Fourteen candles were lit, one for each woman murdered 28 years ago at École Polytechnique in Montreal.
The candles were lit as part of a sombre ceremony at OPP headquarters in Orillia on Wednesday. Each woman’s name was read out.
Then, they read 30 more. All were victims of alleged domestic or gender based violence in Ontario this year.
The OPP say women are still at a higher risk than men of being victims of violence.
"It’s a day where we need to recognize that we have made some stride and that there is a great amount of awareness, but it's a day to challenge us, in hearing all of the names of the women who have been at the hands of gender based violence over the past year," says OPP Insp. Robyn MacEachern
At Georgian College, students also remembered the victims from Montreal, many of them able to relate to the women they were honouring.
“With our history as women in education even, being able to strive and be what we want to be, dream those dreams, and become those dreams. They were taken away by that gentleman back in '89," says student Shannon Kelly.
Priscilla Devilliers was also on hand. Her daughter Nina was in university when she was brutally murdered in 1991. A victim, her mother says, of someone with a violent past who targeted women.
"Now I think it has to be attitudes to women and men being proud of changing their attitudes.”
Victims of violence are also gathering at Barrie city hall on Wednesday night for a ceremony and to remember the Dec.6, 1989 massacre.
