Like almost every woman and many men I know, Dec. 6 1989 was a day I will never forget. I heard the news on the radio in my car. I guess I was driving home from work. It was that time of day. At first it was confusing, a gunman shooting at University of Montreal. In Canada? Couldn't be. But very soon it became clear that it was women he was shooting, women at an Engineering School. I could hardly breathe with the instant knowledge that a man was targeting women in a school where the vast majority were male. Shock first, then grief and then a chilling recognition.

It was one of those profound public moments that impact each and every one of us in our very souls. Stevie Cameron expressed it best for me in the Globe and Mail the next day.