Each year, Memorial University holds a vigil to commemorate the 14 women who were killed because of their gender at l’École Polytechnique in Montréal, Que., on Dec. 6, 1989.

The anniversary of this tragedy coincides with the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women established in 1991 by the Parliament of Canada.

Silent vigil

For the second year, Memorial’s event will be a silent vigil hosted by the university’s Sexual Harassment Office.

From Dec. 2–6, the silent vigil will take place from 10. a.m.-2 p.m., in the main lobby of the Engineering building on the St. John’s campus and in the lobby of the Marine Institute’s Ridge Road campus.

Silent vigil tables will be staffed with Sexual Harassment Office staff and Students Together Offer Prevention volunteers.

Action cards

Members of the Memorial University community and the community at large are encouraged to visit one of the tables and complete a concrete action card by sharing information on one thing they can do to help address gender-based violence in our communities.

In addition, concrete action cards can be completed on Monday, Dec. 2, from 10 a.m.–1 p.m., in The Landing in the University Centre and on Tuesday, Dec. 3, and Friday, Dec. 5, in the Queen Elizabeth II Library.

“Addressing gender-based violence and sexual violence is everyone’s responsibility,” said Amnesty Rose, Memorial’s sexual harassment advisor. “With the concrete action cards, we are asking members of the university community to commit to one thing they can do to help make our communities safer. We encourage the community to act on these commitments to ensure our communities are proactive in preventing needless tragedies such as this and the attack in 2023 at the University of Waterloo in a gender studies course. ”

In advance of the vigil, action cards have been provided to the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science and to units throughout the university that provide student support.

Individuals at other Memorial campuses are encouraged to email their concrete actions to shoffice@mun.ca and a member of the Sexual Harassment Office will complete the cards on their behalf.

For more information, please contact shoffice@mun.ca or (709) 864-8199.