By Jason Menard,

On this date, in 1989, we lost 14 women at the École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, QC.

Unfortunately, too many people remember the name of the gunman; not enough remember the names of the women we lost. You will not see the gunman’s name here. Instead, I choose to focus on the 14 people who truly deserved to be remembered:

• Geneviève Bergeron
• Hélène Colgan
• Nathalie Croteau
• Barbara Daigneault
• Anne-Marie Edward
• Maud Haviernick
• Maryse Laganière
• Maryse Leclair
• Anne-Marie Lemay
• Sonia Pelletier
• Michèle Richard
• Annie St-Arneault
• Annie Turcotte
• Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz

Today is not a day for debate. It’s not a day to politicize this event. That type of discussion only dishonours their memory.

Instead, today is a day to remember the 14 women whose lives were lost. And to empathize with the countless others – both male and female – whose lives have forever been changed because of what happened on Dec. 6, 1989. Today is a day when we should make a promise to these 14 women to do everything in our power to prevent violence of this nature from ever occurring again.

Only that will truly honour their memories.