Advancing Gender and Workplace Safety: Lessons from History and Commitments to Action on the commemoration of the École Polytechnique Tragedy

A Message from the Woodfibre LNG Gender Safety Committee

Statistics show that more than six in ten Indigenous women experience violence in their lifetime, and that a disproportionate share of all violence against women is perpetrated against Indigenous women. Women are much more than statistics though, we are faces, voices, sisters, mothers, friends and spouses, colleagues, daughters, aunties and grandmothers.

In 1973 Squamish Nation member Lena Lewis was murdered by two men in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Her legacy lives on through her children and grandchildren, who to this day question her senseless murder and seek understanding and peace. Despite Lena’s murder, her children and grandchildren watched a society that for decades seemed indifferent to the losses of Indigenous women and girls – from the horrors of the Pickton farm, the losses chronicled in the Murdered and Missing Women and Girls Inquiry, to the current excavation of a Winnipeg landfill in search of the bodies of Indigenous women Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran.

As members of the Woodfibre LNG Gender Safety Advisory Committee, we acknowledge that groups such as ours are the beginning of positive momentum, and a platform to bring attention to the lifelong harms that that misogyny, anti-feminism, and violence against women have on our society.

On December 6, the Woodfibre LNG Gender Safety Advisory Committee urges all workers and project personnel to take a moment to mark the anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal and the workplace murder of Lori Dupont in Ontario, and to consider what we can do to make the lives of women in our families, communities and workplaces physically and emotionally safer.

The École Polytechnique Tragedy: On December 6, 1989, a gunman at École Polytechnique in Montreal targeted female students, killing 14 women and injuring 10 others. His attack was driven by hatred of ‘feminism’. This act is now marked annually as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

Workplace Violence and Lori Dupont: In November 2005, Lori Dupont, a nurse in Ontario, was tragically killed by a colleague after months of harassment. The subsequent inquest found 84 ‘missed opportunities’ – interventions or actions that could have saved Lori’s life. The inquest’s recommendations led to Bill 168 that amended Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act to require employers to address workplace violence and harassment, marking a significant step in improving worker safety and promoting a respectful, secure work environment.

Gender Safety Advisory Committee

The work of the Gender Safety Advisory Committee has just begun, but our role has helped to establish gender safety as a core project value, including through the steps in the implementation of a Gender and Cultural Safety Management Plan. This initiative ensures that gender and cultural safety are prioritized across all aspects of work, including on the project site, onboard the floatel, and within the surrounding community.

While remembering Lena Lewis, the women of Ecole Polytechnique, Lori Dupont and the thousands of other women whose lives and aspirations were cut tragically short by violence, we can commemorate their lives by committing to safety, dignity, respect and violence prevention for women, and to creating environments where everyone feels secure and valued.

Please join us today in remembering all those lost, and in considering how you can contribute to a safer and more equal future.