Should we memorialize the Montreal Massacre?

On this day in 1989, Marc Lépine murdered 14 women at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal. There is no denying that this was a heinous act, much like the recent shootings in an Omaha mall and at Virgina Tech. What was different about the Montreal Massacre was the specificity with which the victims were chosen - all were women. Lépine stated as he held women hostage in the school that he was "fighting feminism". The outcome of his actions on that day have lead to December 6th being a day of remembrance and action for violence against women. Surely, this is a noble cause?

While there is little argument that violence against women is cruel, unnecessary and should be condemned, one should consider how that message is being presented. In the case of Marc Lépine, there is good evidence that he was psychotic, anti-social, traumatized, and by all accounts not a normal, functioning member of society. Beyond that, he was suicidal, and that was his primary motivation. So, what we have is a psychotic individual who chose a group he saw as the enemy and went to wipe some out before he took his own life.

Yet, somehow, these actions of a madman have come to serve as a memorial to all violence against women. The problem here is that this kind of mass killing is not representative of most violent attacks on women. In Canada, more violence done on women is from someone known to the women, and more often in immigrant couples (The Star). For this reason, using this massacre as a memorial raises problems:

The feminist movement is periodically criticized for appropriating the massacre as a symbol of male violence against women. For example, Charles Rackoff, a University of Toronto computer science professor, compared those organizing vigils marking the event to the Ku Klux Klan. "The point is to use the death of these people as an excuse to promote the feminist/extreme left-wing agenda", he wrote, adding that it is "no more justified" than the KKK using the "murder of a white person by a black person as an excuse to promote their agenda."^[44]

Less provocative critiques argue that Lépine was a "lone gunman" who does not represent men, and that violence against women is neither condoned nor encouraged officially or unofficially in western culture. In this perspective, feminist memorializing is considered socially divisive on the basis of gender and therefore harmful by bestowing guilt on all men, irrespective of individual propensity to violence against women.^{[4]
from Wikipedia}

As more and more disenfranchised youth in the United States (in particular) are plotting mass killings, there is certainly a need to address what societal problems are leading to this event. Mass killings by teenagers are no longer isolated incidents, but a growing problem. In contrast, the Montreal Massacre never became epidemic or repeated, for which we are grateful. This suggests that the mass killing of women is not a societal problem that needs fixing. The real problem occurs in homes, hidden from public view - instances where women are degraded, abused, beaten, or raped, and in extreme cases, murdered.

I think there is a place for discussion and action for violence against women - I don't think it's in the context of the actions of a psychotic killer. Maybe it's time to re-frame the issue?

Author's Edit: This National Post article says what I'm saying better than I do.

Comments and rebuttals welcome.