Friday, December 6, 2013

No Day Like the Present

I've been mulling...

What would be the best day to arbitrarily start a new blog about a new film that's still somewhere in the process of being born...

As the natural frontier for fresh starts of all kinds, New Year's Day would seem to be the undisputed champion. And it's just (gulp) right around the corner.

Even closer still, would be next Monday. Any old Monday, really, carries more connotations of "beginnings" than a Friday. 

Especially this Friday ...  the day after the world learned of the great Nelson Mandela's death. 

But this Friday it has to be.

Because, as we rightly remember a great man who stood for peace, justice and equality, we must also remember the 14 young women who were gunned down 24 years ago today at Montréal's École Polytechnique simply because they were women. 

Let us never forget :

Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte

In their names, this has sadly become a national day of remembrance - but it has also become a day of action on the all-too prevalent violence against women in our society.

So in memory and tribute to these women, all that they could have accomplished, and all that Nelson Mandela did, let this day also become a day of renewal. And of beginnings.  

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