Marc Lépine
| Marc Lépine | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Gamil Rodrigue Liass Gharbi October 26, 1964 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Died | December 6, 1989 (aged 25) Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Cause of death | Self-inflicted gunshot |
| Motive | Antifeminism |
| Killings | |
| Date | December 6, 1989 |
| Location(s) | Montreal, Quebec |
| Target(s) | École Polytechnique de Montréal |
| Killed | 15 (including himself) |
| Injured | 14 |
| Weapons |
Ruger Mini-14 Hunting knife |
Marc Lépine (French pronunciation: [maʁk lepin]; born Gamil Rodrigue Liass Gharbi; October 26, 1964 – December 6, 1989) was a Canadian mass murderer from Montreal, Quebec, who in 1989 murdered 14 women, and wounded 10 women and four men at the École Polytechnique, an engineering school affiliated with the Université de Montréal, in the École Polytechnique massacre, also known as the "Montreal Massacre".
Lépine was born Gamil Rodrigue Liass Gharbi in Montreal, the son of a Canadian nurse and an Algerian businessman. His father was abusive and contemptuous of women. After his parents separated when he was seven, his mother returned to nursing to support her children. Lépine and his younger sister lived with other families, seeing their mother on weekends. Lépine was considered bright but withdrawn and having difficulties with peer and family relationships. He changed his name to Marc Lépine at the age of 14 giving as the reason his hatred of his father. Lépine's application to the Canadian Forces was rejected, and in 1982 he began a science program at a college, switching to a more technical program after one year. In 1986, he dropped out of the course in his final term, and was subsequently fired from his job at a hospital due to his poor attitude. He began a computer programming course in 1988, and again abandoned it before completion. Lépine twice applied for admission to the École Polytechnique, but lacked two required compulsory courses.
After several months of planning, Lépine entered the École Polytechnique de Montréal, on the afternoon of December 6, 1989. He had long complained about women working in non-traditional jobs, and after separating men and women in a classroom, he shot the women, claiming that he was fighting feminism. He then moved into other parts of the building, only targeting the women in classrooms he went to, before killing himself. His suicide note blamed feminists for ruining his life.
Lépine's actions have been variously ascribed to psychiatric diagnoses such as personality disorder, psychosis, or attachment disorder, or societal factors such as poverty, isolation, powerlessness, and violence in the media. The massacre is regarded by criminologists as an example of a hate crime against women, and by feminists and government officials as misogynist attack and an example of the larger issue of violence against women.
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