It’s still a very vivid memory.
My girlfriend and I were watching a show on Radio Canada on December 6, 1989 at my apartment in Québec City when the telecast was interrupted by a special news bulletin.
We were both in shock that such an incident of hatred against women had just occurred and that it had happened only a 2 ½-hour drive west along Highway 40.
And the bewilderment and obvious emotional struggles of the journalists assigned to cover this shocking event stayed with me for a time.
When the Montréal massacre occurred, my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I were studying at Université Laval. This premedicated act of misogynistic violence really struck a chord with us since her degree was in a male-dominated program, just like those 14 women who were studying engineering at L'École Polytechnique Montréal.
In 1991, I was studying journalism in Ottawa when lawyer Patricia Allen was killed with a crossbow by her estranged husband Colin McGregor while walking along a downtown street.
While working as a reporter for the Ottawa Sun a couple of years later, I was regularly assigned to cover some of the most depraved things men did to those they supposedly loved.
Since then, there isn't much that shocks me. I have seen the evil that men can do to women and children up close on numerous occasions.
From a shocking murder-suicide in Moncton where a man beat his two young sons to death with a baseball bat as some sort of twisted revenge on his estranged wife to several murders where a husband or boyfriend murdered his wife or girlfriend "because they were leaving."
The threat and fear of violence even hit home when my wife was stalked by a man and an RCMP sketch artist assigned to try to recreate his likeness.
A couple of years later, after leaving the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal for CBC Radio, I covered two armed standoffs in a one-month period, one just outside of Sussex, the other at a Moncton motel.
In both cases, men had taken their estranged spouse hostage. Luckily, both cases were resolved peacefully and the men taken into custody.
And this was just over a three-week span….in southeastern New Brunswick!
Has much changed since that cold December night thirty-five years ago when an evil, deeply misogynistic man murdered 14 innocent and vibrant young women? Not really. And that makes it all the more essential that we remember lives lost during today's National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
Although much time has passed, femicide and violence towards women remains a disturbing issue in Canada with rates showing it is only continuing to rise. So far this year, 167 women and girls have been murdered, including Midland resident Julia Brady in July.
As the father of three strong, beautiful young women and for parents of girls everywhere, I pray that societal change is coming and that it will be here to stay.
When I covered the court beat at the Brockville Recorder and Times and Ottawa Sun (the second time around), there were often so many very sad cases involving aggravated assaults, rapes and murders, many of them featuring women as the unfortunate victims.
And despite publication bans designed to protect their identities, some women who had been sexually, mentally and physically abused wanted their names used.
When I interviewed many of these women after their partner was found guilty (a few were acquitted), they often seemed so resilient and strong.
They were simply inspiring.
But even though many years have passed since one chilly spring day in particular, I still fondly remember one woman named Annette. We would sometimes chat during recesses and were roughly the same age. She was funny and seemed, oh so, kind.
She had been tortured both mentally and physically by her husband and the details were difficult to hear, let alone fathom that someone could do these things to another living person, especially one he purported to “love so much” as he told the court when he took the stand during the week-long trial.
But after just four hours of deliberations, the jury brought back a guilty verdict.
I immediately looked towards Annette. She was crying, a mix of both tears of anguish and joy, while hugging supporters.
When we met up outside the courthouse and before I even had time to ask her a question, I was struck by one thing that had changed: Her demeanour.
For that one moment, her smile could light up any sky.
She had taken her life back.
Andrew Philips is editor of our sister site, MidlandToday.
