Editing École Polytechnique massacre (section)

==Search for a rationale==
The massacre profoundly shocked Canadians. Government and criminal justice officials feared that extensive public discussion about the massacre would cause pain to the families and lead to more [[antifeminist]] violence.<ref name="Chun"/> As a result, they did not conduct a public inquiry,<ref>{{cite news|title=More Massacre Details to be Released by Police, but an Inquiry Ruled Out|last=Malarek|first=Victor|date=December 12, 1989|work=[[The Globe and Mail]]|location=Canada|page=A14}}</ref> and did not release Lépine's suicide letter.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Boileau|first=Josée|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aHwpEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT90|title=Because They Were Women: The Montreal Massacre|date=2020|publisher=Second Story Press|isbn=978-1-77260-143-5|pages=86|language=en|access-date=January 9, 2022|archive-date=January 9, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220109145901/https://books.google.com/books?id=aHwpEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT90|url-status=live}}</ref> In addition, although an extensive police investigation into the perpetrator and the killings took place,<ref>{{cite news |title = Police scour the life of mass killer| page=B9|newspaper=[[Edmonton Journal]]| date =January 12, 1990}}</ref> the resulting report was not made public. The coroner was authorized to have a copy as a source in her investigation.<ref name="coroner" /><ref>{{cite news| last =Poirier| first =Patricia| title =Police can't find cause for Lépine's rampage on Montreal campus| page =A17|work=[[The Globe and Mail]]|location=Canada|date = March 1, 1990}}</ref> The media, academics, women's organizations, and family members of the victims protested the lack of a public inquiry and paucity of information released.<ref name="cernea" /><ref name="Chun" /><ref>{{cite news|title =Parents fear coverup over murdered 14| page = A15| newspaper =[[Toronto Star]]| date =May 30, 1990}}</ref>

{{anchor|hate crime}}The gender of the victims, as well as Lépine's oral statements during the massacre and in the suicide note, have resulted in the attack being interpreted as antifeminist and as an example of the wider issue of violence against women in Canadian society.<ref name="Fox">{{Cite journal | last1 =  Fox| first1 = James Alan| last2 = Levin| first2 = Jack| title = Mass Murder: An Analysis of Extreme Violence| journal = Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies | volume = 5 | issue = 1| pages = 47–64 | date = January 2003| doi = 10.1023/A:1021051002020 }}</ref><ref name="young5961">{{cite book |last1=Young |first1=Katherine K. |last2=Nathanson |first2=Paul |title=Legalizing Misandry: From Public Shame to Systematic Discrimination Against Men |publisher=[[McGill–Queen's University Press]] |location=Montreal |year=2006 |pages=59–61 |isbn=0-7735-2862-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cqKxhhu55SMC&pg=PA59 |access-date=September 20, 2020 |archive-date=August 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815133240/https://books.google.com/books?id=cqKxhhu55SMC&pg=PA59 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="conway1634">{{cite book |last=Conway |first=John Frederick |title=The Canadian Family in Crisis |publisher=James Lorimer and Company|year=2003 |isbn= 978-1-55028-798-1  |url=https://archive.org/details/canadianfamilyin0000conw_u3s7|url-access=registration }}</ref><ref name="Day">{{cite news| last =Fitzpatrick| first =Meagan| title =National day of remembrance pays tribute to victims of Montreal massacre| publisher =CanWest News Service| date =December 6, 2006| url =http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=dcb98c06-2c4f-46f1-bc6f-6a147308a252&k=33060| access-date =December 27, 2006| url-status =dead| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20071209095709/http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=dcb98c06-2c4f-46f1-bc6f-6a147308a252&k=33060| archive-date =December 9, 2007| df =mdy-all}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Eglin|first1=Peter|last2=Hester|first2=Stephen|title=The Montreal Massacre: A Story of Membership Categorization Analysis |publisher=[[Wilfrid Laurier University Press]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FHZJxbjlHsgC|year=2003|isbn=0-88920-422-5 |pages=65–88}}</ref> Initially, politicians and the media downplayed the antifeminism angle of the attack.<ref name="conway164">{{cite book|last=Conway|first=John Frederick|url=https://archive.org/details/canadianfamilyin0000conw_u3s7|title=The Canadian family in crisis|publisher=James Lorimer and Company|year=2003|isbn=978-1-55028-798-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/canadianfamilyin0000conw_u3s7/page/164 164]|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Boileau|first=Josée|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aHwpEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT86|title=Because They Were Women: The Montreal Massacre|publisher=Second Story Press|year=2000|isbn=978-1-77260-143-5|pages=81–86|language=en|access-date=January 22, 2022|archive-date=January 22, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122155906/https://books.google.com/books?id=aHwpEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT86|url-status=live}}</ref> Political leaders such as [[Robert Bourassa]], [[Claude Ryan]], and [[Jacques Parizeau]] spoke about "victims" and "youth" rather than "women" or "girls".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Boileau|first=Josée|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aHwpEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT86|title=Because They Were Women: The Montreal Massacre|publisher=Second Story Press|year=2000|isbn=978-1-77260-143-5|pages=83|language=en|access-date=January 22, 2022|archive-date=January 22, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122155906/https://books.google.com/books?id=aHwpEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT86|url-status=live}}</ref> The television journalist [[Barbara Frum]] pleaded against interpreting the massacre as an antifeminist attack or solely violence against women. She asked why people were "diminishing" the tragedy by "suggesting that it was an act against just one group?"<ref name="conway164" /><ref name=":13">{{Cite news|last=Gester|first=Jane|date=16 December 2019|title=Feminism met gunfire at École Polytechnique. It's taken 30 years to call it what it was|work=Global News|url=https://globalnews.ca/news/6242996/ecole-polytechnique-violence/|access-date=22 January 2022|archive-date=January 22, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122155905/https://globalnews.ca/news/6242996/ecole-polytechnique-violence/|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{anchor|psychiatry}}As predicted by the shooter in his suicide letter,<ref name="citynews" /> some observers believed the event was the isolated act of a madman.<ref name="Chun" /><ref name="conway164" /><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Eglin|first1=Peter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FHZJxbjlHsgC|title=The Montreal Massacre: A Story of Membership Categorization Analysis|last2=Hester|first2=Stephen|publisher=[[Wilfrid Laurier University Press]]|year=2003|isbn=0-88920-422-5|pages=54–55}}</ref> A psychiatrist interviewed the gunman's family and friends, and examined his writings as part of the police investigation. He noted that the perpetrator defined suicide as his primary motivation, and that he chose a specific suicide method, namely killing oneself after killing others (multiple homicide/suicide strategy), which is considered a sign of a serious [[personality disorder]].<ref name="coroner" /> Other psychiatrists emphasized the traumatic events of his childhood, suggesting that the blows he had received may have caused brain damage, or that he was [[psychotic]], having lost touch with reality as he tried to erase the memories of a brutal (yet largely absent) father while unconsciously identifying with a violent [[masculinity]] that dominated women.<ref name="foxbook">{{Cite book|last1=Fox|first1=James Alan|title=Extreme killing: Understanding serial and mass murder|last2=Levin|first2=Jack|publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]]|year=2005|isbn=0-7619-8857-2|pages=227–230}}</ref><ref name="poly">{{cite news|last=Lortie|first=Marie-Claude|date=December 1, 1990|title=Poly un an après : Psychose? Blessures au cerveau? Les spécialistes n'ont pas encore résolu l'énigme Marc Lépine|page=B7|newspaper=[[La Presse (Canadian newspaper)|La Presse]]}}</ref> A different theory was that the shooter's childhood experiences of [[child abuse|abuse]] led him to feel victimized as he faced losses and rejections in his later life.<ref name="poly" /> His mother wondered whether her son might have suffered from [[attachment disorder]], due to the abuse and sense of abandonment he had experienced in his childhood.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Lépine|first1=Monique|title=Aftermath|last2=Gagné|first2=Harold|publisher=[[Viking Press]]|year=2008|isbn=978-0-670-06969-9|pages=138, 161–62}}</ref>

{{anchor|society}}Others framed the killer's actions as the result of societal changes that had led to increased poverty, powerlessness, individual isolation,<ref name="Valpy">{{cite news|last=Valpy|first=Michael|date=December 11, 1989|title=Litany of social ills created Marc Lepine|page=A8|work=[[The Globe and Mail]]|location=Canada}}</ref> and polarization between men and women.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Young, Katherine K.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cqKxhhu55SMC&pg=PA62|title=Legalizing misandry: from public shame to systematic discrimination against men|author2=Nathanson, Paul|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|year=2006|isbn=0-7735-2862-8|location=Montreal|page=62|oclc=|access-date=January 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020035400/https://books.google.com/books?id=cqKxhhu55SMC&pg=PA62|archive-date=October 20, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Wong">{{cite news|last=Wong|first=Jan|date=September 16, 2006|title=Get under the desk|work=[[The Globe and Mail]]|location=Canada|url=http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060915.wxshooting-main16/front/Front/Front/sympatico-front|url-status=dead|access-date=June 3, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410214239/http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060915.wxshooting-main16/front/Front/Front/sympatico-front|archive-date=April 10, 2017}}</ref> Noting the gunman's interest in violent [[action film]]s, some suggested that violence in the media and in society may have influenced his actions.<ref name="cernea" /> Following the shootings at [[Dawson College]] in September 2006, ''[[The Globe and Mail|Globe and Mail]]'' columnist [[Jan Wong]] [[Jan Wong controversy|suggested]] that Lépine may have felt alienated from Quebec society as he was the child of an immigrant; this provoked controversy as Canada has [[Immigration to Canada|received numerous immigrants]].<ref name="Wong" />

In the years since, however, the attack has been widely acknowledged by the public, governments, and the media as a [[Misogyny|misogynistic]] attack on women and on feminism.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":14">{{Cite web|last=Banerjee|first=Sidhartha|date=2019-12-05|title=Polytechnique: Consensus comes 30 years later that massacre was an anti-feminist act|url=https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/polytechnique-consensus-comes-30-years-later-that-massacre-was-an-anti-feminist-act-1.4717274|url-status=live|access-date=2022-01-22|website=CTV News|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206124214/https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/polytechnique-consensus-comes-30-years-later-that-massacre-was-an-anti-feminist-act-1.4717274 |archive-date=December 6, 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Northcott|first=Alison|date=December 5, 2019|title=How the way we remember the Montreal Massacre has changed 30 years later|work=CBC News|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/ecole-polytechnique-thirty-years-anti-feminist-1.5381510|access-date=23 January 2022|archive-date=March 10, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310191306/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/ecole-polytechnique-thirty-years-anti-feminist-1.5381510|url-status=live}}</ref>  

Scholars believe that the gunman's actions sprang from widespread societal misogyny, including tolerance of violence against women.<ref name="young5961" /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Mancini Billson|first1=Janet|title=Female well-being: toward a global theory of social change|editor=Mancini Billson, Janet|editor2=Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn|publisher=[[Zed Books]]|pages=104–05|isbn=978-1-84277-009-2|chapter=After the Montreal massacre: gender and the pervasiveness of violence|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a_2eWZK63_8C&pg=PA104|year=2005|access-date=September 20, 2020|archive-date=October 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020035407/https://books.google.com/books?id=a_2eWZK63_8C&pg=PA104|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Curry">{{cite book |chapter=Female lives, Feminist deaths |last=Brickman |first=Julie |editor=Curry, Renée R. |editor2=Allison, Terry L. |title=States of rage: emotional eruption, violence, and social change |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |location=New York |year=1996 |isbn=0-8147-1530-3 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kp0EjoLkmssC&pg=PA27 |access-date=September 20, 2020 |archive-date=August 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817071951/https://books.google.com/books?id=kp0EjoLkmssC&pg=PA27 |url-status=live }}</ref> Criminologists regard the massacre as an example of a [[hate crime|hate or bias crime]] against women, as the victims were selected solely because of their membership in the category of women. The women targeted were interchangeable with other women.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gerstenfeld|first=Phyllis B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sJ7OkVzwVMEC&pg=PA49|title=Hate crimes: causes, controls, and controversies|publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]]|year=2004|isbn=978-0-7619-2814-0|pages=48–49|access-date=September 20, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104123819/https://books.google.com/books?id=sJ7OkVzwVMEC&pg=PA49|archive-date=November 4, 2020|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Hate and Bias Crime: A Reader|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|isbn=978-0-415-94408-3|editor-last=Perry|editor-first=Barbara|page=271|chapter=Gender-bias hate crimes- a review|access-date=September 20, 2020|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zLtnNmAt9dwC&pg=PA271|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814171755/https://books.google.com/books?id=zLtnNmAt9dwC&pg=PA271|archive-date=August 14, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref> They categorize it as a "pseudo-community" type of "pseudo-commando" murder-suicide, in which the perpetrator targets a specific group, often in a public place, and intends to die in "a blaze of glory".<ref>{{cite book |last=Byard |first=Roger W. |title=Forensic Pathology Reviews |editor=Tsokos, Michael |publisher=Humana Press |year=2005 |volume=3 |page=343 |chapter=Murder-Suicide |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=323vT9cEaSoC&pg=PA343 |isbn=978-1-58829-416-6 |access-date=September 20, 2020 |archive-date=August 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210819014247/https://books.google.com/books?id=323vT9cEaSoC&pg=PA343 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Lawrence |first=Frederick M.| title=Punishing Hate: Bias Crimes Under American Law |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |year=2002 |pages=15–17 |isbn= 978-0-674-00972-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=959sKkDoLhoC&pg=PT31}}</ref> 

Individuals close to the massacre also commented: Lépine's mother wondered if the attack was [[Matricide|symbolically directed at her]], as some would have classified her as a feminist since she was a single, working mother.<ref name="mother" /> Survivor Nathalie Provost who, during and after the attack, denied being a feminist, later claimed what she said was this "beautiful title" for herself.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Boileau|first=Josée|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aHwpEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT138|title=Because They Were Women: The Montreal Massacre|publisher=Second Story Press|year=2020|isbn=978-1-77260-143-5|pages=130–1|language=en|access-date=January 23, 2022|archive-date=January 23, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123155807/https://books.google.com/books?id=aHwpEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT138|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Camille|first=Chaudron|date=28 November 2014|title=Vingt-cinq ans plus tard avec Nathalie Provost|url=https://www.polyscope.qc.ca/?p=9224|access-date=2022-01-23|website=Le Polyscope|language=fr|archive-date=January 23, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123155817/https://www.polyscope.qc.ca/?p=9224|url-status=live}}</ref> She also said that she believed the massacre was clearly an antifeminist act.<ref name=":14" />