The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Montreal Massacre remembered For a few moments on an overcast December day, over 300 students, faculty and staff from across the UW campus paused during a memorial service at St. Jerome's to remember the fourteen women slain on December 6, 1989 at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique. The first anniversary of what is now known as the Montreal Massacre was marked in a moving memorial service which blended song, reflection, liturgical dance, and candlelight. In a passionate reflection, Religious Studies Department Chair Dr. Mary Malone noted that since the massacre, "89 women have been killed in Canada in domestic violence - two per week -and 34 in Quebec alone." She questioned whether or not any significant change had taken place in Canadian society since the massacre, to eradicate violence against women. Dr. Mary Malone Photo by UW Central Photo "The murders in Montreal have become a lightning rod event, focusing attention on violence against women, and particular on the university campus," she noted. Yet, had these women died in a fire, an inquiry would have been held and new fire regulations would have been enforced across Canada, Malone believes. She maintained that our society still tolerates a level of violence against women, and perceptively observed that Marc Lepine was "a part of a culture which continues - at enormous cost - to alienate young men from the feminine in themselves. They are often offered but two role models, either the Wimp or Rambo." Noting that mere mourning was not enough, Malone challenged all present to look inside themselves, our societal structures, and our universities "to face our own complicity in these oppressive and violent patterns." The service concluded with the lighting of candles throughout Siegfried Hall as the names of the fourteen women were read to a hushed audience. The final hymn, "Do Not Fear to Hope" was sung. Students, faculty and staff left in silence to return to their classrooms and offices, hopefully emboldened to heed the call to work tirelessly to eradicate from our campus and society all subtle and overt instances of violence against women. "After Montreal and the continuing violence, neither refusal nor ignorance are any longer possible choices. Violence is a choice made by some from a context that includes all of us. We must make a common commitment to end this violence. It is an illusion that we can put hope and vision on hold. We cannot stay alive and be creative without creating and maintaining a place for our spirits, our bodies, our minds, and our dreams. May our university campus become such a place for all of us." Dr. Mary Malone Out of the darkness ... light? One response to the Montreal massacre has been the formation, by St. Jerome's psychology professor Dr. Peter Naus, of a group on the UW campus that wants to do something concrete about decreasing the incidence of sexism and violence against women. Known simply as "The Men's Group," Peter Naus convened the group of approximately a dozen men who "have decided to examine our own (UW) house to try to make it a more hospitable place for women." He acknowledges that similar groups have been formed at other universities. Naus says that the group has decided to focus its energies on three key areas: curricula, policies and procedures, and the Women's Studies Programme. The group is concerned that some courses exclude a discussion of women's issues "where they are clearly relevant. Sometimes this is done inadvertently," observes Naus, "and sometimes it is deliberate". To exclude the contributions of women to scholarship is to neglect a critical area of study, he maintains. In the area of policies and procedures on campus, Naus believes that discrimination is not always explicit, but that it does exist. For example, a woman who takes an extended leave to have children, is sometimes excluded from promotion because her absence leaves a gap in her resume. "As men, we never really question these assumptions, but such policies and procedures are written by men and for men," he says. "Women are in effect penalized because many men regard their own view of the university as the only view." Naus also argues that all universities need to increase the resources put into women's studies programmes. He maintains this is especially true for scholarly reasons. And why does the group only have men among its membership? "We are concerned that men are a very important part of the problem of sexism and violence against women, and that they should be an important part of the solution," explains Naus. He says that the group has met regularly to pursue its mandate and also to reflect on particular incidents or events that are sexist, and on important initiatives that are examples of positive change. "Our numbers are deliberately small at this point," acknowledges Naus, "until we find our bearings and get better established. It is a highly collaborative effort." Dr. Peter Naus photo by UW Central Photo