‘Polytechnique’ and ‘After The Montreal Massacre’ Double Film screening.

Special guest Judy Rebick

Leading up to the 20th anniversary of the December 6th Montreal Massacre

Monday, November 30, 2009 at 6:30pm

LIB 72 in POD, Podium Building (350 Victoria Street)

The Ryerson White Ribbon Campaign and Ryerson Engineering Student Society along with Ryerson’s Women in Engineering and Ryerson’s Women Centre ask you to join us for a powerful evening, as we prepare to remember all victims of violence against women at the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.

Our special guest Judy Rebick will deliver an opening address sharing her experience and involvement with the response of the Women’s movement and where we are 20 years later.

Join us as we seek to create awareness of a dark day in Canadian history, and the everyday reality that is violence against women. We hope to inspire men to become part of the solution, and to engage women in continuing the struggle for equity and together seek an end of men’s violence against women.

 

“Polytechnique” (77 minutes)

**VIEWER DISCRETION STRONGLY ADVISED**
**Please be advised that this film contains strong and disturbing images of violence**

Polytechnique is the controversial 2009 Canadian film directed by Denis Villeneuve based on the Montreal Massacre at École Polytechnique, the film documents the events of December 6, 1989 through the eyes of two students.

 

“After The Montreal Massacre” (27 minutes)

December 6, 1989. Sylvie Gagnon was attending her last day of classes at Ecole Polytechnique, an engineering school in Montreal, when a man entered the building. Systematically separating the women from the men, he opened fire on women students, yelling “you’re all a bunch of feminists.” Sylvie survived a bullet wound to the head while fourteen other women were murdered.

After the Montreal Massacre is a useful tool for helping us come to terms with these murders and how they relate to the larger picture of male violence against women. Women throughout Canada and the world are expressing a growing concern about the widespread violence and mounting fear in their daily lives. The haunting images taken on the day of the massacre and in the days following, set the stage for an exploration of the urgent issues of misogyny, male violence and sexism.

Testimony from Sylvie Gagnon and conversations with a group of college students, and interviews with noted writers, feminist activists, and leaders of organizations for women, contribute to this moving and important documentary which provides a challenge for change in our political, social and personal lives.

 

Judy Rebick is a well-known social justice activist, educator , writer, and speaker. She currently holds the Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University. Judy is founder of rabble.ca, Canada’s most popular independent online news and discussion site and the author of Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution and Transforming Power: From the Personal to the Political.

Judy is former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, Canada’s largest women’s group. In the 1980’s she was active in the pro-choice movement and in coalitions to win employment equity federally and in the province of Ontario.

Write us at whiteribbon@ryerson.ca for more information