The widower of one of the 14 victims of the Polytechnique massacre still lives today with daily pain, 35 years after the assassination of his wife Maryse Laganière.
• Also read: 35 years of the Polytechnique massacre: a day of commemoration
• Also read: December 6: denounce antifeminism to fight
“Not a day has gone by without me thinking of Maryse for the last 35 years,” Jean-François Larrivee told Benoît Dutrizac on Friday, on QUB radio at 99.5FM Montreal.
Possibly pregnant
His partner at the time, an employee in the finance department of the École Polytechnique, was only 25 years old at the time of the tragedy and was possibly pregnant, according to him. “It’s very likely […] It was not revealed to us by the autopsy, but I think so, because her period was six days late,” he confided.
In the years following the tragedy, Mr. Larrivee said he lived with a deep feeling of guilt about the idea of starting a new life.
“I had partners during those 10 years, but it was all the time with a kind of feeling, a little guilt of being with someone other than Maryse,” he said. entrusted.
Time allowed him to find some peace. “I have rebuilt my life, I have had a partner of 17 years, her name is Suzanne, she is doing very well, she understands 100% my sadness, the sadness of my bereavement,” he added.
More than 35 years after the tragedy, Jean-François Larrivee still maintains links with the Laganière family. “She came from a family, you know, of 13 children, she was the 13th in her family, and all of her recent brothers, we still talk to each other today,” he said.
Focus on dialogue
Faced with the rise of certain speeches hostile to women, Mr. Larrivee, who campaigns for gun control by getting involved with the PolySeSouvient collective, is banking on dialogue rather than confrontation.
Inspired by the playwright Jean-Marc Dalfont, he believes that “the best way to prove [à ces discours]it would be to blame them, to demonize them, to reject discussion with them.
“Maybe it’s just like 5% of the population that thinks like the alpha man, but maybe the 95% will react, will have a discussion with the 5% and bring it back to normal within 5 , 10, 15 next years,” he clarified.
*This text, generated with the help of artificial intelligence, was reviewed and validated by our team based on an interview carried out at QUB.
