'They can't be forgotten': Women in Thunder Bay reflect on the legacy of the Montreal Massacre

Katie Bortolin was just nine years old on December 6, 1989, when she walked into her family's living room in Thunder Bay, Ont., and managed a quick peek at the television screen before her parents hustled her away.

They didn't want her to see the images from the horror unfolding in Montreal, after a gunman walked into an engineering building at École Polytechnique, separated the men from the women, screamed "You are all feminists," and began firing. They didn't want her to know yet that 14 young women had been murdered, and 14 other people, also mainly women, had been wounded.

But for Bortolin the Montreal Massacre confirmed what she already knew.

'Women targeted for walking into male arena'

"It really entrenched that violence against women was something that was active and happening in the world that I was growing up in as a young girl," she said.

"I had a very early understanding of misogyny and that women were targeted for having the audacity to walk into a male arena and it has really impacted the steps I make as a woman in the world and the work I do now."

Bortolin, who is now the program manager at Beendigen Anishinabe Women's Crisis Centre and Family Healing Agency in Thunder Bay, said one of the parallels she sees between the women she works with everyday and the attack in Montreal is that "those women who lost their lives that day were seen as the other."

"And I see that still today, Indigenous women are seen as the other, people of colour are seen as the other, our transgender community members are seen as the other and when people are viewed as the other, it makes violence permissible."

In the three decades since what is still Canada's worst mass shooting, there have been some improvements, said Gwen O'Reilly, the executive director of the Northwestern Ontario Women's Centre in Thunder Bay.

She points to better education and awareness around the issue, more training for police and other professionals who come in contact with both victims and abusers, and the #MeToo movement which showed women are tired of waiting for change and are now willing to speak up about what is a "social catastrophe." 

Need to address sexism, racism 

But  O'Reilly fears much has also stayed the same.

 "We haven't really addressed sexism and racism. We haven't seen changes that would impact the effects of colonialism or patriarchy, all of those bigger forces that our institutions are built on, that create oppressions, that make these power differences that allow violence to both occur and go unsanctioned."

O'Reilly said there is also a desperate lack of money and attention paid to groups trying to prevent violence, and to those supporting women leaving abusive relationships, which can often mean leaving job, family and your home.

"I spoke to a woman yesterday who, if she doesn't find shelter, is going to lose her child and this is after some incredibly brutal violence," she said. "Services now are piecemeal and nobody has any resources so it would help to have some leadership from government to say 'okay, we will fund you to do this'."

14 women in Montreal 'can not be forgotten'

"We need the powers that be to find a way to create accountability that sends a very strong social and legal message that this [violence] is not acceptable, and of course we need to support victims."

December 6 has come to be known as the National Day of Remembrance and Action On Violence Against Women, and it draws attention to the fact that since 1989 hundreds of women and girls in Canada have been injured and killed, usually by someone they know and trust.

But Bortolin believes marking those 14 deaths in particular is important

"They can not be forgotten," she said, noting all the work that has been done to raise awareness and take action on violence against women in memory of the women murdered in Montreal.

More respect, less violence

But in the end, she and O'Reilly believe the key to reducing misogyny and  making Canada safer for everyone is to  work at building a more respectful society.

"We're all in this together," said Bortolin, the mother of a three-year-old son. "I try to model for him what a kind man looks like and that is in every response that I have to every person that we encounter together. We are only as strong as our weakest link and if I can't reach my hand out to help somebody else up, then I'm not an answer. I'm a part of the problem."

You can hear the full interview with Bortolin and O'Reilly on CBC Superior Morning here.