As one of the most mediatized case of hate crime in Quebec’s and Canada’s history, the impact of the Montreal Massacre was monumental. First of all, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women, taking place on December 6, was created by the federal government in 1991 as a reaction to the mass murder (McNeill, 2008, p.391). In the years following the massacre, the victims were mourned all over the country and some outrage rose at the fact that Lépine’s name was better known than that of his victims (McNeill, 2008, p.386). Memorials were therefore built to correct the situation and as a mean of remembrance, namely in Vancouver (1997) and in Montreal (1999) (p.390). Generally speaking, Polytechnique put the issue of violence …show more content…
From an overly patriarchal standpoint of analysis, Lépine was presented as a troubled young man victim of his tragic childhood, a representation that shifted the attention away from the sexist motive behind his crime (O’Donovan, 2006, p.40). The prudence the media expressed to interpret it as a hate crime contributed to obscure the meaning, though remarkably clear, of the murders (Raboy, 1993, p.85). Moreover, it is interesting to note that the political class took a certain time before acknowledging the sexist nature of the Polytechnique massacre, which coincided with a global absence of the feminist standpoint from the mainstream media (Raboy, 1993, p.91,100). Curiously, the media even ended up demonizing the women who tried to connect the murders with the broader subject of violence against women by accusing them of radical feminism and hatred towards men (O’Donovan, 2006, p.40). The first to publicly interpret the massacre as antifeminist in the early days was Jean Doré, mayor of Montreal, who declared it showed how men still had trouble accepting that women have their just place in society (Raboy, 1993, p.87). Overall, the extent and type of coverage accorded to the Montreal massacre in the media showed how society can sometime engage in deep reflection, but only really puts itself in question in extreme crisis (Raboy, 1993, …show more content…
However, this proves the feminist sociological assertion that the mainstream social though is often androcentric and Eurocentric (Kendall, Nygaard, &Thompson, 2011, p.14). In my opinion such an act of violence as the murder of 14 women for no other reason than hate also reflects the existence of sexism within the society in general. Indeed, structures of domination and sexism play an important role in creating an acceptation of violence against oppressed groups such as women, which is often ignored by the media (Kendall, Nygaard, &Thompson, 2011, p.15). In the case of the Montreal Massacre, I feel it is important to recognize that the motives that pushed Lépine to actual murders exists on other levels of society and can be used by individuals to justify discrimination or smaller scale violence. As Natalie Provost herself noted (Fol, 1991), Lépine’s act was exceptional in its violence, but it reflects a more general attitude of intolerance that each and every one of us has towards differences of various kind. This murder of 14 women was not merely the act of a madman, but was the result of the societal acceptation of violence and discrimination against