Canada marked two worst tragedies in nation’s history on December 6.
The day marked the 28th anniversary of the worst mass shooting in the country when a gunman opened fire killing 14 female students at Montreal École Polytechnique in 1989. All the 14, except two, were engineering students.
The other event was the 100th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion. On December 6, 1917, a Norwegian steamship, Imo, and French munitions ship, Mont-Blanc, collided killing around 2,000 and injuring another 9,000 – the largest human-made disaster in Canadian history.
The École Polytechnique killer, Marc Lépine, targeted women at the school, claiming feminists had ruined his life. A survivor who was interviewed by CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) said the gunman came to their classroom after spraying bullets in other places and killed seven out of eight girls in the class where there were 17 other boys and two male teachers. The survivor, Genevieve Cauden, said a bullet only grazed her head. The killer committed suicide.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who is in China lighted candles along with the other members of the delegation to remember the victims and to mark the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
Prime Minister Trudeau’s wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, attended the ceremony in Montreal to mark the anniversary of the women’s deaths.
Toronto City in a tweet said: “Toronto Sign will be dimmed today & official flags will fly at half-mast as we proclaim December 6 ‘National Day of Remembrance & Action on Violence Against Women’.
17 blast survivors invited for Halifax ceremony
Maude Houghton who was a girl of six on December 6, 1917, attended the Halifax ceremony to mark the explosion. The event was held at the city’s Fort Needam Memorial Park. Houghton, aged 106, is one of only 17 known living survivors of the Explosion. Each of them has been invited to the main commemoration ceremony.
Norwegian vessel SS Imo collided with SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship laden with high explosives in the Narrows, a strait connecting the upper Halifax Harbour to Bedford Basin. A fire aboard the French ship ignited the cargo, causing a large explosion that devastated the Richmond district of Halifax. The blast was the largest man-made explosion in the world before the development of nuclear weapons. Mont-Blanc was carrying cargo of high explosives from New York via Halifax to Bordeaux, France.
“The Mont-Blanc exploded at 9:04:35 a.m., sending out a shock wave in all directions, followed by a tsunami that washed violently over the Halifax and Dartmouth shores. More than 2.5 square km of Richmond were totally levelled, either by the blast, the tsunami, or the structure fires caused when buildings collapsed inward on lanterns, stoves and furnaces,” says the Canadian Encyclopedia.
The entire community of 20 families in the First Nation settlement of Turtle Grove was destroyed in the powerful tsunami triggered by the massive explosion.
There was a large black community living in Halifax at the time of the tragedy and there were reports to suggest that racism had played a part in the distribution of support.
As an annual thank-you gesture the Province of Nova Scotia still sends a Christmas Tree every year to Boston to appreciate for sending help during the calamity.
