For the first time, a 15th beam of light will illuminate the Montreal sky Friday in tribute to all women lost to violence, as the city commemorates the 35th anniversary of the Polytechnique shooting.
The additional beam will join the 14 others in memory of the victims of the 1989 tragedy, where 14 women — 13 students and one university employee — were killed by a lone gunman.
The ceremony, which begins just after 5 p.m. at Mount Royal’s Kondiaronk lookout, will include speeches, a musical performance by harpist Éveline Grégoire-Rousseau and the laying of 14 roses in remembrance of the victims. A symbolic 15th rose will also be placed this year.
On Thursday, the federal government announced new gun control measures, adding several hundred models and variants to its list of banned weapons.
“I am profoundly moved because I really think it is a very important step for our security,” said Nathalie Provost of the expanded ban.
She survived the 1989 massacre at the Montreal engineering school where the shooter specifically targeted women. Provost went on to become an engineer and well-known Canadian gun control advocate. She’s a spokesperson for the group PolySeSouvient.
Provost, her voice shaking with emotion during an interview with CBC’s Radio Noon Quebec, said the new measures will help prevent the recurrence of what happened to her and the other victims of the 1989 shooting.
Citing gun violence in the United States as an example, she said many Americans believe the more they are armed, the more they are safe.
“But that’s not what we see from the results in their country,” said Provost. “And if we don’t stop it in Canada, we will be very soon at the same place.”