An
      account, based in feminist theology, of one
      woman’s attempt to understand the murders of
      the Montreal women.
      Rathjen, Heidi, and Charles Montpetit.December 6:
      From the Montreal Massacre to Gun Control, the Inside
      Stor y.Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1999. An
      account of the massacre and its aftermath and
      consequences from the perspective of surviving
      students at the University of Montreal.
      Rosenberg, Sharon, and Roger I. Simon. “Beyond
      the Logic of Emblemization: Remembering and
      Learning from the Montreal Massacre.”Educa-
      tional Theor y50, no. 2 (Spring, 2000): 133-156.
      Study of individual recollections and understand-
      ing of the massacre several years after the event.
      Wilson, I. P. (Trish). “Reading the ‘Montreal Massa-

308
École Polytechnique massacre The Eighties in America

A wounded shooting victim is wheeled out of the École Poly-
technique in the wake of Marc Lépine’s rampage.(AP/Wide
World Photos)