Okay, so for more than 50 years we’ve known that Santa has been tracked by NORAD on Christmas Eve, but this year it seems like he might be having a bit of trouble getting off what’s left of the polar ice cap.

But seriously… the news from the north is not good.

[tags]arctic, global warmng, climate change, santa[/tags]

Eighteen years after the event, I still choose to remember the women killed at the Ecole Polytechnic in Montreal. Many of these women were my age, they were my contemporaries, they were students when I was a student and their murders touched many of us very deeply. So, as I have done every year, i invite you to join me in remembering these fourteen women and all women who have been murdered by men.

• Geneviève Bergeron (b. 1968), civil engineering student.
• Hélène Colgan (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
• Nathalie Croteau (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
• Barbara Daigneault (b. 1967) mechanical engineering student.
• Anne-Marie Edward (b. 1968), chemical engineering student.
• Maud Haviernick (b. 1960), materials engineering student.
• Maryse Laganière (b. 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique’s finance department.
• Maryse Leclair (b. 1966), materials engineering student.
• Anne-Marie Lemay (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
• Sonia Pelletier (b. 1961), mechanical engineering student.
• Michèle Richard (b. 1968), materials engineering student.
• Annie St-Arneault (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
• Annie Turcotte (b. 1969), materials engineering student.
• Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (b. 1958), nursing student.