École Polytechnique Massacre (1989)

Wed Dec 06, 1989

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The École Polytechnique Massacre was an anti-feminist mass shooting that killed 14 women at the École Polytechnique engineering school in Montreal on this day in 1989.

Claiming he was “fighting feminism”, the shooter entered a mechanical engineering class at the school and ordered the women and men to opposite sides of the classroom. He instructed the men to leave and shot the remaining women. After this, the shooter walked throughout the school, targeting women for another 20 minutes before committing suicide. Fourteen women were killed, ten women and four men were injured.

The event was the most deadly mass shooting in Canada’s history at the time, and led to more stringent gun control laws as well as changes in the tactical response of police to mass shootings.