Via CityNews

Eve Larocque & Pascale McEwen
Contributors

It was an ordinary Wednesday. Like any other day, Pierre Leclair, a Montreal Police lieutenant and director of public relations, had to report for duty. The night before, he had the pleasure of having his daughter, Sonia, over for supper. Sonia told them all about how her semester had been going.  She was in her senior year of university in engineering, and they discussed her plans for the future. On his way to work, Pierre was recounting the events of the night, a gentle smile softening his cheeks. When he arrived at the station, nothing special was on the schedule. In the late afternoon, he received a call on his radio ordering him to report to the Polytechnique School of Montreal to handle an active shooter situation. When he arrived at the scene, the media was already there shouting at any officer who would answer their questions. As director of public relations, he promised to go into the school and report back to them as soon as he could. He entered a classroom, in which a group of mechanical engineers had been attending a lecture. Pierre analyzed the scene, making mental notes for the media, when his heart sank. Ten wounded female students laid on the ground, five of whom were dead. The male classmates were unharmed. Then, Pierre fell to his knees as he watched a plastic tarp being laid out over his daughter’s lifeless body.

Over 35 years after the Polytechnique Massacre, violence against women persists. Last year, 25 femicides were reported in Quebec.

”Though the term femicide was only coined in recent years, women have been the targets of gender-based violence since the dawn of time.”

There are several types of femicides recognized by the Feminist Coalition Against Violence Towards Women: death or suicide caused by domestic violence, misogynist torture and massacre causing death, death related to sexual orientation, and many more. The Council on the Status of Women of the Government of Quebec conducted a study confirming many facts about femicides but the most frightening is that the number of women that are reporting being victims of sexual or domestic violence is on the rise. 35 years later, no progress appears to have been made to protect women, as we notice “an increase in gender-based violence and in the rate of femicides,” says Anuradha Dugal, Executive Director at Women’s Shelters Canada.

They were the perfect couple. Melissa and Blake had met years ago while they were working together. They fell in love instantly and got married soon after. Their life seemed to be falling into place; everything was so perfect. On social media, everyone was head over heels about their relationship and magazines couldn’t stop admiring their couple. What they didn’t know was that Melissa’s perfect little life had quickly turned into a nightmare. Behind this perfect façade, violence, insults, bruises, and cries were hidden. Melissa Benoit had gotten the role of her life as the lead, playing Supergirl in a new TV show. But her husband had become her own personal kryptonite. During the day, she played an invincible superheroine but at night, she was a defenceless woman covered in countless bruises. One day, her husband would throw his phone at her, shattering her cornea, and the next, she would be on live television telling the story of how she had clumsily fallen down the stairs and hit her head. For years she hid beneath fake smiles, made up stories, and thick layers of makeup. In 2020, she found the strength to reveal her story to the public, admitting to everyone that she was a domestic violence survivor and encouraging others to follow her lead. 

“It’s bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck. Shut up bitch.” This is one of the many misogynistic quotes from the infamous Andrew Tate. This violent treatment is something that he not only recommends but encourages men to use on their wife or girlfriend. For centuries, men from all around the world would beat their wife into obedience and submission, affirming themselves as the “dominant sex.” If Andrew Tate has been one of the strongest voices of the “Alpha Male” movement in the last couple of years, he is far from being the only one. In fact, there is a strong community of thousands of men that share their desire to go back to a patriarchal society where women are reduced to a simple appendage to their husbands. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), about 1 in 3 women (30%) have experienced either physical and/or sexual violence in their relationships. Men like Andrew Tate and other proud misogynists only help that percentage rise even higher with each year that passes.