The White Ribbon

Twenty years ago, on the 6th of December 1989, I was working at the student information counter in the Hall Building in downtown Montreal's Concordia University. It was a calm afternoon, close to Christmas break and all was quiet as students made their way home. A news announcement that was to shatter all of our lives was brought to me: a gunman had shot students at the Universite de Montreal. It was later that we learned that he had entered a classroom and separated the men from the women and then executed the women. Why? Because they were women. In news reports his name is often still mentioned, but it is their names that I want to remember:

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, 27
Sonia Pelletier, 23
Michèle Richard, 21
Annie St-Arneault, 23
Annie Turcotte, 21

I wear the white ribbon to remember these women. I wear the white ribbon to remember all the women who have been killed, injured or harmed by men. I wear the white ribbon to remember the pledge I made to never commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women and girls. Have you made the pledge?