Karen Nielsen (BE'89), chief development officer at Seven Generations Energy poses in her Calgary office on Dec. 4. She graduated from the University of Saskatchewan’s engineering program in 1989, the year of the massacre at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal. She can remember the day clearly. Jim Wells/Postmedia Jim Wells / Postmedia

'Beyond stunned': Montreal Massacre 30 years later, as remembered by U of S grad

"It was that singular moment that everybody has when something terrible happens."

By Thia James| Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Karen Nielsen (BE'89) was horrified as she watched news footage of paramedics wheeling shooting victims on stretchers out of Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal after she returned home from work 30 years ago, as reported in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

She was “beyond stunned,” she recalls.

Nielsen, a news junkie, had started working in the engineering industry after earning her engineering degree from the University of Saskatchewan earlier in the year. On the evening of Dec. 6, 1989, events were still unfolding on television.

A man had walked into engineering classrooms at Ecole Polytechnique, separated the men from the women and opened fire on the women. He yelled out during the attack that he was antifeminist.

Fourteen women died in what is still the largest mass shooting in Canadian history. Twelve of them were engineering students.

Read more at https://thestarphoenix.com/news.