By Tyler Irving
On Friday, a monument designed and built by U of T Engineering students will be on display on the front steps of the Galbraith building to mark the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
Each year, a group of primarily women Engineering students hosts a memorial to honour the lives of the 14 women murdered in an anti-feminist attack at École Polytechnique de Montréal on December 6, 1989.
This year’s design was inspired by the idea of reflection.
“We wanted to focus on creating the type of reflective space we wish we had when we were first experiencing grief around what happened, and also the fear that comes with remembering this event as a woman in engineering,” says Isobel Arseneau (Year 4 EngSci), a longtime participant on the project.
“They’re very intense feelings to have and they’re not always ones you can control, so having a beautiful space you can move through and where you can feel all of those things was a goal of the design,” says Kaija Mikes (Year 4 EngSci), an organizer of the project.
The beautiful space will be an open-air gazebo built on 14 posts, one for each of the women murdered. The structure will be covered in white roses, a flower that symbolizes the day, and represents the unfulfilled futures and innocence of the women lost.
In addition to the build, the students have organized a memorial ceremony, set to take place on Saturday, December 6, 2025 outside the Galbraith Building lobby at 5 p.m. The build and a commemorative plaque are set to stand for the week following Saturday’s events.
Thirty-six years ago, a gunman entered a classroom on the campus of Polytechnique Montréal, then known as École Polytechnique de Montréal. Separating the men from the women, he shot all nine women in the room, killing six. He then continued through other parts of the building, killing 14 women in total and wounding 10 more women and four men, before fatally shooting himself.
“One thing that always sticks with me about December 6th is that right before he gunned down those women, he yelled, ‘you’re all a bunch of feminists, I hate feminists!’” says Arseneau.
“Those women were killed because they were trying to make a change. They were studying engineering at a time when that wasn’t as widely accepted.”
Mikes’ aunt, who is also an engineer, was completing her degree at another university when the École Polytechnique massacre took place.
“I want people to understand that this wasn’t that long ago. It’s within living memory for many.”
Working as a team on the memorial has served as a way to build community with the students involved.
“This build connects with people who aren’t typically involved in other events. It resonates with those who may be more creatively minded, and it lets us apply classroom skills in real life,” says Mikes.
The sentiment is shared by Arseneau.
“I think the worst way we can feel as women in engineering is alone, especially on days like December 6th,” she says.
“It’s helpful to have a community where you know you’ll be heard and supported in talking about what you’re feeling. This is one of the only spaces in engineering where I see a large magnitude of women working on a project and growing more confident as engineers.”
The community created in response to December 6th reaches well beyond those involved in the annual build.
U of T Engineering alumna Hanna Sigurdson (EngSci 2T4 + PEY) remembers the memorials from her days on campus.
“While I did not participate in making the sculptures, I was always moved by them when walking past, as I remembered the women who came before me,” says Sigurdson.
Sigurdson, Ashna Jain (IndE 2T4 + PEY, MIE MASc student) and Rabab Azeem (MIE MASc student) were among the recipients of this year’s Order of the White Rose scholarship.
Instituted by Polytechnique Montréal, the program provides funding to 14 Canadian women who wish to pursue graduate studies in engineering anywhere in the world.
“I’m grateful to all of the women with the same impassioned dream who fought for our opportunities,” says Jain.
“The courage of the women who died at Polytechnique Montréal inspires me to keep pushing and believe in my dreams in the name of science, engineering, helping others, and the women who will change the world in the years to come,” says Sigurdson.
This story was originally published in the U of T Engineering News.