December 6 is forever etched in my memory. In 1989, I was working at York’s human rights office, the backlash against equity initiatives were in full swing as freedom of expression rubbed up against freedom from harassment and discrimination in universities and colleges. Some conservative faculty mounted the Right to Offend Campaign. John Fekete’s treatise, Moral Panic in part claimed that radical feminists were exaggerating statistics of sexual harassment and gender violence to implement systemic changes using totalitarian tactics. In the midst of what became known as the ‘culture wars’, the tragic gut-wrenching events December 6 unfolded across the country.

The Montreal massacre where 14 young women were murdered, galvanized university and college communities in a massive show of solidarity and grief. As a male, this act of femicide was deeply unsettling for me on many levels. How am I connected to these events? Do I unwittingly contribute to these expressions and acts of hate? Am I doing enough in the struggle to address such violent forms of oppression? Overcome with tremendous guilt and shame, I was reminded of Bob Moore’s caution to liberal white teachers during an anti-racist training session when some stated that the training made them feel guilty for being white. His response, “guilt is a self-serving emotion that allows us to feel good about feeling bad.” Is this what I was doing? And then I asked myself, why are we not expressing similar outrage against the murder of missing and murdered indigenous women? And then, I admonished myself for taking away from the specificity of this moment of remembrance, shouldn’t we learn the message of all remembrances as we work towards building better futures? And, as I reflect on my toxic masculinist socialization, I thanked all the people who help to deprogram and de-school me and help me to rebel against all systems of oppression and domination.

– Chet Singh, December 6, 2024