Endorsed by the Faculty Association’s Equity Committee
As December 6th approaches, the UOIT Faculty Association would like our members, students and the larger UOIT community to pause and recognize the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. On December 6th, 1989, 14 women were gunned down at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, most were Engineering students, and they were specifically targeted because they were women.
Let us remember and honour the 14 women who lost their lives to this senseless act of gender-based violence:
Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student
Hélène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Barbara Daigneault (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student
Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student
Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique’s finance department
Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student
Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student
Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student
Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student
The UOIT Faculty Association recognizes the need to address the gender-based violence on our campuses through education and prevention. Faculty members, students and staff must continue to work together to develop and implement policies that address gender-based violence and provide survivor-centric services to those within our community that have experienced gender-based violence.
We must continue to ask ourselves, as members of a University that places such a great emphasis on education and research in the STEM fields, what are we doing as researchers and educators to challenge the misogynistic culture in these fields that led to the kind of extreme manifestation of gender-based violence that took place on December 6th, 1989.
We must continue to do what we can as a community to challenge the everyday forms of misogyny and sexism that take place not only in the STEM fields, but across the university campus. We must acknowledge the connection between everyday experiences of sexism and more intense experiences of gender-based violence. By recognizing the connection between the two, we can finally begin to bring an end to gender-based violence.
On December 6, UOIT Women in Engineering will be hosting a vigil to observe the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. The event will take place in ACE Atrium and it will begin at 10am. Speakers include: Shaghayegh Bagheri, PhD, Assistant Professor, FEAS, Sara Sharifi, Vice-President Internal, UOIT Graduate Student Council and Jenieshia Jeychandrakanthan, Co-President, Women in Engineering Sub-Society. Admission is free and the event is open to the public.
As well Unifor Local 222 Women’s Committee are presenting their annual Candlelight Vigil to commemorate the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. The event is at the Unifor Local 222 Union Hall located at 1425 Phillip Murray Avenue Oshawa. Doors open at 6 p.m., Vigil begins at 6:30 p.m.