Montreal Massacre,1989: How To Respond?

It was December 6, 1989, and we were listening to the terrible unfolding of a massacre in Montreal. How to respond? I was a student at the time, and kept thinking of those women gunned down at l’École Polytechnique, as well as the many women I knew, of all ages, who were attending classes in universities and schools across the country.

I went home, made a drawing, wrote a poem, and photocopied it onto vivid violet colored paper, the closest I could find to the lurid blood red that I imagined it on. The next day, I distributed the pages to everyone I knew and some I didn’t.

The following is a scan of that original drawing and the accompanying poem. (Here is a larger version that you can read more easily.)

nothing else ~ drawing and poem by Carol Wiebe

I can’t tell you how many of these poems I handed out ~ we were all numb.

But we were alive.

#bloodred #violet #1989 #lÉcolePolytechnique #MontrealMassacre #CBC