The UBC Okanagan memorial fire bowl is titled For Future Matriarchs in honour of the 14 Not Forgotten.
Who: UBCO students, faculty, staff, the public
What: 14 Not Forgotten ceremony
Where: UBCO Engineering, Management and Education building and amphitheatre, 1137 Alumni Avenue, Kelowna
When: Friday, December 6, 10 to 11:30 am
UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering invites the public to attend its annual 14 Not Forgotten memorial ceremony on December 6, honouring the women whose lives were lost in the École Polytechnique massacre.
This year marks the 35th anniversary of the tragedy.
“Every December, our campus community comes together to honour the memory of the women killed in 1989 at Montreal’s École Polytechnique in a brutal act of femicide. Thirty-five years on, this gender-based act of violence remains as raw and shocking as the day it took place,” says Dr. Lesley Cormack, Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of UBC Okanagan.
“In addition to being an important act of remembrance, this ceremony serves as a call to action in which we affirm that, while there is no place for violence against women in our society, there is absolutely a place for women in every profession and discipline, including engineering.”
Ceremony attendees can also hear from guest speaker Bowinn Ma, MLA for North Vancouver-Lonsdale and BC’s Minister of Infrastructure.
“In Canada, 44 per cent of women experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes. The risk of gender-based violence is even higher for Indigenous and racialized women and girls, 2SLGBTQIA+ people and those with disabilities,” says Ma, herself an engineer.
“This is a day to remember the 14 women who were killed at Ecole Polytechnique in one of the most shocking acts of femicide in Canadian history. In their honour, we recommit to working together to end gender-based violence in all forms.”
Ma earned a civil engineering degree at UBC and a master’s degree from UBC’s Sauder School of Business.
The campus’s memorial fire bowl, titled For Future Matriarchs, will be lit for the December 6 event.
The fire bowl uses symbolic elements, including Quebec’s blue flag iris, traditional plants of the Syilx Okanagan Nation and Interior Salish basketry aesthetics.
The piece was created by internationally recognized Syilx artist Krista-Belle Stewart and Secwépemc artist Tania Willard, an Assistant Professor of Visual Arts in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies.
It will remain lit from 9:30 to 11:30 am and 3:30 to 5 pm on December 6. An indoor memorial will also be set up from 9 am to 4 pm in the Engineering, Management and Education building foyer.
UBCO’s 14 Not Forgotten Memorial commemorates the École Polytechnique tragedy and honours the lives and legacies of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, including LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people.
On December 6, 1989, an armed man walked into an engineering class at l’École Polytechnique de Montréal. After forcing the men to leave, the gunman began shooting—killing 14 women and wounding 10 others.
In response, Canada established December 6 as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women. This day serves as a reminder of the gender-based violence that persists today against women in Canada and around the world.
December 6 falls during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, an annual international campaign that began on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and goes until December 10, Human Rights Day.
