I want to start this post by thanking my colleague, Mary Wells, for engaging Engineering Deans Canada and Engineers Canada in a nation-wide project to mark the 30th anniversary of the shooting at Ecole Polytechnique. She is a wonderful colleague, and her partnership on this journey made a heart-wrenching job meaningful.
The full project is archived at the website: https://30yearslater.ca/ and the poster below tells the most important story. When this happened, we were all students. Those lost could have been any one of us. Most of us know less than 10 other female engineers.
When I saw this beautiful poster with 30 smiling, accomplished faces of women I am proud to call my colleagues, something important shifted for me. The beautiful future we all believed in – the profession we are all so passionate about – has come to life and we are now part of that world.
You can find the editorial we wrote to introduce the project at https://quoimedia.com/engineering-deans-remember-and-celebrate-survivors/. It ran first in the Toronto Star and was published in many papers across the country. Many local papers then also featured the alumni in the project, including our USask alumnus Karen Neilson https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/30th-anniversary-of-ecole-polytechnique-massacre. Karen came to USask to mark the day, and we were able to take her for dinner with all of our female academics to mark the day.
I was especially touched when La Presse also picked up the editorial in French, https://www.lapresse.ca/debats/opinions/2019-12-06/polytechnique-30-ans-plus-tard-faire-avancer-la-profession, and my Mom got to see it in her local paper as well.
30yearslater – We are stronger together.
