

I recently reviewed the excellent book about Montreal massacre memorials across Canada entitled “Murdered by Men”. So I knew there was a memorial here in Edmonton, one of the best in the country, one with explicitly feminist content, and I wanted it to be the place I took Margaret.
Every Canadian woman of a certain age remembers where she was when she heard about the massacre. It was so clearly a misogynist act (as framed by the perpetrator) and so clearly impersonal. When we heard about the 13 young women, we knew it could have been any of us, any woman who dared to inhabit the world previously delineated as male territory (which is, like, the ENTIRE world).
Of course the Montreal massacre monument isn’t in the City of Edmonton travel literature. I had to ask around to find it. The young man at the front desk of Grant MacEwan said, “Oh, it’s in the very worst part of town.” A chance meeting with an old friend led me there, and I in turn led Margaret in my quest for justice provided by Lady J.


1 comment:
I remember the moment reading about the massacre, I remember being very young. 20 or 21 or something. I remember news of the war followed not so far after that. I was reading the paper on a big blue table in our studio at Queen and Gladstone. My roomate was from Quebec, he said that person was crazy. I remember tears falling, smearing the ink on the paper. I don't remember alot from that time period of my life, but I remember this.
The performance sounds very moving,
Irene
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